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MilkMade Ice Cream: Launching a Successful Crowdfunding Campaign

Article  in  SSRN Electronic Journal · January 2015

DOI: 10.2139/ssrn.2974739

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MilkMade Ice Cream:

Running A Successful Crowdfunding Campaign

In 2009, Diana Hardeman launched MilkMade Ice Cream, a craft ice cream company. Residents of
Manhattan and Brooklyn could subscribe to a delivery service and receive two pints a month for $30.1 The
New York–based start-up churned small batches of super premium ice cream made from locally sourced,
fresh ingredients. The company grew organically for several years and by 2013, Hardeman determined she
was ready to expand. Crowdfunding offered an opportunity for both capital and visibility.

Company Foundations

A graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, and New York University’s Stern School of
Business, Hardeman had always been attracted to new opportunities. Growing up in California as the
daughter of a physician who had his own medical practice, she always wanted to be an entrepreneur. “I’ve
had lots of business ideas,” Hardeman said. “I even researched some, but I never took any idea to fruition.”

A pint-a-night ice cream lover, Hardeman had grown dissatisfied with what was available in her
Manhattan neighborhood. She was not alone. The quality of many leading ice cream brands had
been declining for years, because the addition of corn syrup, milk powder, and artificial colors and
flavors, not to mention preservatives, had become common industry practice. And tubs of ice cream
that used to hold 64 ounces had been reduced to 48 ounces.2 Increasingly, health-conscious
consumers worried about ingesting chemicals and were willing to pay premium prices for all-natural
food. This gave craft and artisan ice cream an opportunity to find a niche in the market for frozen
treats made from organic, fresh, and seasonal ingredients.
In the summer of 2009, Hardeman bought a small ice-cream maker and got to work. She and two of her
friends got in touch with local farmers to get high-quality, natural ingredients, such as organic cream from
grass-fed cows. “From the start, we wanted the ingredients to be organic and as local and seasonal as
possible,” Hardeman said. Soon the three friends were churning ice cream in such unique flavors as maple
pancake and brown sugar peanut butter and serving it at parties to rave reviews from friends and
acquaintances.

1 Company website, http://www.milkmadeicecream.com (accessed Feb. 2, 2015).

2 Dan Barry, “Ice Cream’s Identity Crisis,” New York Times, April 17, 2013.

This field-based case was prepared by Gosia Glinska, Senior Researcher at the Batten Institute, and Meghan R. Murray, Adjunct Lecturer. It was
written as a basis for class discussion rather than to illustrate effective or ineffective handling of an administrative situation. Copyright  2015 by the
University of Virginia Darden School Foundation, Charlottesville, VA. All rights reserved. To order copies, send an e-mail to
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Page 2 UVA-M-0880

After someone suggested she call her operation “MilkMade,” Hardeman started referring to herself and
her friends as “Milkmaids.” In September 2009, the Milkmaids served their ice cream at a local party in
Brooklyn, New York. After the party was written up in New York magazine, a writer for the magazine’s food
blog, Grub Street, approached her to write about the ice cream. Hardeman saw this as an excellent PR
opportunity. “I had a friend put together a website really quickly—just a landing page with information about
MilkMade. The landing page only said, “If you’re interested, send us an email with the word ‘subscribe,’”
Hardeman said.

After the piece was published on Grub Street, MilkMade’s landing page received hundreds of emails.
“That showed me our potential—there were hundreds of people who wanted to buy our ice cream,”
Hardeman stated. (See Exhibit 1 for excerpts from MilkMade website).

The Artisanal Ice Cream Explosion

Americans consumed more than 1.5 billion gallons of frozen desserts in 2012. A generation ago,
traditional ice cream was bought in a grocery store. By 2014, there were far more places to buy it and many
more choices, from gelato and sorbet to frozen yogurt. But traditional ice cream’s production had been
shrinking. The Dairy Foods Association reported that the production of ice cream in 2012 dropped to its
lowest point in more than 15 years: 900 million gallons of that 1.5 billion total gallons.

Boutique ice cream shops and artisanal producers had been flooding the landscape during the previous
10 years, introducing a wide variety of flavors and textures. In addition to new flavors, consumers were also
demanding high-quality ingredients. The success of large national supermarket brands such as Whole Foods
helped spark a cultural shift, including a strong preference for healthier, fresh, minimally processed, natural,
organic, and local food. Millennials, a group ranging in age from the late teens to mid-30s, also played a role
in the food revolution. They were willing to spend more on specialty foods, which powered new trends such
as artisanal and craft ice cream.3

Pursuing the Opportunity

Now holding e-mail addresses for several hundred potential customers, Hardeman had her work cut out
for her. Because she was bootstrapping her venture, she decided that an ice-cream-of-the-month subscription
model would work best. “When I launched MilkMade as a subscription-based business, it was before the
subscription craze we see now,” Hardeman explained. “I thought that it would be easiest and best to do it on
a monthly basis, so that we’d be producing once a month.” She continued:

We decided to take subscriptions in advance for a business that didn’t have any capital cost up front,
thinking, charging people in advance gives us the money to buy the ingredients for that month’s ice
cream…If we were to do on-demand ice cream delivery, it would’ve been a different operation.

The MilkMade value proposition

For a monthly fee of $30, members received two pints of ice cream, hand-delivered to their doorsteps;
delivery was included in the price. In exchange for a premium price tag, subscribers got exceptional freshness.

3 Don Cuppett, “Millennials Drive Food Trends Despite Lag in Spending,” HighBeam Research, November 17, 2014,
http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-390424299.html (accessed Feb. 9, 2015).
Page 3 UVA-M-0880

The Milkmaids delivered ice cream the day after it had been made, giving it just enough time to harden and
set. “They’re the freshest pints you’ll know,” Hardeman promised on her website.4

Hardeman created two unique flavors each month. She never repeated them, and members received both
flavors—one pint of each. For busy Manhattanites, the subscription model and home or office delivery
offered time-saving convenience.

Prior to officially launching the business, the Milkmaids churned small batches of ice cream in
Hardeman’s East Village apartment. But after Hardeman filed for Limited Liability Company status in 2009
and got a business license and permit, she found a certified commercial kitchen for her business.

In December 2009, the Milkmaids began delivering ice cream to subscribers within Hardeman’s East
Village zip code. “We started the membership really small, with the first 50 people off of our waiting list,” she
said, adding that even though she had e-mails from many more people interested in her ice cream, she
couldn’t accommodate all of them. Because of that, MilkMade achieved the aura of an exclusive club. After a
few months, Hardeman had gotten the hang of MilkMade’s operations, so she expanded deliveries to include
the West Village and eventually the Upper East and Upper West Sides. By 2010, her business covered all
Manhattan, and in 2011 the delivery area expanded to include Brooklyn.

Keeping fans engaged

In addition to working on operational efficiency and keeping up with demand, Hardeman had to keep her
early enthusiasts engaged. She launched a MilkMade Facebook page, a Tumblr blog, and Instagram and
Twitter accounts to keep current subscribers and those on the waiting list up to date regarding new flavors
and expansion plans. (See Exhibit 2 for a list of MilkMade’s social media platforms.) “From day one, our sole
marketing tool was social media. And we continued to rely on it many years,” Hardeman said. Once she
realized how much ice cream enthusiasts liked pictures of MilkMade’s new concoctions, she started posting
them regularly, attracting more and more fans.

Crowdfunding: Raising Capital in a Digital World

In 2013, MilkMade was a small-scale operation run out of a shared commercial kitchen on the Lower
East Side of Manhattan. Hardeman spent long days there, developing new flavors and getting them ready for
delivery.

Meanwhile, MilkMade’s social media followers kept asking where they could get MilkMade’s pints,
including past flavors, outside of the existing subscription model. Despite high demand, Hardeman had to
cap membership at 300 because of limited production capacity. To increase production, she needed a bigger
facility. She also needed to hire staff, including a pastry chef to take over running the kitchen. The question
on her mind was How am I going to fund growth?

In 2013, Hardeman decided that a crowdfunding campaign, an increasingly popular way to finance new
ventures, was the best strategy to fuel growth and attract investors. In the United States, people who
contributed money via crowdfunded platforms could not be rewarded with an equity stake unless they were
accredited investors. But incentives for everyday people were a big part of the game. These incentives ranged

4 MilkMade website, http://www.milkmadeicecream.com/questions (accessed Feb. 9, 2015).

Page 4 UVA-M-0880

from T-shirts and early access to products to experiences that could not be bought.5 But even with these fun
perks, many such campaigns were unsuccessful. Out of more than 72,000 Kickstarter campaigns that met
their funding goals, only 1,600 raised more than $100,000. A majority of funded projects raised less than
$10,000.6 (See Exhibit 3 for descriptions of the top crowdfunding sites.)

“I knew the money from the Kickstarter campaign wasn’t going to wholly fund MilkMade’s growth,”
Hardeman said. She also knew that the real value of crowdfunding was more than the money she raised. A
successful crowdfunding campaign provided market validation, raised brand awareness, and activated new
and existing customer bases, not to mention that it looked great to potential investors. Hardeman said:

Launching the campaign was a threefold strategy. A—to make a splash and publicly engage our
constituents—our customer base, our fans on social media around the country, and our friends and
family. We wanted to announce our growth and make them feel like they are a part of it. B—
crowdfunding is, essentially, a marketing campaign that you actually make money on. And C—to be
able to say to angel investors, “Look, we’ve got this traction—people all over the country want our
ice cream—and we’ve just raised this money.”

Hardeman also knew that a crowdfunding campaign was not a route to easy cash; just because she made
the ice cream she loved and felt passionate about it didn’t mean that backers with deep pockets would
automatically flock to her Kickstarter page. Moreover, historically, food projects had not been particularly
successful on Kickstarter, the largest crowdfunding platform.

Because launching a campaign required a lot of research and planning, Hardeman enlisted the help of
Jacqueline Wilde Kurdziel, a friend and recent graduate of the Darden School of Business. “Jacqueline came
on as a consultant in November 2013 and stayed through February 2014,” Hardeman said. “She was integral
to the success of the entire campaign.”

Preparing for launch

Hardeman chose Kickstarter as her crowdfunding platform because she knew its founder and many of
the people who worked there. “It seemed the most reputable way to go,” she said. She and Kurdziel studied
both successful and unsuccessful campaigns to glean insights about what worked and what didn’t. The stakes
were high. As Kurdziel said, “With Kickstarter, if you don’t hit your goal, you get nothing.” Even more
important, a failure to reach a fundraising goal within a month-long time frame would be a deterrent to
investors. And chances of failure were higher than chances of success, because only 41% of approved
Kickstarter campaigns reached their fundraising goal.7 “What put a lot of pressure on us to do a lot of
planning was that we found out that some of the most successful Kickstarters achieved a significant portion
of their fundraising in the first quarter of their campaigns,” said Kurdziel.

Learning from example

Kurdziel identified a cross-section of businesses that were veterans of successful Kickstarter campaigns
and drew paralells to MilkMade where she could, from food to technology and consumer products. This

5 “25 Killer Kickstarter Reward Ideas,” CrowdfundingPR, September 9, 2013, http://www.crowdfundingpr.org/25-killer-kickstarter-reward-ideas

(accessed Feb. 13, 2015).

6 Carol Tice, “The Myth of Magical Crowdfunding—And What Actually Works,” Forbes, October 20, 2014,
http://www.forbes.com/sites/caroltice/2014/10/20/the-myth-of-magical-crowdfunding-and-what-actually-works (accessed Feb. 2, 2015).
7 http://www.forbes.com/sites/caroltice/2014/10/20/the-myth-of-magical-crowdfunding-and-what-actually-works.
Page 5 UVA-M-0880

proved to be challenging. “There weren’t many comparables that we looked at, but we chose quality over
quantity,” Kurdziel said. They ended up learning the most from a successful campaign by a brick-and-mortar
pastry shop in Brooklyn. “It was important that they were in the same region, the Northeast, and that it was
food related,” Kurdziel said. “We really looked at the whole campaign and used that as a benchmark to gauge
all the different aspects.” She added:

This is similar to what you would do in any finance case at Darden. You look at comparables, based
on company size, revenue, location, and so on. You ask, “Who can I compare myself to and learn
something?” We also put together an analysis of all different campaigns, and we looked at the types
of rewards they offered and how that related to their fundraising goals. Some companies had “stretch
goals.” If you hit your first goal, how would you structure having a second tier that you’d want to hit?

Hardeman and Kurdziel also pored over data that Kickstarter aggregated about trends, and the most
likely times in a campaign to raise a significant portion of a fundraising goal. That information, however, was
not specific enough for Hardeman and Kurdziel. “Our category—ice cream—was a less common category on
that platform. Our own research of a cross-section of successful Kickstarters proved to be a much more
helpful process,” Kurdziel said.

A high-quality video

After two months of preparations, Hardeman was ready to take the plunge. On December 9, 2013, she
lunched a Kickstarter campaign called “Lickstarter.” In their two months of research, Hardeman and
Kurdziel learned that one of the most important tools in a crowdfunding campaign was video because it was
the very first thing a potential investor saw when he visited a Kickstarter page. “We were lucky to have
friends who helped us create a high-quality video. We leveraged our network and brought in some friends
with video talent, who co-created the video with us, saving us up to $5,000.”

As Hardeman explained in her campaign video, her objective was to raise $45,000 to buy a new ice cream
machine to ramp up capacity and expand to markets beyond New York City. On her Kickstarter page,
Hardeman shared her vision to make more of her “best and most unique hand-crafted ice cream” versus the
supermarket ice cream that was no longer natural because it contained gums and preservatives. She
emphasized that MilkMade ice cream tasted the best because it was made from natural ingredients. “We are
building a better pint,” she announced.8

The human connection

From her research, Hardeman gathered that the most successful campaigns created a connection to a
person or story. By sharing her passion for ice cream and her story about what drove her, Hardeman created
a personal, authentic connection between herself and her audience. MilkMade was not a large corporation
that mass-produced ice cream. MilkMade was Hardeman, a real person, who churned her own, authentic
product. And the Milkmaids were real, too, as their names and pictures on the Kickstarter page attested.
Hardeman and the Milkmaids shared their personal stories throughout the campaign. “We also used video
updates featuring the team on our Kickstarter Updates page,” Kurdziel said.

Hardeman and Kurdziel hoped to motivate people to donate by employing a sense of urgency
(Kickstarter campaigns lasted only one month) and by creating a specific goal. But as important as the target

8 “Milkmade Ice Cream’s #Lickstarter,” Kickstarter, https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/milkmade/milkmade-ice-creams-lickstarter (accessed

Feb. 2, 2015).
Page 6 UVA-M-0880

of $45,000 was, the Kickstarter campaign also gave MilkMade the chance to connect with its audience, which
it did by including supporters in the details about the company’s objectives and challenges. “We’re expanding
our production, growing the membership to finally ship pints nationally, and working with our first retail
stores,” Hardeman announced on the Kickstarter page. “How cool would it be to see MilkMade pints in your
stores and know they got there because of you?”

Because those who backed projects on Kickstarter did not receive an equity stake, offering exciting,
creative rewards was essential for motivating people to give money. Pricing rewards appropriately also
mattered. “From our research, the $30-to-$50 range is a much more popular donation range,” Kurdziel said.
“Normally people aren’t making big-ticket purchases on that forum.” But lower requirements for entry made
it easier to attract donors, so the team came up with donation options for every budget.

Crowdfunding money did not come entirely free of charge, either. For one, Kickstarter got a 5% cut of
the crowdfunded amount. The rewards offered in exchange for donations also cost money, as did shipping.
Calculating those costs helped to establish the amount that needed to be raised. Hardeman said, “We were
very meticulous about deciding in advance what the rewards were going to be. We have a spreadsheet with all
the research we did for how much it was going to cost to get the T-shirts made, plus shipping.”

Most successful projects on Kickstarter were those that had an established customer base and followers
on social media. Kickstarter explained that “the majority of initial funding usually comes from the fans and
friends of each project.”9 MilkMade had the advantage on Kickstarter of already having a built-in audience—
an established customer base, a long waiting list of potential customers, and many fans and followers.
Kurdziel explained:

One important thing that we learned is that there’s a big difference between a company that is
starting from scratch and a company that has a little bit of traction going into Kickstarter. Because
MilkMade had all those enthusiastic audiences in New York, that gave us a boost for our campaign.
Even though everything is so digital now, the human connection is still important.

Hardeman and Kurdziel developed a strategy to activate that audience, using Facebook, Instagram,
Pinterest, Tumblr, and Twitter to direct traffic to their Kickstarter page. Social media, however, was not the
only way the Milkmaids got the word out. “We also used e-mail, Kickstarter website updates, and in-person
word of mouth,” Kurdziel said.

A marketing and media outreach strategy

Kurdziel and Hardeman worked on media outreach, both before and during the Kickstarter campaign.
They delivered MilkMade ice cream to news outlets around New York, to advertise the crowdfunding
campaign and encourage them to write about MilkMade. “We reached out to a combination of food bloggers,
technology (writers), and other publications,” Kurdziel said. As a result, MilkMade was featured in several
places, including a number of high-profile New York–based media outlets.

Right before the Kickstarter launch, Hardeman and Kurdziel had turned to Thunderclap, a “crowd
speaking” platform that helped rally people together to spread a message and build influence on social media.
Said Kurdziel, “We rounded up people before the launch of the campaign to sign up for Thunderclap. People

9 https://www.kickstarter.com/help/faq/kickstarter+basics?ref=footer, Kickstarter Basics (accessed Mar. 18, 2015).

Page 7 UVA-M-0880

would pledge to submit a tweet or a Facebook post that would all go out at the same time, and that was a way
to build awareness around the campaign.”

Thunderclap created a queue of people who committed to sharing a message about MilkMade’s
Kickstarter campaign the day it launched on Twitter, Facebook, and Tumblr. “I don’t remember it being
hugely influential,” Kurdziel said. “But it was one among many experiments that we ran, where we said, ‘We
need to get a lot of buzz right out of the gate so the people start hearing about this early on.’”

Another campaign the MilkMade team launched to drive traffic to the Kickstarter page was called “Help
us build our cone.” Every time MilkMade raised 25% of the fundraising goal, a scoop was added to a picture
of an ice cream cone. “It was a playful collaborative social media campaign to create awareness of the project
with imagery,” said Kurdziel.

Every Friday, the MilkMade team posted the Wall of Fame—a graphic with a list of names of people
who had donated on Kickstarter the previous week. “The more money you donated, the larger your name
was in font size,” Kurdziel said. “It was a way to give credit to those who donated and build awareness within
our community. The implicit message was ‘All these people are backing, and you should, too.’” The Wall of
Fame was displayed on various social media platforms.

Kurdziel and Hardeman had a social and digital media strategy to schedule tweets, posts, photos, guest
bloggers, and calendar update e-mails to attract people to the Kickstarter page. Hardeman also called on
friends in the tech world who had their own social media networks and audiences. Kurdziel elaborated:

We had a few big names in the technology world, and they backed our project. And those people
tend to come with pretty strong networks themselves. Because Kickstarter notifies people who are
backing your project when someone donates to that project, that helped to get the word out. And
that was also a part of the fundraising strategy, to see who was serious about investing in MilkMade.

After four years in operation and a solid presence on social media, MilkMade had a large audience.
Hardeman had accumulated thousands of e-mail addresses of customers, wait-listers, and fans. “As part of
our e-mail marketing strategy and a lot of the social media strategy, we segmented who we were going to
target for the Kickstarter campaign,” Kurdziel said. There were five distinct groups that MilkMade targeted
via specifically tailored communications:
 existing MilkMade members
 former members, some of whom had moved away from New York
 wait-listers
 Milkmaids’ friends and family
 social media fans and followers

Throughout the campaign, MilkMade sent e-mail updates regarding the progress of the campaign,
generating excitement and creating a sense of urgency. Also during the campaign, Kurdziel systematically
tracked what worked to drive traffic and where the contributors came from. “We used a centralized
dashboard provided by Kickstarter. We also looked at all the analytics across the social media platforms to see
what type of engagement we had with the posts on those platforms,” she said.
Page 8 UVA-M-0880

This led to interesting insights. MilkMade had 1.5 million followers on Tumblr, so the team assumed that
Tumblr would be a great source of backers. But Kurdziel said, “We realized it wasn’t the best quality traffic,
because Tumblr provided fans, not customers.”

Crowdfunding campaigns tended to generate a surge of donations during the first and last thirds of the
campaign, and MilkMade saw this typical lull in the middle. “We wanted to introduce things during that
slump period to keep momentum, to keep excitement around the project,” Kurdziel said. One of those things
was a new reward—a custom-made Toasty Time sweatshirt with mitten pockets. (See Exhibit 4 for
performance data on all of MilkMade’s rewards.) Around the same time, the team turned to paid advertising
on Facebook and Twitter to see if that would move the needle and generate MilkMade awareness. Both
helped: MilkMade’s needle hit the fundraising goal of $45,000.

With that goal accomplished, Hardeman and Kurdziel launched the “stretch” goal campaign, urging
followers to help MilkMade reach the next milestone, an additional $5,000. “We created a lot of content
around helping us to surpass our original goal, and we added a new pledge. We were pretty structured and
organized in how we planned our communications and marketing strategy, but at the same time, we wanted
to give ourselves flexibility to experiment with different things.”

Kickstarter benefits

At first, Hardeman and Kurdziel had been skeptical about Kickstarter. They knew that Kickstarter took a
5% cut, and they weren’t sure whether the benefits of using the platform would justify the expense. “Looking
back, it was the ideal platform—very helpful in driving awareness,” Hardeman said. Kickstarter offered a
crowdfunding page template that was easy to use, and MilkMade was able to leverage Kickstarter’s embedded
social sharing capabilities. Individuals in its network could rapidly view and share the campaign, plus
Kickstarter tools allowed MilkMade to spread the word about backers easily.

Kurdziel was equally happy with the platform. She appreciated all the elements Kickstarter offered to
help projects succeed. As she said, “They have a discovery feature where they help you to get noticed. Just in
terms of creating brand awareness alone and interest, the experience was definitely positive.”

Kurdziel and Hardeman determined Kickstarter was a great platform for experimenting with new
marketing strategies, such as paid advertising on Facebook and Twitter, and evaluating how they moved the
needle. Another benefit of running a crowdfunding campaign was the chance to test different ways of
engaging an audience. Said Kurdziel:

Since MilkMade first started, there’s been a growing waiting list of people who’ve been following the
brand on social media, drooling over their computer screens about this amazing ice cream. Diana was
looking for opportunities to activate that audience, and Kickstarter was a fantastic way to do that. We
wanted to think about how we can get people involved both locally, where the brand has really
strong roots, but also nationally and even globally for those audiences that have been following the
brand for a while…It was also a good excuse to try new things like paid media.

Crowdfunding Success

The month-long campaign attracted 532 backers, who helped MilkMade exceed its fundraising goal by
more than $2,000, totaling $47,060. The mean (average) pledge was $88.46 and the mode (most common)
pledge was $35. (See Exhibit 5 for MilkMade’s funding sources.) In addition to raising immediate capital,
crowdfunding had many ancillary benefits. “Our campaign helped us spark engagement and raise awareness,”
Page 9 UVA-M-0880

Hardeman said. “Marketing and exposure were great. You can easily spend $47,000 on marketing; we raised
that amount in a month and got virtually free marketing.”

A successful crowdfunding campaign can open doors to other funding options, as it did for Hardeman.
The MilkMade founder was able to leverage her crowdfunding campaign to raise outside capital. In the
summer of 2014, she closed a seed round with angel investors. “Our Kickstarter campaign kick-started our
fundraising campaign,” Hardeman said. “It was the strategy from the beginning. The Kickstarter campaign
was just one stepping stone toward achieving that—a catalyst toward a real seed-funding round.” She
continued:

Approaching potential investors—it’s always an interesting conversation. You don’t want to just
pitch to them right away. So the Kickstarter campaign was an initial conversation with some
investors—something to start with and say, “It was a fun campaign. Actually, it’s going so well, I’m
considering running a real fundraising campaign.”

It kind of snowballed from there.

Page 10 UVA-M-0880

Exhibit 1
MilkMade Ice Cream:
Running A Successful Crowdfunding Campaign
Excerpts from MilkMade Website

“We use only grass-fed milk and cream from the happy cows at Ronnybrook Farm Dairy.”

“We source our eggs from Knoll Krest free-running, vegetarian-fed hens. Then, on to the ingredients—
we use the best dairy around from happy cows who are grass-fed and well treated. Our mix-ins are sourced
from local producers who also take pride in their craft. We’re using the best natural, sustainable, hand-crafted
ingredients around.”

“We use pure organic and vegan cane sugar in our ice cream. We occasionally use brown sugar, local
honey, or real maple syrup, as well.”

“We believe in sourcing ingredients from producers in our local food shed who farm or craft their
products in a sustainable manner—they’re healthy, they do not harm the environment or animals, they
provide fair wages to their workers, and they support the local economy. Plus, local ingredients are fresher
and just taste better! You can really taste the difference.”

“And production—we’re still a small business here, and produce our ice cream in tiny batches. We make
it from scratch, and self-pasteurize each batch, rather than using a pre-made mix like most other ice creamers.
Then, we hand-pack each pint, layer the mix-ins by hand, to ensure that yours is the best pint we’ve ever
made.”

“Every MilkMade pint is hand-crafted and hand-packed by Diana and the Milkmaids in a commercially
certified kitchen in the Lower East Side of Manhattan. We keep it real and develop our flavors in our tiny
East Village kitchenette. Drop by sometime for a taste test!”

Source: MilkMade website, http://www.milkmadeicecream.com/questions (accessed Mar. 23, 2015).

Page 11 UVA-M-0880

Exhibit 2
MilkMade Ice Cream:
Running A Successful Crowdfunding Campaign
Social Media Platforms Used by MilkMade

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/milkmadescream

Instagram: http://instagram.com/milkmade

Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/milkmadescream/milkmade

Tumblr: https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/milkmade-ice-cream

Twitter: https://twitter.com/milkmade

Vine: https://vine.co/u/907044038962716672/grid

Blog, “Adventures in Ice Cream”: http://blog.milkmadeicecream.com

Page 12 UVA-M-0880

Exhibit 3
MilkMade Ice Cream:
Running A Successful Crowdfunding Campaign
A Selection of Top Crowdfunding Sites in 20141

Kickstarter

Kickstarter launched in Brooklyn in 2009 and proved to be best known crowdfunding tool with the
highest volume. Most projects raised less than $10,000, and some did not launch at all; Kickstarter rejected up
to 20% of proposed projects. It was considered risky because Kickstarter “curated” its projects, meaning not
all were approved to participate. Projects that did launch had to be fully funded to receive any money, plus
Kickstarter took 5% of the money a person or organization raised on its website. Huge successes included a
combination cooler/ice crusher/speakers/USB charger (more than $13 million raised) and Reading Rainbow
interactive books and videos for children (more than $5 million raised).

Indiegogo

Launched in 2008 with a focus on funding independent films, Indiegogo did not restrict projects as
Kickstarter did; in fact, its website said, “Our platform is available to anyone, anywhere, to raise money for
anything.” Indiegogo was one of the first crowdfunding sites and remained one of the most popular and well-
funded. The company closed a $40 million Series B funding round in January 2014. Its success fee was a
competitive 4%, 1% lower than many in the industry; however, it charged 9% if you failed to meet your goal.

Crowdfunder

Crowdfunder offered both donation-based and investment crowdfunding models. Some projects
attracted angel investors and venture capitalists, who could register as accredited investors on the site and
make equity financing deals. Crowdfunder was also known for encouraging creativity in both online and
offline collaboration.

RocketHub

With roots in the arts, RocketHub also represented business, social entrepreneurship, science, and
education. In addition to offering a platform for fundraising, RocketHub offered a Success School for
entrepreneurs to support project owners with services such as marketing training.

1 http://www.forbes.com/sites/caroltice/2014/10/20/the-myth-of-magical-crowdfunding-and-what-actually-works;

http://www.crowdfunding.com; http://www.forbes.com/sites/chancebarnett/2014/08/29/crowdfunding-sites-in-2014/2;
http://www.forbes.com/sites/katetaylor/2013/08/06/6-top-crowdfunding-websites-which-one-is-right-for-your-project/2;
http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/228534; https://www.wrike.com/blog/26-top-crowdfunding-sites-by-niche (accessed Mar. 26, 2015).
Page 13 UVA-M-0880

Exhibit 3 (continued)

GoFundMe

GoFundMe was for personal fundraisers. It charged a 5% fee and had few restrictions about the type of
project that could be funded. The money raised could be used for a family member who needed medical
treatment or a friend who needed to repair his home. It could also fund a person’s vacation.

Quirky

This crowdfunding platform was rewards based and encouraged collaboration and idea generation.
Quirky was most commonly used as a tool for visitors to preorder products. Inventors posted an idea and
asked for capital to have it produced. If enough people ordered the product for it to be developed, the
product became the reward.
Page 14 UVA-M-0880

Exhibit 4
MilkMade Ice Cream:
Running A Successful Crowdfunding Campaign
Lickstarter Rewards Plan

Reward Ship Total Max. KickS MM MM

Est. Ship Cost Cost Cost Avail Pledge Income Income Profit
$ Tier Tier Reward Date ($) ($) ($) . Target ($) ($) ($)
$1 Friends of MM Tumblr is rad − 0 0 0 × 50 50 46 46
$5 Friends of MM Thanks! Jan-14 0 0 0 × 25 125 115 115
$5 Friends of MM E-recipe Jan-14 0 0 0 50 50 250 230 230
$30 Friends of MM Tote Jan-14 2 2 4 0 20 600 552 472
$35 Friends of MM Pick up our Signature ’Screams Mar-14 15 0 15 100 100 3,500 3,220 1,720
$45 Friends of MM Foodie poster Feb-14 0 3.5 3.5 60 60 2,700 2,484 2,274
Ice-cream social: Take home our Signature ’Screams
$50 Friends of MM samplr pack Mar-14 20 0 20 100 100 5,000 4,600 2,600
$50 Friends of MM Lickstarter shirt Jan-14 10 2.95 12.95 100 100 5,000 4,600 3,305
$60 Friends of MM Cone shirt Jan-14 10 2.95 12.95 100 100 6,000 5,520 4,225
$100 Friends of MM Toasty Time shirt—S Feb-14 29 10 39 25 25 2,500 2,300 1,325
$100 Friends of MM Toasty Time shirt—M Feb-14 29 10 39 15 15 1,500 1,380 795
$100 Friends of MM Toasty Time shirt—L Feb-14 29 10 39 8 8 800 736 424
$100 MM members 2 pints Apr-14 15 40 55 50 50 5,000 4,600 1,850
$100 MM members GIFT: 2 pints Apr-14 15 40 55 50 50 5,000 4,600 1,850
$180 MM members 4 pints Apr-14 25 40 65 50 50 9,000 8,280 5,030
$180 MM members GIFT: 4 pints Apr-14 25 40 65 50 50 9,000 8,280 5,030
Name your dream Signature ’Scream, and we’ll craft
$500 Pint society it and send it right to your door Apr-14 15 40 55 5 5 2,500 2,300 2,025
A day with the Milkmaids: learn the craft of ice-
$1,000 Pint society cream from the ice-cream queens. Apr-14 100 0 100 5 5 5,000 4,600 4,100
$2,500 Pint society Custom flavor: party of 50 people Apr-14 400 400 4 4 10,000 9,200 7,600
$5,000 Pint society A day with the Milkmaids: we come to you. Apr-14 100 500 600 2 2 10,000 9,200 8,000
$0 No reward 0 0 0 × 0 − − −
819 83,525 76,843 52,970
Page 15 UVA-M-0880

Exhibit 4 (continued)

Lickstarter Rewards Actuals

MM Profit
KickS MM Before
Actual Add’l Income Income Rewards
$ Tier Tier Reward Pledge Pledge ($) ($) ($)
$1 Friends of MM Tumblr is rad 8 13 12 12
$5 Friends of MM Thanks! 40 337 310 310
$5 Friends of MM E-recipe 50 281 259 259
$30 Friends of MM Tote 62 1 1,925 1,771 1,461
$35 Friends of MM Pick up our Signature ’Screams 85 3,010 2,769 1,494
$45 Friends of MM Foodie poster 18 2 955 879 780
$50 Friends of MM Ice-cream social: Take home our Signature ’Screams samplr pack 51 3 2,875 2,645 1,472
$50 Friends of MM Lickstarter shirt 19 1,000 920 674
$60 Friends of MM Cone shirt 11 1,208 1,111 969
$100 Friends of MM Toasty Time shirt—S 7 845 777 504
$100 Friends of MM Toasty Time shirt—M 5 500 460 265
$100 Friends of MM Toasty Time shirt—L 7 850 782 509
$100 MM members 2 pints 50 5,255 4,835 2,085
$100 MM members GIFT: 2 pints 30 3,000 2,760 1,110
$180 MM members 4 pints 22 4,070 3,744 2,314
$180 MM members GIFT: 4 pints 6 1,815 1,670 1,280
$500 Pint society Name your dream Signature ’Scream, and we’ll craft it and send it right to your door 4 2,000 1,840 1,620
$1,000 Pint society A day with the Milkmaids: learn the craft of ice-cream from the ice-cream queens. 4 4,250 3,910 3,510
$2,500 Pint society Custom flavor: party of 50 people – – – –
$5,000 Pint society A day with the Milkmaids: we come to you – – – –
$0 No reward 53 12,870 11,840 11,840
532 47,059 43,294 32,468
Data source: MilkMade.
 Page 16 UVA-M-0880

Exhibit 5
MilkMade Ice Cream:
Running A Successful Crowdfunding Campaign
Lickstarter Funding Sources

MilkMade Personal Friends, Family, and Business Contacts 262 $32,681 69.45%
Members 41 $2,625 5.58%
Other 529 $11,754 24.98%
$47,060
Data source: MilkMade.

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