Online marketplaces have already eliminated so much inefficiency in our world. Dating (OK Cupid, Match.com), restaurant reservations (OpenTable), buying most physical goods (eBay) and countless other marketplaces serve both sides of the marketplaces (i.e. buyers and sellers) and provide value- typically making it more efficient to transact (or date!). Other marketplaces are eliminating inefficiency we didn’t even know existed. Uber and other taxi utilization apps are bringing efficiency to the $10 billion taxi market. That market is dwarfed by the size of the market for individual equity investments in private companies, which is $50 billion per year.
The market for individual equity investments into private companies, or “angel market” is huge but has few participants–less than 10% of accredited investors make private investments. Why? Because the cost to participate in this market is just too high. It takes months to network into a deal and then investors are typically required to invest a minimum of $25,000.
Crowdfunding has the potential to dwarf the most disruptive marketplaces we have ever seen.
Read More at Forbes
Related: The Godfather of Disruptive Innovation and Crowdfunding
Clayton Christensen is a business thought leader who is standing on the shoulders of some of the great economists of our times. Schumpeter, a Professor of Economics at Harvard, focused on the importance of entrepreneurism to modern economics. But it is Christensen who applied Schumpeters basic thesis to the empirical experiences of contemporary business. Read More…
