Glossary
Ghost Launch
Definition of a Ghost Launch, a crowdfunding raise that goes live with no audience waiting, and why switching platforms does not fix it.
A Ghost Launch is a crowdfunding raise that goes live to nobody. The offering is filed and the page is up, but no audience was built before launch, so the investment counter, the Zero Counter, stays at zero. The cause is missing preparation, not the platform, which is why relaunching on a different platform usually repeats the result.
The term was coined by Bryce W Jones of HookVerb.
Why it happens
A funding platform processes investments. It rarely creates demand for a new raise. Investors who browse a platform back raises that already show momentum, and a raise at zero shows the opposite. A company that launches without a list of interested people, tested messaging, tracking, and marketing already in motion opens to an empty room.
How to prevent one
Use the weeks before launch to build the audience: settle the messaging and assets, open a Testing the waters page to collect indications of interest, tell existing contacts, and run paid ads so investments arrive the moment the offering opens. See Investor acquisition and Lead funnel.