Group items tagged

The question is can scientists use crowdfunding to fund their research? Based on RocketHub’s success, it appears the answer is a resounding yes. The service is banking that science and education can do better asking an interested public to join with them in funding unique and worthy projects. Plus, the crowdfunding wave is nudging scientists to do what many artists and business owners have to do – engage directly with the public, with fans, with customers. The feedback mechanism also offers a benefit to the scientist that could help refine a project focus based on crowd support and ideas. The current rate of funding for science proposals in the U.S. is ~20%. Crowdfunding will likely increase that success rate.

Other sites like Profounder, which is currently in private Beta, aims to make crowdfunding easy for ordinary business owners. They'll assist in creating legal documents that will make the investments official and the terms easy to understand by all. Profounder will also enable users to hold both private and public rounds of investments, collect those investments, keep track of filings, deadlines and bookkeeping, and distribute repayments to investors automatically.

While the VC community seems stuck in an old boys network mentality, crowdfunding is radically re-shaping business investment and neutralizing gender bias, for both investors and entrepreneurs. According to Danae Ringelmann, co-founder of crowdfunding site IndieGoGo, 42 percent of successful funding campaigns are women-led.

At the low end of the financing curve, crowdfunding is creating a vibrant way to launch small projects and businesses, especially those with smaller capital needs. But as one pushes further up in seed funding needs, equity financing becomes increasingly more important. Investors need more upside potential to balance out the higher risks of investing in pre-revenue ventures.

Investors of early startups shouldn't put all of their money in any one investment. Rather, they should hold a diversified basket of startup investments. If they do, a systemic level of 1 or 2 percent fraud is nearly irrelevant.

Scientists have joined the ranks of those asking the public to help fund their work. Their research projects hide among the art, video and book proposals on large crowd funding sites like Kickstarter, RocketHub and IndieGoGo. You can find a neat project here, but choose carefully: not every science project here is run by scientists, nor has it been reviewed by scientific experts.

Projects on these sites are looking for an injection of cash to continue a specific project. But other scientists have turned to the crowd for help with long-term costs: salaries.

Finding funding can be one of the biggest challenges for social entrepreneurs.

Family and friends have been one of the most common sources of venture funding capital for centuries. Crowdfunding takes this age-old source of venture funding and brings it into the digital age.

33 Needs: Connecting microinvestors & social enterpreneurs 133needs

An interesting new development on this type of funding is its expansion in the area of crowdfunding entrepreneurial businesses.

Two UK companies are however pioneering the provision of finance through lending and equity investing from the crowd. Fundingcircle, founded in 2010 allows the general public to directly lend to businesses seeking finance, allowing them to quickly access capital without having to go through the banking system. So far several thousand lenders have provided loans worth some £24 million. Crowdcube, also launched in 2010, allows individuals to take an equity stake in a company raising finance.

Crowdfunding supporters argue that while raising money is the most important benefit the platform provides, another important advantage of this new source of finance is the power of "collective intelligence" i.e. the ability to mobilise the wisdom of crowd by asking investors to actively participate in new product development (e.g. by voting on their preferred product or services) and actively contribute to the due diligence of the opportunity by sharing their expertise.

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.

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.

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.)