Crowdfunding has recently taken off all over the world. I am very excited about it as it changes how entrepreneurs get started. I have had a lot of people come up to me as ask what is crowdfunding and when did it start. To start with, crowdfunding has existed for centuries.

The Statue of Liberty is one of the best examples of friendship and respect. Given by the French people to the Americans to welcome them to the new world. Everyone knows this story but very few people know how it got to Liberty Island, where it stands today.

The statue came in a ship and was kept at the different places(parks) as the American Government didn’t have the $300,000 in 1885 to construct the base of the statue. America was recovering and it was $150,000 short of making the base. Joseph Pulitzer; the newspaper owner of the World(known as the New York Times now) started a drive for donations to complete the project.

He through his newspaper advertised, that he needed to raise $150,000 to get the Statue of Liberty to placed. And every contributor would get their name published on his newspaper. People from all around contributed with the average donation about being less than a dollar. More than 120,000 people contributed and Pultizer got the statue to where it is today. This was the biggest crowdfunding campaign before the internet, in my knowledge.

Before societies became democratic, we were ruled by Kings. The Kings and monarchs did one thing right, they funded artists, they were the drivers of creativity. As Kings started becoming insignificant in our lives, the funds for the artists, started drying up.

Mozart, one of the greatest musicians, in 1783 posted this ad,

These three concertos, which can be performed with full orchestra including wind instruments, or only a quattro, that is with 2 violins, 1 viola and violoncello, will be available at the beginning of April to those who have subscribed for them (beautifully copied, and supervised by the composer himself).

Anyone who contributed towards the performance would get a manuscript for the same. Unfortunately, the campaign wasn’t successful.

One year later, he tried again and he was successful; Mozart got his wish of performing his piano concertos in a Viennese concert hall. He thanked his 176 backers in the original manuscript.

http://rmc.library.cornell.edu/mozart/sketch/subscribers_pic.htm

If Mozart tried this today, with the mights of Facebook, Twitter, Google And LinkedIn behind his campaign, we would have countless hours of great music.

The Internet has changed how people communicate. Getting information on a topic is a Google Search away. Sharing something you care about is a Facebook like away.

People with Passion with their Patrons can create masterpieces.

Crowdfunding has hit me hard, really hard and I have started QREOH with Cecile, to help create great products. QREOH is a crowdfunding platform for designers.

This is how QREOH works,

A designer comes on QREOH, registers a profile, adds a project which he/she is passionate about.

We put the project on QREOH for everyone to have a look and pre-order it.

If the project gets the pre-decided minimum orders, we collect the money from people who had pre-ordered and give it to the designer to bring it to life. We help the designer ship the products to you. :)

Designers bring their dreams to reality.

Buyers get passionately designed products straight from their designer.