Crowdfunding was my idea…no seriously, it was!
In 2007 I worked for TechnoServe, which is an international non-profit that promotes business solutions to poverty in the developing world. At the time, Google.org was a key supporter of TechnoServe’s business plan competitions that were launched in at least five different countries in sub-Saharan Africa. I had the opportunity to run Tanzania’s first national business plan competition and it was awesome. We rocked it. Well, really Tanzania’s entrepreneurs showed their stuff and came out in droves to the competition, vastly exceeding all expected applicant numbers and driving up sponsorship and general support from the private sector
We were lucky enough to have nine or ten volunteers, most of whom came from Google itself to teach classes, mentor and provide support to the entrepreneurs and just generally make the program better. Even with cash prizes and in-kind support, we still needed more investors to actually invest in the businesses themselves. A dedicated Swiss investor contacted us independently to invest in one of the finalists of the competition, but we wanted more, so we came up with the idea to film and launch entrepreneur pitches on YouTube to promote the best of the best, because, at the end of the day, they needed more money to be successful…which gave me an idea: what if entrepreneurs could create profiles on a platform and receive funding from a collection of different investors interested in that particular concept or who believed in a passionate entrepreneur? We could solve the funding dilemma! Seriously, I knew I had solved it and I wrote an email at the end of 2007 to a very good friend asking her for feedback and advice, but I wound up getting a new job soon thereafter and never took the idea forward. I didn’t even know where to start. Enter the crowdsourcing and crowdfunding explosion that happened from 2009 onwards and I was crushed — I mean, it was my idea!
Fast forward 7 years where I am now working for an amazing start-up crowdfunding platform and I am, to say the least, pretty excited, but what if…what if I had carried through with my idea? I can’t say that I haven’t kicked myself at least once or twice.
Crowdsourcing provides an a opportunity for an ordinary person with an extraordinary idea to make it better and crowdfunding is the next generation of business finance: a way to democratize capital, and level the playing field so-to-speak. Crowdsourcing and crowdfunding are disruptive technologies; they challenge the traditional hierarchical structures of a business and offer individuals the chance to collaborate with like-minded peers to build better products in a fraction of time of the traditional corporate life cycle.
Crowdfunding is still in its infancy, but when Title III of the JOBS Act passes, equity crowdfunding will explode and while I believe that the benefits of crowdsourcing will far outweigh the risks, risks still remain. Entrepreneurs, inventors and designers should think about protecting their idea and invention as much as time and cost will allow, but should not be so hindered by the process as to not launch it at all. If Designbook were available to me in 2007, I could have been an instrumental part of launching a revolution. What is your idea and how will it change the future? Wouldn’t you like to know?
Contact me anytime.
kim@designbook.com
Originally published at designbookcom.tumblr.com.
