Qafeer Makerspace Nails Zoomaal Crowdfunding Project

With less than a week to go, Qafeer Makerspace has not only secured 200 percent of its Zoomaal project goal to-date, but is aiming to hit 300 percent by the end of the campaign, for a grand total of $18,000. The group now has close to $13,500 secured.

The group hopes to set up a coworking spaces in Cairo with all that cash.

According to Mohamed Hany, Egypt country manager at Zoomaal, the fact that Qafeer Makerspace raised 200 percent of its total goal is astounding. It is a first for this kind of project on the crowdfunding platform. Hany, who has observed the Qafeer team since its early stages of work, believes that the coworking space played all the right cards.

Hany analyzed Qafeer's success and boiled it down to these principles.

The group had clearly defined targets with milestones, instead of just numbers.

The list has many ranges with variety of valuable options. The rewards always define the target contributors/funders. In Qafeer's case, anyone around the world can contribute.

It's the most important component of the campaign, showing the problem, the solution and even the required machines. The video should encourage viewers to PAY and not only to like or share. People should see the final product to convince them. Because people will not trust a man who is talking about what he's going to do except if they know him.

They prepared a big campaign. The video went viral before even going live. They also created a form for those who are interested, to keep them posted with all updates.

Ahmed Abuiliazeed, the founder, was in the GrEEK Campus working on the ground during the launch. He says they collected more than $1,300 within the first 10 to 15 minutes!

They continually reached out and promoted their campaign, with updated milestones.

Most importantly, Hany believes that Qafeer Labs invested in its community for the past two years, and now its community found the way to pay back.

Qafeer is not the only coworking space to have caused a buzz of massive success on Zoomaal. AlMaqarr, another Cairo-based coworking space also has a project on Zoomaal, which ends in 11 days.

“Any campaign that reaches 100 percent of its target is successful. Both Qafeer and Almaqarr campaigns are successful as they already reached their targets," Hany explained, adding ”Almaqarr reached the 100 percent after just 24 hours, which is a new record on Zoomaal.”

If you’re a Cairene who seeks alternative solutions and hates to be bound to an office, or if you’re a kind-hearted believer in the power of youth in creating alternative solutions, be sure to check out the two projects and show the teams some support.