Crowd Funding, Micro-funding, New Approach for Investors - Alternatives to Wall Street

The crowdfunding model is now a mini-cottage industry, thanks to Kickstarter, and yes, he's been spoofed by 'South Park.'

Excerpts:

...When did the concept of crowdfunding first click for you?

In 2005. I had these artist and musician friends with day jobs that they hated, but they couldn’t afford to just do art or music. There’s a widespread assumption that creative things just magically happen, and they don’t. Creation requires funding.

....(order changed)  Today, millions of people use the site each day, adding up to a daily average of $1 million in pledges (some 70,000 campaigns have launched on the site). 

      

...Are there plans to grow the staff?

Actually, no. I think we’ll get to 100 people, but not much beyond that in the near future. Being a small company [means we are] light on costs, and I like the scrappiness of trying to accomplish a lot with a little. There’s far more shared ownership with a small team.
     
...Are you threatened by ...copycat competitors?

I’ve always known others would copy our idea, but to be honest, we’ve always been the strongest product. ....and for most of our measurements -- dollars pledged, site visitors, project supporters -- there’s a huge gulf between us and the rest of the field.

 

Via Deb Nystrom, REVELN

"The rapid exchange of data needed to maintain competitiveness demands access to multiple, fluid sources of information.  Crowdsourcing helps this happen."

        

Excerpts, 3 examples:
    

Anheuser-Busch (AB)– The world’s leading brewer, ...sought customer input to develop a brand more attuned to craft-beer tastes. Development of Black Crown, a golden amber lager, combined a competition between company-brewmasters with consumer suggestions and tastings; this project had more than 25,000 consumer-collaborators.

Coca-Cola– Coke now uses a more open business model, assuming an increasingly prominent position in corporate crowdsourcing. Its open-sourced “Shaping a Better Future” challenge asks entrepreneurs to create improvement-ventures for the project-hubs of youth employment, education, environment and health.

ucts more effectively, once again tying social media to co-creation.  

Unilever– Despite its globally-recognized and respected research staff and facilities, Unilever understands the value of collaboration with innovative partners from outside the firm. It seeks external contributions from anyone with useful input into such diverse project challenges as storing renewable energy, fighting viruses, reducing the quantity of sodium in food, creating cleaning-products that pollute less.

Click the title to see the full list of 5.

Via Deb Nystrom, REVELN