Monthly Archives: December 2016

Does Crowdfunding Rely on Mob Thinking?

Posted on December 30, 2016 by JeffKoeppel

Leaving 2016 with this iconic quote: “A large number of unsophisticated people are likely to be more accurate than a handful of sophisticated people.” Really? The New York Times story discusses how new car companies are crowdfunding to sell electric … Continue reading →

Posted in accredited investor, Broker dealers, Congress, Crowd Fund Act, Crowd Fund Act of 2012, Crowd Funding At the Margins, Crowd Funding Platforms, Funding Portals, technology, VC, Venture Capital, Wall Street | Tagged 3 wheels, automobiles, bad actors, Big 3 auto makers, cars, crowdsourcing, electric bicycles, electric vehicles, Elio Motors, entrepreneur, fraud, funding, IndieGoGo, internet, kickstarter, motorcycles, New York Times, prototypes, Sonders Electric Car, startup, technology, unsophisticated investors, wisdom of the crowd | Leave a comment

The Not-So-Good Side of Crowdfunding

Posted on December 29, 2016 by JeffKoeppel

Like just about anything else (nuclear power?), crowdfunding can be used for good or bad. On the not-so-good side, is the crowdfunding campaign for Reflectacles, the eyewear that may appeal to “night cyclists or privacy minded people” or bank robbers. … Continue reading →

Posted in accredited investor, checkbook, Crowd Fund Act, Crowd Fund Act of 2012, Crowd Funding At the Margins, Crowd Funding Platforms, Funding Portals, Small Business, technology, VC, Venture Capital, Wall Street | Tagged anti-establishment, blurring, cctv, closed circuit television, criminals, crowdfund, crowdfunding, Edward Snowden, eyeglasses, eyewear, facial features, facial recognition, glare, IndieGoGo, internet, invention, kickstarter, marketing, night, privacy, Reflectacles, robbery, surveillance cameras, technology, web | Leave a comment

Successful Crowdfunding Campaigns Start Before They Go Live

Posted on December 28, 2016 by JeffKoeppel

Successful crowdfunding campaigns have one thing in common: a pre-existing network to tap for money. An article in Fast Company gives this advice: before the campaign, locate all of your and your teammates’ networks; let the networks know that you … Continue reading →

Posted in accredited investor, Broker dealers, checkbook, Crowd Fund Act, Crowd Fund Act of 2012, Crowd Funding At the Margins, Crowd Funding Platforms, Film, Funding Portals, review, SEC, Small Business, technology, VC, Venture Capital, Wall Street | Tagged angels, capital, capital raising, communication, connections, contacts, content, contributor, crowdfund, crowdfunding, donation, donor, equity, family, friends, funding, internet, marketing, money, network, pre-funding, reward, six degrees of separation, successful campaign, technology, viral networking | Leave a comment

Crowdfunding Medical Bills Won’t Cover All Costs

Posted on December 27, 2016 by JeffKoeppel

Obama Care was supposed to help average Americans pay for their healthcare. But, as costs continue to climb, many are turning to crowdfunding to pay huge catastrophic hospital bills. However, a recent survey found that only about 11% of those … Continue reading →

Posted in balance, checkbook, Crowd Fund Act, Funding Portals, Legislative Intent, technology | Tagged ACA, bankruptcy, campaigns, cancer, collection agency, credit rating, credit score, crowdfund, crowdfunding, doctor bills, donations, donor, Fundrazr, GiveForward, GoFundMe, healthcare, hospital bills, illness, internet, medical, medical bills, medical debt, Obama Care, patient | Leave a comment

Crowdfunding Regulated At Local Level

Posted on December 26, 2016 by JeffKoeppel

Charity crowdfunding is now being regulated by none other than the Naugaunee Public Schools Board of Education. Where is Naugaunee? It’s is a city in Marquette County, Michigan, with a population of ~4,568. The NPSBE dictate says that any teacher … Continue reading →

Posted in accredited investor, Charity, checkbook, Congress, Crowd Fund Act, Crowd Fund Act of 2012, Crowd Funding At the Margins, Crowd Funding Platforms, Investments, Jobs, review, SEC, Small Business | Tagged approval, Board of Education, budget, bureaucracy, charity, crowdfund, crowdfunding, donation, GoFundMe, internet, local regulation, Michigan, Naugaunee, news, school, school budget, school supplies, teacher, test | Leave a comment

Crowdfunding Used To Bolster Stalled Startups

Posted on December 23, 2016 by JeffKoeppel

Crowdfunding is now becoming a means to bolster stalled startups. TaskRabbit, once a darling of Silicon Valley, was not finding customer traction and needed more money to keep going. So, in addition to doing a “down round,” TR opted to … Continue reading →

Posted in accredited investor, checkbook, Crowd Fund Act, Crowd Fund Act of 2012, Crowd Funding At the Margins, SEC, Small Business, technology | Tagged capital, crowdfund, crowdfunding, down round, DreamFunded, entrepreneur, games, growth, investor, reward, risk, Silicon Valley, startup, stock, Task Rabbit, valuation, VC, venture capital, work | Leave a comment

Another Hollywood Crowdfunding Campaign

Posted on December 22, 2016 by JeffKoeppel

If you want a chance to work with Bill Murray, Bryan Cranston, Jeff Goldblum and other stars in a new Wes Anderson animated film, you may want to donate to Anderson’s crowdfunding “raffle.” The donations will be used to preserve … Continue reading →

Posted in accredited investor, checkbook, Crowd Fund Act, Crowd Fund Act of 2012, Crowd Funding At the Margins, Crowd Funding Platforms, Film, Investments, Jobs, SEC, Small Business, technology, VC, Venture Capital | Tagged actors, art, Bill Murray, Bryan Cranston, crowd fund, Crowd Fund Act, crowdfunding, CrowdRise, dogs, donation, donor, film, Film Foundation, film maker, film preservation, Grand Budapest Hotel, Hollywood, internet, Isle of Dogs, Jeff Goldblum, Martin Scorsese, raffle, technology, Wes Anderson, winner | Leave a comment

Open Source Software Crowdfunding

Posted on December 21, 2016 by JeffKoeppel

Riding below the headlines are crowdfunding sites like Gratipay and OpenCollective that are used to fund open source software development, maintenance and patching. Unlike the biggies (Kickstarter, Indiegogo), it takes no cut of the donations that are used to keep … Continue reading →

Posted in accredited investor, Banks, Charity, checkbook, Congress, Crowd Fund Act, Crowd Fund Act of 2012, Crowd Funding At the Margins, Crowd Funding Platforms, Funding Portals, Investments, Jobs, Legislative Intent, monthly maintenance fees, SEC, Small Business, technology, VC, Venture Capital, Wall Street | Tagged contribution, donation, enterprise software, free ride, freeriders, Gratipay, hardware, Heartbleed, Hyperledger, IndieGoGo, internet, kickstarter, maintenance, mobile, MongoDB, open source, open source software, OpenCollective, OpenSSL, patching, Red Hat, software, software development, software engineer, SUSE, technology, web | Leave a comment

FINRA Shutters Crowdfunding Portal

Posted on December 20, 2016 by JeffKoeppel

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, the organization that regulates broker dealers and, now crowdfunding web portals, shut down UFP, LLC, known as UFundingPortal.com, because the portal: lacked a reasonable basis for believing that certain companies offering securities through its online … Continue reading →

Posted in accredited investor, Broker dealers, Crowd Fund Act, Crowd Fund Act of 2012, FINRA, fraud, Funding Portals, Investments, Jobs, Legislative Intent, penalty, review, SEC, Small Business, technology, VC, Venture Capital, Wall Street | Tagged consent order, crowdfund, crowdfunding, discipline, due diligence, false or misleading statements, FINRA, Funding Portal Member, internet, investor, material omission, online portal, portal, regulation, SEC, Securities and Exchange Commission, supervise, supervision, UFundingPortal.com, web portal | Leave a comment

Crowdfunding Tax Matters*

Posted on December 19, 2016 by JeffKoeppel

Not fair? Wisebread notes that crowdfunding campaigns for charitable causes could result in the web portal filing an IRS Form 1099 that would indicate that you received income during the year. The site suggests that if you do that “make … Continue reading →

Posted in accredited investor, checkbook, Congress, Crowd Fund Act, Crowd Fund Act of 2012, Crowd Funding At the Margins, Crowd Funding Platforms, Department of the Treasury, Funding Portals, Investments, Jobs, Legislative Intent, SEC, Uncategorized, VC, Venture Capital, Wall Street | Tagged April 15, campaign, capital gain, charity, Crowd Fund Act, crowdfund, crowdfunding, donation, donor, Form 1099, gifts, GoFundMe, income tax, interest, internal revenue service, internet, revenue, revenues, rewards, tax, technology | Leave a comment