If you have any questions about Fund101 – you should hopefully find the answers here, but if not please drop us a line at: fund101@enterprisenation.com.
Q:What is Fund101?
A: Fund101 is a simple way to access finance for your start up idea or small business. Backed by PayPal and Intuit we’re able to provide non-refundable grants to anyone with a great business idea who can get enough votes from friends, family and the Enterprise Nation community. It’s simple – you can apply for between £50 and £500 and all you need to do is get enough votes to match the amount of money you need – so if you need £50 you’ll need 50 votes – it’s as easy as that!
Q: What do I need to be able to apply?
A: All you need is a great idea for a business or a great idea for something that will help your existing business. Simply fill out the application form with a few details about you and your business and explain why you would like the funding and that’s all you need to do (apart of course from getting lots of people to vote for you!). Our site editor has provided some hints about how to write a good profile and get votes.
Q: How easy is it for people to vote for me?
A: VERY! All you need to do is to point them at the website and ask them to vote for you. They’ll need to login or quickly sign up with Enterprise Nation and then they’ll be able to vote for you – and any other applications they like the look of!
Q:What happens after I submit my application and how long will it be before my application goes live on the website?
A: Once you apply we’ll review the application and and as long as it’s all fine we’ll publish it on the site as soon as we can. Then it’s over to you to start promoting your idea and getting lots of votes. We try and put applications live as quickly as possible, but if we’ve got lots of great ideas to read through it may take a week or so to appear on the site – so don’t be alarmed if it does take a bit of time! We do reserve the right not to publish any applications that we don’t think are right, but we will try and let you know what the problems are in any application we don’t think can go on the site.
Q: How can I add an image to my application?
A: Upload a photo via your profile page (using the link right at the top of the site).
Q: What happens when I hit my target number of votes?
A: When you hit your target we’ll get in touch to let you know and to arrange the payment into your PayPal account. It may take up to 20 working days for the funds to be transferred to your PayPal account.
Q: I’ve heard there’s a monthly limit of £5,000 to be paid out via Fund101. What happens when the month’s money has been paid out? Do I keep my votes?
A: When we reach the monthly target of £5,000, we’ll stop any new applications for that month and stop and switch off the voting system until the start of the next month. But you’ll keep the votes you’ve earned so far!
Q: Do I have to get a certain number of votes to stay in the Fund?
A: Yes. We ask only that you average one vote a day during each month of funding from the time you submitted your application – so that would mean getting 29 votes in February and 31 in March, for example. If your application goes up mid-month, dont worry! We’ll count it from the day you went into the Fund. The reason for this is to ensure that all the applicants in the Fund continue to be engaged with the process of earning votes and they’re not blocking an opportunity for someone else who’s waiting to get their application entered into the Fund. If you don’t meet the monthly ‘target’, we’ll take your application out of the Fund; however, you are free to reapply to the Fund. Past recipients of money from Fund101 have gone to a lot of effort to get supporters of their business to vote for them. We’ll review this policy as the Fund continues.
Q: Can I change the amount of money I’ve asked for after my application has gone into the Fund?
A: No. that would make it too easy for businesses who aren’t getting as many votes as they hoped to simply reduce the amount of money they’ve requested to match the number of votes they already have. Please think carefully about how much money you apply for before you receive your application, and be realistic about the number of votes you think you can earn.
Q: Can I make comments on or ask questions about other people’s applications?
A: Absolutely. Please use the comments form on the application page to post a message. We do check these before they go on the site though so if we have lots of comments it can take a while to check them all.
Q: Can I vote for other applicants and ask them to vote for me in return?
A: Please feel free to vote for any applications that you think are deserving of money from Fund101. However, we ask that you don’t solicit votes from other applicants. What we’ve found is that a number of applicants cut and paste the same comment into every other applicants’ comments box saying they’ve voted for them and expecting a vote in return.
Apart from being an insincere way to earn votes, it means that we have to deal with (literally) tens of thousands of ‘spam’ comments on the site that drown out the well-meaning messages of support from friends, family and customers. We also think it’s against the spirit of what we’re doing – one of the points of Fund101 is to encourage small businesses to raise awareness of what they’re doing among their customers and other supporters and so to increase their commercial profile. If the only thing applicants have to do to earn their funding is to vote for each other, then there’s actually very little gain for them – and it makes the process too easy! We are giving away free money, after all.
Q: Is there anything else I need to know?
A: Take a look at the terms and conditions for all the fiddly small print stuff.
Q: What if I still have more questions?
A: Post a question in our Fund 101 support forum and we’ll try and get back to you as soon as we can.