Case study: Bristol-based Temple Cycles talk about their equity crowdfunding success!

Bristol-based Temple Cycles came to us in November 2016 with a mission to raise investment to expand their already successful brand and bring back bicycle manufacturing to Britain. As a Bristol-based company ourselves, working with Temple Cycles was a particularly exciting project for us. It helped that the team at Temple Cycles are pretty cool too! They joined our Crowd10 programme back in December 2016 and launched on Crowdcube in late February, exceeding their £150k target in a matter of days.

In the months leading up to their campaign, Temple worked hard on a solid business plan and engaging their own network, educating them as to the opportunity which lay ahead. This meant that the majority of their funding came from their own crowd, a truly great achievement and one that captures the quality of their brand and the loyalty of their customers.

We took the opportunity to have a chat with Matt Mears from Temple Cycles after their raise and here is what they had to say:

ISQ: What does it mean to you to have funded so quickly from your own network? 

Temple Cycles (TC): It’s a fantastic feeling to know that we have plenty of support for what we do from our own customer base. We have spent a long time refining our business, products and service and the backing we have just received from so many of our customers really motivates us to keep on progressing.

ISQ: What has been the biggest learning for you and your team in the lead up to the campaign? 

TC: We always knew that it would be time-consuming. We started working on the campaign back in November and didn’t launch until mid-February. Throughout this time there were highs and lows, times when we were unsure, times when we were confident, but we stuck to our plan and it seemed to pay off! Initially, we thought that it might take 3/4 days a week of work, but in fact, it ended up being a full-time job for Matt. Luckily, Alex and James were more than able to keep the business running alongside.

We also knew that despite having a really engaged customer base, we would need to line up several larger investors. We spent a lot of time on our Business Plan and presented it well. It covered all aspects of the business and clearly illustrated the potential for Temple Cycles and the trajectory we are on. This was key to us securing the larger investments.

ISQ: What does the future look like for Temple Cycles and your new investors? 

TC: The future is looking very promising, we investment we raised will open up so many possibilities to develop the business. We’re going to initiate our first official marketing campaign and all have lots of projects to start in relation to product development.

ISQ: Will you likely give the crowd another opportunity to invest in Temple Cycles? 

TC: We will see how it goes. We think we can achieve a lot with the investment we raised, however, we understand that it might be sensible to raise another round in the future.

ISQ: What’s your top tip for others who are considering crowdfunding? 

TC: Really focus on engaging with your existing network. All the hard work you have put in over the years, offering the best service you can to your customers will pay off, as they will want to invest in you. Second to that, you need to have a really tight and visually appealing Business Plan. We spent months refining our Business Plan document and it paid off.

Thanks, Matt!

You can view the closed Temple Cycles campaign HERE and register your interest in investing, should they raise again in the future.