Individual Component:

1. Study a variety of crowdfunding web sites and choose a start-up venture that you find personally interesting. (See attached Crowdfunding List.)
2. Read the start-up venture’s proposal and do some additional research. You may want to look for competition, visit the business’ web site, and explore other external factors that may influence the business venture, such as cultural/social/political/economic conditions that may affect the success of the idea.
3. Write a short, one-page paper (single-spaced) that describes the venture. No introductory or conclusion paragraph is needed. Include:

Company Information:

Name of company. Number of days on crowdfunding site. Target dollar amount. Amount of money raised to date.

Product or Service Information:

Describe the product or service. What problem is it solving? Who is the target market?

Competitive Advantage

Describe what makes this product or service different. Is there any competition? What is unique about the product/service or, if the product/service is not unique, what is its competitive advantage compared to others in the same market? Why do you think this product/service will be successful?

Format:

 1 single-spaced page. 1-in margins. 10-12 point font.

 APA format for internal citations and include a Reference Page.

 Assignment must be typed.

 Use the headers as described above.

Crowdfunding sites:

Kickstarter.com: Kickstarter is the 800-pound gorilla in crowdfunding, originally designed and built for creative arts; many technology entrepreneurs now use the site, some reporting to have raised millions of dollars. The Kickstarter funding model is an all-or-nothing model. You set a goal for your raise; if your raise exceeds the goal, you keep all the money, otherwise your supporters don’t pay and you don’t get anything. This protects supporters from some of the risk of your running out of money before your project is completed.

StartSomeGood.com: StartSomeGood is great for early-stage social good projects that are not (yet) 501(c) (3) registered nonprofits. StartSomeGood uses a unique “tipping point” model for fundraising, allowing you to set a funding goal and a lower “tipping point” at which your project can minimally proceed and where you will collect the money you raise.

Indiegogo.com: Indiegogo allows you to raise money for absolutely anything, using an optional “keep what you raise” model with higher fees or pay less to use an all-or-nothing funding approach.

Rockethub.com: Rockethub is also a broad platform targeting “artists, scientists, entrepreneurs, and philanthropists”, using a keep-what-you-raise model that rewards you for hitting your funding goal (or penalizes you for failing to hit it).

Pozible.com: Pozible, run from Australia, has a global platform for all types of projects, emphasizing “creative projects and ideas” and specifically precludes fundraising for charities. Pozible operates with an all-or-nothing funding model.

Razoo.com: Razoo boasts that it has now helped 14,000 causes raise over $100 million. This site is exclusively for social good causes but is not limited to non-profits using a keep-what-you-raise model, charging just 2.9% of money raised.