James Portnow, Seattle-based game designer and co-creator of Extra Credits, a web series on pro-social game design.
Raised over $125,000 from over 4,000 people.
James and Extra Credits were featured at SXSW, Gamasutra, and the homepage of Reddit.
Meghan Sebold, Brooklyn-based social entrepreneur and designer.
Raised $5,000 for a sustainable clothing line that uses the textiles and talent of Ghana, West Africa.
Her fashion line, AFIA was featured in EcoSalon, TreeHugger, Refinery29, and is now available in boutiques across NYC.
Aram Bajakian, NYC-based avant-garde guitar player.
Raised $4,000 from fans and strangers to fund his album.
Lou Reed heard Aram and chose him as his new guitarist while Aram's album is now released by John Zorn's Tzadik record label.
Darko Lungulov, Serbia-based award winning international filmmaker.
Raised $9,000 from movie buffs for feature film project Here and There.
Film won "Best New York Narrative" at Tribeca Film Festival, featured in Variety, L.A. Times, New York Times, and was a top-10 indie box office theatrical release.
When Last We Flew, NYC-based Off-Broadway theatrical production team.
Raised $7,000 from theatre fans for the premiere Off-Broadway run.
Show sold-out at NYC Fringe Festival, won a GLAAD Media Award, and was featured in New York Times, Bloomberg, and American Theatre Magazine.
Regan Wann, Kentucky-based small business owner.
Raised $5,000 to expand her tea shop business.
RocketHub campaign featured in the Wall Street Journal exposing her business to millions.
Laura Boyd, NYC-based portrait and landscape photographer.
Raised $6,000 architectural photography project on location in Paris.
Photos featured in Artsicle Photography Show in the heart of Chelsea, NYC via LaunchPad.
Joshua Reuben Lewis, NYC-based singer-songwriter.
Raised $7,500 to record his first album.
Showcased at The Gibson Showroom and made A&R connections at Sony, Warner Music Group, and EMI via LaunchPad.
Paul Davis, Berlin-based fashion designer.
Raised $8,000 from fans and strangers for a new fashion line.
Clothing line featured at Berlin Fashion Week.
Caira Conner, Tennessee based NYU Master of Science.
Raised $2,000 to study Brazilian land and infrastructure development.
Featured in Americas Quarterly, completed innovative research, and submitted successful academic thesis.
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Any contribution of $20 receives: Giftwrapped Chocolate Bar or 3 Drinking Pucks 7 Fuelers!
Any contribution of $50 receives: Mayan Pottery or Drinking Vessel, and one Giftwrapped Chocolate Bar of your choice 4 Fuelers!
Any contribution of $150 receives: Chocolate Tasting Pack for Two. Includes our picks of wine or beer, cheese and bread for pairing with our delicious stone-ground chocolate.
Any contribution of $500 receives: Chocolate & Tortilla Party for 30. This is great for corporate parties or personal affairs. We will come and serve a combination of drinking chocolate, chocolate bites and local, organic tortillas from our very own Tortilla Project. 2 Fuelers!
Any contribution of $1,000 receives: Chocolate & Tortilla Party for 60. This is great for corporate parties or personal affairs. We will come and serve a combination of drinking chocolate, chocolate bites and local, organic tortillas from our very own Tortilla Project.
Started by Michael Sacco February 25th, 2011
Here is the pedal powered winnowing machine we built for ChocoSol Oaxaca, our sister business in Southern Mexico. Our pedal-powered winnowing machine will be operated by hand power, so our chocolatiers can keep an eye on the precious cacao.
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We want to fund the building of two machines that are integral to our up-and-coming off-grid chocolate factory! This factory is designed to fit in a shipping container. Despite all of our efforts to reduce our footprint on the planet, we currently operate out of a loft in downtown Toronto with conventional electricity for our production. This doesn't fit our values or our mission so we are designing a whole new space. Instead of tackling the whole project at once, our method is to move one stepping stone at a time towards even more ecologicial, economical, and effective chocolate production, and have one project feed into the next. We chose the roaster and winnower projects in order to engage Torontonians in our work through demonstration, not just imagination.
The eventual container factory will be off-grid, easy to maintain and understand, and able to be shipped anywhere in the world. It will also compost waste, harvest and filter water, and educate producers, chefs and customers alike. This project is about supporting healthy eating, food security and sovereignty, and greenshifting our food culture. The final container factory will be entirely solar and pedal powered, with a new biodiesel/hydrogen fuel cell for high power applications.
This innovative R&D takes capital. In order to fund the project, as well as to further other ChocoSol intiatives (of which there are many! So exciting!) we are turning to our broader ChocoSol community to help us out.
With your help, we will be able to build these machines today instead of tomorrow!
1) Pedal Powered Winnowing Machine - $7,000
Winnowing is the process of removing the shell from the bean of the cacao. We believe that we need not rely on coal and nuclear to do this oh-so-basic mechanical operation. Our machine will be slightly different than the one depicted in the video. While the Bionx has been great getting us to farmers markets around the city, our machine will be mainly pedalled by hand, merely supported by Bionx. This is so our chocolatiers can keep an eye on the precious cacao as its winnowed. After it's winnowed, it goes into the stone grinder with pure sweeteners and flavourings to make delicious and nutritious chocolate for you!
2) Solar Roaster - $8,000
After the cacao is grown, picked and fermented, we must roast the beans (except for our special Raw Chocolate of course!) We don't need to rely on coal and nuclear for this, when we have a beautiful roaster above us. Our solar roaster can roast 15kilos of cacao per hour, and is the cleanest and tastiest roast imaginable. The beans roast in a concentrated bath of light photons that heat the air in the roaster and cleanly toast the cacao. What is more, we have designed the roaster to be complimented by an electrical heating element, so that production can continue from a solar powered battery charger when the sun stops shining and the roasting must continue.