To crowd or not to crowd? “Inspired by the United Nations, we founded Herculean as a cooperative company. It has always been our ambition to engage the Herculean fans as shareholders of our organisation. Today, we are making our first steps towards a new level, by inviting the Herculeans to be a part of our company.”
Inge and Yves, founders of Herculean.coop
To crowd or not to crowd? A few years ago, the United Nations General Assembly declared 2012 as the International Year of Cooperatives, highlighting the contribution of cooperatives to socio-economic development, particularly their impact on poverty reduction, employment generation and social integration.
We believe in the power of amazing people who create amazing experiences, which creates fans who inspire other people to become fans. The return on investment for shareholders is a consequence, but not our first priority. This means that people always come first.
Unlike many start-ups, we didn’t want to involve the Herculean fans from the start. We first wanted to prove that the Herculean dream could actually become a reality. Today is that day. Herculean has passed the start-up phase and evolved towards a scaleup. The perfect moment to start involving the Herculeans, so it seems.
In the past year, our Core Team and Advisory Board has prepared a solid business plan to grow the Herculean business, which has been enacted by the Board of Directors. In total, we plan to raise 1,5 mil EUR. This plan has the financial support of the Management Team, Private Investors and Banks. The next logical step is now to consider crowdfunding opportunities with the fans.
But before we start this process, we want to make sure that this is the way to go. That’s why we have sent a survey to a selected group of Herculean fans in our home country Belgium. We want to know which crowdfunding platforms are regarded as trusted, how they would see a crowd investment (loan or shares) and if they would consider investing.
Did you receive an e-mail from us? Please answer it; it means a lot!
Are you a fan, but not based in Belgium? Give us some time. To be continued :).