community and crowdfunding meet for pozible’s sydney edit

This week, crowdfunding platform Pozible is getting back to its roots with the launch of The Sydney Edit – a hyper-local online initiative that aims to put Sydney creatives on the map. The Sydney Edit is a space within the main Pozible website, which will provide a more direct point of contact between audiences and projects.

Usually, Sydneysiders would have to scour the Pozible site for items of interest, with the city’s projects only gaining particular attention on the worldwide site when featured. The Sydney Edit, however, will show just that city’s ventures, particularly noting any trending or featured projects in the area.

But it’s not only locals that can access the Sydney Edit space, says Pozible co-founder and director, Alan Crabbe. The organisation is excited about ‘showcasing a side of Australia’s largest city that most of us don’t get to see’ to a global audience.

Alan formed Pozible in Sydney with colleague Rick Chen. When the company moved to Melbourne to further its business, more projects began to develop in the Victorian capital. Much to the disdain of Sydney residents, Melbourne became a benchmark for campaign initiatives. Alan says The Sydney Edit is a way for the organisation to give back to the city that gave it its start.

‘We want more creativity, more projects in the city.’

Over the weekend, Pozible took to Vivid Ideas with its event Stand Up, Stand Out to spruik the Edit and its leading projects’ possibilities. It’s another homecoming, Alan says of the launch at Vivid, as five years ago he and Crabbe were invited to discuss the capabilities of crowd sourced funding.

‘Crowdfunding is as advanced in Australia as it is anywhere else in the world,’ Alan says of how the platform has developed since.

Stand Up, Stand Out is just one of the events the Sydney Edit will use to celebrate Sydney. Others include Pozible Happy Hour this Friday 6 June, plus food and drink tastings in honour of Pozible’s foodie projects and one whole week of the Sydney Residency crowdfunding workshops later this month.

Alan says it’s important to invest into the community with such events, as ‘the success rate [of a project] is dependent on the community’.

‘We are more hands-on and community minded. We want to highlight that were not just a crowd-funding platform, we’re more involved with our local communities.’

Alan says these events aren’t just to showcase the city, its culture and local projects, but to say thank you to its ambassadors and its valuable partners, like Lip^*.

As an independent magazine with very little in the way of actual funding, Lip knows the importance of supporting good projects, whether it’s art, music, graphic design, cinema — you name it. Your favourite Aussie feminist magazine has even had two successful campaigns with Pozible, which helped us fund the print costs of issues 21 and 23!

The aim of the Edit’s game is to get local government, philanthropists, bigger business and other noteworthy backers to pay attention to innovators in their town. The City of Sydney will later this month announce a new community grant that will see crowdfunded project cash matched. Alan said this emphasises that crowdfunding is no longer an alternative to traditional business models.

‘Crowdfunding should be more complimentary of traditional funding,’ Alan muses, saying it should be willingly integrated into the industry.

Depending on the outcome of the Sydney Edit, the hyper-local platform may be expanded across Australia.

‘If it works real well, [we’ll figure out] how we’ll roll it out to other cities.’

^*The Sydney Edit will showcase a variety of projects, including the Same Sex Dancing competition and the Sydney Underground Film Festival, both of which Lip is proudly supporting. Head on over to our Pozible Collections page to check these – and many other cool projects – out!