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What would happen if a startup was seed funded by 30 people at 1K each? It could be very interesting. The company would only have 30K of investment, but on th

by johnrob 16y ago

What would happen if a startup was seed funded by 30 people at 1K each? It could be very interesting. The company would only have 30K of investment, but on the flip side there would already be 30 people who want to see it succeed. 30 evangelists ready to pump whatever the company can produce. Nobody really knows how well a model like this would work, because it's not yet legal.

Retric 16y ago
This has been tried in the past the result was an is mostly pyramid schemes and other forms of investment fraud. See: multilevel marketing for a more common equivelent.
- johnrob 16y ago
  I had a similar thought when describing the idea. However, I don't think we're comparing apples with apples. The accredited investing law has been in place since 1933, so if the pyramid schemes you're referring to really are conceptually the same as what I described, they would have been illegal.
  - Retric 16y ago
    Accredited investment law's have significantly reduced the impact of most pyramid schemes because they make it far harder to get the ball rolling still you can find a few more recent examples at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyramid_scheme http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyramid_scheme but mostly they are outside the US. For a better look at the pyramid schemes closest relative: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Ponzi_schemes http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Ponzi_schemes you can see several home grown examples mostly involving more wealthy people. What separates them IMO is Pyramid schemes give you plenty of foot soldiers to sell the idea, Ponzi schemes are limited to the initial con artists which focus on people with money by default. PS: There is a friends and family exception to these things, so if you only need 30k you can probably collect to from people you already know. However, random strangers have a hard time distinguishing a reliable businesses from a con artist so it's a hard call to make.
Retric 16y ago
This has been tried in the past the result was an is mostly pyramid schemes. See: multilevel marketing for a more common equivalent..

by johnrob 16y ago

Retric 16y ago

This has been tried in the past the result was an is mostly pyramid schemes and other forms of investment fraud. See: multilevel marketing for a more common equivelent.

johnrob 16y ago
I had a similar thought when describing the idea. However, I don't think we're comparing apples with apples. The accredited investing law has been in place since 1933, so if the pyramid schemes you're referring to really are conceptually the same as what I described, they would have been illegal.
- Retric 16y ago
  Accredited investment law's have significantly reduced the impact of most pyramid schemes because they make it far harder to get the ball rolling still you can find a few more recent examples at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyramid_scheme http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyramid_scheme but mostly they are outside the US. For a better look at the pyramid schemes closest relative: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Ponzi_schemes http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Ponzi_schemes you can see several home grown examples mostly involving more wealthy people. What separates them IMO is Pyramid schemes give you plenty of foot soldiers to sell the idea, Ponzi schemes are limited to the initial con artists which focus on people with money by default. PS: There is a friends and family exception to these things, so if you only need 30k you can probably collect to from people you already know. However, random strangers have a hard time distinguishing a reliable businesses from a con artist so it's a hard call to make.

Retric 16y ago

This has been tried in the past the result was an is mostly pyramid schemes. See: multilevel marketing for a more common equivalent..