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YellowBanana Launches Crowdfunding Campaign!

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// YellowBanana connects Teachers & Learners around Australia

YellowBanana connects Teachers & Learners around Australia

I caught up with Jessica Banaszak today to talk about here new venture – YellowBanana and her crowdfunding campaign to raise $20, 000 to get it off the ground.

Amongst all the fruit puns, Jessica is serious about wanting to make a difference to the Australian education market, and is determined to reach her crowdfunding goal!

Banana Calling

Hi Jessica, firstly, what’s with the name? Why not red banana or purple banana?

The team and I strongly believe in lifelong learning. If you look at our logo, it starts with a green banana (starting to learn something new) and spirals all the way through to a yellow banana (when you become an expert). The cycle of learning continues as you find something new to learn.

Plus my waterpolo team call me ‘Banana’, and the business name gets some very hilarious reactions from people.

So give me the one sentence pitch for yellow banana.

YellowBanana is an online, interactive directory for teaching and learning opportunities available to all Australians.

So really, the ‘first’ education marketplace in Australia?

Not really an education marketplace as such, but we are the first of our kind of website in Australia. I sometimes refer to the website as a ‘one-stop-shop’ for anything you want to learn, taught by anyone, anytime, anywhere around Australia and online.

Any person can upload information about what they teach, or search for something that they want to learn, all in one user-friendly space.

Wouldn’t $20k be better spent on marketing an MVP? At a basic level $100 on wordpress would get you started to test the idea?

Part of the funds will definitely go towards marketing our MVP, but we have to finish it yet. I wish I had known about wordpress before this process started, but normally I touch a computer and it explodes!

Anyone can contact me if they want to view the almost completed MVP if they are bananacurious.

What made you want to crowdfund this? Potato salad? Can a banana do better than a potato?

Bananas are always better than Potatoes – hello, would you prefer potato or banana icecream?

The main reason I want to crowdfund the project is to give all Teachers the opportunity to pop their information up on our site before their competition does, and for a very reduced rate! The team and I also thought that it was a great way to let Learners know about how we are going to make their lives a lot easier through the site, and see if they agreed.

How much have you made and how long left to go?

So far we have raised almost 10% of our target, and we only have 13 days left to reach our target of $20,000. We could eat a lifetime of Banana Splits for that amount!

Do Aussies pay income tax on crowdfunding?

From my research I think that you pay income tax on the amount you raise. We are based on the Australian Kickstarter site, so the usual Australian tax laws apply. But I could be wrong – don’t take my word for it!

What is turning out to be the most effective medium for getting the word out? Twitter/Facebook etc?

Twitter has been a great way to reach a large group of people all at once, and we are currently being followed by a lot of startup media such as Reddit and StartupSmart.

The medium that has been the most effective in terms of donations, has, of course, been the good old word-of-mouth. Nothing can beat a recommendation!

Yellow Banana_4

Have you done this before and are you getting help?

I have never crowdfunded before and I am learning a lot about setting up a business! Luckily I won a scholarship from Spacecubed which allows me to work in the space and have contact with mentors and other cubers who are always ready to offer me advice (or make lots of banana jokes).

What are your options if you don’t reach the target, would it have been worth the effort?

If we don’t reach the target?? What are you talking about?

If I slip on a peel and fall flat on my face, it will still have been worth it. Failure is always the best way to learn so it would definitely have been worth the effort.

Good luck on the funding and we look forward to a whole bunch more fruit in the future. Maybe a green apple?

Thank you – the Banana Minions (the team) and myself are very excited about the website and its potential. We need all fruit lovers to help us reach the launch stage – even if they do prefer green apples to yellowbananas!

Go check out the Kickstarter campaign here.

Read more of the latest news from the startup ecosystem here

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