The Prologue: Founding Believers

The early launch was where I invited my college friends to play (Faris, Irfan, and Adit). Apparently, their reaction was really good and positive. I also felt the fun and thrill that I couldn’t experience if I play alone. I also shared the game to my University’s unofficial (of course) meme account (@dramatelyu). So many people tried it, but it was a disaster: a bug made the game completely unplayable. I felt so bad because the first impression of so many people had gone bad. I fixed it on the same day. After it was fixed, there were still several people who came to play (decreased drastically though) and I accompanied them to play. And again, their reaction was positive. And after that, I was really confident and ready to fight for this game.

I tried to make a TikTok and Instagram account and posted some posts there. The first posts didn’t give good engagement, but then one of TikTok posts got thousands of views and likes, and a lot of players started flooding in. But I think I was just lucky, because after that not any single post went viral again. And the flood was temporary, it slowly decreased. Anyway, it produced a lot of stories and game sessions, which then gave a lot of feedback. From there, I began improving CrowdTales according to users feedback.

I began to realize that I need a partner to develop CrowdTales further. There is a saying, “if you want to go fast, do it alone. But if you want to go far, do it together” and I lively proofed that. I felt I couldn’t do anything anymore by myself only, I’ve done everything I could and it’s as far as I could. I felt reaching an end of a tunnel (and no way out lol). So I started to recruit a partner. But because I was still in college and got no job, I didn’t pay them with money. We made an agreement that I will pay them with stock shares after some time and if I got a profit I’ll share them in some percentage. However, that schema didn’t last long. I was still learning leadership back then, and I wasn’t firm and I loosen the rules too much. It made the progress stagnant and slow. I felt I couldn’t push them much because I didn’t even pay them and there was no profit at all, so I ended it.

I tried to recruit someone again, also with similar agreement, and as you might already guessed, it failed again. I have tried to be more firm, but again I think my partner didn’t have real, instant motivation that can push them.

In the early 2024, I got a job, and could make some money. In the mid year, I decided to recruit someone again, and I have a thought: this time I will pay them!! However, I couldn’t pay them much. It was low because I also couldn’t afford much (it was my first job with low salary). But I also put some similar agreement like before: stock shares and profit share. I thought it will be enough motivation for them. But apparently, it’s not enough. I failed again. I realized the schema I gave to my partners were not ideal. Agreements like that will likely work if the founders start together. In my case, I started it first and own everything from the start, then welcoming other founders. It made me feel too anxious to give shares to others. And my partners didn’t really feel owning the company nor having determination to work hard and sacrifice (no instant profit). Hence, I decided to never do similar way again. I wanted to get an investor, but with years of developing and fighting for it, I already feel of CrowdTales as my own child. I don’t really like to share it with someone else. Hence here I am, opening a funding campaign.

Some of you might ask why I don’t start funding campaign on Kickstarter or Indiegogo. The answer is they don’t allow me to. I’m Indonesian and apparently Indonesian can’t start a campaign on both of them. I need overseas Bank or registered overseas company. Hence, my final thought is to create an independent funding.