Introducing Charlotte Leuw and her startup MyCarGossip.

Charlotte is a regular TableCrowd diner and we’re always excited to see her to catch up on what she’s been doing. Last time we saw her, she was at our “Tales from the Trenches” dinner with after-dinner speaker, Sokratis Papafloratus, where she told us about her crowdfunding campaign on Seedrs – and we wanted to find out more!

What’s the elevator pitch for your startup?

MyCarGossip is a motoring website primarily for female drivers where they can rate, review and recommend all types of motoring businesses as to how reliable and trustworthy they are. There are over 16 million female drivers in the UK and the problem that we are solving is to stop women from feeling over charged when it comes to their cars and to give them enough confidence and knowledge to know that they are paying the correct prices.

We are already working with branches of BMW/MINI, Volkswagen, Toyota, Suzuki, Ford, Alfa Romeo and more. We make our money by selling extended profiles, sponsored guest blogs and advertising space. In April 2014 we will be also selling car related products through our website.

Tell us about the campaign. How much are you raising and what will you be using it for?

2 weeks ago we launched our crowd-funding campaign through Seedrs which is an equity based platform. We are looking to raise £30,000 and we are offering 7.5% of the equity. We will be using the funds to hire a full time sales person and also to raise awareness of our company through PR and Marketing.

What’s it like to crowd fund, are you enjoying it?

I am really enjoying crowd funding, it is great to get the public involved in the campaign and to know that they are investing because they believe in what I am doing. It is definitely a roller coaster ride and I am learning a lot.

Is this your first experience of fundraising? What are the key learnings so far?

This is my first time fundraising and I have learnt how important it is to have a network of supporters who are able to invest the first 20/30% of your campaign. Without a network of supporters to create momentum I think it would be harder to raise the money. I believe that investors are more likely to back the campaign if they can see that your friends and family also believe in what you are doing.

How are you promoting your campaign?

I am promoting the campaign on Twitter, Linkedin and Facebook as they all have different audiences. I created a press release which has been picked up by two very well-known newspapers which I will be featured in over the next two weeks. I am also just about to start working PR company called CatchLondon who are going to help me for the remainder of the campaign.  

Convince someone to invest in under 50 words.

You should invest in MyCarGossip because in the UK we have no major competitor. This means we will be able to establish ourselves as the undisputed market leader in the female automotive sector providing trusted motoring product and service advice.

You can check out Charlotte’s campaign here, she is already half way towards raising her target with plenty of time left on the clock. The investment qualifies for SEIS, so get your wallets and purses out and give her some support!

You can meet Charlotte at our dinner on 7th April. She’s joining our dinner with Tom Maddocks, who’ll be talking to us about how to get press interested in your startup. You’ll know him from his former role as reporter on BBC2’s ‘Money Program’. There are still a few seats left, so you can join that dinner here.