One of the hot new approaches I have seen around the country for assisting startups looking for funding has been “crowd-sourcing” sites (Kickstarter) or “crowd-pitching” events (Funding Universe). These are variations on a “crowd-funding” theme to raise money for a startup through social networks and voting at public events. I’m still waiting for a startup to proclaim real success from this approach.
Crowd-sourcing tools, usually Internet applications, use the social media to poll for interest, feedback, and ultimately some funding for the startup. This is a complex task, especially as it involves creating an accurate yet compelling offer, collecting the money, and rewarding the investors.
Crowd-pitching is an offline event, but logically similar, which give several candidates an opportunity to pitch to a crowd of interested people for a couple of minutes, after which the crowd “votes” with some play-money to pick the best candidate, who then wins some nominal investment amount or services.
To read the full, original article click on this link: Startup Professionals Musings: Don’t Count on Crowd-Funding to Save Your Startup
Author: MartinZwilling
