Opinion

August 15, 2013 @ 1:49 pm By Charles Luzar  |  

Massachusetts Secretary of State William Galvin has taken a public stance on general solicitation, citing it as a risk to potential investors. This is at least in part the reason behind his launching a task force aimed at policing crowdfunding platforms, offerings and their issuers…. Read More

August 15, 2013 @ 12:44 pm By Charles Luzar  |  

In light of recent actions taken against Candace Klein and SoMoLend on behalf of the Ohio Division of Securities, Knox Massey has a simple message to Ohio startups: come to Gerogia! Massey is a managing partner of a private family investment partnership, co-chair of the… Read More

August 5, 2013 @ 11:00 am By JD Alois  |  

Recently Kickstarter decided to update their guidelines for project creators where Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) are banned from crowdfunding on their platform.  As one commenter described the change as putting “synthetic biology in the same category as hate crimes and tobacco”. While that statement may… Read More

August 5, 2013 @ 9:19 am By Charles Luzar  |  

Spike Lee is quickly becoming one of the most outspoken advocates of crowdfunding in recent memory, lambasting any reporter or pundit that dares to heap criticism on the director for using Kickstarter to fund his next feature film. The latest to draw Lee’s ire? Trish… Read More

August 3, 2013 @ 8:52 am By Charles Luzar  |  

Spike Lee has a high-profile Kickstarter campaign for his new film and the campaign has just crossed $500,000 of funding with a little over two weeks to go. As is often the case with celebrities on Kickstarter, Lee has carried the torch for crowdfunding and… Read More

July 28, 2013 @ 12:05 pm By Charles Luzar  |  

Devin Thorpe of Forbes recently interviewed the following crowdfunding experts: Michael Nall, Founder of the Alliance of Merger and Acquisition Advisors Robert Carbone, Co-founder CEO of CrowdBouncer Scott Jordan of HealthiosXchange The video contains some really interesting discourse about Title III in particular. Carbone reiterates… Read More

July 28, 2013 @ 11:12 am By Charles Luzar  |  

It has become a rite of passage: celebrities that use Kickstarter  and crowdfunding in general will eventually be the subject of some number of articles asking if they’re ruining the platform, and then those same celebrities will be asked to offer their opinion on the matter…. Read More

July 28, 2013 @ 11:11 am By Charles Luzar  |  

Daniel Gorfine is the Director of Financial Markets Policy at the Milken Institute. He has long been a balanced, pragmatic voice in the crowdfunding conversation, which is why his recent piece in Washington Monthly should be cause for concern. It’s important to note that the… Read More

July 28, 2013 @ 10:33 am By Sang Lee  |  

This article is contributed by Sang Lee (@rocsang), CEO and founder of Return on Change, the next generation’s investment crowdfunding portal (www.returnonchange.com). Follow Return on Change @rocspeaks for investment crowdfunding advice and updates. During a time when we have all been somewhat consumed by the importance of… Read More

July 26, 2013 @ 9:30 am By Charles Luzar  |  

A campaign launched for a board game called “The Doom That Came To Atlantic City” raised $122,000, closing funding on June 6th of last year. Over 1200 backers chipped in. The campaign was launched by The Forking Path, a Portland, Oregon based game developer and… Read More

July 22, 2013 @ 5:08 pm By JD Alois  |  

Kendall Almerico, CEO of crowdfunding site ClickStartMe, recently commented on the JOBS Act ruling issued by the SEC that allows general solicitation of accredited investors under certain circumstances. “While the SEC’s new JOBS Act regulations do not address the crowdfunding portion of the JOBS Act… Read More

July 9, 2013 @ 10:53 am By Charles Luzar  |  

GameFront’s top comment of the week this past week tackled Double Fine, Kickstarter and video games crowdfunded for donations and rewards. The commenter makes an interesting point about the lack of control a Kickstarter backer has over the trajectory of the project. “What is said… Read More

June 24, 2013 @ 12:00 pm By JD Alois  |  

In a rare occurrence of public culpability, Kickstarter posted a letter to everyone regarding the Kickstarter campaign for a Seduction Guide – which was fully funded but has since been pulled from the site.  The Kicktarter “mea culpa” is reproduced in it’s entirety below.  They… Read More

June 21, 2013 @ 2:30 pm By Charles Luzar  |  

The heavily covered (and often maligned) crowdfunding campaign for Soylent is coming to an end. Rob Rhinehart and his team will soon go into delivery mode in an effort to deliver on promises made to over 6,000 backers. Soylent is a meal replacement drink created… Read More

June 11, 2013 @ 11:20 am By Charles Luzar  |  

Rob Thomas changed crowdfunding forever with his campaign for Veronica Mars, legitimizing the funding method as a way for successful folks to circumvent the powers-that-be. The crowd can now greenlight creative products by sheer power in numbers. Gatekeepers? That’s so 2010. Zach Braff took this… Read More

June 8, 2013 @ 10:05 am By The New Zealand Herald  |  

… The problem in Europe is that the banks dominate the financial sector and they are becoming more and more cautious, partially because of new regulations. They prefer to finance the purchase of existing residential property rather than start-up businesses. This is one of the… Read More

June 7, 2013 @ 3:32 pm By Bdaily  |  

Recent figures out indicate that bank lending for small businesses is at a particularly low ebb at present – in April, they tumbled by a staggering £700 million, which is startling, given they currently account for 85% of small business finance, writes James Day, social media… Read More

June 5, 2013 @ 10:11 am By Charles Luzar  |  

Today in should have seen that coming: An 18 year old girl named Nicole moved into a house with a handful of her friends after graduating high school. One day everyone decided to do what young people do and jump off the roof and into the pool…. Read More

June 5, 2013 @ 9:26 am By PolicyMic  |  

Welcome to America, a land where, as an adult, you can legally gamble your money away at a casino, buy all of the cigarettes you can smoke, or kill yourself by fastidiously consuming fast food. Welcome to America, where, unless you’re an accredited investor, meaning you… Read More

June 2, 2013 @ 11:19 am By Bleeding Cool  |  

When I began my Kickstarter, I was worried that it would fail. However, after we met our goal, I didn’t realize how guilty I would feel. First, a little context. Picture it . . . Missouri, September 2004. Jeph Loeb and Michael Turner were finishing… Read More