In her book Cash From the Crowd, Sally
Outlaw, founder and CEO of crowdfunding website peerbackers, reveals the
secrets of funding your business with help from colleagues, peers, family,
friends and even perfect strangers through a crowdfunding campaign. In this
edited excerpt, the author offers details on some crowdfunding platforms that
offer entrepreneurs the opportunity to generate funds for their new venture.
New crowdfunding platforms launch
literally every day, so I'm only citing a few select ones that, in my
experience, have the best track records, have been around long enough to build
traction and a good reputation, and can be used to fund businesses. There are
many reputable platforms, however, and a directory of crowdfunding platforms.
Reward :
Indiegogo. Originally launched with a
focus on film, Indiegogo pivoted to include funding for literally anything and
is becoming known for financing personal and cause-related campaigns such as
that for the bullied bus monitor, which raised over $700,000. It accepts all
projects without review. As Indiegogo says on its website, "Our platform
is available to anyone, anywhere, to raisemoney for anything." While its
success fee at 4 percent is 1 percent lower than most websites (which charge 5
percent), it does charge one of the highest fees in the industry -- 9 percent
-- if you don't meet your goal.
RocketHub. Initially launched with the
arts in mind, it expanded to include science, education, business and social
good projects. It gained traction in the sciences with its annual SciFund
Challenge, an online effort to fund science projects. It also launched a
partnership with A&E Networks through which some select projects will be
chosen to receive extra support from the joint initiative.
Peerbackers. Consistently recognized as
one of the top crowdfunding websites in the industry, peerbackers, which I
co-founded and run, focuses on funding entrepreneurs and innovators. The
platform has hosted thousands of creative, civic and entrepreneurial projects
from around the world and recently expanded to include young entrepreneurs ages
13 to 17 through partnerships with student organizations. After seeing such a
high industry failure rate for crowdfunding projects, peerbackers launched
Crowdfunding Academy to offer education and support to those who want to
crowdfund.
Kickstarter. The most well-known of the
crowdfunding websites, Kickstarter clone focuses on creative endeavors including
design, the arts (film, publishing, music), gaming and technology. While
Kickstarter can't be used to fund businesses per se, it does accept products
and has had some remarkably successful campaigns, including about 50 that have
generated over a million dollars in funding. Kickstarter "curates"
its projects, meaning it has a rigorous submission process, and if you aren't
approved to post, it can be quite disappointing.
Read more: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/228534
Read more: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/228534