Here's how StartEngine increased investments by 77%

StartEngine recently revamped their startup funding pages, and the redesign results are in. According to the company, the new pages have caused a:

• 14% increase in average investment size

• 56% increase in conversion rate (number of people that invest/ the number of page visitors

Combined, this has lead to a 77% jump in investment per site visitor. The impact of this increase should not be underestimated - StartEngine is on track to raise $200M for startups this year. Which means…

A 77% increase to this amount would yield an additional $154M

A change that creates $154M in value is worth studying - so I dove in and figured it out

And because you are all lovely subscribers to my newsletter, I’ve decided to share my findings with you

To compare the changes StartEngine made - I tapped into a tool called the Wayback Machine. It’s an archive of the internet that lets you see how pages looked at various points in time

We’re gonna go back in time to erase my cringey Facebook statuses review the changes

Specifically, we’re taking a look at the Boxabl fundraising page on StartEngine. Here’s a side-by-side comparison of the two pages on mobile:

Let’s start with what they got rid of:

Now, on to what StartEngine added:

As you scroll down, you would previously encounter a table of numbers & technical information around the raise - this has since been replaced by a more digestible ‘Reasons to Invest’ section

Notice how in the new design the ‘Invest Now’ button remains on the bottom of the page? This is an adhesive unit that stays stuck to the page as you scroll.

It’s likely they #1 reason StartEngine is seeing an increase in investment

As much as we don’t like to admit, humans are impulsive creatures. Having the ‘Invest Now’ button present at all times allows the visitor to act on their impulse the second they are motivated by the investment deal

The above callouts only help push visitors to invest, but they don’t explain why the average investment size increased 14%.

The Wayback Machine doesn’t have the capabilities to see the old checkout page, but if I had to guess off memory what has changed and led to the increase, it’s this right here:

The minimum investment amount for this startup is $250, yet the preset options that you can click on far exceed this amount.

This design element is giving off the same kind of energy as Square’s tipping interface:

As StartEngine grows in scale, small optimizations that provide a 5% lift here, 7% there, will affect millions of dollars in investments

I’ve got to say, I’m inspired by StartEngine’s optimizations.

So inspired, that I am adding FIVE ‘Subscribe’ fields to increase subscriptions to my newsletter by 500%