Case Study: How Mode Mobile Filled a $5M Raise

Consumer data plays a crucial role in today's digital landscape, shaping the way businesses understand and cater to the needs of their customers. In an era dominated by smartphones, the significance of consumer data has only intensified. Our smartphones have become integral parts of our daily lives, serving as personal assistants, communication devices, and entertainment hubs.

Our increased reliance on smartphones means that a vast amount of data is generated with every tap, swipe, and interaction—amounting to tens of billions of dollars companies make each year buying and selling our information.

Enter Mode Mobile, a cutting-edge tech company balancing the scales for smartphone users everywhere. Mode Mobile was founded on the belief that if you’re going to use a phone and let companies benefit from your use, you deserve to get paid too.

Mode Mobile’s state-of-the-art EarnPhone lets users earn up to $1,200 per year just by using their smartphones; activities like listening to music, reading the news, and even just charging the phone generate rewards over time.

Mode’s customers have earned and saved over $150M to date—and now that they’ve launched software that can turn any smartphone into an EarnPhone, the Mode team is ready to scale.

Mode Mobile’s $5 Million Community Raise

Dan Novaes, co-founder and CEO of Mode Mobile, is no stranger to raising capital; his team has already raised over $40 million from angel investors and VCs. But Dan saw an exciting opportunity to use his next funding round as not just a capital source, but a powerful customer acquisition channel.

Dan realized that in order to reap the full benefits of an online raise, he needed to use a white-labeled solution. He spent six months vetting solution providers and a full year deciding who to engage—and ended up choosing DealMaker.

“We have this new idea, this new technology and category of device, and we wanted to educate people on it. So we picked the channels in which we felt we could go after those consumers. That’s what attracted us to crowdfunding in the first place.” - Dan Novaes

Why They Chose DealMaker

According to Dan, there were five main reasons he went with us:

1. Track record. Dan sought out the platform that had powered the biggest offerings in the industry.
2. DealMaker Reach. He knew that Reach was a top marketing agency for crowdfunding campaigns, and says the team helped him move faster and eliminate false starts.
3. Customizability. Dan wanted to offer custom share structures to different users (more on that later). He says other platforms were interested in trying, but “the scope was chaos.” DealMaker was able to scope and deliver this feature much more easily.
4. Increased ROAS. An online campaign requires digital marketing—and Dan didn’t want his ad spend to drive traffic to a marketplace-style platform or to share his customers. With DealMaker, every dollar he spent came back to him.
5. Full-funnel visibility. Dan wanted a solution that would allow him to push people through his funnel. None of the other platforms he spoke to had robust IR solutions.

The Raise: $5 Million in 5 Months

Mode Mobile’s first-ever online capital raise was a massive success, bringing in the full $5 million in just over five months. In addition to raising from their own community, the Mode team leveraged DealMaker Reach to bring in new investors—a strategy that not only helped drive capital into the raise, but also gave fresh exposure to Mode’s products in top-tier outlets like Morning Brew.

In order to maximize conversion rates, Dan and his team used a unique approach to generate FOMO and urgency: they gamified the investor experience by offering bonus shares to different tranches based on how early—and how much—a user invested.

“When you’re raising money, nobody wants to be first—but people also don’t want to be last. So we ran [our campaign] in a way that allowed that gamification. Then, once people were in our funnel or became investors, we kept up constant communication, but at a more human level. Every email had my name on it. People built a relationship with me as well.

When people are making these investment decisions, putting thousands of dollars into a company, they want to believe in more than just the product. They want to believe in the journey, the founder, the whole vision.” – Dan Novaes?

Looking ahead: Mode Mobile’s million-shareholder mission

In the wake of their incredibly successful Reg CF, the Mode Mobile team is already gearing up to raise even more capital under Reg A+.

“I don’t see the CF as ‘one and done.’ I see this as making an investment into multiple rounds of this—so I can basically build the first company with a million shareholders. We see this as an investment in the future.

One of the biggest trends we’re going to see over the course of the next two to three years is the development of brand community. Community means building value amongst every single participant in a network and thinking beyond just the raise. In the long term, how do you provide a deal that’s so good that people genuinely love your company and get value out of it? If you’re successful on top of all that, that’s an incredible bonus.”

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You can learn more about Mode Mobile by clicking here.