Take an AI generated movie set background, sprinkle in some bad photoshop of my head, and Voila! I’m a film director!

Why is a securities lawyer talking about making videos? Those who know me understand, but for those who are new to the world of Kendall Almerico, let me give you a tiny bit of background.

I’m been shooting and editing film (and later video) since I was a teenager. Not to date myself, but that means I was making Super 8 movies and cutting them with a razor and using tape to hold clips together. I remember when video cameras first came out and there was no way to edit them at home, so anything you shot had to be shot in order — no mulligans — to make a cohesive movie.

Go ahead, make dinosaur jokes.

I later worked in television and radio stations and I have an undergraduate degree in broadcasting. You used to have to pretty much work in broadcast related business to have access to video editing equipment. Now, anybody and everybody can shoot and edit quality video with the tiny device we all keep in our pockets (or our hands)  — but that doesn’t mean everyone can make a great video that tells a story and sells a product or company. That takes not just technical knowhow, but a certain set of skills that involves knowing how to communicate to the masses in a persuasive manner.

I’m not a professional videographer, but I know how to tell a story. I know how to communicate with investors through video. And I’m smart enough to know that a style of video that works for one company, does not necessarily work for every company.

There are some common elements in most successful equity crowdfunding videos, and this article will talk about those elements, and give you some real world examples of videos that I have used personally with clients to successfully to raise significant capital in the equity crowdfunding space.

Get Attention Quickly

You only have a few seconds to grab a viewer’s attention and to keep it. Many experts (people who write things on the internet are always “experts” so you know they’re telling the truth!) say that if you don’t grab a viewer’s attention in the first 10 seconds of an online video, you will lose that viewer. It’s true. People have short attention spans — especially when watching video online. So you need to grab people’s attention right away. I’m not sure 10 seconds is really a make or break point, but you definitely need to do something at the beginning of the video to keep people engaged.

If they stop watching your video after 10 seconds, there is a very strong chance they are not going to invest in your company. So don’t start off your video with something boring. Things like a great visual, an exciting phrase or a famous face will hold attention. Do what works for your company, but do it right away at the beginning of your video.

And I know all of this because I’m an expert!

Here is an example from my client, international craft brewing sensation BrewDog. More about them later (and the full video this screenshot came from), but when they launched their first successful Reg A offering a few years ago, the first thing you saw on their equity crowdfunding video was this:

You may not have known that BrewDog called their equity crowdfunding offerings “Equity for Punks.” You may know anything about them. But you see a vibrant Times Square backdrop and some attention grabbing words: Propaganda Outreach. If you stopped watching after seeing this, you were never the kind of person who was going to invest in their company anyway.

Don’t Go Too Long

A lot of “experts” will tell you that your video should be under 2 minutes. Some will tell you under 90 seconds. While this would be ideal given the short attention spans of your typical TicTok viewer, it’s not really accurate when it comes to equity crowdfunding videos. The reality is, most companies will not be able to effectively introduce their company, explain an investment opportunity and convince strangers to invest in 90 seconds. The random time limitations people impose also contradict the reality that if you make a 60 minute compelling and interesting video, people will watch it for 60 minutes. Hell, every major motion picture made is 90 minutes minimum, and a great film leaves you on the edge of your seat not leaving, but instead wanting more.

This goes back to my story telling comment earlier in the article. If you can tell the complete story in 90 seconds, you should do so. But if it takes 3–5 minutes to do so, and you can do it in a very interesting and compelling way, 3–5 minutes is also okay. It all depends on what you are saying, who is saying it, how it is being said, and if you have a creative team who knows how to keep the subject matter interesting.

I’m going to use three examples of videos made by equity crowdfunding clients of mine to launch their online offerings – one of which is still ongoing as this is published. All three were very successful, and collectively these three offerings raised millions of dollars from thousands of investors. The lengths of the three videos are 2:07, 2:38 and 5:15! When you see each of these videos below, I doubt you will be looking at your watch and wondering why they are longer than 90 seconds. They are compelling, attention grabbing and interesting. But if you are going to use a 5 minute video, you better make sure it’s not boring or repetitive. Show it to a few people when it’s done but before you launch it. If you hear “That was too long” and — believe me, people will tell you if it’s too long — then edit it down and make it tighter.

Get People Excited About Your Company As Quickly As Possible

Remember, you are not making The Godfather or Citizen Kane.

You’re making a commercial for your company. You’re not trying to sell tickets to a movie theatre. You’re trying to sell investments in your company. This is not time for Quentin Tarantino film techniques with a timeline where you have to watch half a movie that seems chronologically challenged then it all ties together at the end (with lots of blood and cursing). You’re making an ad. It needs to grab people quickly. I needs to get people excited about your company quickly. It needs to get people thinking “I’ll watch the rest of this, I’m interested in investing in this company!”

So don’t wait until 30 seconds into a 2 minute video to explain what your company does. Tell the viewer right away. Let them know why your company is special — right away. Use visuals — this is video after all — do not have a talking head spending 30 seconds explaining something that one picture or 5 seconds of video can explain immediately!

Real People Get Real Results

Not every great equity crowdfunding video has someone central to the company in it. But most do. And there is a reason why.

Lots of people bet on the jockey, not on the horse.

Most companies using equity crowdfunding, whether it is Reg A or Reg CF, are at a relatively early stage. Apple is not using equity crowdfunding. Apple can do a video, use its famous logo, throw up great imagery and sounds — and sell you its products — because its Apple! You already know who they are and what they do.

Most companies using equity crowdfunding are not particularly well-known. You have to explain to people what you do, and who you are. And having a face that is integral to the company to do the explaining is usually the right call. Look, I’ll be the first to admit if the founders of a company do not look good or do not sound great on video, this concept gets thrown out the window. But most founders believe in their company, know more about the company than anyone else, and speak with passion about their company and that belief, knowledge and passion come through in a well-made video.

Here’s an example from a Reg A video for my client Armed Forces Brewing Company who sold out their first Reg A offering. They are now on their second Reg A offering which you can read about here: www.OwnArmedForcesBrewingCo.com Their entire launch video is below, but this is the first frame of the video from their initial Reg A offering:

That guy is Robert J. O’Neill, a highly decorated retired Navy SEAL who also just happens to be the guy who shot and killed Osama Bin Laden. He is one of many veterans who own this military tribute brewery. While many people recognize him, not everyone does, so the first words out of his mouth are “I’m Robert J. O’Neill, former Navy SEAL Team 6 operator, and I shot a famous guy.” Even if you didn’t hear the audio, you have seen (a) the company’s logo and branding, (b) American flags and (c) guns and ammo. If this kind of imagery is not appealing to a viewer, that viewer is not likely to invest in Armed Forces Brewing Company. But for people who are fans of the U.S. military and veterans, this opening shot and tiny bit of dialogue have sucked you in and kept you watching. This is what the beginning of an effective video needs to do.

Remember the graphic that started the BrewDog video I showed you earlier — the one that said Equity For Punks: Propaganda Outreach? Right after that graphic, the video cuts to BrewDog’s founders. 

They are shot from a very low angle and they have NYC lights behind them. It’s visually strange, but grabs your attention. And it fits their company. Here are your founders — this is who we are! And when you see the full video a little further down in this article, you will hear the passion in their voices as they tell you how excited they are to bring their global success to America!

Problem and Solution

There is a widely held belief that every pitch deck, every video and every other thing done to attract investors must identify a problem, then explain why this company has the magical solution!

I’m not one to argue with things that work, and I agree that this makes sense in many cases — particularly when you have a new product or service that people may not understand. If you have to explain that a problem exists because people do not inherently know about it, then a “problem and solution” section of your video is probably a good idea. In fact, you may want to lead with it.

But if your company is entering a flourishing and crowded market that already exists, forcing a “problem and solution” into a video may just be a waste of time. Leave it in your deck or on your offering page. For example, my client BrewDog is a craft brewery behemoth that is a true unicorn — with an enterprise valuation of more than $1B. They have successfully run many equity crowdfunding offerings around the world, and have raised hundreds of millions of dollars from hundreds of thousands of crowdfunding investors worldwide. When they used Reg A to fund their first U.S. brewery, they were already a successful and profitable brand all over Europe, but had almost no footprint or visibility in America. They simply believed that they had a better product, a better approach and better everything than craft brewers in America.

There wasn’t a “problem” with the craft brewing industry in the U.S. they were trying to take their share of. They didn’t offer a “solution” to a problem. They just needed to educate people about who they were, what they bring to the table and their overseas success. So their crowdfunding launch video (click on the photo below to watch the video) did not have (or need) a “problem and solution” section.

This video launched one of the first Reg A offerings in the U.S. and drove thousands of people who had never heard of BrewDog to invest millions in the company to launch their U.S. operations. One of the reasons I love this video so much is that it really sends a message about what BrewDog is all about. You see the two founders and you know their personalities right away (bet on the jockey not the horse). It is high energy and you hear about their success overseas (get people excited as soon as possible). It is professional looking and has great video and sound (see below for good video and sound). It asks for an investment (see below for don’t forget the ask). You see that they like to “stick it to the man” by dropping “fat cats” all over Wall Street. While this approach may not appeal to everyone, and probably not to many traditional stock market investors at the time, it was an incredibly effective video to introduce a company to a new market for that company, and it worked.

What I like about it most is that I made an Alfred Hitchcockian cameo in the video. Yes, that’s me — the extremely handsome movie star everyone is staring at before he is unceremoniously smacked down by a parachuting fat cat. If there were credits in the video, I would have been listed as “Dude in suit on Wall Street pummeled by falling feline.”

Talk About Your Business — But Don’t Make It All About Numbers

In the world of public companies traded on NASDAQ or the NYSE, it’s all about the numbers. Revenues, profitability, PE ratios and a million other stats that analysts spew out to analyze how a company is performing. Public company management often spend more time worrying about their stock price than anything else. Numbers are important. But don’t make the mistake of thinking that most Reg A or Reg CF offerings should be treated anything like public companies when it comes to talking about business numbers in an equity crowdfunding video.

Hit a few main numbers and statistics in your video, but if you include more than 2–3, you are going to lose your audience. Watching a crowdfunding video is nothing like watching a stock market analyst talking about a publicly traded company on CNBC. If your video drones on and on about numbers and stats, I can assure you many people will stop paying attention. It’s hard to entertain and keep people engaged when you are droning on and on about one number after another.

If you are going to use numbers and stats, consider adding graphics to illustrate. There is a reason people say a picture is worth a thousand words. People will remember a graphic with a number at a far greater percentage that a number than is merely spoken. For example, take a look at this video from another client of mine that recently completed a successful Reg CF offering, Wunderground Coffee.

Look at how Wunderground’s Reg CF video illustrated a key number/stat to show their growth.

This is one of my favorite crowdfunding videos because (a) it worked (b) it told a lot of important stories about the company in a short time (c) it showed off the amaxing founder Jody Hall and her team of very successful entrepreneurs with multiple exits and a history with an industry giant (d) explained why mushroom coffee is delicious and healthy and a new growing industry and (e) had lots and lots of “food porn” shots of their amazing coffee.

Don’t Forget “The Ask”

Crowdfunding Video 101 — Ask your viewers to invest. Ask more than once if you want. Definitely ask at the very end — in the perfect world a viewer of the video watches the video then goes straight to the INVEST button on the same webpage and pulls the trigger. Reminding the viewer of this is important and a necessity for any equity crowdfunding video.

Don’t be subtle. Ask for an investment. Ask for money. I’ve had clients try to be clever and not want to mention their video is about getting people to invest. This misguided desire to be subtle and not ask directly for an investment reminds me of how some people run ads for an equity crowdfunding offering. They run an ad about something sexy, something interesting, something to drive a click on the ad — but never mention the ad is driving the person who click to an investment opportunity. This is almost always a mistake, and gets a click from someone who then finds out they are being asked to invest. People do not like being deceived. It’s a waste of ad money driving clicks from people who then get surprised, and not in a good way, that you are asking them for money to grow your company. If you are running ads and not telling people you are seeking an investment, you’re wasting your money and their time. Same thing with your video. If you suck them in, keep them excited and never tell them you are asking them to invest, you just wasted an opportunity.

Last, But Not Least — Good Sound and Video Quality Matter

Don’t get me wrong — you do not have to get Martin Scorsese to direct your equity crowdfunding video or use a Hollywood crew of 50 people to shoot a 2 minute video. I’ve seen great equity crowdfunding video that were shot on an iPhone and edited in iMovie. But even those paid attention to two important details: great video and good sound quality.

Great video means having good lighting and keeping everything in focus. Good sound quality usually means having an external microphone especially if you are using an iPhone. Nothing is` more unprofessional than a poorly lit video where the person talking isn’t using a mic, and it sounds like they are in a tin can or the Lincoln Tunnel.

The point is you are asking people to invest in your company. People want to invest in a company that will be successful. If you can’t invest a few bucks to make a great video when it is often the first and only impression a potential investor will have of your company, then you’re not projecting success to the audience that matters. If people think you can’t even make a decent video that looks and sounds good, why should they trust you with a much more difficult task of building and growing an entire company?

A few final words…

There is no cookie cutter, one-size-fits-all approach to an equity crowdfunding video. In fact, one video used to launch a Reg A offering that sold out and was oversubscribed, pretty much broke most of the rules above. Watch this equity crowdfunding launch video for Armed Forces Brewing Company  —  a military tribute brewery that pledges to employ 70% if their national workforce from veterans and their family members. The video is funny, silly, goofy and a parody of a lot of things. Some people loved it and shared it and it was seen by a huge number of people, Some people didn’t like it at all because it was too campy, but they remembered it. It features a famous person — retired Navy SEAL Robert J. O’Neill who shot and killed Osama Bin Laden, playing an over-the-top cartoon version of himself shooting and blowing things up.

Humor in an equity crowdfunding video is a big risk, and although this one paid off, it’s not always easy to do the right way. Armed Forces Brewing Company had a strategy from the beginning that they were going to market their company using humor and it worked for them at the beginning, and still works today as they are in a second Reg A offering as I publish this. Watch another of their promotional videos used during their Reg A offering.

Again, they break all the video rules, but it worked for Armed Forces Brewing Company. They oversubscribed their first Reg A offering and are on their way to doing the same in their second Reg A offering.

The point here is that every company is different and your equity crowdfunding video should reflect your company’s ethos, mission and character. Compare the BrewDog video above to the Wunderground video above. Two very effective videos, but completely different style, tone, and direction.

One thing I cannot overemphasize — get help from professionals when you create your equity crowdfunding video. The professionals may be your marketing team, your social media team, outside videographers or others. But this is an area where guidance, both technical (video, audio, music, graphics) and in the overall writing and presentation is invaluable.

Your equity crowdfunding video can make or break your Reg A or Reg CF offering. Don’t make the mistake of glossing over this incredibly important part of a successful online capital raise.

This article is not and should not be considered legal advice. Yes, I am a securities lawyer but no, you did not hire me to provide you with legal advice. In all cases, consult with your own lawyer as every legal situation is unique and do not rely on my educational and informative article as legal advice.