Crowdfunding has been around since 2008 with the launch of indiegogo, followed by Kickstarter which launched in 2009.
The early crowdfunding websites offered users free perks, and goods in exchange for funding their business venture. Most of these start-ups fizzled out after a few months but some of these were widely successful. One of the most notable success stories is the virtual reality headset Oculus which raised over $2.4 million on Kickstarter in a campaign that also caught the attention of Mark Zuckerberg. Shortly thereafter Oculus was acquired by Facebook for $3B. This was a monumental acquisition for a start-up with a great vision and zero profits.
