What is Crowdfunder.org?
It's all about crowdfunding
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Crowdsourcing – by Allyson Ingerman, Producer
In 2008, Allyson Ingerman, founder of Ainger Co. Productions, spotted a book called Crowdsourcing: Why the power of the crowd is driving the future of business in an airport kiosk. The concept had been rolling around in her head for months, but no one had put a name to it. The book, by author Jeff Howe, snatched off the shelf then and there, became the first book Allyson ever took notes in.
And she took a lot of notes.
Ainger Co. wants to leverage the crowd to decentralize Hollywood – to give a platform to the artists, actors, technicians and others who want to create something astonishing without having to be a part of the Hollywood in crowd. The production in the works will do their best to live in the Crowdsourcing model.
Need some more info on Crowdsourcing? From Jeff Howe's website:
via Crowdsourcing.
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Filmmaking 2.0: Crowdfunding for Film – by Jon M. Garon
This is part of a series of book excerpts from The Independent Filmmaker's Law and Business Guide: Financing, Shooting, and Distributing Independent and Digital Films designed to introduce filmmakers and others interested in creating content on the legal issues involved in the filmmaking process.
Using the technique known as “crowdfunding,” a producer can pre-sell credits in the film or other goods and services in an effort to pre-finance the production. Crowdfunding is just one of the many ways in which producers of motion pictures can utilize the tools of social media to connect with their curatorial audience and build opportunity to succeed in the increasingly challenging media environment. Whether they use blogging, Twitter accounts, dedicated websites, or Derivative New Media Production vignettes of any other combination of media and technology, the goal is to build an audience for their production who will pay to see the movie and encourage their friends to do the same.
via Filmmaking 2.0: Crowdfunding for Film – by Jon M. Garon.
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Crowdfunder.org has launched the LinkedIn Crowdfunding Panel
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Founder of Biracy Answers my Question on LinkedIn
Question: Where do crowdfunding platforms fit within the startup financing cycle? Click here to see all of the answers
David Geertz’s Answer:
crowdfunding general overview
There is a lot of discussion beginning to start out there with regard to what crowdfunding and crowdsourcing is and whether or not it is a legal and valuable tool to entreprenuers. its seems like there are specific groups trying to claim the term to fit within their industry subset, and for the most part (in my opinion) most of these opinions are wrong.
not investing
first of all there are a bunch of people who continue to challenge the idea that crowdfunding is an investment. this could not be further from the truth and perhaps this is the best place to start to weed out platforms that call themselves crowdfunding sites. crowdfunding falls into these categories
- donations
- memberships
- pre-ordering of a product
none of these applications gives the person involved any notion of potential upside, long term growth, or ownership in the corporation that is selling the product. think of it this way – a company has a widget that they need to manufacture and the company that tools it up and makes the product needs a minimum order to put the process in play. the business owner goes out and sells pre-orders of the product and while this happens, a third party trust holds all the money until the minimum is met, at which time funds are released and the widgets are made and delivered and the business owner is now off and running and the crowd that bought the product also becomes in some ways part of his marketing platform as they took part in the process of getting it launched.
in the case of our site (full disclosure here) at www.biracy.com we sell both a product and a membership that also entitles our members to participate in the film through crowdsourcing models which is also a unique part of our process but not really relevant to this discussion.the lawyers
we think they should focus on finding and shutting down groups that “claim” they are crowdfunding but in fact are merely using this moniker as a way to solicit money from people, thus creating havoc and trust issues with legitimate groups working in the space.
registration of with the SEC
this is ridiculous. here’s why. in a hypothetical case if we were to required to register with the sec, then every member would then need to get a 500 dollar opinion on whether or not they should buy a copy of our DVD. why…because the buyer does need to understand what they are buying. that’s like saying that you need to consult a lawyer before buying a membership to costco or having an opinion provided to you before ordering your christmas baking that makes a donation to little league 3 months prior to delivery. In fact…our membership price is half the amount that i paid for cookies this year through and guess what…they were late! boo hoo. its not like i’m taking the cookies holding them in a jar for a year and then hoping the cookie market is going to climb so i can create an exit strategy and sell my cookies on ebay to some cookie sucker. i’m going to eat them. i purchased the product and consumed it, and somewhere in the process some people benefited…its just business.
how crowdfunding fits into the financial cycle
it fits into all the catergories that greg has mentioned from people like indiegogo providing a development platform for writer/directors, to people like us who are funding a 15M dollar feature film. the point to crowdfunding is that it removes the financial control from people who like to watch creative people squirm, and this is what’s really scary to the finance world.
where it does not fit
i think crowdfunding does have its limitations as well. i think complex start ups that can’t prove they can provide a finished product should, and will have to stay out of this area for now. An example might be that a biotech firm creating a new drug or product would not be able provide a guarantee of a finished product within a reasonable time period. i think as a result of this they would be ineligible for this process.
Links:
http://www.biracy.com
http://www.indiegogo.com
http://www.kickstarter.com
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4 Key Questions to ask Crowdfunding Founders – The Trust Factor
I was asked by one of my Twitter followers, what is the most important thing to look for when choosing a crowdfunding platform for your project? This has come up before in my discussions with some of the crowdfunding Founders. As consumers, our greatest fear when dealing with investing, donating or managing money online is TRUST. As artists, entrepreneurs and inventors we have the same fears; who do we TRUST with our visions? So, on that note, here are the top three questions you should ask of any crowdfunding platform:
- What percentage of the money raised goes to the platform management? We should know how much we are paying the broker (platform) to help us raise money;
- How many successful fundings (100% funded projects) has the crowdfunding platform completed? Do they have a vibrant community that will find and rally around your project?
- Can the platform demonstrate that their listed projects have been completed? What percentage were completed?
- Are the completed projects of a quality that satisfies you? Or you could ask, are the projects of a standard relevant to the dollars raised? The platform’s projects will be a reflection on your project.
All of these question address the level of trust that you and your project supporters should demand. I would also encourage you to engage the Founders of these platforms on Twitter or on their blogs. I have a list of Founders on Twitter – Click here http://twitter.com/cfundr/founders to follow and ask them these questions. They are all eager to share their vision and answer your questions. You can also engage me on Twitter @cfundr