September/October 2018

More articles in this issue:

• Drones on the Upswing
• Human Machine Interfaces Evolve in Cars
• How can Independent Retailers Compete in the Age of Amazon?
• Sports Innovation Lab’s Angela Ruggiero
• Medical VR: Reshaping the Future

Crowdfunding websites, which let companies directly receive funding from consumers, make perfect sense for a generation who demand business transparency and personal products. For companies, crowdfunding gives them another way to start their dream outside the hectic nature of venture capital or series funding. So far, it’s worked: U.S. companies crowdfunded $34.4 billion from 2012 to 2015, according to Statista.

The biggest crowdfunding sites, such as Kickstarter, Indiegogo and GoFundMe, have become mainstays in business owners’ conversations, but there’s plenty of other options to make sure entrepreneurs find the perfect fit. Check out these four unique twists on crowdfunding sites to see if they work for your future company.

RocketHub

RocketHub calls itself the “leading social network for entrepreneurs” for good reason. The site offers a robust crowdsourcing platform — users can keep what they raise even if they don’t meet the goal — but over half a million entrepreneurs also use RocketHub to connect and network with others, learn about different events or conferences and advertise their business. For those looking for more traditional funding, the site also has the “Elequity Funding Room,” which offers an online space to pitch your idea to the RocketHub team and raise capital directly through them.

Quirky

Here’s a different take on crowdfunding: instead of starting a campaign to ask consumers for money, Quirky lets you crowdsource improvements to the product you want to create. Users submit their product idea and then others recommend improvements to it through a collaboration phase. Then Quirky selects a handful of products to bring to life, sharing the profits with the creators and collaborators when it sells. The site’s 1.2 million members have resulted in 303,441 inventions and almost $11 million in royalties paid. Quirky already sells a variety of simple but useful products, such as a pair of scissors that can fold into a single-blade scissor or a state-of-the-art wine opener.

Fundable

With $445 million raised, Fundable laid the foundations for dozens of million dollar startups. While other crowdfunding sites are open to anyone — artists, content creators or entrepreneurs — Fundable was built specifically with businesses in mind. By focusing on investors and VCs, the site’s hands-on service is “founder-friendly” and offers guides on successful startups, investors and crowdfunding. With Fundable, users can also choose to either raise funds from the public, like other crowdfunding sites, or alternatively, give company stock shares in exchange for funding from accredited investors.

Fundrise

Fundrise, a crowdfunding site for realestate investing, thrives thanks to the way the internet connects entrepreneurs to niche audiences. According to its website, Fundrise is the “first service that makes the benefits of private market real estate investing available to you through one simple platform.” Fundrise gives users access to hundreds of private real estate projects through their platform, where they can choose which properties to invest in. Users can invest as little as $100 – previously unheard of in a market usually reserved for top investors and private equity firms.

Check out these unique crowdfunding sites to see if one of them works for you.