In brief

Tipjar® is an award-winning cashless tipping platform that allows individuals and teams to receive cashless tips directly from customers, then distribute them transparently and fairly amongst a team.

They closed their first crowdfunding raise of £300,00 on Crowdcube in August 2020.  Post-raise,  the business was looking for a way to strengthen their communications with their investors and chose Guild to host their private investor community.

We spoke to Angelique Carney, Marketing Manager at Tipjar about her experience of creating an investor community on Guild:

Why was creating an investor community important to you?

"Crowdfunding is an incredible opportunity to create brand advocates, and we wanted a way to grow that relationship by doing more than giving them simple updates on progress - by creating an investor community.

It's really important to us that we're able to have direct instant conversations with people who support and invest in our business. We want these conversations to feel transparent, personal and simple - as that's part of our brand identity."

How have you been using Guild so far?

"It's still early days in our community journey but Guild has proved invaluable in opening up communications with investors.

We get a lot of questions by direct message as well as investors opening up their own lines of communication on the forum.

It's been an interesting way to manage concerns - as more competitors pop up in the tipping world there is understandably some consternation amongst our investors which we are able to manage quickly by communicating across the investor group, but with the ability to answer individual questions.

It's much more efficient having a place to share those answers rather than having to manage lots of individual enquiries."

Tipjar's investor community on Guild is invaluable in opening up communications with investors
Tipjar's investor community on Guild is invaluable in opening up communications with investors

 

Have there been any challenges in developing the community so far?

"We are a small business with a very small team, and post funding round we've been exceptionally busy and growing quickly.

It's great because it means we have lots of news, but we haven always got the time to plan our communications and develop our community engagement strategy.

We still have lots to learn about how best to integrate the community proposition into the investment journey, but it's an exciting opportunity to do business differently and we believe there's a long-term upside to this approach that feels worthwhile."

What are your community KPIs and plans for the future?

"One of the key measures of success for us is whether the community allows us to raise subsequent funding more rapidly,  so we're looking forward to seeing the impact.

Over time we would like to use Guild to open up channels of communication even further, giving investors a direct route to senior management, allowing input into product development,  and supporting the community to become active advocates through events and promotions.

It's also an opportunity to put investors directly in touch with the people using the product so they can see the impact and benefits for real businesses."

Thanks to Angelique, the Tipjar team and their investors.

Photo by Camille Chen on Unsplash


More customer success stories

See why Guild has been selected as the platform of choice to host The Marketing Society's prestigious global marketing community

Discover how the PRCA is powering the global communications sector with Guild groups

Learn how child literacy charity Bookmark co-ordinates its 350+ volunteers with c community on Guild

Explore how Digiconf created a B2B digital marketing event community in minutes

See how the NEU supports education staff delivering remote education to students during lockdown using a Guild community as a resource hub


Join Guild 🤝

See for yourself how the Guild experience is different to WhatsApp, Slack, LinkedIn or Facebook Groups. Guild is a safe space to connect, communicate and collaborate with others.

Join us on a platform that is purpose-built for professionals and businesses.

Contact us if you want to know more or have any questions.