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And yet it felt completely obvious to many of us that were around since the beginning. YC, reddit, HN, and Dropbox are among the companies I definitely would ha

by staunch 10y ago

And yet it felt completely obvious to many of us that were around since the beginning. YC, reddit, HN, and Dropbox are among the companies I definitely would have invested $1000 into, had the opportunity been available. I predict the next generation of YC will be a scalable crowdfunding company. It will look more like a startup-focused Kickstarter than seed-stage Sequoia.

guiambros 10y ago
Didn't you just describe FundersClub's [1] business model? Basically a crowdsourced investment platform for startups. Yeah, it was limited to "accredited investors" in compliance with SEC and tax laws in the US, but even that is changing, at least on paper [2]. [1] https://fundersclub.com https://fundersclub.com [2] https://www.cooleygo.com/can-you-raise-money-from-unaccredited-investors/ https://www.cooleygo.com/can-you-raise-money-from-unaccredit...
- staunch 10y ago
  Yeah, there are dozens of startups working on crowdfunding. AngelList should have been able to make something work by now, but it will probably be someone else.
cobookman 10y ago
Why would you want 1000 investors over a single entity. There is a reason many companies aim to stay private.
- staunch 10y ago
  You can group 1000+ investors into a single entity on the cap table, as one reasonable solution. It should be possible to make it beneficial for the users and the company. The company gets money and committed users, and the users get $100-$1000 equity. Almost no one in Silicon Valley believed in Oculus or Tesla, but users did.
tedmiston 10y ago
Equity crowdfunding is one of those ideas that sounds super ideal and meritocratic on paper but doesn't really work in practice. IMO this model will rarely work because of all the non-capital benefits that good investors provide. It's an overly simplistic view of what (good) investors bring to the table. Random people crowdfunding (assuming non-accredited) don't bring the same level of diligence or value.

by staunch 10y ago

guiambros 10y ago

Didn't you just describe FundersClub's [1] business model? Basically a crowdsourced investment platform for startups. Yeah, it was limited to "accredited investors" in compliance with SEC and tax laws in the US, but even that is changing, at least on paper [2]. [1] https://fundersclub.com https://fundersclub.com [2] https://www.cooleygo.com/can-you-raise-money-from-unaccredited-investors/ https://www.cooleygo.com/can-you-raise-money-from-unaccredit...

staunch 10y ago
Yeah, there are dozens of startups working on crowdfunding. AngelList should have been able to make something work by now, but it will probably be someone else.

cobookman 10y ago

Why would you want 1000 investors over a single entity. There is a reason many companies aim to stay private.

staunch 10y ago
You can group 1000+ investors into a single entity on the cap table, as one reasonable solution. It should be possible to make it beneficial for the users and the company. The company gets money and committed users, and the users get $100-$1000 equity. Almost no one in Silicon Valley believed in Oculus or Tesla, but users did.

tedmiston 10y ago

Equity crowdfunding is one of those ideas that sounds super ideal and meritocratic on paper but doesn't really work in practice. IMO this model will rarely work because of all the non-capital benefits that good investors provide. It's an overly simplistic view of what (good) investors bring to the table. Random people crowdfunding (assuming non-accredited) don't bring the same level of diligence or value.