Founder, MAnaging Director & Advisor
Michael raven
about michael
Founder, Managing Director and Advisor
Michael Raven is Founder & Managing Director of Blazon PR: Europe's Leading Crowdfunding Agency.
Michael has had two startup exits, and has ran 50 agency campaigns across Kickstarter, Indiegogo and Blockchain platform projects, actively participating in the raising of over $115M+ for their extensive list of clients.
For speaking opportunities, please contact Michael here.
agency: Blazon
founder & Managing Director
January 2014 - Present
A rebrand from his first Agency, Michael founded Blazon PR with the vision to deliver expertly coordinated campaigns for Crowdfunding launches across Kickstarter, Indiegogo, Seedrs and Crowdcube. Together with his experienced team, Michael and Blazon have completed 50+ campaigns, raising over $15M+ for their Crowdfunding clients, with names such as Absolut and Xiaomi.
Blazon are also in the corporate/enterprise innovation space, launching campaigns through crowdfunding and blockchain innovation.
See: Blazon
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Mentor
Mentor and thought leader
Michael is currently mentoring across a number of key accelerators across Europe, US and Asia. Michael’s expertise covers PR, marketing, crowdfunding, advertising and sales in regards to startups and growing companies.
Michael has previously mentored on Techstars, HAX, APX Porsche Accelerator, London Metropolitan University, Saachi & Saachi and for the Government of Estonia.
To enquire about having me as a mentor please reach out to me directly here.
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european commission expert advisor
expert advisor to the horizon 2020 €80 billion investment fund
Michael is an esteemed expert for the world’s largest innovation fund. Michael is an advisor in the specific field of growth, product, crowdfunding and marketing, influencing the decision to allocate EU funds to the most impactful and innovative projects.
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advisor
advisor, Investor and thought leader
Michael is currently advisor to a number of companies, utilising his exceptional PR and Marketing background to best position for success - both through training, feedback and advising to the core team, and through direct introductions to journalists and influencers. Michael's Advisory offering also links startups with investors and VC/Hedge Funds to participate in exceptional projects.
You can contact me directly here.
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Projects
Absolut vodka - absolut art kickstarter - Stockholm, Sweden
may 2017
Michael and his team were tasked with launching an innovation play out of the Absolut Art Labs at Absolut Vodka. The vision was to market their top-received innovation project, an art hanger from Swedish Designer Alexander Lervik: Hangsmart. Michael and the Blazon Team launched their innovation in May 2017, after a strong pre-campaign, to huge praise from the Kickstarter community, and the press. Key coverage of the campaign came from the likes of Wired, CNBC, Hypebeast, High Snobiety and Uncrate.
See: Absolut Hangsmart on Kickstarter
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Tinderus/advidate - London, UK
May 2014 - Present
A moment of genius lead to Michael ideating, creating and launching Tinderus one afternoon in May 2014. The idea was to offer online dating consultancy to Tinder users, via Facebook Messenger, using females 'trained' in the art of getting the best out of every applicant, and ideally, leading to them getting a date.
Tinderus launched with an immediate impact, gaining immediate coverage across Mashable, Venture Beat, Huffington Post, CNBC, Bustle, Insider and a whole host of other channels.
In 2017, Tinderus partnered with KMS to execute an Innovation campaign to train and certify hairdressers in the art of dating consultancy - as a fresh offering for experimental salons. In this time, Tinderus rebranded to Advidate - with KMS x Advidate launching in 2018.
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Buddy & Pillo - Paris, France | New York, USA
January 2015 & January 2016
Throughout Michael and Blazon's extensive Crowdfunding work, they found a niche in the Home Robotics market, which saw them launch the hugely successful Buddy & Pillo campaigns on Indiegogo.
Set to revolutionise the home, and thrust us into the future - both Buddy and Pillo offered companionship and AI, in the form of two adorable robots - both available to back via their respective Indiegogo campaigns.
Buddy received extensive global press coverage via Blazon, including full features on the BBC, Techcrunch, Mashable, MIT Technology Review and The Independent. On his travels, he event met French President Emmanuel Macron for a heartwarming moment. Buddy ended their campaign raising over $650,000, and subsequently follow-on venture capital rounds.
Pillo received similar coverage for their revolutionary at-home AI health robot, set to help keep track and deliver mediation, and keep up-to-date with doctors, via a single connected device, with a cute face to top it off. The Pillo Indiegogo campaign was covered in Futurism, The Daily Mail, Mashable, Venture Beat and Design Beat.