Crowdfunding Now!

The items below are from an article on what causes small business failures. I have repurposed it to show how crowdfunding addresses these issues and how we use these factors in evaluating potential crowdfunding campaigns. "Inadequate Financing" Clearly, crowdfunding addresses this issue. "Amount of Effort Exerted:  The single most important factor in determining who succeeds and who doesn't is simply the amount of effort exerted. If you aren't ready and willing to work - and work hard - being an entrepreneur is probably not for you." While we don't believe that effort expended is the single most important factor, crowdfunding is hard. If you will not work hard on it, and work smart, then you will not do well. "Lack of Planning:  Another fact rarely considered is that the majority of new businesses fail within a few years mostly due simply to poor planning or no planning at all." You have to plan your crowdfunding ca...

The shift in securities laws will make it easier to access capital for startups http://www.blackenterprise.com/small-business/jobs-act-win-for-minority-businesses-title-3/ Related articles WATCH: This Morning's Hearing On Crowdfunding & The JOBS Act Is A Big One Small Business Startup Funding And American JOBS Act Title III Outside the Box: 4 ways investing in startups will become easier for you Minority Business Development Agency Announces Record Client Performance

Cover of Illmatic (Aniv) We note with interest the crowdfunding campaign by Nas , (formal name: Nasir bin Olu Dara Jones.) According to Wikipedia, "his debut album Illmatic , released in 1994, received universal acclaim from both critics and the hip hop community. It is frequently ranked as..the greatest hip hop album of all time.." His crowdfunding campaign is unique, actually brilliant. No other celebrity of his stature has launched a crowdfunding campaign that has been as personal and targeted. Rather than focusing on a record, a product or a film (in contrast to, say, Spike Lee or Zach Braff) or self aggrandisement, Nas chose to focus on the needs of a single human family. Outstanding. THIS is what crowdfunding can do and may be the template for future crowdfunding campaigns by similarly situated performers. Related articles How To Crowdfund: 5 Crowdfunding Tips Not Your Mom's Fundraiser: Crowdfunding Is Nothing Like Fundraising Crowdfunding's G...

With crowdfunding gaining traction, I thought I would revisit and update our crowdfunding tips. 1. Review other crowdfunding campaigns for best practices As one blogger noted, "Before you start your crowdfunding campaign,  study others who have done it well." There will be many  examples of how to do crowdfunding right. Watch our Twitter feed (@Blackcrowdfund)  2. Hustle Develop a " strategic approach." Who are you trying to get support from? Why would they support you? What are the long term benefits to your supporters? Are you going to hit them up again? How many times?  Create a m edia list. Get "ambassadors," people who will speak on your behalf. "Plan ahead  as much as possible. This means contacting your supporters before you  launch to firm up their promotion and participation, and also  developing a thorough marketing plan." Above all, get going! 3. Adapt quickly As one crowdfunder put it, things may not go as planned. You wi...

The University of California, Berkeley's Fung Institute for Engineering Leadership has conservatively estimated the size of the equity and debt based crowdfunding market to be at least $3.98B.  Professor Lee Fleming, Faculty Director of the Fung Institute, Academic Director of the Program and contributing author said, “While estimating the size of the future and currently non-existent market is a hazardous endeavor at best, we have presented a set of data, assumptions, and estimations that may prove useful. From the lenses of Angels, VCs and Small business lending we believe a market as large as $3.98B per year could rapidly evolve.” “While Venture Capitalist Fred Wilson added credibility to the concept of crowdfund investing by predicting crowdfund investing could amount to a $300B market, we believe that the market size may be much small yet equally impactful” said   Sherwood Neiss , co-founder of the Program for Innovation in Entrepreneurial and Social Finance and ...

From "The UR Business Network, a 24-hour business radio network" broadcasting "entrepreneurs, business leaders and business experts." http://www.urbusinessradio. com/2013-01-02_-_MYOB- BillCunningham01.mp3 http://www.urbusinessradio. com/2013-01-02_-_MYOB- BillCunningham02.mp3 Related articles Crowdfunding & the JOBS Act: What Does This Mean For You? CrowdfundingRoadmap Introduces the First Ever Crowdfunding Expo... SEC Equity Crowdfunding Rulemaking: Where Things Stand CrowdfundingNews 2/18/13

Crowdfunding News  Jan 4, 2013 IndieGoGo's 2012 In Crowdfunding : Campaigns Raised 20% More Than In 2011 ... TechCrunch Crowdfunding site Indiegogo shared some exclusive details regarding their past year with TechCrunch, and the stats essentially back up what Matt Burns said about 2012: In many ways, this was the year of crowdfunding . Campaigns raised more money in ... See all stories on this topic » Crowdfunded Pebble watch ready to drop San Francisco Business Times (blog) Seven months after raising $10.18 million through online " crowdfunding " from people who want one of its cellphone-linked " smartwatches ," Pebble Technology says it finally has a product to put into people's hands. The Palo Alto startup's public ... See all stories on this topic » GarageGames launches crowdfunding campaign to make everyone a game ... VentureBeat GarageGames has been around since 2000 making tools for professional developers. But...

Crowdfunding today 12/17/12 Daniel Ellsberg: Crowd Funding the Right to Know Huffington Post (blog) "A cantankerous press, an obstinate press, an ubiquitous press must be suffered by those in authority in order to preserve the even greater values of freedom of expression and the right of the people to know." -- Judge Murray Gurfein, Pentagon Papers ... See all stories on this topic » Crowdfunding could revolutionise lending, says Andrew Haldane Telegraph.co.uk Andrew Haldane said that he believed the rise of peer-to-peer lenders such as Zopa and Funding Circle - which match up companies needing money with investors - and crowdfunding , where small amounts are raised from a number of funders, will challenge ... See all stories on this topic » Telegraph.co.uk Crowdfunding's Not About You Daily Crowdsource I peruse a lot of crowdfunding campaigns in the course of a single day. Some of them catch my attention immediately. Not only that, ...