Ten Thousand Projects Financed

Ten Thousand Projects Financed In 2011, the year of Kickstarter's second birthday, the crowdfunding site recorded nearly 11,836 successfully funded projects (about 44% of all the projects submitted) with more than $99 million pledged. The year showed phenomenal growth over the previous one when 3,910 successful projects were launched with $27 million pledged. Kickstarter is already the world's largest funding platform for creative projects. The majority of projects on Kickstarter are cr...

Type a startup movie

Type a startup movie A free website where you can make a movie sounds like an oxymoron for an entrepreneur. Movies cost a fortune, right? Wrong. Go to xtranormal.com and find out how you can type a movie. Do ask to see mine yet, but I'm working on it. If you plan what you want to say, you can do it in minutes, then upload it to your website, YouTube or send it to your contacts. There is a more sophisticated version for business that you can use when you've mastered the free version. It'...

Crowdfunding may get a Congressional boost

Crowdfunding may get a Congressional boost In September, President Obama included a crowdfunding exemption in his proposed jobs bill, and there is a bill in congress (HR 2930 McHenry) that proposes a very similar exemption.  It is elegant in its simplicity! It includes  provisions that: creates a crowdfunding exemption from the federal registration requirements for offerings of up to $5 million with each investor investing a maximum of the lesser of $10,000 and ten percent of the investor'...

Change the world by bike

Zambikes International is a Californian company set up in 2010 that provides worldwide distribution for Zambian-made Bamboo bicycles, providing increase employment and impact into the lives of the Zambians who make them. In Zambia, unemployment is over 50%, literacy is low, and school is not free. Finding a job supports more than the individual; it also supports their children, brothers, sisters, and the entire community. When you buy a bamboo bike, you are employing 40+ Zambikes workers that...

Virgina Benefit Corporations

Virgina Benefit Corporations Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell has signed legislation that will make Virginia the fourth state to allow stock corporations to become Benefit Corporations (B Corps). The bill had unanimously passed both the Virginia State Senate and the Viriginia State legislature. Governor McDonnell signed HB 2358 on March 26, 2011 and the legislation will take effect on July 1, 2011. Previous states that have adopted B Corp legislation include Maryland, Vermont (where the le...

Raising finance meets brand marketing

Raising finance meets brand marketing Profunder.com, the brainchild of Jessica Jackley, co-founder of kiva.org, it the tip of a silver-lined iceberg. Crowdfunding is a significant way to go for people who want to start a business. Crowdfunding is using the Internet to pitch your project to a mass audience, or just your friends and family. Raising money for your startup can be a huge and often unsuccessful effort. Crowdfunding, crowd finance or raising crowd capital can be a much mor...

Revenue Sharing Loans

Revenue Sharing Loans Wonderful way to borrow One of the founders of the non-profit kiva.org, the crowdsourcing microlending site, Jessica Jackley has built on the idea and Kiva's experience to establish a wonderful site for venture founders: profounder.com. What's wonderful is that loans are made from your network who are inspired by your pitch to back your new startup business. But rather than having to give away equity or get saddled with regular interest payment on a loan, the investo...

Are you a social architect?

Live into business As a young manager, I remember lots of talk about work-home life balance. I even had a commission to write a book called The Natural Manager about 40 years ago. It never got written, but I have always believed that there was no reason why work life and home life had to be in opposition. When I was a student at Besançon in eastern France back in 1958, I visited Le Corbusier's  Notre Dame du Haut at Ronchamp that had been built four years earlier. This amazing hilltop pilg...

Edgewalkers Go Out-preneuring

Edgewalkers Go Out-preneuring What's an edgewalker? Judi Neal says they are people "who walk between worlds and have the ability to build bridges between different world views. They have a strong spiritual life and also very grounded and effective in the evryday world. They have five qualities of being: self-awareness passion integrity vision playfulness. Why would such people go out-preneuring. What's out-preneuring? Out-preneurs are those employees who want to create thei...

Random Acts of Kindness

Trendwatching for All Startups Before, during and after you start a business, watching trends of all kinds, not least those in the consumer field is a vital, though not necessarily time consuming activity. Without watching, you may miss the boat, or caught with your panties down - so it could be embarrassing–or worse! There are many ways to trendwatch, apart from simply keeping your eyes and ears open. One I use is trendwatching.com: an independent and opinionated trend firm, scanning t...