Best content in Crowdfunding101 | Diigo - Groups - 0 views
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Chance Barnett says he founded Crowdfunder in order to give startups more options. Backers can choose to invest for more than just straight equity -- they could also buy a cut of revenue based on time or percentage return. So an investor could buy 5% of a company's revenue for three years, or 10% of revenue capped at a 200% return on their investment. "In equity-based financing, [investors] aren't guaranteed a return on their money unless the company is sold or offers dividends," Barnett says. "Revenue lets them get a return. It lets them really share in the incremental growth of a company as it happens." Crowdfunder is in private beta testing right now, which will serve as a holding pattern until the Act takes effect.
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with little more than a month left before their deadline, several key questions remain unanswered.
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“The law is better than it might have been … but there are lots of loose ends, a lot of inconsistencies.”
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Best content in Crowdfunding101 | Diigo - Groups - 0 views
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"In Silicon Valley the venture capitalists are telling me they're moving investment away from consumer and into enterprise because they're seeing that the consumer markets are too risky. "They're investing less in consumer kinds of things - they're trying to get the kids to focus on the enterprise market."
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Kickstarter is a place of big ideas by small teams.
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What’s particularly notable is that these Crowdtilt donations are tax-deductible, and the company takes a relatively small fee.
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Pagosa Springs Daily News: Crowdfunding and Empty Storefronts [04Dec12] - 0 views
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his will be brief as my head is still spinning from last night’s Pagosa Springs Community Development Corporation (PSCDC) meeting held at the Quality Inn and Suites — my first "public meeting" as editor of the Pagosa Daily Post. First of all, many, many thanks to those who took the time to intentionally seek me out after the meeting for the purpose of encouraging me, offering me help (so needed) and suggestions (a bit over-whelming). I even appreciated those who came up to me, shook my hand, offered me an encouraging smile and simply stated “You really are crazy...” This may not be “newsy” enough or “investigative” enough for some, but it’s all I got for now. Please bear with me as I feel like I am trying to catch a run-away train.
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There were two main topics of discussion last night. First up was Udgar Parsons with a brief update on the “Imagine Downtown” project. Mr. Parsons is leading the charge to implement many of the preliminary initiatives that resulted from the two day meeting with Downtown Colorado, Inc. (DCI). DCI visited Pagosa Springs on November 12-13, 2012 to take a look at our community and make recommendations about how to improve the Pagosa experience. There were numerous opportunities and invitations to attend sections of these meetings. Attendees were then e-mailed to come to an inaugural launch meeting which took place last Thursday night. As a downtown property owner, this is a group I intend to follow. They are energized to dig in, doing simple, inexpensive projects to make a difference. First up is to identify all the vacant downtown property owners and offer to assist them in “dressing up” their windows and properties so as not to look so… well… “vacant”. There are a variety of suggestions including Christmas themed decorations, historical information, restaurant menus, high school art work and maps. It’s really a very simple project that requires minimal funds and a few dedicated souls to carry it out. The best part is it requires no government approvals. Property owners will be contacted and the service will be offered — free of charge. Now that’s new and different.
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Mr. Parsons launched the project with a $1,000 donation from Growing Spaces (the company he co-owns with his wife Puja). The CDC voted to match those funds — so with $2,000 & no government red tape to cut through, the first initiative of the “Imagine Downtown” project is off and running in less than 5 days. If you want to get involved or have suggestions, you can contact Mr. Parsons at udgar@frontier.net or Muriel Buckley at madamebuck@gmail.com. Next up was Anthony Edwards, founder of “Crowdfunding Offerings, LTD”. Anthony’s presentation consumed a majority of the time last night, but quite frankly, it was so chopped up due to constant questions and off-tracking from the audience, it was hard to follow. A “great” reporter would have come home and dug in researching everything he/she took notes on — and could perhaps write an intelligent summary of Mr. Edward’s presentation. I came home, cooked dinner, cleaned the kitchen and helped my son with his spelling test. In the scope of life — exactly what I should be doing. I will continue to update Daily Post readers as the viability and sustainability of such an endeavor really unfolds. You can read more about what “Crowdfunding Offerings” by clicking the link. It offers some basic education re: who, what, why and how. I was a little perplexed by the PSCDC’s willingness to jump in with Mr. Edward's company as it has no active platforms at this point. But I will assume for now the PSCDC has done their homework... and there is nothing wrong with joining on prior to the masses. I am sure the original shareholders of Apple, Dell and eBay would agree, there’s nothing wrong with being first. (Facebook??? Not so much.)
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Crowd-Funding Campaign Lessons Learned: What You Need to Know (1) [31Dec11] - 0 views
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Kickstarter emphasizes project-based funding campaigns, and the projects they accept generally need to have a definite end-date and clear metrics for completion and success. For businesses just starting out (like ours), the lack of an “end” to your vision may preclude you from qualifying. But where Kickstarter focuses on funding projects to completion, IndieGoGo promotes the broad funding of ideas, from for-profit businesses to not-for-profit causes to creative endeavors.
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We went with IndieGoGo—we didn’t meet Kickstarter’s project-oriented criteria—and we were charged 9% on the contributions we received (a fee that gets kicked down to 4% if the campaign reaches its funding goal).
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make sure someone on your team can have a strong, dedicated focus on the campaign—it won’t take off without it.
Josh Tetrick: It's Not About the Money [25Jan11] - 0 views
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The intersection of the social web and social good is flipping the traditional funding process upside down. And it's going to revolutionize how we create and scale impact.
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The phenomenon, called crowdfunding, also powers something as -- or even more -- important than money: it powers community.
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Crowdfunding, because of the possibility of hundreds or thousands of potential investors or donors, amplifies our natural human tendency to become a cheerleader for something we've already committed to supporting.
Josh Tetrick: Crowdfunding: How Social Entrepreneurs Are Turning Small Donations Into B... - 0 views
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The Obama campaign, through harnessing small contributions from millions of supporters, fueled a funding phenomenon already taking hold in the art and music worlds. Social entrepreneurs (i.e. entrepreneurs solving social and environmental problems through business practices) are taking notice.
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Thousands of social entrepreneurs are in need of a disruptive financial innovation: a way to connect with the with the vast pool of capital in the hands of our friends, our family, and the growing number of people who believe social entrepreneurship allows for a deeper, more sustained impact than traditional models.
Causevox Wants To Help Non-Profits Crowdsource Fundraising [26Nov11] - 0 views
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The power of the crowd has proven to be particularly useful when it comes to fundraising online. Founder Institute startup CauseVox is launching a SaaS platform that allows non-profits to crowdsource fundraising.
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While non-profits have a 30 day free trial to use the software, CauseVox will charge a small subscription fee and will take 7.5 percent of all donations. We have an exclusive offer for TC readers to use Causevox for free for six months.
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In its beta period, CauseVox already helped non-profits, including Change For Kids and RestoreNYC, raise over $400,000 in donations.
Sponsume lets projects get off the ground with Groupon-style group funding model [28Apr10] - 1 views
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Sponsume is a new online platform to help individuals and organisations promote and crowd source the funding of their projects.
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At Sponsume’s heart is the ability to let entrepreneurs, artists, charities, inventors, or just about anybody, raise funds for their idea through the sale of project vouchers, which can – should the project go ahead – be redeemed for various rewards. These can be almost anything, except equity and intellectual property rights, with the contract existing between the user and project owner, not Sponsume itself
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Right now Sponsume is free for project owners to use but at a later stage the company plans on charging commission of around five percent of the total raised. Other revenue streams include interest earned on accounts, sponsored placements and partnering with video production companies.
The Geography of Crowdfunding [09Dec12] - 0 views
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Perhaps the most striking feature of "crowdfunding" is the broad geographic dispersion of investors in small, early-stage projects. This contrasts with existing theories that predict entrepreneurs and investors will be co-located due to distance-sensitive costs. We examine a crowdfunding setting that connects artist-entrepreneurs with investors over the internet for financing musical projects. The average distance between artists and investors is about 3,000 miles, suggesting a reduced role for spatial proximity. Still, distance does play a role. Within a single round of financing, local investors invest relatively early, and they appear less responsive to decisions by other investors. We show this geography effect is driven by investors who likely have a personal connection with the artist-entrepreneur ("family and friends"). Although the online platform seems to eliminate most distance-related economic frictions such as monitoring progress, providing input, and gathering information, it does not eliminate social-related frictions.
Crowdfunding for entrepreneurs (Crowd Investing investment rounds for startups) [25Jul12] - 0 views
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Here is a collaborative matrix of existing crowdfunding platforms dedicated to small business, startups...
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40Billon
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SiamoSoci is a marketplace that allows Investors to search through innovative Startups and fund them in exchange for a stake in the companies.
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Comparison of Crowdfunding Websites [01Nov11] - 1 views
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Kickstarter
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The site has seen more than 13,000 successful campaigns since its launch in 2009.
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Artists, designers, and inventors
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8 Crowdfunding Websites That Will Help You Raise Funds! [08Feb11] - 1 views
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MicroVentures
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Also described as peer-to-peer lending, MicroVentures works with investors as well as with those who need money to get a certain project off the ground.
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companies pay $100 to MicroVentures and then send their business plan to the site for approval.
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Crowdfunding the arts - who's with us? [11Mar11] - 0 views
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On Thursday night we celebrated the launch of wedidthis.org.uk, a new crowdfunding platform supporting UK arts organisations, allowing them to reach out to their audiences and supporters for funding and bringing together large numbers of small donations.
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We must build and strengthen the "culture of asking", which will be so vital for the sector's future.
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at the heart of the new culture that we must create is a two-way conversation between arts organisations and individuals that is about much more than a donation of funds.
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Shareable: Why Crowdfunding Isn't Really About Money [06Oct11] - 0 views
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Crowdfunding is a community-engagement process between an individual or organization seeking money to create something new and a crowd of supporters who want to participate in the effort in a meaningful way. It is primarily about open collaboration among the participants that takes the form of: An Invitation to Make A Successful Project; followed by A Campaign to Engage More People in the Effort; and culminating in A Celebration of What Everyone Has Created Together.
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The tools of social media enable the organic formation of peer-to-peer networks able to set agendas and aggregate resources to move toward their shared goals. Crowdfunding itself is a “sticky” idea with mass appeal because it is proving to be an effective way to democratize finance by making the exchange of money more transparent as a way to empower social action. What started out as a cool way to support your local band in getting their first recording out to their fans has evolved into a recognizable platform for bypassing bureaucratic institutions and taking action straight to the crowd.
Craig Newman: Is Crowdfunding The Next Big Thing or An Invitation To Digital Fraud? [12... - 0 views
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the bills now being considered by Congress may simply exchange one problem for another. They would open the door to easier capital-raising, but at the expense of investor protection. H.R. 2930 does not require even the most basic disclosures about the issuing company or its prospects, in contrast to most existing securities regulation. Instead, the bill merely proposes a series of warnings about the risky nature of investments in start-up companies
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Surely companies that seek to raise funds from outsiders should be required to provide basic disclosures about their operations and financial condition. Background checks always should be required for an issuer’s key executives. Investors should have some recourse against an issuer’s top managers when their malfeasance causes the company to fail. T
How the Crowdfunding Site Peerbackers Got Its Start [24May11] - 1 views
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We're moving beyond the funding platform and taking a longer view.
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Their products need exposure, so we're developing a site marketplace.
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there is a danger of funder burnout. One way we're handling that is by bringing in partners with larger pockets. If you're successful on our site and your idea is exciting, we'll say, "Hey, you should come to our pitch event." It's very rare you'll get big dollars through crowdfunding, but we're leaving that door open through partnerships with people who can extend the reach.
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New Crowdfunding Considerations for Small Businesses [14May2012] - 0 views
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Crowdfunding is a hot topic of late, in part because the JOBS Act promises to bring significant changes to the way it works.
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or starters, small businesses that want to move forward with crowdfunding can begin to gather all the important documents needed to launch a campaign. Documents will include the financial status of the company, financial statements certified by an officer or accountant (depending on the amount of the offering), the company’s tax return for the most recent year, a business plan, and a capital structure explaining who owns what percentage of the company.
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typically the amounts that you’ll be looking at will not represent a big ownership stake
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Crowdfunding: raising money from strangers [02Feb11] - 1 views
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But away from the crumbling of traditional structures that have for decades supported musicians, film-makers et al, there's been a feelgood story brewing online that suggests that our enthusiasm for giving money in exchange for creativity has far from disappeared. Crowdfunding is a modern spin on the ancient system of patronage, and the polar opposite of file-sharing
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Slicethepie and Sellaband were pioneers that aimed to launch the careers of young musicians, and they've since been joined by start-ups such as PledgeMusic and My Major Company (MMC). Meanwhile, sites such as Feed the Muse and RocketHub have broadened it beyond music to any kind of creative project. But the biggest noise is being made by Kickstarter.
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behind these headline-grabbing figures are a huge number of smaller projects that are seeing the light of day thanks only to crowdfunding
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Entrepreneurs see a chance for profit in niche crowd-funding for charities [22Aug11] - 0 views
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The tool they use is called niche crowd-funding. Entrepreneurs set up websites for very specific types of charitable projects, like supporting small farmers in developing nations or helping victims of natural disasters. People who need backers can put fund-raising pitches on the site—and the entrepreneurs take a cut of whatever money they raise.
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The owners of the niche sites are betting that people want smaller, more focused venues where they don't have to compete for attention with thousands of unrelated projects.
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. FitFunder.com, which is based in Thousand Oaks, Calif., lets users connect their fitness goals with charitable causes. People who want to run a marathon for charity, for instance, can use the site to link up with a cause in need—and then solicit donations. The site charges 5% of funds raised.