Kickstarter Archives - Page 2 of 2

Ohio Startup: Fundable Launches CrowdFunding Startup For Startups

Exciting news in Ohio today as Fundable, a crowd funding source for startups, after seven months of work, and making sure the Jobs Act passed, Fundable is open to the public. They are dubbing themselves the Kickstarter for startups.

If you’re not aware, Kickstarter doesn’t let you fund startups. We’ve tried several project ideas surrounding our “sneaker-strapped nationwide startup road trip” and all were rejected by Kickstarter. We then switched to Indiegogo which we used twice. The first time we raised $300 and the second we didn’t raise a dime. That’s despite the fact that literally hundreds of people looked at the page, showed interest and asked us via email, Twitter, Google+ and Facebook.

After Congress passed the JOBS act it went over the the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The SEC has until July 4th to set the rules up for crowdfunding. Crowdfunding means that the public at large can invest in a “startup” or other company, or product through crowdfunding sources in exchange for equity.

Startups and small businesses can receive up to a million dollars with this form of funding.

Fundable (if approved as a broker by the SEC) will become one of the first startup funding crowdfunding websites. They opened up for business two weeks ago with a “reward” model similar to kickstarter but devoted to startups and businesses.

The Fundable website outlines what kind of businesses they want on the site as it first rolls out. Fundable is targeting startups in the fields of gadgets, technology,apparel food and sports. John’s dry cleaners, or a franchise of pizza hut isn’t going to get approved. At this time they are also not handling charities or a “Clown suit franchise” (damn there goes that idea).

The other great thing about Fundable is it’s not a place for artists, either the painting kind or the musical kind, and it’s not for crafters there are plenty of sites out there for that.

Fundable is a great way to fund a startup and good ideas are going to shine through on the site (we’ve submitted an application for nibletz and hope it’s approved and you’ll support us).

Since their launch, Fundable startups have already raised $40,831 (at the time of this writing). In fact Elevation Training Mask 2.0 is already 115% funded at $11,506.

If you’re a startup with a good idea, you definitely want to consider Fundable.

Linkage:

Get funded with Fundable here

Nibletz is the voice of startups “everywhere else” check out these stories from “everywhere else”

Get your startup covered email startup@nibletz.com

VIDEO Capital Connection TechBUZZ ’12 Ending Keynote – Steve “Makes Our” Case

(photo: nibletz syndicate)

Capital Connection TechBUZZ ’12 Had Steve Case as the Keynote speaker at the end of the two days. In 1985 Steve Case founded AOL. It was the first internet company to go public, it was the largest media acquisition of its time.

When crowdfunding was brought up he spoke about the ability to raise funds for projects via indiegogo or kickstarter Recently he has been spending a lot of time in Washington DC convincing the US Government to deal with entrepreneurial issues and American jobs. When asked how he feels about crowdfunding (JOBS Act) he mentioned the fact that it has been passed and is waiting for the SEC to finish their part. The law had previously stated that it was illegal to sell private equity to investors online. “You can sell the whole business – 100% but you will go to jail if you sell 1%” Case stated “for the first 6 years it was illegal for us to connect to the internet.” The JOBS act focuses on modernizing an extremely old system.

In this short clip he discusses the benefits he sees in crowdfunding for startups and where it will may have the biggest benefit. As we are well aware, if you are in North Dakota, Philly, St Louis, Chicago, or Everywhere Else – it is very difficult to get covered by media outlets or to raise seed or angel capital. This is where we come in. We are planning on driving across the country for just over a year meeting with startups, incubators, accelerators, and their towns. While we cannot directly assist in helping you raise capital, we are sneaker strapped ourselves, we can help get your names out. We will come to your city and spend time with you. We don’t discriminate against a lack of funds being raised or lack of angels in your region. We only care about meeting startups who are making a go at something new.

We do need some help though, which explains the title of the article, our case has been made by Steve Case himself. Take a look below:

More stories from Capital Connection 2012/TechBUZZ here

What’s this sneaker strapped, startup road trip? Find out here

European Startup: Gambitious Hopes To Be The Kickstarter For Games

While Kickstarter is a great place for projects, it does have it’s drawbacks, which we experienced first hand and why we had to go with Indiegogo for our project. One of the main drawbacks to Kickstarter is international projects. While there are folks building international projects and have no problem delivering perks/rewards to U.S. backers, Kickstarter uses Amazon payments for collection and disbursement, and Amazon payments doesn’t work outside of the U.S.

Well a new European startup hopes to take some of that pain out of European project starters, specifically gaming focused projects. Gambitious is a crowd-sourced funding site for gaming projects. It’s a very lucrative market. With just U.S. based gaming projects over $10 million has been raised and funded using Kickstarter.

While Gambitious has a lot of the same fundamentals as Kickstarter, the company actually lets you buy into the gaming project. Not only did you help fund it but you will receive royalties from it as well, you will in essence become part owner of the game. This could prove to be a great opportunity, especially if you choose to invest in the right games.

As Joystiq suggests, instead of receiving a copy of the game in advance or a lunch date with one of the art directors, you’ll actually own part of the game.

Gambitious won’t be ready for another 4-6 weeks as they are planning an E3 launch.

Linkage:

To learn more about Gambitious click here

Like GeggyTah, Nibletz covers startups Wherever You Are

We’re on a nationwide sneakerstrapped road trip of startups, please support us getting on the bus

source: Joystiq

Philly Phocus: HACK – Technology Based Art and Design Exhibit

Philly Phocus #2 – We look at HACK “A TECHNOLOGY BASED DESIGN AND ART EXHIBITION

WHAT IS HACK PHILLY THEN?

HACK is an open call for technology based projects. Inviting participation from the design, art, hacker, and DIY communities in Philadelphia. We are encouraging collaborative works for submission, but this is not a requirement. We are asking for a range of works; from 2D to 3D works, applications, wearables, installation, objects, and performances.

The emergence of new technology has unveiled a community of people who may or may not consider themselves artists or designers. Hackers are liberating these technologies from the intentions of their original creators, thus rendering new raw materials resulting in unintended consequences. Ultimately, traditional borders do not bind these interstitial communities; by re-appropriating, merging, extending, and breaking down barriers through disruption, these hackers are creating something new and innovative.

HACK will take place as part of Philly Tech Week on April 27 and 28, 2012. Both nights will have the gallery show as well as live performances.

WHY ARE WE COVERING THIS?

In the next 11 days we will be following Philadelphia startups in a lot of depth. April 20 – 22 we will be covering Philadelphia Startup Weekend which is included in Philly Tech Week but is still its own event. Following that Philly Tech Week goes from April 20-28 because of that I figure we should highlight one of the events that I am most excited about attending, and not just as a blogger/journalist but as a local boy with a number of friends who would have been a perfect fit for this exhibit.

Taking a break from the constant discussions and walking and letting somebody else handle the control of your mind for a short while might just help you relax or it might just be able to set off your own creative spark. Taking a few minutes to an hour out of your 6-8 days there will not kill you. So, if you have yet to check out HACK

Follow that link, it’ll take you to their kickstarter page (the VERY MODEST) amount requested has been reached so Andrew has decided to attempt to raise additional money – FUNDING SUCCESSFUL ! New STRETCH GOAL: $ 2000 !

If we meet our new stretch goal, the quality of the catalog, shirts, and overall exhibition will be greatly increased !!!

Microryza: Crowdfunding for scientific research with only one prize: learning

Seattle, Washington: Microryza is tackling the lack of funding for scientific research using “crowdfunding.” Thinking differently regarding what should drive the bidding and decided to not follow along the lines of Kickstarter with prizes or exclusives, instead the offer the gift of learning. In the companies FAQ they explain the decision to forgo the prizes,

Other crowdfunding websites provide tangible returns. Why doesn’t Microryza researchers provide tangible rewards?

We believe the real value is in the process, regardless of whether or not you meet your project aims. While providing donors with tangible rewards is good at getting funding, we don’t want you to be held liable if you don’t achieve your promised rewards.We understand that sometimes, your research project just doesn’t go as expected. That’s alright, because that is just the nature of research. If you knew things what to expect, then you wouldn’t be doing anything new.

Co-founder Denny Luan states, “what matters is the process, not the results,” says Luan “You can’t really offer things like ‘I will name a newly discovered butterfly species after you’” in the hope that you can deliver that if you get funded.

I am going to borrow a paragraph from the website Insidehighered, due to both their outstanding story and the fact that they’ve followed the progress of Microryza for some time now.

There’s a strong social component to the startup that Luan is building with Microryza – it’s not just a place for funding, but a place for networking and sharing research. In fact, Luan describes Microryza as a “social learning” site, and he’s clear that while the goal is certainly to have scientific research projects funded, the emphasis isn’t just on the outcomes of that research. It’s on the process itself.

What is the cost for either donor or researcher? “We take a small transaction fee for all successfully funded projects, which is 10%. This includes the 3% processing fee we have to pay for payment processing.For details on how the payment processing fee is calculated, please view Stripe’s pricing. If your project does not meet its goal, we won’t charge to you or your donors.” Are donations tax-deductible? They will be soon! We’re currently working on channeling your donations directly to the researcher’s host institution so that you can receive a tax receipt from the Institution’s respective 501(3)c entity. Stay tuned for more info.

The overall design of the site is very attractive yet is also usable. There are currently only 8 projects up on the site and they are cycled through in the top three slots highlighting the projects.

Each project is given space to include a brief introduction of the project, researcher, and includes a place to include any relevant publications or papers they’ve contributed on. The researcher is then asked a number of questions some of which are more generic as seen below and others are more targeted to their project:

So what is your project all about?
What inspired you to pursue this idea?
So this project challenges (this or that idea or problem)
Why does this project matter to you?
How do you define success?
What do you plan to share with your backers?
What’s the risk associated with a project like this?
If you could tell your backers any one thing, what would it be? Seriously, anything.
And what does this project depend on in order to be successful?
What are the next steps for this project?
What if it succeeds?

Some of the Denny Luan quotes are from this article over at insidehighered UNFORTUNATELY, I did not manage to note who the original source was for this story, I saw it in our Google+ Stream

2 Kickstarter Projects Raise One Million Dollars Each On The Same Day

If you’re not familiar with Kickstarter, it’s a crowd sourced platform for seed investments of projects. It originally started as a launching pad for musicians who were trying to fund album and video projects.

An artist or band would make a kickstarter page for their next endeavor. Say the project would cost them $5000 for a limited cd run, art, photography and studio time. The artist or band would provide telethon type incentives for people and fans to pledge to donate money to the project.

For example my little brothers band with a decent sized local fan base used kick starter for an album project. They needed $4000. For a $10 pledge the donators (fans) would get a free copy of the cd delivered to their home once complete. For a $20 pledge they would autograph the CD. For a $100 pledge they would meet the fans backstage and so on and so forth. 50 fans pledged enough money to reach the $4000 goal. Once they reached the goal the funds were secured via credit card (that had been given when the donator pledged) and all the money was gathered and delivered to the band.

More after the break
Read More…