Hi Everyone!
Mark here from TruthFunders and I'd be more than happy to answer any questions you guys have. I'll also address some of these questions on our next show. Also if anyone wants to call in and tell us why they love or hate TruthFunders, our show is live at Wednesday's 6:00pm PST/9:00 PM EST on the Inception Radio Network. We love taking calls and don't have any screeners, so we will answer any questions you have live on the air, including the good, the bad, and the ugly.
We value transparency. It's really important to us. It seems like there may be some confusion about who we are and what we do, so I went ahead and answered some of the questions you guys wrote. We are first and foremost a website that focuses on fundraising and crowdfunding for paranormal projects. Secondly, we are a radio show that accompanies the website and talks to the project owners, as well as the latest interesting things happening in the world of the paranormal.
I tried to answer the posts in the order they were made:
1. Catops - Regarding the ROD project:
The "RODS" project was made by Jose Escamilla. He is trying to fund a new documentary he is working on about RODS. We actually interviewed him about his project (Jose has been filming RODS for over 20 years! That's dedication!) on TruthFunders Radio. We talked to him about RODS and as a big Art Bell fan, I brought up his first appearance on Art Bell and asked him how being on Art's show back in the day had changed his life. I also brought up his appearance on MonsterQuest and how they tried to debunk that RODS existed. It was a really interesting interview. So, he has been on Art's show before (a few times I think). In fact the other day I heard it on the channel on Tune-In that replays old Coast to Coast episodes. But I agree, it would be great to catch up with him again and hear what he is up to lately.
2. CWeb - They are associated with Jimmy Church...
We do advertise on Church's show, but we are not a part of his show or affiliated with it beyond that. Much like a paranormal version of "Pepsi" we hope to remain "show neutral." We want to sponsor lots of shows! Our purpose is to
help people that are taking the initiative to create paranormal projects and give their projects the spotlight they deserve. It benefits us to be affiliated with as many shows as possible, so that people's projects can be seen. We want to advertise on lots of different shows, websites, etc. That's why we have our radio show on Inception Radio Network, a neutral territory. (Not to mention the guys there are really nice and wonderful to work with. They have shown us nothing but professionalism and great quality.)
Regarding what we've funded so far, you are very right, there are only a handful of projects that have been funded, but we have only been around since January (3 months) and every company needs to start somewhere. We are the underdogs against the big crowd funding entities like KS. I think it's really great that Spaceboy's project was funded. That is really exciting for us. I would like to see a lot of the other projects get the funding they deserve, and I think that will come along eventually, with more support, more advertising, and more talk.
In all transparency, currently we pay for a banner on Church's website. We would love to advertise on more sites and shows, it's a matter of getting in touch with the show host/owner. Sometimes we reach out and nobody responds. Understandably so too. We are learning that the paranormal world is suspicious of things. This is probably one of the hardest things to deal with when starting a paranormal company. Lol. If anyone reading this has a website or show, please reach out to us. We'd love to sponsor you or promote your show! We want to be on places like Dark Matter, Coast to Coast, and more, because the whole purpose of TruthFunders is to create a larger united paranormal community. Unknowing to us when we started TF, there is A TON of politics and camps behind the scenes in the paranormal industry. I just want to make clear that TF is it's own thing. It's about helping anyone with an idea. We also want to help bridge a bit of the gap between the "paranormal" and the "normal" people and make it ok to donate to a project that deals with paranormal subject matter. That is why it is important for us to not have a pure black website with creepy alien faces. Lol. Those sites are cool, but we want to show "normals" that it's ok to believe and they don't have to be scared.
3. Nancy - Hopefully there is no "high kootie" rating on us. Lol. Thank you for coming on the TruthFunders Radio Show. It was awesome to have you and Bill discuss Future Theater and the future of paranormal online radio. It is a topic I'm truly passionate about (and probably most of the people on this forum.) I could talk with you for hours! You guys are wonderful guests! I've been getting great emails about the show this week.
4. b_dubb - Thank you for your opinion. It is totally valid. I think that the financial/technology aspect of the paranormal is really interesting to some people, and not to others. What we are trying to accomplish at TF is not for everyone. As far as "young guys trying to make a buck" that made me chuckle In all honesty though, in some ways yes and some ways no. It would be great if we made money doing this, after all, we have put thousands of hours into conceptualizing the idea, creating the site, marketing, connecting with people, brainstorming ways to help better paranormal project ideas, building out the project pages for the project creator, help send project creator information to other radio shows, working other jobs to get the money to finance TruthFunders -- all to see if this idea of ours takes off. So we would be more than happy to get some kind of monetary reward for the work. I don't believe that In order to create something meaningful, you need to starve. I think it's a dream of all of ours at TruthFunders that we are one day able to make money in a field that we love, while helping people build towards the creative good and open more minds up to greater consciousness.
The purpose of TruthFunders is to have a safe place where people feel comfortable to create their paranormal ideas (and support them), view others ideas, and to have their projects noticed by a wide range of people. I've received emails from several different show hosts asking for information of how to get in touch with a project creator so that they can interview them on their show. That's awesome!!!
5. cweb asks a great questions: How is TF different from KickStarter.
Short answer:
Technically not much. Honestly.
Long Answer:
KS specifically keeps paranormal projects towards the bottom of barrel. They are rarely put on display.
TF showcases every paranormal project.
On KS, you create a project then promote it and hope it does well.
On TF, we work with you to optimize your project and also post it to our audience and our network of paranormal friends, getting it in front of the audience that actually understands or cares about it.
On KS you cannot donate anonymously. (This may have changed since I last donated, but it may have not.)
On TF you can donate anonymously.
KS doesn't care about the idea of paranormal activities happening around the world.
TF does care and wants to help get to the bottom of it.
TruthFunders is working on becoming a hub for the paranormal. In our dreamworld, TF is the place where anyone can post a great idea for a paranormal project. A place where people can add their paranormal experience stories. Radio hosts would check TF on a daily/weekly basis to see what's new. Not only would project creators have a place to raise money for their idea, but by having their idea on TF, others would want to interview them about their project. TF would post the subject to our large network of social media followers and friends. TF sends out a weekly/monthly paranormal project newsletter with all of the late breaking projects. We are also currently building an internet database of every paranormal show on the web organized by paranormal genre. Here people could listen or go to the website of the show/podcast, as well as easily donate whatever they want to that show.
6. Cweb - What's stopping Kickstarter from having their own paranormal section?
Nothing. We happen to know that they are actually watching us to see if there is a market for this. If there is, they will most likely try to create something similar and they will no doubt be able to. However, being sensitive to the paranormal (I've personally been interested since the age of
there are things that we can help with and provide that KS simply can't. A lot of that is a personal touch. We talk to everyone who is creating a project and give them feedback to help their campaign achieve it's full potential. Plus, wouldn't you rather have a company that you can trust who understands the paranormal landscape and is trying to help the community rather than a big corporation that is purely automatic and has no personal touch? This would be the time to support something like TruthFunders before KS makes it's move.
Regarding Nancy's last comment, of course we would love to help Art Bell if he was ever interested. Plus Art Webb (TruthFunders Radio main host) is a really well know independent contractor in the internet radio landscape, creating and producing shows for people like Dr. Drew, Russell Brand, and many more. We study online radio models all of the time because we are fascinated by them and believe it to not just be the future of radio, but "the now" of radio. There are great changes happening, with apps like Tune-In being integrated into cars, people are turning off terrestrial radio and streaming online radio more and more. In my opinion, it's revolutionizing the world. TruthFunders hopes to be a part of that revolution in some way. We are disrupters, and hope to one day help host a project that changes the way we listen to paranormal radio, use paranormal apps, wear paranormal clothes, read paranormal books, and research paranormal activity.
If anybody wants to check out our show that would be awesome. The back catalogue is available on Inception Radio Network. We feel honored that someone even started a thread about us on Bell Gab. ... honored...and scared. Lol. I've been following this forum for years and I know how awesome it can be, as well as how brutally honest and rough it can get, so I'm either doing the right thing by answering your questions, or I'm about to get ambushed. Either way, please feel free to call our show with your thoughts. Also, if you have any ideas that you want to contribute to better TruthFunders, we would love to hear them.
Thanks Everyone!
Mark
CEO, TruthFunders LLC
www.TruthFunders.com
TruthFunders Radio - Inception Radio Network
Wednesday Nights at 6:00PM PST/9:00PM EST
Mark here from TruthFunders and I'd be more than happy to answer any questions you guys have. I'll also address some of these questions on our next show. Also if anyone wants to call in and tell us why they love or hate TruthFunders, our show is live at Wednesday's 6:00pm PST/9:00 PM EST on the Inception Radio Network. We love taking calls and don't have any screeners, so we will answer any questions you have live on the air, including the good, the bad, and the ugly.
We value transparency. It's really important to us. It seems like there may be some confusion about who we are and what we do, so I went ahead and answered some of the questions you guys wrote. We are first and foremost a website that focuses on fundraising and crowdfunding for paranormal projects. Secondly, we are a radio show that accompanies the website and talks to the project owners, as well as the latest interesting things happening in the world of the paranormal. I tried to answer the posts in the order they were made:
1. Catops - Regarding the ROD project:
The "RODS" project was made by Jose Escamilla. He is trying to fund a new documentary he is working on about RODS. We actually interviewed him about his project (Jose has been filming RODS for over 20 years! That's dedication!) on TruthFunders Radio. We talked to him about RODS and as a big Art Bell fan, I brought up his first appearance on Art Bell and asked him how being on Art's show back in the day had changed his life. I also brought up his appearance on MonsterQuest and how they tried to debunk that RODS existed. It was a really interesting interview. So, he has been on Art's show before (a few times I think). In fact the other day I heard it on the channel on Tune-In that replays old Coast to Coast episodes. But I agree, it would be great to catch up with him again and hear what he is up to lately.
2. CWeb - They are associated with Jimmy Church...
We do advertise on Church's show, but we are not a part of his show or affiliated with it beyond that. Much like a paranormal version of "Pepsi" we hope to remain "show neutral." We want to sponsor lots of shows! Our purpose is to
help people that are taking the initiative to create paranormal projects and give their projects the spotlight they deserve. It benefits us to be affiliated with as many shows as possible, so that people's projects can be seen. We want to advertise on lots of different shows, websites, etc. That's why we have our radio show on Inception Radio Network, a neutral territory. (Not to mention the guys there are really nice and wonderful to work with. They have shown us nothing but professionalism and great quality.)
Regarding what we've funded so far, you are very right, there are only a handful of projects that have been funded, but we have only been around since January (3 months) and every company needs to start somewhere. We are the underdogs against the big crowd funding entities like KS. I think it's really great that Spaceboy's project was funded. That is really exciting for us. I would like to see a lot of the other projects get the funding they deserve, and I think that will come along eventually, with more support, more advertising, and more talk.
In all transparency, currently we pay for a banner on Church's website. We would love to advertise on more sites and shows, it's a matter of getting in touch with the show host/owner. Sometimes we reach out and nobody responds. Understandably so too. We are learning that the paranormal world is suspicious of things. This is probably one of the hardest things to deal with when starting a paranormal company. Lol. If anyone reading this has a website or show, please reach out to us. We'd love to sponsor you or promote your show! We want to be on places like Dark Matter, Coast to Coast, and more, because the whole purpose of TruthFunders is to create a larger united paranormal community. Unknowing to us when we started TF, there is A TON of politics and camps behind the scenes in the paranormal industry. I just want to make clear that TF is it's own thing. It's about helping anyone with an idea. We also want to help bridge a bit of the gap between the "paranormal" and the "normal" people and make it ok to donate to a project that deals with paranormal subject matter. That is why it is important for us to not have a pure black website with creepy alien faces. Lol. Those sites are cool, but we want to show "normals" that it's ok to believe and they don't have to be scared.
3. Nancy - Hopefully there is no "high kootie" rating on us. Lol. Thank you for coming on the TruthFunders Radio Show. It was awesome to have you and Bill discuss Future Theater and the future of paranormal online radio. It is a topic I'm truly passionate about (and probably most of the people on this forum.) I could talk with you for hours! You guys are wonderful guests! I've been getting great emails about the show this week.
4. b_dubb - Thank you for your opinion. It is totally valid. I think that the financial/technology aspect of the paranormal is really interesting to some people, and not to others. What we are trying to accomplish at TF is not for everyone. As far as "young guys trying to make a buck" that made me chuckle
In all honesty though, in some ways yes and some ways no. It would be great if we made money doing this, after all, we have put thousands of hours into conceptualizing the idea, creating the site, marketing, connecting with people, brainstorming ways to help better paranormal project ideas, building out the project pages for the project creator, help send project creator information to other radio shows, working other jobs to get the money to finance TruthFunders -- all to see if this idea of ours takes off. So we would be more than happy to get some kind of monetary reward for the work. I don't believe that In order to create something meaningful, you need to starve. I think it's a dream of all of ours at TruthFunders that we are one day able to make money in a field that we love, while helping people build towards the creative good and open more minds up to greater consciousness. The purpose of TruthFunders is to have a safe place where people feel comfortable to create their paranormal ideas (and support them), view others ideas, and to have their projects noticed by a wide range of people. I've received emails from several different show hosts asking for information of how to get in touch with a project creator so that they can interview them on their show. That's awesome!!!
5. cweb asks a great questions: How is TF different from KickStarter.
Short answer:
Technically not much. Honestly.
Long Answer:
KS specifically keeps paranormal projects towards the bottom of barrel. They are rarely put on display.
TF showcases every paranormal project.
On KS, you create a project then promote it and hope it does well.
On TF, we work with you to optimize your project and also post it to our audience and our network of paranormal friends, getting it in front of the audience that actually understands or cares about it.
On KS you cannot donate anonymously. (This may have changed since I last donated, but it may have not.)
On TF you can donate anonymously.
KS doesn't care about the idea of paranormal activities happening around the world.
TF does care and wants to help get to the bottom of it.
TruthFunders is working on becoming a hub for the paranormal. In our dreamworld, TF is the place where anyone can post a great idea for a paranormal project. A place where people can add their paranormal experience stories. Radio hosts would check TF on a daily/weekly basis to see what's new. Not only would project creators have a place to raise money for their idea, but by having their idea on TF, others would want to interview them about their project. TF would post the subject to our large network of social media followers and friends. TF sends out a weekly/monthly paranormal project newsletter with all of the late breaking projects. We are also currently building an internet database of every paranormal show on the web organized by paranormal genre. Here people could listen or go to the website of the show/podcast, as well as easily donate whatever they want to that show.
6. Cweb - What's stopping Kickstarter from having their own paranormal section?
Nothing. We happen to know that they are actually watching us to see if there is a market for this. If there is, they will most likely try to create something similar and they will no doubt be able to. However, being sensitive to the paranormal (I've personally been interested since the age of
there are things that we can help with and provide that KS simply can't. A lot of that is a personal touch. We talk to everyone who is creating a project and give them feedback to help their campaign achieve it's full potential. Plus, wouldn't you rather have a company that you can trust who understands the paranormal landscape and is trying to help the community rather than a big corporation that is purely automatic and has no personal touch? This would be the time to support something like TruthFunders before KS makes it's move.Regarding Nancy's last comment, of course we would love to help Art Bell if he was ever interested. Plus Art Webb (TruthFunders Radio main host) is a really well know independent contractor in the internet radio landscape, creating and producing shows for people like Dr. Drew, Russell Brand, and many more. We study online radio models all of the time because we are fascinated by them and believe it to not just be the future of radio, but "the now" of radio. There are great changes happening, with apps like Tune-In being integrated into cars, people are turning off terrestrial radio and streaming online radio more and more. In my opinion, it's revolutionizing the world. TruthFunders hopes to be a part of that revolution in some way. We are disrupters, and hope to one day help host a project that changes the way we listen to paranormal radio, use paranormal apps, wear paranormal clothes, read paranormal books, and research paranormal activity.
If anybody wants to check out our show that would be awesome. The back catalogue is available on Inception Radio Network. We feel honored that someone even started a thread about us on Bell Gab. ... honored...and scared. Lol. I've been following this forum for years and I know how awesome it can be, as well as how brutally honest and rough it can get, so I'm either doing the right thing by answering your questions, or I'm about to get ambushed. Either way, please feel free to call our show with your thoughts. Also, if you have any ideas that you want to contribute to better TruthFunders, we would love to hear them.
Thanks Everyone!
Mark
CEO, TruthFunders LLC
www.TruthFunders.com
TruthFunders Radio - Inception Radio Network
Wednesday Nights at 6:00PM PST/9:00PM EST