Success Factors in Reward based and Equity based Crowdfunding in Finland

Master’s Thesis 
66 
When asked about suitable durations for crowdfunding projects, Pyynikin 
Käsityöläispanimo, EkoRent and Autolla Nepaliin advocated short durations as opti-
mal. Pere from Pyynikin Käsityöläispanimo stated that after three crowdfunding pro-
jects, he has come to realize shorter durations are better due to their efficiency. Su-
ojanen from EkoRent also said shorter durations are more suitable, because “the audi-
ence grows tired of news and marketing”. This supports research by Frydrych et al. 
(2014) claiming longer durations might expose the project’s narrative to questioning, 
and thus result in loss of support. Leppänen from Autolla Nepaliin went on to say that 
in an online setting, people read messages in real time, so longer durations are not 
needed for spreading word. Additionally, he felt that having project implementation 
“on hold” during the crowdfunding project, makes it difficult for entrepreneurs to 
have long durations. All these findings are in accordance with
Ward and Ramachan-
dran (2010), stating initiatives go out of favor unless momentum is maintained. 
In addition to the duration of the campaign, the timing of funding activities is also 
important to its success. The role of early funders has been found to be very important 
to the success of crowdfunding projects. This is because word of mouth and herding 
behavior drive other funders to support the project as well. (Buttle, 1998, Huang and 
Chen, 2006) Ambronite’s campaign followed this pattern quite precisely. After a lot 
of preparation, the team launched the campaign and reached their minimum target 
within a week. Early funders contributed to the initiative immediately and others fol-
lowed their example, resulting in Ambronite attracting double their target amount of 
funding. Other interviewed projects followed a U-curve in terms of attracting funding. 
Autolla Nepaliin project “had a spike in funding in the beginning and later reaching 
the target seemed difficult”. Nevertheless, Autolla Nepaliin reached its target and ac-
cording to Leppänen “when it seemed it was going to reach the target, a new large 
mass of people contributed to the project”. EkoRent’s project also followed the U-
curve and “70-80% of funding was attracted in the beginning and the end peaks of the 
project”. Pyynikin Käsityöläispanimo’s second campaign took about a year to reach 
its target. It gained funding in the beginning but failed to reach its target, and after 
deciding to prolong its duration the project reached its target within a few weeks. The 
entrepreneurs, whose projects followed the U-curve of funding activity also claimed 

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