background preloader

Crowdfunding

Facebook Twitter

LinkedIn’s Reid Hoffman Gives Kiva $1 Million To “Empower Everyone” “How you build the future is you motivate people to pay attention and act, to improve their circumstances and run their own lives”, LinkedIn co-founder and philanthropist Reid Hoffman tells me.

LinkedIn’s Reid Hoffman Gives Kiva $1 Million To “Empower Everyone”

That’s why his support of microlending platform Kiva’s kiva.org/free program has a double positive impact. He put up $1 million so 40,000 people could try helping the impoverished via microfinance without spending their own money. They get inspired, while those who receive the microloans can start small businesses and become self-reliant. In an inspiring interview, Reid also told me about how he thinks governments should start microlending, that people need to accept that charities and causes aren’t perfect, and the life philosophy he thinks everyone should live by. Be sure to participate in the kiva.org/free trials before they run out. Years ago, Hoffman had a revelation that after his success with startups, he “wanted to do the same thing on the not-for-profit side as on the for-profit side.”

SoFi Reinvents College Loans With Alumni Funding. As the cost of a college education continues to rise, a startup called SoFi is offering a way for alumni to offer students financial assistance and more.

SoFi Reinvents College Loans With Alumni Funding

Co-founder and CEO Mike Cagney describes the current student loan system as a “classic market failure,” resulting in students who are stuck with high interest rates and heavy debt that they struggle to pay off. He says that if you can remove government from the equation (specifically government loans) and replace it with alumni, then “you create a very virtuous cycle.” So that’s what SoFi tries to do. The company is creating university-specific funds for alumni to invest in, and those are used to make loans to students.

SoFi says it’s offering to cover the full cost of attendance for participants, with loans ranging from $5,000 to $200,000. The benefits aren’t purely monetary. Of course, alumni donations are already an important source of funding for university programs. Le crowdfunding, une alternative pour lever des fonds. Seedrs Wins London Web Summit, As Europeans Rock Their Ecosystem. London Web Summit crowned Seedrs the winner of its startup competition against a crowded field of 19 other competitors today.

Seedrs Wins London Web Summit, As Europeans Rock Their Ecosystem

Managing to gain Financial Services Authority approval for its crowd funding model (in the UK) was deemed an incredibly hard thing to do by the judges, who said they had high hopes its model could kick start a revolution in startup funding. Runner-up position went to BusyFlow, a dashboard for multiple web services. You can check out a run-down of all the other startups here. Deezer also broke the news on stage that it’s launching an offline browser, and Jolicloud launched it’s new Jolicloud Me service.

Seedrs wins the offer of a £50,000 convertible note from DFJ Esprit, £15,000 in legal services from Orrick, £15,000 in advisory services from KPMG and £4,000 in hardware from HP. In a show which saw 1,000 people attend, London Web Summit just became the biggest tech startup event in the UK (at least until Le Web London arrives in June?). Comment ça marche ? For more information and answers to your questions, have a look at our FAQ IDEAS VOICE advantages in 1 click !

Comment ça marche ?

A. Introduction Are you a project founder, an entrepreneur, looking for partners ? Are you looking for a project to join ? Ideas Voice is aimed toward business project owners (entrepreneurs) looking for partners and those in search of projects to get associated (future partners). By registering on IDEAS VOICE, you join our dynamic community of entrepreneurs that will help you in your research and will facilitate the implementation of the projects.

Confidentiality ? Privacy ? B. For the entrepreneur Save time in your search of partnersFind the right partners with complementary skills Promote your project and get the opinion of a professional publicIncrease your capacity to raise funds thanks to your high potential executive teamSpeed up the launch and the profitability of your project C. IDEAS VOICE offers cooperation between members at 3 levels: D. Boost your search of partner E.