General News

June 22, 2013 @ 9:36 am By JD Alois  |  

Recognizing another opportunity to engage consumers while providing a needed service, Amazon has begun offering Gift Cards which you may crowdfund with others.  They believe that by offering customers the ability to “Grow An Amazon Birthday Gift with the help of your friends“, customers can… Read More

June 21, 2013 @ 8:48 am By JD Alois  |  

The North Carolina General Assembly have passed their very own Jump Start Our Business Start-up Act yesterday allowing the bill to move forward to the State Senate for their approval.  Overwhelmingly approved with a vote of 103 – 1, the  legislators sponsoring the bill at… Read More

June 20, 2013 @ 11:22 pm By JD Alois  |  

Crowdsourcing Week, the first event of its kind, took place earlier this month in Singapore. The organizers have recently shared an Infographic which highlights some of the information gleaned from the week long affair which gathered crowdsourcing and crowdfunding leaders from around the world.  

June 20, 2013 @ 12:06 am By JD Alois  |  

Research universities, often a source of this innovation, are offering a solution through translational research, proof of concept, and start-up gap funding programs. These gap funds and their impact on our innovation capability are detailed in a new, online resource called Mind the Gap. Mind… Read More

June 19, 2013 @ 12:48 pm By JD Alois  |  

As part of the ongoing disruptor seriers, Ouya founder and CEO Julie Urhman was featured on CNBC this morning to talk about the Ouya gaming console. Ouya is a Kickstarter superstar – having funded $8,596,474.00 and ranks as one the most successful crowdfunding campaigns ever.  The… Read More

June 19, 2013 @ 9:51 am By Charles Luzar  |  

The LendIt conference is a major event taking place tomorrow, June 20th in New York City. The event is now sold out, and in light of this the conference organizers have announced that the event will be available online via livestream. Discussion points at the event… Read More

June 19, 2013 @ 9:42 am By Charles Luzar  |  

“Last year 18,000 projects were funded on Kickstarter. How many should have been? Maybe a dozen.” The Official Comedy channel on YouTube posted this satirical video on Kickstarter, taking a jab at Kickstarter project creators and the people who back crowdfunding projects. Watch below…

June 19, 2013 @ 9:14 am By Charles Luzar  |  

Ruth Hedges is the CEO of Crowdfunding Roadmap, a leader in industry groups like CFIRA and the CFPA and the organizer of the first Global Crowdfunding Convention & Bootcamp conference. Now she has announced that she will be holding a two-day course on crowdfunding on… Read More

June 18, 2013 @ 8:56 pm By JD Alois  |  

In a segment on CNBC entitled Fear and Loathing in IPO land, Kate Kelly shares her experiences from her participation in the Venture Forward conference where top angels /venture capitalist investors met.  Some of the facts shared by Kelly include: Some Tech investors feel the… Read More

June 18, 2013 @ 6:36 pm By JD Alois  |  

Emerging markets are accruing wealth at a faster pace then the developed world.  The importance of entrepreneurs is highlighted as today wealth is created more by entrepreneurship than inheritance. These are facts revealed by Barclay’s 17th Volume of Wealth Insights: Origins and Legacy:  The Changing… Read More

June 18, 2013 @ 10:00 am By Charles Luzar  |  

Dr. Richard Swart has been appointed as Director of Research overseeing the policies, best practices and innovation in entrepreneurial finance at the University of California, Berkeley. The Program for Innovation in Entrepreneurial and Social Finance, directed under the College of Engineering’s Fung Institute, seeks to examine… Read More

June 18, 2013 @ 9:39 am By Charles Luzar  |  

Brad Muir is leading the campaign for MASSIVE CHALICE, the second game launched by Double Fine Productions on Kickstarter. The campaign will literally be crossing the $1 million mark just about any minute at the time of writing, and Double Fine Productions will become the… Read More

June 18, 2013 @ 8:23 am By Charles Luzar  |  

Oculus VR has raised $16 million in a round with contributions from Spark Capital, Matrix Partners, Founders Fund and Formation 8. Spark Capital and Matrix Partners led the round. Spark founder Santo Politi and Matrix partner Antonio Rodriguez both acquire seats on Oculus’s Board of… Read More

June 16, 2013 @ 8:03 pm By Charles Luzar  |  

VOA posted this short 5 minute overview on crowdfunding to their YouTube channel. The video includes an interview with a project creator from Washington selling bite-sized cake popsicles online. In searching for a way to fund her idea she came across crowdfunding. Watch below…

June 16, 2013 @ 3:29 pm By JD Alois  |  

Loog Guitar was crowdfunded on Kickstarter back in 2011 – raising a total amount of $65,618 on a goal of $15,000.  The premise was simple:  a three stringed guitar which was easy to handle and simple to learn, teaching the joy of playing a guitar… Read More

June 12, 2013 @ 5:58 pm By JD Alois  |  

The Hartford Enhances Management Liability Offerings For Small And Midsize Businesses, includes Crowdfunding under the Jobs Act. The Hartford has enhanced its private company management liability offerings with Private Choice OvationSM, a comprehensive package policy with updated and expanded coverage options designed to address the most important emerging exposures… Read More

June 11, 2013 @ 7:00 am By Polygon  |  

Chris Roberts is feeling good. He has persuaded over 150,000 people to kick-in $10 million for a product that doesn’t exist and won’t be completed until the end of 2014. But it’s not the pile of cash that’s lighting him up, not even the opportunity… Read More

June 10, 2013 @ 8:30 am By MCVUK  |  

The PS4 and Xbox One will be showcased at E3 after years and years of R&D. By contrast, in three weeks the Android-based Ouya console finally goes on sale to the public – a year ago it didn’t even exist. Propelled by record-breaking crowdfunding, it… Read More

June 9, 2013 @ 12:15 pm By Charles Luzar  |  

Kickstarted, the crowdfunding documentary currently crowdfunding on Kickstarter, has released a video on YouTube running down the top 5 most controversial crowdfunding campaigns. Can you guess which campaign is number one? Kickstarted has raised just $21,000 of an $85,000 goal to date with a little… Read More

June 8, 2013 @ 10:31 am By Charles Luzar  |  

Two design students at Chicago’s IIT Institute of Design had to come up with an original product for a class project. They then had to try to crowdfund the project on Kickstarter. Fast forward a little over a year and that very product has now… Read More