Indiegogo, the crowdfunding site led by Slava Rubin, has today announced a few changes to the leadership team. Most notably, the company has snatched Yelp’s former Director of Engineering Victor Kovalev, who will take over Indiegogo’s web and mobile initiatives.
And make no mistake: Indiegogo is most certainly making a push toward mobile. In an interview with TechCrunch, Rubin explained that traffic on mobile continues to grow. “If I was launching Indiegogo today, there’s a very good chance it would be mobile only,” said Rubin. “Our focus going forward will be very centered around mobile consumption and creation.”
Alongside Kovalev, Indiegogo has also made some other recruits since raising $40 million in January. Two of those recruits, Liz Wald and Sinohe Terrero both come from Etsy, lending experience in building out marketplaces.
“Expect apps from us soon,” said Rubin, explaining that the team is already in the process of figuring out the creation process on mobile.
Mobile shopping and commerce has come a long way since Indiegogo launched in 2008. Now, people are far more willing to spend money on their phone, and so a consumption experience on mobile for Indiegogo makes perfect sense. What’s the difference between backing a project on a desktop or a smartphone?
However, the creation of campaigns on mobile is something that may pose more of a problem, which is why the team has put particular focus on that piece of the equation.
“We want to give people the option to make quick and easy campaigns on the fly, but also to build out more robust campaigns on mobile, as well,” said Rubin. “The lightweight campaigns shouldn’t be difficult to create on mobile, but the bigger campaigns are something we still need to figure out.”
As for Kickstarter’s new changes to the application process, which are now much more similar to Indiegogo’s, Rubin finds those exciting.
“Since 2008, we launched open from day one,” said Rubin. “It’s exciting to see other companies following us.”