How was Indiegogo created?
- Community Film Project
- 13 hours ago
- 4 min read
Why are we using Indiegogo? What is the history of Indiegogo? Who started it? Was it originally for movies or just a good idea?
During my research, I found a podcast episode I'd like to cite for my blog post. It was called How I Built This with Guy Raz. The episode was published less than a year ago on December 25, 2025, and the origin story of the team was moving.
Danae Ringelmann, Slava Rubin, and Eric Schell are the founders of Indiegogo.
Quarter 1 was the idea; Quarter 2 was the launch; and Quarter 3 would be momentum and raising capital to help others raise capital. This was 2008, and then the market crashed. A lot of their plans went "out the window," said Slava Rubin, one of the founders.
Each founder has a slightly different story than the other, but all share one united front that I believe we also share as producers at Community Film Project. At some point, the tasks that needed to get done belonged to everyone, and success truly depended on everyone showing up.
This mentality is what I believe pushed Indiegogo through their hard stages in business, even when the market and odds were against them, so they could go on to succeed and help others bring their projects, and even a baby, to life.
So how did the idea of Indiegogo come to be?
Let's start with Danae Ringelmann's story who worked for JP Morgan at the time. She was invited to a mixer/networking event called Where Hollywood Meets Wall Street.
"I almost thought I didn't deserve to be invited. I thought it might have been an accident," says Danae.
She decided to go be a fly on the wall since she was interested in what producers looked like and wanted to absorb the event.
As the night went on, Danae mentioned to someone that she worked for JP Morgan, and some attendees assumed she was a big financer. She tried to correct them and explain to these striving producers that she was the "wrong person" to talk to.
Two days after the event, she received a FedEx package from a theatre producer she had met at the event with a handwritten note and a script to review. He wanted to talk about funding for his project.
"This was a man in his 60s who had been working his whole life bringing small productions to life, yet begging me, someone with no experience, just the right name on the card, for money."
She also said, "I also watched my parents work so damn hard their whole damn life, and they never got a break." She cites a story about her father, excited about his idea, pitching it to some investors, and they took the idea and ran without her father.
Danae says she gets a bit emotional because, "I grew up with a hope or an optimism that life would be fairer if you worked hard." She says there was a sadness that hit when she knew the man that sent the FedEx package was worthy of money, but she felt she couldn't make a difference.
Despite this, she goes on to help the man, named Arthur Miller.
The goal was to perform a concert reading of the play in an Off-Broadway venue for a set of producers. She successfully got the producers there, and everybody loved the play. Standing ovation.
"I turned to the producers and said, 'Alright, do we have something here?'
and they said, 'This is an amazing play. We're not going to invest. Good luck.'"
It was this moment when Danae realized that a huge room of people wanted this play to happen, yet they still couldn't get an investor to make it happen.
That is what drove Danae to create Indiegogo.
Did you know that someone held a crowd funding campaign for IVF and the campaign was a success, the IVF went very well, and the baby was born.
Nearly $3 billion has been raised on Indiegogo since it launched in 2008.
More than 800,000 campaigns have launched on the platform.
Campaigns come from 235 countries and territories.
We've already raised $75,000 for our movie, and we've filmed 92% of it.
We plan to use the extra funding for marketing needs and postproduction matters like sound, color correction, and of course ad spend, flyers, and other marketing needs.
We've worked with over 500 volunteer extras to bring this film to life.
We saved a lot of money and resources by using our own equipment, bartering location settings and working long hours after our own jobs to make this film possible.
We are running our Campaign for approximately 30-days and limited rewards are available.
To help us fund the film, we are selling items like:
-Tribute shoutouts for loved ones
-Magnets and posters
-Digital Soundtrack Download
-Producer Credits
-Tickets to the premiere party
The movie WILL be finished, and it will launch in Utah theatres but with your support, we we hope to reach an even bigger audience and be known nationwide.
We believe communication is key when building a film with our community. Stay in touch by texting LUFF to 209-703-7104.
When deos our indiegogo campaign start?
We anticipate having the campaign officially approved and ready to launch by June 24th, 2026. That's about a week away!
If you follow the campaign early, you'll get a $7 discount when it starts.
Community Film Project
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