Crowdfunding is taking on new importance as the Wall Street Journal reports that seed funding by venture capital firms fell 40% in 2014.
With massive (unrealistic?) valuations in more mature private companies (e.g., Uber), the VCs are looking to pad their results with sure things rather than taking startup risk.
Perhaps this is a healthy move away from a bubble mentality, or maybe the bubble is just moving further down the funding pike. However, when the venture money moves away from seed rounds, that leaves more entrepreneurs having to depend on friends, family, angels and the crowd.
http://blogs.wsj.com/venturecapital/2015/01/21/venture-investors-seeded-fewer-companies-in-2014/?mod=WSJBlog
