Saturday, July 26, 2014
Crowdfunding for ‘Porn Star Motel’ Photobook Red Ezra
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Wednesday, July 23, 2014
Friday, July 11, 2014
UC Berkeley to Host Executive Program on How To Tap Into $90 Billion Crowdfunding Marketplace
CFB News Wire,
Very Limited Seating Now Available For Only 50 Leading Corporate Executives For This Exclusive Event
BERKELEY, CA—(July 10th, 2013) — While most people only know about the benefits of crowdfunding for startups and small businesses, today the University of California at Berkeley announced that it will be hosting the first executive program solely dedicated to training major corporations on the benefits of crowdfunding, crowdsourcing and crowd intelligence as a way to strengthen their brand and consumer experience, and drive innovation. The course, entitled The Crowd Empowered Organization, will introduce strategies on how corporations can become “empowered by the crowd” through engaging customers, social media networks and suppliers for launching innovative solutions, enhancing consumer initiatives, improving Corporate Responsibility programming, and for deepening their brand positioning in the marketplace.
“Most people think of crowdfunding only as a Kickstarter campaign for startups,” said Richard Swart, the Director of Research at the University of California, Berkeley. “But now leading corporations, including Fortune 500 companies, are using a variety of crowd techniques—like crowd-voting, crowd-intelligence and crowdfunding—to launch new products, facilitate social impact initiatives, or to even win new customers. Startups may use the crowd as a way to quickly raise capital in order to stay in business; however, corporations are using the crowd to drive innovation, increase sales and even strengthen ROI for investors.”
OVERVIEW
The Crowd Empowered Organization program will be held October 1-2, 2014 on the campus of UC Berkeley. In this unique program, some of the world’s leading experts in crowd empowerment will share their insights as well as demonstrate strategic approaches and best practices on how to use the power of the crowd at the enterprise level. The course will be taught through observation of current and historic trends, data analysis and case studies of major brands that have already launched successful crowdfunding campaigns—such as Coca Cola, Proctor & Gamble, American Express, IBM, Condé Nast and Dodge. Now major corporations are taking advantage of crowdfunding, which is estimated to become a $90 billion market in 20 years.
WHO SHOULD ATTEND
Leading corporate executives who already oversee marketing strategies, innovation, consumer engagement, branding and social responsibility initiatives—such as Chief Marketing Officers, Corporate Responsibility Officers and Chief Innovation Officers—are being exclusively invited to sign up for this very limited seating, one-of-a-kind training experience. To register for this event or to see the full conference agenda visit the program website.
MEDIA RSVP/INQUIRIES:
Credentialed members of the press are also invited to participate in this training event, however seating is limited. Media representatives wanting to attend the “live” event will need to RSVP to register for an official press badge by emailing kimberley@leverage-pr.com.
ABOUT RICHARD SWART, DIRECTOR OF RESEARCH AT UC BERKELEY
Richard Swart is the Director of Research at the University of California, Berkeley, overseeing policies and best practices in innovative social financing models, including effective practices in crowdfunding. Swart is one of the top thought leaders in crowdfunding globally, with particular interest in crowdfunding methodologies, and in crowdfunding practices for corporations who can now leverage crowdfunding as an essential business tool for driving innovation. Swart was the lead author of a major white paper for the World Bank on the potential impact of crowdfunding around the globe. Additionally, he was the co-author of the UK Alternative Finance Market Study release with Nesta, UC Berkeley and the University of Cambridge.
MEDIA RSVP/INQUIRIES:
Credentialed members of the press are also invited to participate in this training event, however seating is limited. Media representatives wanting to attend the “live” event will need to RSVP to register for an official press badge by emailing kimberley@leverage-pr.com.
Thursday, July 10, 2014
Saturday, June 21, 2014
Content or Distribution: Not Talking Media, Rather Crowdfunding
Fri, Jun 20, 2014 
By Steve Cinelli CFB contributing editor,
By Steve Cinelli CFB contributing editor,
There has been a long debate in the media industry as to where lies the power. Whether in music, television, books, news or movies, the proverbial query is who has the clout - content owners or distributors? Distribution, with accelerating reach and scale economies, may enjoy the negotiating power over rights and costs from owners, particularly in an environ of social media, with platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Netflix and YouTube. Yet content, in a world of unique and limited substitute offerings, can still command the stage, respect and compensation. The quality of content, the receptivity and connection with the observer yields a deeper essence. But the lines have and will continue to blur between the importance and role of both, particularly as business models evolve, technology intercedes and so the conversation moves on.
This analog, I submit, is spot on to the nature of the crowdfunding movement. So far, tremendous levels of near hysteria on the advent and growth of what is construed as a new form of finance. I say poppycock. Simply the business of finance, as an art and science, remains in situ. A user of capital conveys to a supplier of capital requisite information for such supplier of capital to decide to deploy such capital to such user, with the supplier, hoping to put up X and receive back X+. The merits of what represents a worthy investment still lies in essential characteristics – business thesis and need, management teams, market sizing and conditions, proper valuations and expectations on both parts, business and revenue models, competition and a bit of good fortune, i.e., when skill meets opportunity. To manifest a dream, various resources are needed, capital generally being one. How it’s structured and deployed, and how it performs is still resolute.
The crowdfunding mechanism is about distribution. In the days of old, private (unregistered) financing consisted of authoring a physical “book” aka private placement memorandum, which, containing the relevant information was sent to select investors, numbered of course, with follow up via phone, facsimile, or in person. Very analog. Very inefficient. While the “book” remained the constant, the conversations were tautological, and to some degree, personal, given the discourse with the would-be investor. Over the course of weeks and months, even years, one would fill the financing target, and all would be fabulous. Or not.
Welcome to the world of the Internet and digital communications, i.e., the ability to share information broadly, in many forms, and simultaneously. In 1999, at OffRoad Capital, we recognized that there was a much more efficient model of communicating to investors, i.e., via the Internet, by telling the story “singularly to a plurality”. And unlike investing in public companies, with reams of historical trading information, “privates” generally were virgin offerings, with a craft of storytelling. So we created a virtual environment to tell and share the story. We distributed the story in many ways, whether script, or pictures, or video, even providing live telecasts of management presentations and connecting our investors via phone bridges. Yep, pre SKYPE and pre-YouTube. We could provide a more robust and engaging experience to the investor than through a “book” and a phone. Means of technological distribution enabled efficiency and engagement, and even the ability to aggregate smaller levels of capital into a larger sum. No one could fathom doing a small offering with thousands of investors in an analog world, as it would be more mind numbing than herding cats. Technology enables in many ways.
But this still remains a finance game, where wins and losses are quantified in investment results, and for those conveying the “stories”, while efficiently shared, still have a responsibility to produce “appropriate content”. Said differently, I believe it crucial for those engaged in crowdfinance to bear the writer’s and editor’s pen and make sure that the story is told to engage, to educate, to enable, to elicit and to encompass all which an investor requires to make an informed decision. As Title III of the JOBS Act remains in limbo, securities-based platforms cater exclusively to the “accredited investor” (Regulation D, Rule 506c), which was a designation from which small companies might raise funds sans the cost of full-blown registration. The historical premise was that this group had both the ability to absorb losses, but also had the financial wherewithal to engage in their own, deeper diligence on a proposed offering. We generally lose sight of this latter premise, and intermediaries, be them analog bankers or crowd platforms, do have a responsibility to provide rich “content” in support of the investment thesis they are presenting.
In a review of offerings from various platforms in the US and EU, I believe we need to develop some standards of financial disclosure, i.e., content, if we hope for this industry of distributed finance to blossom into all of our desires and expectations. While we can lament generally about the lagging literacy and numeracy levels in the US, the degree of financial literacy is even more trammeled. Is it incumbent on the crowd industry to enable informed decision-making and provide a financial plenary that guides the reader/investor into how to really assess the investment, how numbers and values work (or don’t work), contributing to what the investor is striving for - an attractive return? While many companies rendered to the market are very early stage, and investors believe that products and brands and markets do create value, the measure of such is still financially represented. Thus, should we not just recognize we have the responsibility to financially display while we disclose, but we may also, in this moment of time, embrace the opportunity to financially educate?
I do believe that while still in a nascent industry, the platforms that will survive will be those that provide their investor audiences both comprehensive and understandable financial disclosures, while educating such audiences on how to “decipher” along the way in building investment discretion and skills. And in so doing, the smarter and more active investors will gravitate to those platforms that show the competence and elegance of disclosing, while educating, such information for a much advanced investment experience.
Steven Cinelli is founder and CEO of Primarq and host of weekly webcast the crowd caucus stevec@primarq.com
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