Crowdfunding

[jblocks]

Easy  for old hands to write off as dotbomb but the new rules being worked out by SEC (article in today's NY Times, also linked below) mean more funding will get done this way and maybe a way to escape the VCs and Angels at least for the seed round

http://gigaom.com/2012/05/22/kickstarter-founder-perry-chen-intervie/

Kickstarted: my conversation with Kickstarter co-founder Perry Chen

Kickstarter is not just a startup– it’s part of an important shift away from the industrial manufacturing era & toward the maker economy. In this wide-ranging interview, founder Perry Chen talks about how society is reaching a new ‘bursting point of creativity,’ & where Kickstarter goes from here.

We are on the cusp of a big economic shift. I believe that the industrial era is coming to an end and Kickstarter just might be the most visible representation of that. When I look at Kickstarter, I see small businesses that have been funded by their customers. I see the acceleration of this shift away from the industrial manufacturing ideology to more of a maker economy. And I also see an idea so powerful that the company name has become a verb.

 (see above link)

and

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/27/business/smallbusiness/why-the-sec-is-likely-to-miss-its-deadline-...

[0xFFFFFFFF]

I think this is a terrible idea, it's just a license for con men to print money.

I don't think Angels and VCs need to be escaped from, they are already almost foolishly generous when they are happy with 9 out of 10 startups failing.

I've seen the ones they've funded, and I've seen the ones they haven't. I've never seen a worthwhile idea and team that failed for lack of money.  Even today there are oceans of money out there sloshing around looking desparately for something to do.

Anyway it's nearly redundant, if you and six friends want to make micro-investments in some startup you can do it via contracts and loans today, you just have to do some extra paperwork, this just makes it easier.  Probably too easy. 

[bg6638]

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jblocks wrote:
 

Kickstarter is not just a startup– it’s part of an important shift away from the industrial manufacturing era & toward the maker economy. In this wide-ranging interview, founder Perry Chen talks about how society is reaching a new ‘bursting point of creativity,’ & where Kickstarter goes from here.

 

We are on the cusp of a big economic shift. I believe that the industrial era is coming to an end and Kickstarter just might be the most visible representation of that. When I look at Kickstarter, I see small businesses that have been funded by their customers. I see the acceleration of this shift away from the industrial manufacturing ideology to more of a maker economy.

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Yeah, we are on the cusp of a big economic shift!  With the current President getting another 4yr term, he will increasingly move to end the industrial era, and push this country to an economic model where "The People" have common ownership of all productive assets of the country.  The state will make all decisions on how those assets will be deployed in a manner which eliminates production for profit .................

[jblocks · Accepted solution]

[JCPOPESCU]

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0xFFFFFFFF wrote:

I think this is a terrible idea, it's just a license for con men to print money.

I don't think Angels and VCs need to be escaped from, they are already almost foolishly generous when they are happy with 9 out of 10 startups failing.

I've seen the ones they've funded, and I've seen the ones they haven't. I've never seen a worthwhile idea and team that failed for lack of money.  Even today there are oceans of money out there sloshing around looking desparately for something to do.

Anyway it's nearly redundant, if you and six friends want to make micro-investments in some startup you can do it via contracts and loans today, you just have to do some extra paperwork, this just makes it easier.  Probably too easy. 

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It sounds just far too nebulous. 

What I get is the whole thing boils down to "venture funding light".   In essence another iteration on the very same models used by the venture firms but with a very superficial twist.

I think, quite frankly, it's a lot of hype, cheerleading, and huff-and-puff capable of producing further drek, creative ways to waste internet bandwidth, and nothing of significant and substantial economic value.

Much as Mr. Chen would like to believe the "industrial age" is over he is quite mistaken.  A bunch of hype and babble is not an economically sustainable short or long term business model.   Someone still has to recieve goods, services, or both in some tangible form they would be willing to pay for and continue to pay for.  

I suggest Mr. Chen take a bonehead economics class as well as some history classes because, quite frankly, he impresses me as quite ignorant and dangerously naieve to both.

[0xFFFFFFFF]

The best cons have people lining up to be cheated, begging the con man to take their money!

Look at the lottery.

Look at Bernie Madoff.

Look at Las Vegas.

Back in The Internet Bubble I talked to a guy who was overjoyed, he'd just put $100,000 into a fund that was going to let him, an average guy, buy into the hottest new startups.  I just shook my head, cuz the world doesn't work that way.  How's your Facebook stock doing?

[jblocks]

Did you ask him about FB stock? I don't have any myself. I'm being killed with Junior miners instead. I should've put quotes around the OP as that was in the referenced article.

My own feeling about dotcom 2 is sure, a load  of hype, except so is the SM (you mentioned Madoff), the Bond market too.

The musical chairs is great if you get a seat (like the Instagram boys) before the music stops. These kids are on their iphones or androids all the time and they buy stuff, play games, all of that. It supports a load of sales, Hit action movies are crap too but they make money.

If you mean we should all go back to making stuff that will take a war with China

[JCPOPESCU]

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0xFFFFFFFF wrote:

The best cons have people lining up to be cheated, begging the con man to take their money!

Look at the lottery.

Look at Bernie Madoff.

Look at Las Vegas.

Back in The Internet Bubble I talked to a guy who was overjoyed, he'd just put $100,000 into a fund that was going to let him, an average guy, buy into the hottest new startups.  I just shook my head, cuz the world doesn't work that way.  How's your Facebook stock doing?

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I remember dotcom folly version one.   What's the difference between one and two ?  In version two they learned the con game better.

I can't tell you how many times I heard some eager script kiddie bounce off the walls telling me how the company , all volunteers no less, was sitting on the "next big thing" and this particular web portal is going to take off and make them all multi bazillionaires. 

My reply:  Let me tell you about the stock market and gravity.  What goes up MUST come down.  

The reason I say volunteers is very deliberate:   Back then it was fashionable to be working for equity in the company.   When the company DID (not WHEN) go Kaput a lot of folks essentially volunteered.

For every Facebook, Google, or whatever there are at LEAST a good 50,000:100,000 failures if not substantially more.

PT Barnum said it right:  There's a sucker born every minute.