Crowd Funding is a fairly new way to raise money from a group of people towards a campaign one is working on. Introduced by the organization Kiva via the micro funding platform to aspiring third world country entrepreneurs and causes. Crowd Funding is really changing the way people view getting investment for their venture. An investment option for entrepreneurs wanting to really grow their business organically via sites like indie gogo and kickstarter. A whole eco system has been created around crowd funding eco system. Peoples dreams actually can come to fruition, the more creative or social you get the better your chance to rile up a crowd to invest in you. The crowd funding is changing and the article I chose, highlights this ever growing phenomena. Coupled with a good team and strategy this could really accelerate an idea or companies growth. The numbers in 2012 for crowd funding amounted in nearly 2.7 billion dollars. Major banks in 2013 including the World Band look towards crowd funding to stimulant economic development further into needing environments. This type of fund raising will change how the every day person gives back, as it develops and more innovative techniques within the field develop, we will see a radical change in balancing the negatives in areas that need economic stimulus.
It is a really exciting time to be an entrepreneur and 2013 has much in store. I believe if you want a job you can find one or make one. I believe many college students who are unemployed will have no other choice but to follow a passion and build something from it they can monetize and hopefully flourish from. A first hand experience, I encountered was a new client of ours the 1facewatch.com who put together a viral crowd funding campaign basically pre selling their product allowing them to reach a 1 million dollar revenue mark in their first month of the company. Without crowdfunding this social campaign really could not have happened as organically as it did. It is awesome to have them as a client of mine and I hope to learn from them moving forward with my career. Check them out, they are changing peoples lives.
http://venturebeat.com/2013/05/22/5-ways-the-booming-crowdsourcing-ecosystem-is-changing-in-2013/
Crowd funding websites are very new to the world but people have been crowd sourcing for a while now. If you look up Susu economics from West Africa where they source funds from a group of people in order to make the community better, But I personally love crowd sourcing because it makes the community better. This is an alternative way to loans because sometimes the interest rates are too high. Websites like Kickstarter, Indiegogo and Kiva are great ways to raise money for a project. This can alleviate poverty and help people become more self-reliant.