At CES 2025, Funding Insider had the opportunity to meet with the Indiegogo team and the new Indiegogo CEO, Julie dePontbriand.

dePontbriand served as Chief Revenue Officer of Indiegogo before becoming CEO in October 2024. She boasts a decades long career in startups and venture capital, including Cofounder and CEO of Shopventure and Vice President of Wework. 

We caught up with dePontbriand at the Indiegogo booth at CES 2025 and asked for her advice on crowdfunding.

What Makes Indiegogo Special

dePontbriand: “At Indiegogo we really care about the community. We really care about the feedback, and we really care about ensuring that anyone who launches with us does feel supported. We have a campaign strategy team and they’re real people! They will respond to questions, they will give feedback, and they will provide a level of support. Because building a business is hard. Crowdfunding is hard. So again, anything that we can do to give that extra layer of support, that extra layer of guidance is huge… It’s not just the Indiegogo platform, it’s our backer community. It’s the feedback loop that you get when you launch with us. But again it’s also that dedicated individual support as well.”

On the Importance of Teamwork

dePontbriand: “One of the biggest things that’s important to me as CEO of Indiegogo is building that community, right? Funding Insider, all of our partners, and really figuring out how we work together to make the crowdfunding industry even better every single day… It’s incredibly important to me and having great partners makes a huge difference so thank you guys.”

Tips for Founders

dePontbriand: “To all of the startups, the founders… keep going! Keep going! Every little step helps. Do not give up. Being a founder is hard work right? It wouldn’t be as good if it wasn’t hard. So keep going. Think about crowdfunding. Come talk to us and our team, we’ll see what we can do to help. But everyone who’s trying to build something new is doing an amazing job. Just keep going!”

“Keep going!”— wise words from an influential and inspiring figure not just in crowdfunding, but in the overall startup ecosystem. 

We’re grateful to dePontbriand for her generosity in giving us the time for an interview during her busy CES schedule! Stay tuned for more crowdfunding insights and news from CES here on the Funding Insider blog.