In 2025, crowdfunding is more competitive—and more promising—than ever. At Fello Agency, we work with some of the most ambitious tech founders in the world, and we wanted to pull back the curtain on what actually works when launching a successful campaign. That’s why we sat down with Keyvan M. Sadeghi, founder of Functionland, who raised over $500K through crowdfunding.

This interview is raw, tactical, and brutally honest. Whether you’re launching a hardware product, building in web3, or just trying to get early traction without VC funding, Keyvan’s insights are a goldmine. We wrote this for the builders—those scrappy, driven founders looking to punch above their weight and break through the noise.

What’s Changed in Crowdfunding in 2025 (and What Hasn’t)

→ What’s changed, what still works, and what would you double down on today?

So each year is different, it’s a flavor of the day. You can ask ChatGPT or Reddit and get the data on what’s working right now. For example, "campaigns that promise to deliver in three months are the most successful." That part is always changing.

But the core mechanics? They're timeless. The U-shape of sales is still real: all your money comes in the first week and the last week. The pre-launch email list is still the ace of spades. What I’d do differently is plan for what happens after the campaign ends. That’s where we botched. I’ll count only on the organic network built by the campaign, instead of onboarding any “partners” or “programs”(incubators, innovation hubs!, worst: anything government sponsored).

Investors see a crowdfunding spike as a single data point, not a graph. They want to see a hockey stick. Our momentum fell off a cliff, especially after another crypto coin ($LUNA) crashed (we had a crypto component in our design, but the main thing was hardware!). If I did it today, the moment the Indiegogo campaign finished, I would have a chunk of that cash (from the raise or from VCs) reserved specifically for continued ads. Those ads would immediately point to a Shopify pre-order page. Your job becomes maintaining the momentum you built. The loss of that momentum is irreversible. That’s the part I’d double down on.

Why Storytelling Still Wins: Functionland’s Brand Approach

→ How important was narrative, and where did it really make a difference?

The narrative was everything. We did this thing I call "brainwashing," but in a good way. It was about being brutally authentic, daily. We were in our Telegram and Discord channels every single day, chatting with the community. We shared everything we knew and, just as importantly, everything we didn't know. The plan for the Raspberry Pi, the design issues, all of it.

That constant, authentic barrage of messages builds word of mouth that you just can't buy.

Where I'd get even more serious is the creative. Video is king. We spent top dollar for a professional production, even brainstorming the script with a movie director (a grad student, not some fancy Hollywood guy, but it showed). Our videos, one for the product and one interview with the founders, carried us. They put us in the league of "these peeps know what they're talking about." It’s not just about showing a product; it’s about signaling that you're a serious team.

And as a founder, you have to stay present. Even when you're busy, you show up. I see Ben Goertzel in the SingularityNET Telegram with 170k people, and once a week he’ll just pop in and say, "Sorry guys I'm busy, I don't know what I'm doing but hi! Bye!" That takes all the pressure off and keeps the connection alive.

The First 30 Days: How to Build Pre-Launch Momentum

→ Walk us through your pre-launch strategy.

At least three months before launch. Minimum. Your entire focus for that 90-day period is pre-launch.

The biggest trick, the absolute ace of spades, is building the email list. We put ads out on Instagram, Facebook, and Google with the single goal of getting emails. We paid pennies per email and ended up with a list of 150,000 people before the campaign even went live.

That’s the move that matters. You don't cold-start a campaign. You line up your buyers. We were grooming our Telegram community for a year before that, but the focused, ad-driven email list building in those three months is what ensured we had that explosive first day. When we finally went live, we had an army ready to go.

Video Is King: The Creative Assets That Drove Conversions

→ Which pieces actually moved people to back the campaign?

Video is king. The professionally produced videos were the centerpiece. We had an empty aluminum box at the time, a tin can! The final product wasn't even ready, but we shot it with actors at a studio in Toronto, and it made the whole project look real and ambitious. It elevated us.

But honestly, no single asset was a magic bullet. The real "creative" that moved people was the entire system we built. It was a funnel:

• The Professional Videos: They created the initial perception of quality and legitimacy.

• The "Shiny Metric": We deliberately set our public goal at $5k, even though we needed $50k just to break even on ads. When we hit $500k, the page screamed that we were 1,000% funded. That's a completely made-up metric, but people buy it for no reason. It's social proof on steroids.

• The Daily "Brainwashing": The constant, authentic updates in our community made people feel like insiders. They were part of the story.

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Paid vs. Organic: Smart Budgeting for Maximum ROI

→ What tactics delivered the most ROI?

They're not wrong, you need a budget, but not necessarily huge. You need to be smart about it. We spent about $20k on ads for the pre-launch. The ROI came from focusing that spend on one single goal: building the email list of 150K people (a landing page, with “notify me on launch").

That list was our primary weapon. Looking at the data, $170k of our raise came from "direct" traffic ~(from $500K total). Those were the people on our email list clicking the link we sent them. Another $60k came from our own domain campaigns, and $50k from Google ads. The paid ads don't just get you a few direct sales; they create the massive audience that fuels the organic-looking explosion on day one. That explosion then gets you platform perks, like Indiegogo putting us on their front page as a "GoGo Pick," which brought in another $150k for free.

So paid acquisition is the fuel for the organic fire. As for targeting, target US. “Make America Great Again” is the top consumer and will be for a while. That's just data. We did okay in Canada there too, but I heard other campainers say Canadians were frugal. North America, for sure.

Avoiding Scams: What Founders Should Know About Crowdfunding “Experts”

→ Any red flags or common scams to avoid?

Oh, we got burned on this. If a promise sounds too good to be true, it probably is. The common scam is an agency saying, "We have a sophisticated system of running ad copies, that's gonna cost you $20k." You pay them, and then you find out on the backend they only spent $5k on a few boring ads that don't convert, and they pocketed the other $15k.

This happened to us. We gave a shop $50k from our first investment. I'd say the actual cost that went to ads was maybe $20k. The rest was for a video (product showcase) we could have made for $2k.

The red flag is the black box. If they don't want to give you full transparency and control over the ad accounts, run. You need to own that part of the campaign. The only real deal is a provider who gives you tools for optimizing ad conversion, not one who just says "outsource it to us." Do it yourself if you can. You control the budget and the strategy, and you don't get robbed.

The Psychology of Pricing: Setting Tiers That Sell

→ Did you test, iterate, or just go with what felt right?

It was pure marketing science, but a very specific kind. Nowadays, it's a real science. You A/B test pricing with small ad budgets or even run surveys where people have to put $X down to prove they're serious.

But for us, it was a mix of two things: a big psychological trick and some serious back-of-the-napkin math.

The psychological trick was the most important number on the page: the campaign goal. We knew we needed at least $50k to break even on ads, but we set our public goal to just $10,000. It was completely made up. This allowed us to scream that we were 50,000% funded, which is a shiny metric that creates a perception of runaway success and gets people to buy in.

Then for the actual perk pricing, honestly, we didn't have a clue what our product would cost. We didn't know much about our internal costs, let alone what people would pay! So we just did some napkin math. We took our assumed worst-case cost for the main component, the PCB, let's say $200. We doubled that to be safe, then put a 40% margin on top of it. Fun fact, after all the real-world production headaches and changes, our margin today is still around that same 40%. So never underestimate the power of a good ol napkin!

Tailored Messaging: How Functionland Segmented Its Audience

→ How refined was your outreach strategy?

Oh yeah, absolutely. That was a huge part of the pre-launch phase, which is make-or-break. We had detailed personas built out well before the campaign went live. We went and interviewed people in our network who actually matched each of those personas to understand what they cared about.

Based on that, we had ad copies tailor-made for each of them. The message for a crypto-native person who wants a miner is different from the message for a Web2 user who just wants to de-Google their life. We targeted them on the platforms where they lived, Instagram and Facebook for the broader audience, but the messaging would filter them.

Advice for Technical Founders: Building Momentum Without a Sales Team

→ How should they think about building early momentum without a traditional sales team?

First, you can start with much, much less than you think. You don't need a $20k budget on day one.

And second, at this very moment, start your brainwashing campaign. Onboard your friends. Start networking. That's free. "Marketing" sounds scary, but for this, it just means being authentic and talking to people every single day.

Share specifics about what you're building.. Share the technical challenges. Share what you don't know yet. That's the stuff that builds a real community. Find the two places where your people hang out (for us it was Telegram and Discord) and just be present. You don't need a sales team; you need to build a small, passionate group of fans who feel like they're on the inside.

No corporate BS marketing, just have normal conversations, consistently. Crowdfunding is like political campaigning, starts with you knocking on digital doors and getting people to believe in the vision.

Final Thoughts

We learned that success in crowdfunding isn’t about gimmicks or viral luck. It’s about relentless authenticity, community-first storytelling, and nailing the boring fundamentals: build your email list, own your ad accounts, show up daily, and never lose momentum.

Keyvan’s story is proof that you don’t need a massive budget or a fancy PR firm—you just need clarity, consistency, and a founder who’s willing to lead from the front.

If you’re planning to crowdfund in 2025, this isn’t advice. It’s a warning: do it right, or don’t do it at all. If you would like to watch the full YouTube video of one of his panels.