Tagged: vc

Georgia Jumps to #4 in Q1 VC Funding

Out of a total $6.9 billion dollars invested across the nation during the first quarter of 2013, Georgia deals accounted for $322.4 million, catapulting the state to fourth place for venture capital funding last quarter. Georgia ranked behind only California, New York and Massachusetts. The… Read More

Pebble Raises $15 Million From Charles River Ventures

Pebble has joined Ouya in raising $15 million in venture capital after a hugely successful Kickstarter campaign. In Pebble’s case, the round was led by Charles River Ventures and partner George Zachary. Zachary said this was the largest Series A he has ever participated in. Oh,… Read More

In crowdfunding, the crowd thinks so much like VCs, it’s eerie

Memo to all those who think the crowd isn’t sophisticated enough to make startup investments: Crowdfunding isn’t all that different from raising money from venture capitalists, a new study shows. A study by Ethan Mollick of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, brought to my attention by a… Read More

Crowdfunding takes the rug out from under VCs, angels

Some have said equity crowdfunding could put pressure on the venture capital industry. But data compiled by crowdfunderEquityNet suggests it will open whole different categories of upstarts for funding instead. “Crowdfunding is serving the area of capitalism that was previously underserved,”Judd Hollas, chief executive of the… Read More

Hollywood’s Kickstarter Craze Needs To Be Fair To Fans As Well As Filmmakers

After the success of Rob Thomas’ efforts to crowdfund a Veronica Mars movie through Kickstarter, it was inevitable that some other auteur with a significant fanbase would follow his lead. That person is now Zach Braff, who as of this writing has raised about $954,000… Read More

How Venture Capital and Crowdfunding Can Coexist

The one-year anniversary of the Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act just passed, but the Securities and Exchange Commission has yet to write rules governing equity-based crowdfunding. In the meantime, some venture capital (VC) firms worry that crowdfunding, a means of collective financing by selling equity in a company,… Read More

The Next Big Thing in Crowdfunding? Kickstarting People

… Let’s start with Kickstarter as the obvious crowdfunding example. The company was founded by three guys with no previous finance experience. The target return for investors who back development of new products — from objects to movies — on Kickstarter is … nothing. Backers are instead… Read More

Crowdfunding vs. VC: Is there a win-win?

There’s been all sorts of overheated rhetoric about whether crowdfunding will crowd out venture capitalism. But the debate misses some big points, argues Roger Ehrenberg, a founder of IA Ventures. Writing in Fortune, Ehrenberg makes the case that a good venture capitalist (as opposed to… Read More

Venture capital vs. crowdfunding: Let’s get real

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

What 6 VCs Think Crowdfunding Means For Startups

ReadWriteWeb recently teamed with TriNet to publish this white paper that examines the current startup climate. Six venture capitalists offered their takes on where things were headed. Crowdfunding received “honorable mention.” From the paper… Conditions are starting to change in ways that promise a major… Read More

Why Companies Are Outsourcing to Kickstarter

Ram Malasani, CEO and founder of the 22-person company Securifi, isn’t the typical newbie entrepreneur you’d expect to find on Kickstarter, a wildly popular website where people can pitch projects and receive small pledges of financial support from anyone. But with weeks still left to go… Read More

VC in 2013: Whitney Johnson of Rose Park on the Wisdom of Crowdfunding

As 2012 comes to a close, we asked several venture capital investors to reflect on the past year and give us their outlook for 2013. Continuing our series is Whitney Johnson, angel investor and co-founder of Boston-based Rose Park Advisors. Johnson speaks about the opportunities in seed-stage… Read More

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