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Showing posts with label KickStarter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label KickStarter. Show all posts

Sunday 13 December 2015

Crowdfunding is slowly gaining credibility, helped entrepreneurs achieve their dreams


This alternative source of funding has helped many entrepreneurs achieve their dreams.

Ng (right) handing over a mock cheque to Jamaliatul Shahriah bt Jamaluddin, the project creator for YAKEEN Honey Booster after a successful round of funding on the platform.

CROWDFUNDING has gained a strong following as an alternative funding option over the past few years. Small businesses that have not been able to secure conventional financing are looking more and more towards the practice as a source of financing.

However, the level of awareness and interest in crowdfunding in Malaysia is still at its infancy stage, noted Fundaztic.com chief executive officer Kristine Ng.

“Maybe about one in 20 people have heard of the concept and understand exactly how it works. There are currently just a handful of noted platforms in the market. Some local companies try to raise funds on international platforms such as Indiegogo.com.

“There is still a lot more which local players need to do to gain the credibility and recognition to grow further. And having the support from the local community would be a great boost for us,” she said.

Fundaztic, which rolled out in June this year, is among the handful of local crowdfunding players in the market. The platform was founded by a group of ex-bankers and a lawyer who have been following the development of financial technology (FinTech).

The potential of crowdfunding as an alternative funding platform is huge, said Ng, because access to funds has always been an issue, especially for new businesses and new business sectors that are viable but yet to have proven track-records.

Furthermore, Malaysians tend to be generally cautious when it comes to adopting new technology. Additionally, having to overcome the hurdle of building confidence in the credibility of the platforms would take a lot of time and effort for crowdfunding to be a significant part of the funding scene here.

Fundaztic has listed eight projects on its platform so far, with four projects currently in active funding stage.

But crowdfunding has taken the world by storm in the western countries and established strong platforms such as Kickstarter.com and Indiegogo.com that have helped many entrepreneurs bring their dreams and aspirations to life. Reports have even noted the possibility that the crowdfunding industry could account for more funding than venture capital (VC) in 2016.

A recent report by Massolution said global crowdfunding is set to raise US$34.4bil for 2015. In comparison, the VC industry invests an average of US$30bil each year.

“We truly believe that crowdfunding is a proven platform for like-minded people to support each other, and epitomises the meaning of ‘people power’ in an extremely positive manner,” Ng said. Fundaztic has listed eight projects on its platform so far, with four projects currently in active funding stage.

“We are happy that two of the projects are over-funded and have helped the project creators, who are both women and homegrown entrepreneurs, to grow their business in a risk free manner.

“This is the strongest benefit of crowdfunding. Entrepreneurs can leverage on the platform to gauge the level of public acceptance and support towards their products before having to splash out the funds on their own to commercialise a product or to stock up on inventory,” said Ng.

Funding on Fundaztic is through the concept of cornerstone funding whereby projects that are not able to meet its funding goal but have managed to generate at least 80% of the required funding, can get a maximum of 20% of the required funds from Fundaztic itself.

“Because we truly want all projects to be successful, we would be more than willing to hand-hold in the curation of the project so that the message will sink in well with the local community and thus, enjoy a higher degree of success,” Ng concluded. - The Starbiz

Entrepreneurs Slow to Market Via Equity Crowdfunding Platforms



Brian Gallagher, CEO of United Way Worldwide, talks about the rise of Giving Tuesday and the latest trend in charitable

Equity crowdfunding platforms are providing a new and innovative way to  raise money from angel investors that centralizes, streamlines, simplifies and shortens the fundraising process. Equity crowdfunding pools money from a group of investors via internet platforms, using social media and other types of marketing.

You might be surprised to learn that entrepreneurs, who are known for innovating in their products and services, are not innovating when it comes to the way they raise money. And  angel investors, who put money into innovations, are not innovating in the way they invest. Few entrepreneurs are marketing their securities offerings to angels online via crowdfunding.

That’s unfortunate, since angel investors provide about half as much financing as venture capitalists: $24 billion compared to $48 billion, according to the Center for Venture Research and MoneyTree, respectively. Angels, defined here as accredited investors who earn $200,000 annually (or $300,000 as a couple), or have a net worth, excluding their homes, in excess of $1 million, are more likely than VCs to focus on  seed and early-stage companies.

The State of Private Companies Publicly Raising Financing

This new public-facing financing method became possible on September 23, 2013, when the SEC put into effect the rules and regulations that allow private companies to advertise their securities offerings to angel investors. Previously, public solicitation was prohibited. Entrepreneurs now can market their securities offerings through websites such as AngelListCircleUpCrowdfunder and Portfolia.

Yet surprisingly few companies choose to seek funding publicly. Last year, 382,000 companies sought to raise money from angels in the real world. Fewer than 100 companies were added to those already trying to do so in the online world between January 1 and June 30, 2015, according to Crowdnetic, which aggregates data from 18 equity crowdfunding platforms.

The reality is that concerns about a new way of doing business often hold back adoption. I tackle these concerns in 6 Common Misconceptions About Equity Crowdfunding. The good news is that entrepreneurs who are embracing public-facing financing are blazing the trail, and best practices are emerging. I’ve written about some of those practices in How to Ensure a Successful Crowdfunding Campaign and in Stand Out In the Crowd: How Women (and Men) Benefit From Equity Crowdfunding

Women Entrepreneurs and Equity Crowdfunding: A Gap and Great Potential

Raising money via equity crowdfunding platforms has the potential to level the playing field for anyone raising money, but its impact may be greatest on underrepresented groups—such as women—who lag even further in taking advantage of this new approach. Women entrepreneurs are twice as likely to seek money offline from angels (36%) than publicly online (18%), according to the Center for Venture Research and Crowdnetic.

The average amount raised via crowdfunding is rising for companies in general ($412,000 as of the end of 2014 to $432,000 as of June 30, 2015) and falling for women-led companies ($331,000 as of the end of 2014 to $323,000 as of June 30, 2015).

This gap highlights tremendous potential. “The Kauffman Foundation reports that women build capital-efficient companies, generating 12% more revenue on one third less capital,” according to Kay Koplovitz, chairman and co-founder of Springboard Enterprises, an accelerator for women-led businesses in technology, media and life sciences. “[Think] how much more productive they could be if they raised capital on a par with men!”

Types of Securities Used

You may wonder what types of securities other entrepreneurs use when raising money. A majority (58%) issue stock as their method of financing. Nearly one third of entrepreneurs choose  convertible note, which allows them not to set an equity valuation at the time of the investment or to simply pay back the money within a set period of time prior to taking in permanent equity capital.

There are other financing structure options, such as revenue sharing or royalty agreements, but these are far less likely to be used. Depending on your long-term goal for the company, a securities lawyer can  advise you on which is the right form for you..

Top Locations for Equity Crowdfunding

It’s no surprise that the top location for equity crowdfunding activity and deals is the San Francisco/Silicon Valley area, both for entrepreneurs in general and for women-led companies in particular.

Over the past few decades, this area has developed a strong culture of entrepreneurship. It takes a village to build a growth company and to provide the ancillary support that makes growth possible. San Francisco/Silicon Valley has a long tradition of assisting high-potential entrepreneurs, not just with capital but with expertise and connections to customers, talent and vendors.

New York City is in second place. Worth noting are the high performance of relatively small cities such as Austin and Las Vegas, which rank among the top ten cities for raising money publicly online.

Other Signs That Equity Crowdfunding Is Gaining Credibility

Venture capitalists recognize the potential of crowdfunding and have invested in these platforms to the tune of $250 million in 2014, according to Massolution’s 2015CF Crowdfunding Industry Report. Big-name companies such as Coca-Cola, Nike, General Mills and Chrysler use crowdfunding platforms not to raise money but to gain insights into consumers.

Source: http://quickbooks.intuit.com/


Related post:

Real estate crowdfunding in Malaysia

Wednesday 21 December 2011

Best startup ideas of 2011



by Rafe Needleman

Will a health-monitoring watch be the next mobile platform?(Credit: Basis)
 
This was the year of mobile startups, but not all the best ideas for new businesses were based on smartphones or mobile devices.

There are more ways to make money than by building a product that immediately hands 30 percent to Apple or Google. Here are the best startup ideas or models from 2011.

Make it a platform

As Facebook and Salesforce.com have shown, a tech company's proprietary data can be valuable as a substrate to other businesses. Build a tool that other people can build upon and then collect the rent when they do.

The best examples of this that come to mind: Box and Spotify. Box is a cloud storage provider. It's in a boring space that's becoming commoditized. The solution to staying in front? Make it possible for developers to build apps that leverage the data that Box's enterprise customers are paying to store. That's likely the only way to fend off the competing cloud storage providers.

Spotify, for its part, has a valuable but not unique music-streaming service. People are paying for it. But will they continue to do so? By allowing other businesses to build apps that run on top of the Spotify library--basically, music discovery and recommendation apps--Spotify is able to leverage its licensing deals and give other music brands (like Rolling Stone and We Are Hunted) a great way to offer new services to their fans.



Come to think of it, this is one of the reasons mobile is so big: App stores are platforms where developers can make money on top of large bases of users and communication networks.

Jobs near you, on Zaarly. (Credit: Screenshot by CNET)

Get consumers to sell stuff to one other, 2.0

eBay and Craigslist replaced the garage sale and the classified ad, but commerce moves on, and newer ideas are making these models seem old-fashioned. Services like TaskRabbit, Zaarly, and Coffee and Power are opening up a new economy where consumers can do direct deals with each other, with the benefit of more up-to-date community features. In most cases, the key is the social network connection, so you know with whom you are dealing.

Related to this is the emergence of specialized services for sharing the stuff you own: your house (AirBnB), your office (Loosecubes), and your car (Wheelz, RelayRides, and GetAround).

Build a studio

It's hard to come up with a viable product, but some smart startups don't try. Instead, they are building new studio systems to help other inventors raise the funds to build their dream products--and then give them built-in marketplaces to sell them.

KickStarter and Quirky both encourage nascent inventors (and artists, in KickStarter's case) to pitch their ideas to their audiences. People who like ideas pony up either a cash pledge or some of their limited votes. Good ideas and projects bubble up, in theory. More importantly, people who might not otherwise be exposed to very early-stage projects get to participate in the development and, in doing so, can become ambassadors to new ideas.

Crunch down big data

The Internet is awash in information and data, but few companies, other than Web giants themselves (Google, Facebook, Amazon), make real use of it. But finally, services are emerging that give other businesses, and even consumers, access to this data and the analytics to use it.

For example, in the retail arena, Decide.com analyzes prices of consumer technology products, and predicts if prices on particular items are going to go down, up, or hold steady. It's a valuable tool for consumers. On the smaller retail front, BlackLocus scours data sources (like competing retail sites) for tech prices. It can be programmed to adjust a store's own prices to make sure they are always competitive.

Touch the real world

Nearly every new mobile startup, it seems, is now location-aware. But consumer tech is getting eyes and ears as well, and it's making for very interesting new businesses. The startup IntoNow (sold to Yahoo) is a mobile app that listens for TV shows airing in the same room. Consumers use it to get additional data about the show they're watching; marketers get much richer data about who's watching what, where, and when.

A new take on an old appliance, the Nest thermostat.(Credit: Nest)

Other sensor technologies are showing up in wearable devices: The Jawbone UP bracelet monitors activity and sleep. And Basis is building a watch that measure skin temperature, sweat level, heart rate, and even blood oxygen level.

Invest in design

The best idea in startups to come in 2011: simplification and beautiful design. Consumers, it turns out, appreciate strong design and clear user interaction. We're seeing new apps and products now that take technology and strive for simplicity,  rather then trying to show off how technological they are.

The best examples of these are two hardware products, the Nest thermostat and the minimal Roku LT streaming media box. On the mobile front, new apps like Path 2 and Oink are distilled into spare and engaging mobile experiences, instead of going overboard with features and slowing down the on-the-go user.


Rafe Needleman

Rafe reviews mobile apps and products for fun, and picks startups apart when he gets bored. He has evaluated thousands of new companies, most of which have since gone out of business. Feeling lucky? Send pitches to rafe@cnet.com. And watch Rafe's tech issues podcast, Reporters' Roundtable, every Friday.

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Best New Startups of 2011

Best New Startups of 2011
Source: User uploaded image


The best new startups of 2011 combine an innovative idea with a motivated group of people to create new products or service or improve on products and services we already use and adore. Each of these companies are in their infancy right now but have made a big splash on the world already. Using their creativity, innovations, hard work, and of course some venture capital funding, these startups are primed to take the world by storm to change how we work, play, communicate and perform so many other everyday activities.

It's hard to believe a world without the likes of Facebook, Twitter, Groupon, LinkedIn and Instagram but once upon a time, all of these tech startups were once the new kids on the block. Their creators saw an opening for their individual products and services then took it upon themselves to fill that void. Their ideas were both well executed and well embraced by the world and became nearly instant successes. They weren't the first to create something new and certainly won't be the last, but their innovation changed the world as we know it.

The masterminds behind the best startups from 2011 hope to see that same success as they introduce new ways for people to enjoy music with their friends, like with Turntable.fm, learn coding, like at Codeacademy, or find local people and businesses to fill certain needs, do mundane tasks or sell specific items, like at Zaarly.

Other startups take things we have now and make them so much better, cheaper or more accessible. Kogeto Dot, for example, is an invention that enhances an iPhone camera. Oink, created by the founders of Digg, allows people to rate and share things they love best with others.

The best new startups of 2011 may not be names you know right now, but just like the newcomers of the past, they made an impact during the year and very well could be on their way to becoming a household name in the years to come. Did a new startup rock your socks in 2011? Add it below and tell us why it should be the best of 2011!

Source: http://www.ranker.com/list/best-new-startups-of-2011/ready-to-startup

  1. Turntable.fm

    added by: Ready To Startup
  2. Pinterest

      added by: Ready To Startup
  3. BetterWorks

     added by: AdamThomas
  4. Black Swan Solar

    added by: AdamThomas
  5. Thisisnatural.com Best New Startups of 2011 Business picture

    Thisisnatural.com