When does Soft Launch start?

You’ve set up your campaign, secured your Lead Investor, and decided the terms of your Community Round during TTW. Congratulations!

Now it’s time to publish your campaign to your staunch supporters, who will help boost your campaign optics before you launch to the public on Wefunder.

To launch in Soft:

1. Go to the Privacy tab of your company setup
2. Under “Who should be able to see your campaign?”, toggle the option to “Only those with a direct link or a Wefunder VIP.”
3. Click “Save & Finish →”

Keep in mind that once you file your Form C, your campaign will be searchable and publicly viewable by everyone.

What's the difference between Soft and Public launch?

When you launch in Soft during Testing the Waters, your campaign page is live, but only to people who have the direct link. This means that only people you send the link to can access your page—it won't be indexed by Google or by Wefunder's search function.

When you toggle your launch to Public, your company will become eligible to appear on Wefunder's Explore page, marketing emails, and other marketing promotions. (You also need to have raised the $50,000 minimum and passed a compliance check that the Wefunder team conducts in the background.)

The purpose of your Soft Launch is to send you out the gate for Public Launch with a bang. The more momentum you can build on your campaign page in terms of total reservations raised, number of potential investors, and other positive signals, the stronger a position you'll be in when your campaign goes public to strangers who've never heard of you.

To do that, we recommend using the Soft Launch phase to reach at least 25% of your total funding goal, or the $50,000 minimum—whichever is higher—by focusing on the following strategies.

The Basics of Soft Launch

Go through each step of our Soft Launch guides below to get you on your way to raising 25% of your goal:

1. Set up your CRM and send personal, 1:1 outreach to existing angels in your network, asking them if they are interested in making a reservation →
2. Offer early access as a reward to your network. Set up an email campaign for your existing mailing lists to announce your Soft Launch →
3. In your founder dashboard, click on the “Launch Date” tab to set a countdown clock for your campaign page. This hides your total potential investment amount while you're in Soft and collecting your first checks. Once the countdown is done, your potential investment total will become visible.

Keep in mind that once you file your Form C, your campaign will be searchable and publicly viewable by everyone.