Crowdfunding with a twist: buy a ‘share’ of this new Callowhill cafe

The team behind W/N W/N (“Win Win”) Coffee Bar didn’t want to launch a Kickstarter to fund their new spot, raise a bunch of money and just give away “perks” to their backers.

“We felt a little discomfort with the idea of taking donations to fund a for-profit business,” said team member Will Darwall in a statement.

So the forthcoming Callowhill cafe/bar/restaurant built its own crowdfunding platform, inspired by the way that community supported agriculture (CSA) programs are run: backers can buy a “share” for $25, get $30 in credit, and when W/N W/N opens, they can use that credit to pay part of their bill.

It reminds us a little of equity crowdfunding, the new-ish type of crowdfunding that gives backers equity with their investment instead of a product or a perk, in that W/N W/N is thinking harder about how to fairly return an investment.

The team is looking to raise $10,000 to open by mid-November at 931 Spring Garden Street. It’s raised $2,200 so far, said team member Alden Towler.

The website, which processes payments using Stripe, was built by Tammer Ibraham and Dylan Valentine.

The project was also covered on Philly.com.