Adam Torres and Danielle Dongmo Godfrey
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Show Notes:
How do you plan and launch a Reg CF Equity Crowdfunding Campaign? In this episode, Adam Torres and Danielle Dongmo Godfrey, CEO of Setapart Accountancy Corp, explore the world of crowdfunding and best practices.
About Danielle Dongmo Godfrey
Danielle Godfrey is a certified public accountant who calls Los Angeles home. Danielle is also the founder and President of SetApart Accountancy Corp., a CPA firm that specializes in supporting Startups looking to launch Crowdfunding campaigns. Danielle and her team have performed over 1,000 reviews and audits for issuers in the past 6 years. She has her MBA in Finance and Accounting from Regis University of Denver, CO and her master’s in accountancy in Taxation from Daniels Business College of the University of Denver. Danielle has worked at two of the four largest accounting firms in the world (Big 4), and her client based included companies in financial industry such as real estate, private equity and hedge funds as well as high net worth individuals. Her passion is to help individuals, small business owners, and corporations achieve their dreams through offering financial statements services for startups looking to launch a crowdfunding campaign, financial consulting, business consulting and tax planning. Her team has also helped business owners keep their books in order, maximize their profits and minimize tax liability.
Her passion for women led her to start Women On The Frontline (WOTF), a community where women of diverse cultures and background continually engage in fasting, prayers and working on their goals while being accountable to each other. WOTF is a 501 C (3) that supports, encourages and educates women in launching their businesses, ministries, excelling in their careers, building healthy relationships, improving their health and fitness, learning and developing better financial habits.
Danielle has written two eBooks on Victory in The Wilderness and How to Start a Business from an Accountant Viewpoint by Danielle Passy.
Danielle has lived in 3 continents and is fluent in English and French.
In her spare time, she enjoys reading, dancing and spending time with her beloved husband, Dr. Isaac Godfrey.
About SetApart Financial Services
SetApart Financial Services is the leading provider of audit, review, tax, and accounting services to startups engaged in crowdfunding Regulation CF and Regulation A fundraising in United States.
The crowdfunding industry is projected to reach $1.14 billion in transaction value in 2023. It has provided a great opportunity for start-up founders to raise capital directly from their customers, evangelists, and retail investors.
They work with start-ups ranging from technology, software, AI, crypto, robotics over to e-commerce, restaurants, brands, clothing brands. They enjoy working with passionate and visionary founders and helping them reach their goals.
Their team consists of energetic and motivated professionals who are passionate about the start-up space. Theirr core value is Team Synergy which is achieved through transparent communication and outstanding
work product.
Full Unedited Transcript
Hey, I’d like to welcome you to another episode of Mission Matters. My name is Adam Torres, and if you’d like to apply to be a guest on the show, just head on over to missionmatters. com and click on Be Our Guest to Apply. All right, so today’s guest is Danielle Dongmo Godfrey, and she’s CEO over at Set Apart Accountancy Corp.
Danielle, welcome to the show. Thank you, Adam. I’m happy to be here. Oh, I’m excited to have you here as well. I know that you were referred over to us. We’ve been covering the reggae and crowdfunding conference that the deal flow guys Charlie and Phillip over there have been are throwing. And it’s going to be taking place actually this week.
And so big things happening there. And I understand that you’re going to be attending and also you’re going to be participating a panel. Am I off on that? Yes, correct. That’s awesome. us a little bit more about the panel and what you’ll be talking about. Yes. We will be talking about going from erect a which may be under equity crowdfunding and the strategy to raise funds to erect CF.
And how do we go from. 5 million to 75 million and beyond. Yeah. That’s amazing. And let’s, just to get this interview kicked off a little bit more. let’s go a little bit further back in your career. Like , when did you start getting interested in this and crowdfunding and, and just in this niche in general, where, where’d that take place for you?
That took place in 2018 when I first started my company, set a fact accountancy cup. I was building my company while looking on. For a job on the site and then I posted my resume and on a headhunter website and Start engine reach out to me and they asked me if I knew how to Put financial statement together For a crowdfunding campaign.
And I say, yes, and said they were really interested in me in my resume, my background, and they scheduled me for an interview and I went and it went really well and I started helping, issuers reporting their financial statement together from 0 to 1 107, 000, uh, target, so that’s how I started.
So I was helping those issuer prepare their financials. But when back in the days from 0 to 107, 000, the company did not need a financial statement review, just a CEO certified financial and then a lot of issuers had done it. No financial statement. I’m all I very creative about a business is about the idea.
So they put me in and I was assisting those issuers with that pudding. And in the process of that the issuers really liked me and were saying great things about me. Oh, she’s really good. She’s responsive. She’s quick and start ending took notes. And then they asked me, Hey, do you know how The financial review and I say yes, you know, and I got a business partner on board and together We were doing the financial statement review this back in the days for issuers now wanted to raise above 107 the limit has since increased Anyway, and from there he went to an audit and from there , we other crowdfunding platforms found us on the SEC and the rest is history.
We just really blew up. So that’s how I got into crowdfunding. Tell me about the like what’s so it’s interesting to me because that’s pretty early on 2019 in terms and it’s still early on for everybody like it’s still in my opinion, like many, many people still don’t know the extent at which is it exists.
And like, I think that’s why a conference like the one that you’re going to is amazing that you’ll be presenting to us to give to give people the tools to understand and to be able to make that determination of if it makes sense for them, right? Whether they’re issuers or whether they’re even supporting the industry as service providers, right?
So maybe now your, your vantage point, as I said, like you’ve been, you’ve been doing this for a while now what’s interesting to you in the industry right now? Like, like present day and , for context, for everybody that’s listening, we’re recording this in June of 2024. So , what’s interesting to you right now in crowdfunding, like what excites you?
You know, what excites me about crowdfunding first is always seeing new companies go on and reach , their target, in terms of capital needed. So that’s very exciting every time they reach their, their target. Their capital and how quickly they do it, , for some of them.
And then what also is exciting is how crowdfunding is really gaining popularity, more people learning about it, , like just recently a friend of mine found out I was speaking and she was like, Oh, crowdfunding, what is, you know, so, yeah, a lot of people are learning about crowdfunding. It’s true.
Even though it’s been around for a little while, I completely agree with you. People will still surprise me when I’m in, I’m like, wait a minute, you didn’t know that was a thing or that’s an alternative. And people are like, no, I just thought that. Go ahead. Continue. I’m sorry. I agree with you though. Yes.
Yes, exactly. So, I believe that the market debt is still very huge for crowdfunding. That how we allow an accredited investor to invest, , and it make it really simple from For anyone to invest. So I really believe that is it has a lot of potential. There’s a lot of potential.
This is great time for crowdfunding. Yeah. Yeah, , and you’ve seen so many campaigns, I mean, you’ve been in the business for a while, you’ve seen a of action talk to me a little bit more about what you’ve seen like works in terms of a or what are some of the good characteristics of planning and launching a good crowdfunding campaign that you’ve seen, obviously understanding that no two campaigns are going to be identical, but what are some of the good characteristics and traits to launching?
that’s a great question. I would say one of the preparation being really prepared is, is really key , in launching a crowdfunding campaign, , and also building awareness. about your product or services crafting a compelling story compelling narrative, articulating your mission, your vision, and your growth potential and engaging with the audience Piece videos and, and, and building a strong online presence a leveraging influencer, which all of that goes on the marketing.
So making sure you qualify for crowdfunding and selecting the right platform And just making sure that , you have all your documents together, because all of that you will need from incorporation, all of that, your debts agreement, everything regarding your financial needs to be in order.
So, yeah, I think that, yes, it goes down to preparation and marketing and just making sure that you qualify because companies go through due diligence and approval when they go through crowdfunding. Platforms , they should make sure they don’t have any download bad actors, companies.
. So that’s it. That actually leads me to the next question. Are there any like just big pitfalls, like things that are kind of, and obviously there’s going to be variations, but just things that, you know you know, kind of kill crowdfunding campaigns from the beginning, even that, that could have been avoided.
You know what I mean? Like those obvious things that you just don’t know. And if you’re not working with the right team or otherwise, like what are some of those obvious pitfalls? Yes. The obvious pitfall, what I’ve seen a lot is , issue up. Not me doing their due diligence regarding the right platform, for instance and then I down the line, Oh, I didn’t know all of these, you know, didn’t sound me.
I was not aware of these fees. I was not aware of all these process. So all these documentation and I, we literally have. A client that stopped his crap on him like in the middle, he was so mad and just decided that he was going to do a video to denounce the platform, but had he done his due diligence and, and read reviews and to make some, to pick the right platform that fits with the company culture.
He will have avoided that,, and I think that it has, to do with that. And also having the right team in all those areas, the right people, and really engaging the best. There’s like having some time even having a pre launch help, you know, using social media, like LinkedIn, Facebook.
, and engaging speaking to friends, family, colleagues, like, all of that is helpful. So like kind of testing the market. It’s really helpful and reading stories of companies that have been successful, that have done great and what set them apart. helpful to avoid all those people.
I think lack of preparation and also lack of finances to kick. To get to lounge because it takes a lot of it demands a lot from putting the financials, doing a review if an audit to having a lawyer to hop through the whole process to make sure that all the required document. Are in place to file all of that is very expensive that’s without counting the platform fee so, having a budget and assessing how much is needed and Be prior to launching and also determining , the strategy to lounge, are we going to do a vex CF campaign from zero to 500, 000 or are we going to come there, go to other to 1.
2, 3, 5, and then from there, but above, so all of that is important, having a strategy in place. . You mentioned something earlier, and I just want to kind of circle back to a little bit here because it’s one of those things that I talk about this all the time and I’m in media, right? So that’s what I do.
But hearing it come from someone like yourself, who’s in finance and raising capital, just kind of reinforces the point I feel for not just myself, but for our audience as well. You mentioned having a great narrative or a great story to tell. Like, talk to me a little bit more about that and why that’s so important.
Yes, I believe that’s very important because like that so many people would do what you do like why media does so many businesses out there, it has never been this easy to start a business. And a lot of business need capital. A lot of business in your line probably in the line of industry that most other businesses are because once something is competitive, everybody wants to do it.
Something is successful. Everybody wants to do it. So having a compelling story is very important because it’s truly a compelling story that people can identify what sets your business apart. What is your unique value, and what problems. Do you solve what, what differentiates you from the competition, , and how do you add value the investor?
How do you add value to the customers? How do you add value? So it’s very important to captivate the investor interest and to motivate them to support your venture. That’s why it’s so important. crafting that story yeah, I love it. And I, and I’m a big fan of that too.
And I think like exactly what you’re saying, like what’s going to differentiate you from someone else, the story, the founder story though. And that’s why we’re so passionate and I’m so passionate about. About bringing individuals like yourself on who are, who started companies and who are, you know, doing that day in and day out to tell their story and, and their mission and to provide that platform.
So I’m obviously , a big fan of doing that. That being said, Danielle, if somebody’s listening to this and they are watching this and they’d like to follow up and learn more about your work over at Set Apart Accountancy Corp or follow your journey in general, how do people connect and how do they follow?
Yes, people can connect to our company website, setupatfs. com, or find me on LinkedIn. Danielle dmo in LinkedIn or even send me an email, [email protected]. , amazing. And for everybody listening, just so you know, , we’ll put that the links to the website , in the show notes and all that good stuff.
So you can just click on the link and head right on over. And speaking of the audience, if this is your first time with Mission Matters and you haven’t done it yet. Definitely hit that subscribe or follow button. We have many more mission based individuals coming up on the line and we don’t want you to miss a thing.
And Danielle, again, thank you so much for making some time for us today. And good luck with your panel and with everything else. I’m sure , you’re gonna knock them out over at the conference. So I really enjoyed our time together. And again, thanks for coming on the show. Thank you, Adam.
Thank you for having me. It was a pleasure.