Posts
February 29 2012
By definition, rare diseases are hard to diagnose, receive little research funding, and are challenging to treat. One organization is trying to change all that through a crowdfunding model specifically aimed at helping those with the nearly 7,000 rare diseases in the U.S.
February 28 2012
Senate majority leader Harry Reid announced plans on Tuesday to push forward legislation to spur capital formation for small businesses, an issue that has spawned a rare showing of bipartisanship.The Nevada Democrat said the Senate Banking Committee would hold a hearing on small business growth next week and…
February 27 2012
The recent success of the Order of the Stick Kickstarter project has shown that crowdfunding can provide funding for authors at a level equal to or higher than traditional publishers’ advances. It is certainly an exciting time to be an entrepreneurial author. But what about the entrepreneurial agents? How might their role change to take crowdfunding into account?
February 14 2012
Alex Andon’s interest in jellyfish went beyond his fascination with their hypnotic, graceful movements. Where most people would admire the sea life and leave it at that, Andon saw an entrepreneurial opportunity. In 2008, he designed a special aquarium with regulated water flow that would prevent the water pump…
February 10 2012
It's been a huge day for the crowdfunding platform, Kickstarter, which saw its two most-backed projects reach $1 million in pledges within four hours of each other yesterday. The first project to reach the one-million-dollar threshhold was the Elevation Dock, an iPhone dock, which got its million from more than 9,000 backers. It hit the number at about 2pm West Coast time.
February 06 2012
Is crowdfunding right for your project?
From my introductory essay, you can already get the sense that I'm pro-crowdfunding. But let's be honest with ourselves, in an ideal world where everyone has access to easy, no-strings attached money, no one would look for outside funding. Just like seeking out loans or investors, there are pros and cons to crowdfunding your project.February 03 2012
The underpinning principle behind crowdfunding is to get lots of people together to pool modest sums of money in order to collectively back a person, project, or idea. It’s still a relatively new phenomenon that has been made possible by sites like US-based Kickstarter and Crowdfunder in the UK.
January 13 2012
In early November, the U.S. House of Representatives overwhelming passed the Entrepreneur Access to Capital Act, a crowdfunding bill which permits startups to offer and sell securities via crowdfunding sites like Kickstarter or social networking sites like Facebook. As I discuss below, this is a game-changer for startups and lifts certain…