In 2010, websites like Kickstarter began to gain traction with consumers, as quirky petitions for help funding CDs, events, and films began to show up routinely on Facebook and Twitter and in email inboxes. By 2012, a variety of these kinds of sites were popping up and helping to generate relatively small sums, usually in the thousands or tens of thousands. Then in May 2012, startup Pebble Technology shattered the ceiling by raising more than $10 million in a Kickstarter campaign to pre-sell its “smart watch.”
That same month, new research about “crowdfunding” — this new type of crowdsourcing in which an individual, group, or company raises money from multiple sources online — was released by Massolution (the consulting arm of crowdsourcing.org).
The report, Crowdfunding Industry Report: Market Trends, Composition, and Crowdfunding Platforms, which made a big splash in the startup funding world, revealed that crowdfunding has found a huge market — $1.5 billion was raised worldwide through one million campaigns in 2011, a figure that’s projected to double in 2012, and explode in 2013.
[Excerpt, click on the link to read the rest of this post, and to see links to the report and other relevant resources.]
From: Texas Enterprise — Fast-Growing Crowdfunding Sites Not Likely To Replace VCs
By Renee Hopkins
Renee Hopkins is one of the contributing authors to the Amazon best-selling business book, A Guide to Open Innovation and Crowd Sourcing: Advice from Leading Experts, editedby Paul Sloane, with a foreword by Henry Chesbrough (Kogan Page, 2011). Cathryn Hrudicka, Founder, CEO and Chief Imagination Officer of Creative Sage™, is also one of the contributing authors. You can order it here: http://amzn.to/OI_CS
Cathryn Hrudicka co-wrote the chapter, “Building the Culture for Open Innovation and Crowd Sourcing,” with Gwen Ishmael and Boris Pluskowski — more information about all of the co-authors and the contents of this book is available at: http://bit.ly/OI_CS_Google
At Creative Sage™, we can help you maximize the value of your open innovation and crowdsourcing or crowdfunding projects and gain the insights you need to move forward most effectively. To discuss your organization’s situation, please feel free to give us a call, at 1-510-845-5510 (Pacific time, in the San Francisco Bay Area/Silicon Valley). You can also contact us by email and visit our web site for more information. We look forward to working with you and helping you get real results.



