September 25, 2013 @ 9:12 am By Charles Luzar  |  

Poliwogg is a crowdfunding platform for accredited investors specializing in emerging growth healthcare and life sciences companies. The platform has been on hold pending the lifting of the ban on general solicitation. As of September 23rd, the platform has announced that it has launched its online… Read More

September 25, 2013 @ 9:00 am By Charles Luzar  |  

The SEC wants to examine how issuers are making use of general solicitation, and in order to do so they’re going to need some help. The SEC’s web site now includes a form that allows digital submission of written materials used for the purpose of… Read More

September 24, 2013 @ 10:52 am By Charles Luzar  |  

AngelList has been testing a new feature called AngelList Syndicates. Synidcates allow accredited investors to pool resources, and the syndicator can charge a carry for value adds similar to many hedge funds and VCs. AngelList explains… Here’s an example. Sara decides to invest in a… Read More

September 24, 2013 @ 9:33 am By Charles Luzar  |  

Yesterday general solicitation became legal for issuers opting to make use of the newly-minted Rule 506(c) of Regulation D. The option was added to Form D yesterday, which is available on the SEC’s web site. Some news outlets reported that Form D had to be filed… Read More

September 23, 2013 @ 11:47 am By Charles Luzar  |  

Germany’s Chaos Computer Club is claiming victory in a contest to see who’d be the first to hack Apple’s Touch ID fingerprint scanning system. The system provides an extra layer of security for Apple’s new iPhone 5S and 5C. A crowdfunded bounty was offered for… Read More

September 23, 2013 @ 11:26 am By Charles Luzar  |  

With the lifting of the ban on general solicitation, today marks the beginning of a grand experiment in capital formation in the United States. It is also a boon to a crowdfunding industry that has largely been on autopilot while the implementation timeline of the… Read More

September 20, 2013 @ 10:47 am By Charles Luzar  |  

Imagine a world in which the great inventors of our day were forced to seek funding from venture capitalists and angel groups. Would Edison, Tesla, Ford and others have been successful in just such a climate? Northern Imagination would likely answer no. The YouTube user… Read More

September 20, 2013 @ 10:41 am By Charles Luzar  |  

Subutai Corporation is a Seattle-based firm founded to “create stories, games, graphic novels and filmed entertainment in an integrated style.” One interesting factoid that likely helped draw backers into their Kickstarter campaign: famed American author and game designer Neal Stephenson is a co-founder. In a… Read More

September 20, 2013 @ 10:00 am By Charles Luzar  |  

The Ouya FreeTheGames fund has been a debacle of sorts. First Gridiron Thunder came under fire for a set of large donations early in the campaign. Then Elementary, My Dear Holmes was suspended by Kickstarter for another collection of seemingly dubious contributors. Finally, a campaign for Dungeons the… Read More

September 19, 2013 @ 3:05 pm By Charles Luzar  |  

@nickdepetrillo and @ErrataRob on Twitter have written a script that is amassing crowdfunding pledges made via tweets. The goal: incentivize hackers to hack the new Apple iPhone’s fingerprint scanner. All I ask is a video of the process from print, lift, reproduction and successful unlock… Read More

September 19, 2013 @ 2:45 pm By Charles Luzar  |  

Ahead of the official lifting of the ban on general solicitation slated for September 23rd, angel investors are becoming more vocal in their opposition to choice parameters of the new rule. A recent petition launched on ipetition.com targets three specific aspects of the rule that… Read More

September 19, 2013 @ 2:17 pm By Charles Luzar  |  

Crowd It Forward, a platform that is said to specialize in “random acts of crowdfunding,” has launched a crowdfunding campaign for victims of the recent shootings at the Washington Navy Yard in Washington, DC. The campaign will be open until December 31st of this year… Read More

September 19, 2013 @ 11:41 am By Charles Luzar  |  

The Ouya #FreeTheGames Fund, an initiative to match funds raised via crowdfunding on Kickstarter, continues to be a lightning rod of controversy. We covered Gridiron Thunder, a game that raised over $170,000 on Kickstarter allegedly thanks to some friends in high places. The average contribution… Read More

September 19, 2013 @ 11:16 am By Charles Luzar  |  

Simplon.co is “an accelerated factory for web developers and digital entrepreneurs” based in France that aims to empower youth through web development apprenticeships. The outfit has now raised over $21,000, meeting their goal in a crowdfunding campaign on Ulule. Paying those who have been trained or… Read More

September 19, 2013 @ 10:18 am By Charles Luzar  |  

Yesterday the SEC held a meeting of top advisors and staff to discuss the latest rulemakings and initiatives from within the Commission. The Angel Capital Association was invited to speak on a new rule to go into effect on September 23rd that lifts the ban… Read More

September 18, 2013 @ 12:20 pm By Charles Luzar  |  

Matter co-founder Bobbie Johnson took to Medium yesterday to share some thoughts on crowdfunding’s direction. This followed an appearance by Johnson at an event held by the Royal Society of Arts in London in which he participated on a panel discussing crowdfunding’s future with a specific… Read More

September 18, 2013 @ 11:12 am By Charles Luzar  |  

Crowd It Forward is a “non-profit foundation that brings people together to respond to the needs of individuals in difficult circumstances and to reward those whose acts deserve recognition through random acts of crowdfunding.” Crowd It Forward is a sister project to crowdfunding platform ClickStartMe…. Read More

September 18, 2013 @ 10:08 am By Charles Luzar  |  

Funding velocity for Mighty No. 9 has flattened out considerably after hitting Kickstarter like a ton of bricks on August 31st. The game raised over a million dollars within a few days and just hit two million a week ago. Now the game has hit… Read More

September 17, 2013 @ 9:58 am By Charles Luzar  |  

The Cookie Bar is a bakery that is known for alcohol-infused cookies and snacks. The company has just won a contest held in a partnership between the National Association for the Self-Employed (NASE), the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council (SBE Council) and Columbus, Ohio-based crowdfunding… Read More

September 16, 2013 @ 10:08 am By Charles Luzar  |  

TubeStart just launched a few weeks ago as a crowdfunding platform geared specifically toward YouTube content creators. The platform hopes to close the revenue gap many YouTubers are left with once YouTube and owner Google takes 45% of advertising revenues. TubeStart CEO Josef Holm recently… Read More