Opinion

April 19, 2013 @ 1:49 pm By ITBusiness.ca  |  

To question the merits of crowdfunding seems a surefire means of being awarded an OC – Order of Curmudgeon. Millions of person hours have been devoted to introduce it to the world and more than a few forests consumed by its advocates. There is clearly… Read More

April 17, 2013 @ 5:19 pm By Forbes  |  

The SEC has not yet released crowdfunding rules for public comment, but many folks aren’t waiting for that. At last count there were nearly 200 public comment letters and staff meetings about the subject on record with the Securities and Exchange Commission. That’s the highest… Read More

April 12, 2013 @ 12:00 am By Randi Zuckerberg  |  

I remember when I first discovered Kickstarter. Now anybody can be a patron of the arts? How cool is that! I remember growing up, considering a career in the arts, and being told that without a record label, I could never put out an album…. Read More

April 10, 2013 @ 8:22 am By The Crowd Cafe  |  

I attended the University of Akron, a school of 20,000+ undergraduate and graduate students. What if each and every one of these students were given ubiquitous access to a platform that guaranteed them the opportunity to start a business? No arbitrary semester deadlines; no degree pigeon-holes; and no resource… Read More

April 6, 2013 @ 3:08 am By Upstart Business Journal  |  

As an angel investor who hears pitches from ambitious entrepreneurs daily, I know that crowdfunding will not be some fad, a blip in era of social networking. I also know that crowdfunding is not about number crunching, technical indicators and fueling yet another tech bubble—there… Read More

April 6, 2013 @ 2:37 am By WSJ.com  |  

One year ago, President Obama signed the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act into law. So, why isn’t “equity crowdfunding” a reality for startups and regular people who want to support them, in the U.S.? For the unfamiliar, equity crowdfunding–under the JOBS Act–allows startups and small businesses… Read More

April 5, 2013 @ 12:50 pm By Charles Luzar  |  

Today is the one-year anniversary of the signing of the JOBS Act. The JOBS Act is an extremely ambitious piece of legislation that aims to rework and rewrite regulations that have been in place for the better part of a century. This is especially true… Read More

April 3, 2013 @ 3:50 pm By CNN Money  |  

Crowdfunding is all the rage. Even the SEC recently blessed one type of crowdfunding for which there was risk of an enforcement action. Several in the early-stage ecosystem have called for venture capitalists to “up their game,” as alternative paths to financing create competitive threats to both… Read More

April 2, 2013 @ 5:43 pm By Calgary Herald  |  

Over the last five years we have seen Internet technology disrupt a number of industries, sending the dominant players into a downward spiral from a kingdom they once ruled. Whether it was ignorance from management teams or simply the fact that technology changed too rapidly… Read More

March 20, 2013 @ 1:05 am By The Chronicle Herald  |  

Startup companies in Nova Scotia stand to benefit greatly from the spread of the crowdfunding movement. It’s just not happening fast enough. Crowdfunding, according to the Oxford Dictionary, is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising many small amounts of money from… Read More

March 18, 2013 @ 7:01 am By Charles Luzar  |  

Two weeks ago I was sitting in on a web chat held by the United States State Department. The subject was crowdfunding. Jessica Jackley of popular microloan platform Kiva and Sherwood “Woodie” Neiss of the Startup Exemption and Crowdfund Capital Advisors were discussing crowdfunding in… Read More

March 18, 2013 @ 1:00 am By Forbes  |  

It’s insane that the world is buying into the joke known as “Crowdfunding.”  Everyone and their mother is predicting that it’s the next miracle in the making.  But, let’s be honest with ourselves.  Crowdfunding is neither new, nor innovative.  Most importantly, it doesn’t make sense. There are two… Read More

March 15, 2013 @ 9:31 am By Charles Luzar  |  

This week Inc ran a story on Kickstarter’s slowing growth. In it Michael Wolf of NextMarket divulges some data from NextMarket’s recent analysis of Kickstarter campaigns and activity. From the article… “Because Kickstarter and crowdfunding experienced a huge rush of new projects in 2012, there… Read More

March 5, 2013 @ 1:53 pm By Fortune  |  

Rattner argues crowdfunding advocates might be better off playing the lottery. Steve Rattner has angered a crowd. In a New York Times column Monday, Rattner, a contributor to the Times‘ Opinion Pages, took a swing at the JOBS Act, particularly the portion relating to crowdfunding…. Read More

March 5, 2013 @ 12:21 pm By Upstart Business Journal  |  

Jason Calacanis, the founder of Mahalo and Weblogs, took some time from preparing for this week’s Launch Festival, the startup pitchfest he throws in San Francisco, to talk about that and a number of topics. This is his biggest show in six years of doing… Read More

March 5, 2013 @ 7:58 am By TriplePundit  |  

Crowdfunding is a new capital formation tool that allows large numbers of ordinary investors to aggregate relatively small investments in exchange for equity positions in companies. It’s redefining what it means to be an investor and disrupting the delicate balance between investor protections and investor… Read More

March 4, 2013 @ 8:09 am By JD Alois  |  

In an opinion piece on the pages of NYTimes, journalist / banker and former Obama Administration “Car Czar” attacks legislation promoted by his former boss:  The Jobs Act of 2012.  Titled a “Sneaky Way to Deregulation, Ratner goes directly after one of the most significant… Read More

February 27, 2013 @ 7:45 pm By The Advertiser  |  

I confess, I hadn’t even heard of “crowdfunding” until about a month ago, and now it seems to be everywhere. For those of you that don’t know the definition: Crowdfunding is a method of raising capital in small amounts from a large group of people… Read More

February 27, 2013 @ 6:35 am By JD Alois  |  

SEC Chairman Elisse Walter states crowdfunding coming soon in a speech titled  Making the Markets Safe for Informed Risk-Taking.   As part of the SEC Speaks series of presentations the comment was just a portion of the speech which you may view in its entirety here. Companies… Read More

February 19, 2013 @ 3:33 pm By Chance Barnett  |  

Crowdfunding has the potential to provide new funding options for small businesses and stimulate job growth, and yet the S.E.C. has stalled on crowdfunding Rulings. Other countries are off and running with equity crowdfunding, such as the United Kingdom, Australia, Sweden, Norway and Finland. Why… Read More