Hands On With Pebble Smartwatch, the Most Successful Kickstarter Project Ever. In the big scheme of consumer electronics, smartwatches can’t match smartphones, tablets, or even ultrabooks in piquing public curiosity.
And glancing at a photo of the Pebble smartwatch, you wouldn’t notice anything too different or special about it — it looks like an understated digital watch. But this particular smartwatch has captured the public’s attention to the tune of $10 million in Kickstarter funding, making it the most-financed project in Kickstarter history. Pebble, a smartwatch that wirelessly connects with your smartphone to alert you of incoming calls and messages, blew past the previous Kickstarter record of $3.3 million only five days after launching its crowdsourced funding effort.
It’s an amazing feat when you consider just how many big-name smartphone and tablet brands are fighting for the same attention. What is it about the Pebble that made it such a breakout success? Inside Pebble R&D Of course, the Pebble team hasn’t gotten its hands on the money yet. Crowdfunding for entrepreneurs (Crowd Investing investment rounds for startups) How to Prepare an Effective Crowdfunding Pitch.
On April 11, 2012, a young engineer named Eric Migicovsky posted a project request for $100,000 on funding platform Kickstarter.
He hoped for development funds from "the crowd" for his Pebble prototype, a Bluetooth smartwatch that wirelessly connects with Android and iPhone smartphones to display email, calendar alerts, social media updates and caller ID; play music; run apps like GPS; and, yes, even tell time. His project rang the cool vibe for Kickstarter's famously creative geek community.
By May 18, Migicovsky had reeled in an astonishing $10.2 million from nearly 70,000 backers -- the first $1 million in only 28 hours. Kickstarter's donation model exchanges perks, rewards or products -- not company equity -- for contributions to fully funded projects. In this case, depending on the amount they donated, backers will receive one or more Pebble watches before market release, adding up to thousands of presold products. Overnight sensations take years. Working the options. Joanna L. Pebble, Kickstarter's Biggest Crowdfunding Success, Hits A Bump In The Road. Crowdfunding – But Not by the Crowd. What the Recently Passed JOBS Act Does and Does Not Do for Entrepreneurs and Startups Earlier this spring, President Barack Obama signed into law the “Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act,” or the JOBS Act, which was approved with bipartisan support in both houses of Congress.
Among other things, the JOBS Act provides for “crowdfunding” under Title III, “Capital Raising Online While Deterring Fraud and Unethical Non-Disclosure Act of 2012.” Crowdfunding for Small Business Is Still an Unclear Path. Crowdfunding Statistics and Trends. Crowdfunding 101: The Basics. SEC Holds Debt/Equity Crowdfunding Hostage. As crowdfunding on sites like Indiegogo and Kickstarter experienced a huge surge in popularity in 2011 ($1.5 billion raised) and 2012 (estimated $3 billion), it was easy to forget that one of the key elements of the industry has been held up by the SEC for nearly a year, with no resolution in sight.
When President Obama signed the JOBS Act into law in April 2012 (the U.S. House of Representatives passed it on March 8), it was with the intent to break down the barriers for regular people to be able to invest in small businesses. How Dealstruck Is Using Crowdfunding To Power Loans For Small Businesses. Story by Benjamin F.
Kuo Earlier this month, Dealstruck (www.dealstruck.com) debuted a new, crowdfunding marketplace with an interesting twist. Instead of equity, the company is aimed at profiting profitable small businesses with business debt funding from investors, to help those businesses grow and get to the next level. The San Diego firm is headed by Ethan Senturia, who sat down with us to tell us how Dealstruck is trying to help build small businesses and jobs--and also tells us a bit about what it's like to come from a family full of very successful, and high profile entrepreneurs, and how that has influenced his experience as an entrepreneur himself.
Why Crowdfunding Creativity Is Just The Beginning. Media activist Ian MacKenzie offers a short history of crowdfunding and how it repesents one of the key pillars of our emerging social and economic paradigm.
It’s hard to know when it began. Perhaps it started with my first web page. That moment I typed out my first cautious lines of HTML, and uploaded the document to the mysterious sounding “web server.” Hello world. The words spoke back at me from the monitor. Part of me wanted to remove the page immediately. TheCrowdCafe: Crowdfunding research, news, and resources. Social Media, Entrepreneurship, Law and Public Policy – Mashtag Blog – People, Capital, Technology, Creativity.
Blog Archives - Equity Crowdfunding News Daily. There are two fundamentally different but related aspects of the “money problem” that urgently need to be addressed.
One is exchange problem, the other is the finance problem. Recent history has made it clear that in both realms, existing structures and institutions are serious flawed. The following blog post is Compiled by Thomas H. Greco, Jr. and appears on Beyond Money. The article contains not only an update, but countless additional information and resources surrounding Equity Crowdfunding. Crowdfunding conference upcoming 2013.
CrowdCheck: The Crowdfunding Due Diligence Company.