Ribele is a platform for validating, funding and selling your product, service or content to your most loyal customers.

First, it helps you find out how much support your project has before you start producing it. To do this, you publish your project in the voting phase and collect votes for as long as you need. You must reach the minimum number of votes you have set for your project to be viable. This validates it with a real audience.

Second, once you reach the minimum number of votes, you can offer your product, service or content for advance sale for 30 days. This is the sales phase. You will also have a minimum sales goal to make the project possible.

If you do not reach the sales goal, your project returns to the voting phase so you can improve it. Nobody pays anything, and you do not have to produce or deliver your product, service or content. You can launch it in the sales phase again once you reach the new voting goal you have set.

On Ribele, you can create projects for products, services or content. A product project might launch a designer lamp; a service project might be an online music school; and a content project might offer a documentary series exclusively to subscribers.

You can also offer one-off or recurring sales. The lamp would be a one-off purchase, while the online school might have monthly subscriptions to its content.

The voting phase is the first milestone your project must pass on Ribele. We will ask you to calculate a revenue goal for making your project happen. You can set it with the goal calculator in your project editor.

Your revenue goal should cover these costs:

1. The cost of producing your product, service or content.
2. Shipping costs to deliver your product, service or content to customers.
3. The fee Stripe charges (5%) on the revenue generated through Ribele.
4. Taxes on your sales (VAT and personal or corporate income tax in Spain).
5. A recommended safety margin of at least 5%.

Once you have set a revenue goal, you must decide the price of the product, service or content you will sell on Ribele. Based on that price, the platform calculates how many sales you need to reach your revenue goal.

The platform also calculates how many votes you need to move from the voting phase to the sales phase. By default, this is the minimum number of votes needed to give your project a chance of reaching its sales goal.

Once you set the revenue goal needed to launch your project, and the corresponding sales goal based on your selling price, the platform automatically calculates three possible voting goals.

These three voting scenarios are:

1. Optimistic voting goal: three times the number of sales needed.
2. Medium voting goal: five times the number of sales needed.
3. Pessimistic voting goal: ten times the number of sales needed.

For example, a project with a revenue goal of €5,000 and a selling price of €50 would need 100 sales to be viable. Its voting goals would be:

1. Optimistic goal: 300 votes.
2. Medium goal: 500 votes.
3. Pessimistic goal: 1,000 votes.

In short, this example has three types of goals on Ribele:

1. Revenue goal set by the user: €5,000.
2. Sales goal calculated by Ribele: 100 sales.
3. Voting goals calculated by Ribele in three scenarios: 300, 500 and 1,000 votes.

By default, the platform uses the optimistic voting goal during the voting phase. If you exceed it and reach the medium or pessimistic scenario, you will be better placed to reach your sales goal in the next phase.

Publishing a project and receiving votes in the voting phase are free.

We do not charge commissions. You pay a fixed fee for the Ribele tools you use, and only if you generate revenue by selling your product, service or content. Here is how it works.

Once your project enters the sales phase, a fixed fee is deducted from your revenue only if you meet or exceed your sales goal. In other words, we only charge you if your project earns revenue. We will keep adding tools to help you run your project, from analytics to monitoring and marketing. Basic project tools will always be included in the base fixed fee.

We will also offer optional paid tools for your project dashboard to help you manage the project and understand your audience. You will never be charged for these tools until your project reaches its sales goal and starts generating revenue.

For companies and institutions, we offer a monthly plan so that each organization can provide Ribele to the projects it supports or manages. The organization pays the monthly fee, and its projects can use Ribele without paying separately.

Finally, Stripe charges a fee that is deducted from project revenue. This fee is not set by Ribele and may change. We will let you know if it does, but you should also check Stripe's terms directly on its website.

On Ribele you can validate, fund and sell a product, service or content to your most loyal customers. For tax purposes, remember that all your project revenue is paid into the bank account linked to your Stripe account.

Stripe charges a fee for its payment infrastructure (5%); the remaining 95% is revenue from your project sales. How are those sales taxed? Sales generally include a value-added tax (called IVA in Spain). You should account for it when setting your revenue goal and the prices of your product, service or content on Ribele.

When the sales phase ends, you must declare your income. If you make a profit over the full financial year—not just from Ribele sales, but from all your revenue and costs—you must also pay the applicable income tax. In Spain, that means personal income tax (IRPF) for self-employed individuals and corporate income tax (IS) for companies.

Shop mode lets you sell your product, service or content through one-off or recurring purchases for as long as you want.

You can activate shop mode after your project finishes the sales phase and meets or exceeds its sales goal.

You can set up your Ribele shop with your own domain and sell one or more products, services or types of content.

Your Ribele project needs visitors to turn them into votes and sales. We provide the tools, but you and your team must promote your project to meet those goals.

Promote your project through channels where interested people gather. Share it with communities: these might be your followers or existing groups that have not yet heard of your project.

Relevant communities might include followers of creators who talk about related topics, social-media groups or online clubs for people who share your audience's interests.

Then plan your own communication strategy. Build your website and social profiles, and create useful content for people who may be interested in your project.

For example, if you make barefoot shoes, there are already communities discussing their benefits. You can also create content about those benefits and about your project.

You need to promote your project consistently, day by day. Without enough visits, you will not get the votes or sales you need.

To create and edit a Ribele project, you use four main sections: project; product, service or content; frequently asked questions; and updates.

Here is how to complete each section.

Project section

Give your project a title that defines it and briefly explains the value of your product, service or experience. Use the short description to add context and key details for your potential customers' first impression.

First impressions matter—a lot!

Next, complete the full project description. Explain everything relevant to your followers and potential customers: features, uses, materials, related services, the team behind the project and anything else that matters. Every project has its own key points, so do not leave them out.

Enrich the full description with visuals, not just text. Upload photos, graphics, videos or even animated GIFs if helpful. Make the project as clear and appealing as possible.

After the full description, choose a category for your project. This helps people find it through the platform search.

Then add a cover image and, if you wish, an image gallery. Take care with these visuals: a more appealing presentation can help you engage your audience.

Next comes the project's financial goal, explained elsewhere in this help section. Include production and shipping costs, Stripe's fee before your revenue is paid out, applicable sales taxes and a safety margin for unexpected expenses. Our calculator can help you work it out.

Finally, add a project video. It helps you introduce your offer and attract potential customers or people willing to give feedback. We recommend a video of one to three minutes explaining what you offer and why people should help launch it. Upload it to YouTube or Vimeo and link it to your Ribele project.

Product, service or content section

Start by uploading a photo of the product, service or content you will offer. Choose a simple, appealing image that catches potential customers' attention.

Next, add a descriptive and creative title. Set the price and, if applicable, the number of units available at that price.

When you set a price, the platform shows the minimum number of sales needed to reach your revenue goal. This helps you avoid pricing too low. You will also see the number of votes your project should have achieved to give it a chance of reaching that goal.

Write a clear but sufficiently detailed description of the product, service or experience. Set an estimated delivery date, too: this is an advance sale, so you will have time to produce and deliver your offer later.

Frequently asked questions section

Answer the questions your followers and potential customers are likely to ask. Clarify anything they need to understand your project.

You can use an AI tool to draft FAQs, but review the result carefully and correct anything inaccurate.

Useful questions include when contributions are charged (at the end of the sales phase, and only if at least 100% of the minimum sales goal is reached) and when or how the product or service will be delivered.

Updates section

Post updates regularly from the moment your project enters the voting phase. Share news, create polls to get your audience's opinions and use that feedback to improve the project.

We recommend at least one update a month; every three weeks or every two weeks is even better. The more you engage with your audience, the better. You can also find inspiration in other Ribele projects.

Marketing section

You can access this section from your project's editor. It brings together several tools for managing the project.

The first, once available, will let you message your voters and buyers, including a filter for voters who have not bought during the sales phase.

The second lets you share an embeddable project widget on any website, or share a direct link to your project.

The third lets you copy a preview link to show your project to your audience before it becomes visible on Ribele.

The fourth lets you add a Google Analytics ID and a Meta Pixel ID to track your project in Google Analytics or Meta's analytics tools for Facebook and Instagram.

The fifth lets you add collaborators who can help edit, market or communicate your project.

The sixth is a report showing buyers' countries during the sales phase, useful when preparing shipments.

The seventh is a daily activity report showing visits, sales, comments and conversion by day.

The eighth lets you create affiliate links with unique codes to track visits, sales and conversion from each affiliate channel.

Sales section

Accessible from the top right of your project editor, this section shows a sales report with each transaction's number, date, buyer, status and amount.

Metrics section

Accessible from the top right of your project editor, this section provides metrics for managing your project, such as votes, sales, visits, visit-to-vote and visit-to-sale conversion, updates and feedback received.

Account section

From your Ribele dashboard, you can manage your account: update your email, change your password or delete your account.

Edit profile section

Here you can edit your username, upload a profile photo, write or update your bio and change the default language you use on Ribele.

My projects section

See all the projects you have created, with quick links to view, edit or check their metrics. You can also access projects you have supported with votes or purchases.

Addresses section

Add one or more shipping addresses for products you buy on Ribele.

Payment methods section

Add the bank cards you use for purchases on Ribele.

Notifications section

Choose which Ribele notifications you receive so you can stay up to date with projects you care about and other news.

The feedback section is important for getting the most from Ribele. People who vote or buy to support a project can leave their opinions on the product, service or content being offered.

Each piece of feedback can receive positive or negative votes and comments. Feedback is ordered by vote count so the community's preferred ideas receive attention first.

Feedback can be a comment or a poll asking the community to choose between options for improving a product, service or piece of content.