An advocate for diversity and inclusion in the entertainment industry, Emily Best founded Atlanta-based Seed&Spark—a crowdfunding platform where creators, audiences, and organizations collaborate to tell stories that celebrate diverse voices and foster vibrant conversations. Since its inception in 2012, Seed&Spark has assisted filmmakers in raising more than $50 million to produce thousands of movies and shows.

Best's journey in the film industry took a circuitous route through restaurants, vision and values strategy, and theater. In 2011, she produced her first feature film, 'Like the Water.' The challenges and triumphs of that experience led her to establish Seed&Spark.

Since then, Best has earned numerous accolades, including being recognized as an Indiewire Influencer, New York Business Journal's 'Woman of Influence,' Business Journal’s Upstart 100 Entrepreneur, and the recipient of the Ivy Film Innovator Award. Best transitioned from being a graduate to becoming a mentor for Techstars, PlugIn South LA, Start with 8 Hollywood, and Square One Startup School. Additionally, she serves on the Advisory Board for Aleria Tech and Endcrawl. In August of this year, CNBC and Statista included Seed&Spark in their list of the top 200 financial tech companies in the world.

Seed&Spark aims to make entertainment more diverse, inclusive, connected, and essential. How do you ensure that these values are reflected in the projects and stories supported by your crowdfunding platform?

We partner with hundreds of organizations across the US and Canada (and some amazing organizations outside North America as well) who are already speaking to creators everywhere. These are film schools, artist service organizations, unions and professional organizations as well as advocacy groups and production companies who share our values. We offer free workshops on how to turn crowdfunding into long-term career building, pitching, sustaining outreach and more - and we cross promote their efforts to our community. Over time, I think it’s really the creator community that carries it forward: if you see yourself represented on the platform, then you know it’s a place for you. For me, perhaps the most heartening representation of this: Culture Critic Joelle Monique recently told the audience of NPR’s Pop Culture Happy Hour that she had sort of stopped making films after film school because the business of film was so discouraging, but watching what was getting made on Seed&Spark made her feel like she could make movies again. And she’s currently executive producer of a film funding on Seed&Spark now.

In what ways does Seed&Spark foster collaboration between creators, audiences, and organizations to tell stories that celebrate diverse voices? Can you provide some examples?

Crowdfunding is naturally a collaboration between artists and their audiences. Where I think we are a bit different from other platforms is the investment we put into making sure storytellers benefit from their community and the long tail of that collaboration. We work with organizations like the ones I already mentioned to offer our workshops free. We teach them publicly with our partners almost 100 times a year to ensure that creators from anywhere have access to the information they need to succeed. Then, every campaign submitted to crowdfund on Seed&Spark is offered expert advice from a crowdfunding specialist to ensure they’re set up for success. That way, every creator who launches on Seed&Spark knows how to invite their audiences to collaborate and gives them a great experience.

Additionally, we work with high profile creators and production companies like The Duplass Brother Productions, Couper Samuelson from Blumhouse Pictures, Alex Kurtzman of Secret Hideout, and many more who contribute a total of more than $120,000 to our Patron’s Fund each year. Each Patron has an area of focus or interest, and every campaign that fits into a Patron’s interest is eligible for a Patron’s fund matching grant of $1,000-5,000 just by launching a campaign on Seed&Spark. It’s one of the few no-application grants for filmmakers out there.

For example, an incredible dystopian short film called Labor+Justice received a Patron’s Circle grant and successfully raised over $15,000 from audiences. It’s about to premiere at Hollyshorts film festival in Los Angeles, which has been a partner of ours for nearly a decade.

Diversity and inclusion are crucial aspects of storytelling. How does Seed&Spark actively promote and support underrepresented creators in the industry?

Well, first because our team is made up of a lot of underrepresented creators I think we have personal insights into the barriers that exist. I think we have also never tried to gloss over the structural barriers that exist in our industry or society. Our goal is to make it possible for any creator to succeed on Seed&Spark despite those barriers - to create pathways around and over with access to information, tools, resources, film festival waivers, rewards and additional opportunities for capital.

More than 65% of our projects are helmed by people of color, 60% LGBTQ, over 80% have at least one woman in the above-the-line positions. Part of that is due tobuilding partnerships with organizations already serving diverse communities. And part of that has been in striving to break down barriers anywhere we can. The Patrons Fund doesn’t just connect artists to capital, it puts their projects in front of Hollywood’s decision makers. Couper Samuelson at Blumhouse has reached out to fund recipients to read their scripts for consideration, offer feedback and more. Mark Duplass has come in as a producer alongside projects he helped to fund on Seed&Spark.

At the end of the day, I think it’s also about being a place for community and visibility. We can be loud as a collection of voices together.

Crowdfunding can be a challenging endeavor for many creators. How does Seed&Spark provide resources and guidance to help them navigate the crowdfunding process successfully?

It’s funny because our Crowdfunding to Build independence workshop started because we couldn’t really raise any venture capital to fund more traditional marketing efforts. Kickstarter and Indiegogo were so dominant back then that nobody really believed an alternative was needed. So we developed a workshop of best practices and started asking organizations across the country if we could teach it to their members. And we built the practices of that workshop into the feedback we give to every creator who submits to crowdfund on the platform. Crowdfunding is hard and I know from experience how as a creator you can want to skip over some of the work it takes to really make it successful. So our feedback process is just a little bit of friction before launching a campaign to remind creators of the work that can be done before launch that will really make a campaign successful. The vast majority of creators - even the ones who are sort of annoyed with us for offering feedback - come back super excited about the results they got from taking that feedback.

Our blog is full of information for just about any stage or complexity of the crowdfunding process you can imagine. We provide a clear framework for exactly what we look for when evaluating crowdfunding campaigns for feedback, dozens of case studies of successful projects, deep dives on marketing and outreach, and we even provide guidance on how to build ethical sets or ensure legal compliance of your project once the project is ready to go. We also have a Youtube channel full of very specific workshops on fundraising, pitching, audience-building, career-building and more, as well as masterclasses with the likes of John Ridley, Mark Duplass, Emily V Gordon, just to name a few.

How do you measure the impact of Seed&Spark in terms of fostering vibrant conversations and creating a more inclusive entertainment landscape?

I think the proof is in the pudding. This year, I look at some of the projects that made a splash on the festival circuit like Headdress, or When You Left Me On That Boulevard which both premiered at Sundance. The producers of When You Left Me On That Boulevard just got into the Sundance Producers Lab for the feature version of the film. I think what we provide is a safe place for creators to try things that are close to their hearts and their communities. Kayla Abuda Galang and Tai Leclaire are just two examples of filmmakers who will go on to shape the future of the industry. I look back on Jen Richards who used Seed&Spark to fund her webseries Her Story which went on to be nominated for an Emmy. Jen has gone on to massively influence storytelling in Hollywood. When creators have a place to tell the stories truest to them - without interference from decision-makers but instead with the support of audiences and community who feel reflected by it, I think you get the most unobstructed creativity. So it’s never a surprise to me that these stories deeply resonate with audiences much larger than just Seed&Spark’s.

Can you share any success stories of projects or creators who have benefited from Seed&Spark's platform and resources?

In addition to the ones mentioned above, there are several throughout the years I get excited about: Back in 2017, Seed&Spark-funded Keep the Change, a narrative film starring actors with autism, won the top award at the Tribeca Film Festival, and the intrepid director Rachel Israel accepted the honor with a newborn baby on her shoulder.

In 2019, the short film Feeling Through raised more than $50,000 on Seed&Spark and went on to be nominated for the 2021 Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film. It is the first film starring a deafblind actor ever to be nominated for an Oscar.

Land of Gold, a feature film of generational trauma, immigrant dreams and new beginnings, raised $51,361 on Seed&Spark. The film won a 2021 Tribeca/AT&T Untold Stories green light and premiered on HBOMax in May 2023.And the latest viral horror film craze, Skinamarik, raised a little over $8,000 on Seed&Spark and well on to earn more than $1.8M at the theatrical box office. Director Kyle Edward Ball has done several events to educate our community and help more creators do what he did.

What are some of the biggest challenges you've faced as the founder and CEO of Seed&Spark, and how have you overcome them?

I could quote the statistics about women in startups and how it has only gotten harder to secure funding, reasonable valuations, etc., but it gets too depressing. The first thing that allowed us to overcome being under-resourced is the community. We were able to build Seed&Spark because the indie filmmaking community stuck by us and helped us grow, even when our tech was bad and when we made missteps. They helped us shape our mission and get the word out when lack of funding meant we had to lean more on community organizing than growth marketing. And they send notes of appreciation and support to our team that have kept us going, including when we nearly lost the business due to COVID in 2020.

On a personal level, I have had to reckon with all the things that come with being a woman in tech - less funding, lower valuations, harassment, you name it. And so I learned quickly how to identify a truly values-aligned investor or advisor. And that has meant taking a lot of smaller checks into our investment rounds, having a cap table that is much larger than startup founders are told is “ok” - but those investors have seen us through the hardest times, made connections that have changed the course of the business for the better, and can support me as a founder with a depth of understanding you simply won’t get from your average VC.

And finally, I have a powerful community of other women founders across industries who are never more than a text message away. We have had each other’s backs for the last decade, advising one another through term sheets, acquisitions, team changes and client challenges - you name it. I think they have been a super power.

How do you see the future of crowdfunding and its role in shaping the entertainment industry?

I don’t think it’s crowdfunding that will shape the industry - it’s who is crowdfunding. Creators who are building strong bonds with their community are the ones who are already re-shaping the industry. There are thousands of creators out there who built direct relationships with their audiences. These creators are now standing on picket lines and explaining to those audiences what is happening in the industry and shaping the narrative that will impact not just the future of entertainment but also the future of AI which is no doubt the third industrial revolution.

What advice would you give to aspiring entrepreneurs, particularly those looking to create platforms that promote diversity, inclusion, and vibrant conversations?

It’s the same advice I give to aspiring creators - build a direct relationship with your community, articulate clearly your goals and aspirations and explain how that community can be a part of achieving those goals with you. Starting something from scratch is never easy, but the hard parts are softened when you are in community with values-aligned folks who can support you along the way.

Are there any upcoming projects or initiatives at Seed&Spark that you're particularly excited about and would like to share with our readers?

We’re gearing up to raise next year’s Patron’s Fund that will offer no-application grants to accelerate the impact of projects on Seed&Spark. The fund is fiscally sponsored by Open Collective.

What are your long-term goals for Seed&Spark, and how do you envision the impact it will have on the entertainment industry as a whole?

Seed&Spark’s core mission has always been about accelerating the impact of creativity. It’s not enough to get the films made, it’s about getting them seen by audiences who can be affected by them. That’s really hard when everything is marketed on social media and streamed on streaming platforms, delivered via algorithm directly to the echo chamber. We launched Film Forward back in 2021, a platform that replaces boring corporate training with experiential learning designed around exceptional short films from our community. Not only are we putting films in front of audiences who would never otherwise see them - the workplace is the most diverse place most people are in their lives - but those films are earning nearly 200x what they would make per view on a streaming platform. I think we are offering new models for impact and monetization that I hope can help shape the pathways for filmmakers telling new and different stories. But we are very small potatoes compared to any of the members of the AMPTP, who are primarily influenced by shareholder value. So I think our role is as a supporter to the change-makers - the creators themselves.

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