Tangled Crowd
by January 20, 2014 12:00 am 59 views
It pays to have friends. Just ask J.T. Wampler, owner and brew master at Tanglewood Branch Beer Co. in south Fayetteville.
Facing closure earlier this year due to mounting bills for rent, utilities and taxes, Tanglewood took its cause to Crowdtilt, a major online network for group fundraising.
In just two weeks, Wampler secured enough donations to pay off his creditors and keep the pub open. The final tally had 113 people giving a total of $21,205 to save the bar known for its homebrews and bacon baskets.
But for a while there, Wampler may have thought all was lost. On Jan. 5, a day before the fundraiser was set to end, a message appeared on the pub’s Facebook page asking patrons to come down “one last time” for a beer.
But by the next day, after the fundraising goal had been met, the message was much different.
“Your show of support is overwhelming,” was the Facebook post. “We are going to move forward with a renewed focus on our beer.”
Wampler’s successful foray into the world of online crowdfunding is a great local example of a global phenomenon. An article published by Reuters last year estimated that, worldwide in 2013, crowdfunding websites raised about $2.7 billion for a wide variety of financing, from wedding gifts and vacations to nonprofits and startups.
This year, industry experts expect crowdfunding to exceed $5 billion, and the majority of that in the United States, according to the Reuters article.
In Wampler’s case, when he went public with his fundraising campaign he also invited public comment. While the overall response was positive, there were those who said he needed to call it a day and still others who took the chance to rehash old beefs they had with Wampler and his staff.
All of this played out in the comment section of the Fayetteville Flyer website and through references to prior posts to online review sites Yelp and Urban Spoon.
We’re sure that by the end of it all, Wampler needed a drink. Thanks to his friends and Crowdtilt, all he had to do was pull one of the taps at his pub.