Tag Archives: AlumniFunder

GenYrator Launches Equity Crowdfunding Site for USC Startups Combined with an Entrepreneur Business Accelerator and Mentorship Program

6 May

GenYrator is the One of the First Mission-Driven Equity Crowdfunding Platform that Combines Real Returns with Real Impact by Investing in the Next Generation of USC Entrepreneurs

 By Robert Hoskins

Los Angeles, California – GenYrator launched its private beta for an equity crowdfunding site concentrating initially on startups from USC, the alma mater of co-founder Sean Nasiri. The GenYrator platform looks for emerging generation-y founded businesses with revenue that are not quite ready for institutional investors, and encourages regular people to get involved to fill that gap.

GenYrator Equity Crowdfunding Site for USC Startups

GenYrator.com Equity Crowdfunding Site and Business Accelerator for USC Startups

The company is currently being advised by notable figures from both the startup and USC communities. Current advisors include famous venture capitalist and USC Trustee Mark Stevens, former Managing Partner at Sequoia Capital, as well as Alex Cappello, former President of the USC Alumni Association Board of Governors who also served as the only two-time international chairman of YPO. Other notable advisors include Rob Ukropina, former CEO of Overnite Express, who also served on USC Board of Governors, and Ryan Meyers, Managing Director of General Assembly LA and former CEO of AlumniFunder.

“The problem GenYrator is solving,” explains Nasiri, “is that too many good millennial founded startups end prematurely or stagnate because they lack the support they need to grow, and the only way to fix this is by getting everyone involved.” Millennials now have the largest presence in the workforce, but according to the Huffington Post, they are facing the worst job market in more than twenty years. “We are starting businesses out of necessity. There are just not enough opportunities out there for people our age, and we need the support of all generations to create more jobs and grow the economy,” Nasiri continues.

GenYrator has recently achieved proof of concept by helping two companies close their recent rounds. First is wearable technology startup, Loopd, with noteworthy lead investors Tim Draper and Marc Benioff, which closed out its $1M seed round. Second is triple bottom line Hawaiian water bottle company, Waiakea, which closed out its $1.6M dollar Series-A. GenYrator has since opened up its platform to all, but still requires a private beta access code to view deals. It is currently featuring a selection of promising USC-founded companies in “preview mode,” with more being added over the next couple of months.

While investing through equity crowdfunding is only accessible to accredited investors, GenYrator’s unique platform is also open to those who are interested in other ways of helping out, such as being a mentor, advisor, or service provider. The platform also plans to expand beyond just a university platform. “The long-term vision of GenYrator is to establish itself as the premier destination for the next generation of entrepreneurs and leaders,” says Nasiri, “and to show people from all different backgrounds that they can add value and impact the success of a young startup.”

Founded with the mission to generate a more prosperous future through supporting entrepreneurship, GenYrator is the online platform that brings the benefits of the Silicon Valley ecosystem to the mainstream. GenYrator’s online community enables all interested parties, provided they are accredited in accordance with current regulatory guidelines, to directly participate in promising millennial founded businesses. Beyond simply crowdfunding, members and other supporters can lend guidance and mentorship.

# # #

Advertisement

Top 100 Crowdfunding Sites for Equity-based, Rewards-based, Perks-based and Donation-based Fundraising Campaigns

2 Jun

Click Here to Review the 2015 Top 10 Rated Crowdfunding Sites to Help Anyone Launch a Fundraising Campaign to Raise Money to Bring Creative New Business Ideas to Fruition

By Robert Hoskins

Austin, Texas – Thinking about launching a Crowdfunding campaign to raise money to fund your creative business idea and bring it to fruition?  The Crowdfunding Press Center provides regular news reports on new Crowdfunding sites that have opened their doors to help entrepreneurs and small businesses launch fundraising campaigns to help bring their ingenious business ideas to fruition.

Top 10 Crowdfunding Sites for 2014

Top 10 Crowdfunding Sites for 2014

The big question that most crowdfunding campaign managers want to know is what crowdfunding site is the best to launch their fundraising campaign? Kickstarter vs. Indiegogo, which crowdfunding site is better? Or would one of the other crowdfunding sites outlined below be a better match for their precise crowdfunding goals and objectives.

Directory of Recently Launched Crowdfunding Sites: [Click to Tweet]

Directory of the Top Rewards-Based Crowdfunding Sites[Click to Tweet]

Directory of the Top Disaster-Based Crowdfunding Sites[Click to Tweet]

Directory of the Top Non-Profit-Based Crowdfunding Sites[Click to Tweet]

Directory of the Top Music-Based Crowdfunding Sites[Click to Tweet]

Directory of the Top Film-Based Crowdfunding Sites[Click to Tweet]

Directory of the Top Design-Based Crowdfunding Prototyping Sites[Click to Tweet]

Directory of the Top Sports-Based Crowdfunding Sites:

Directory of the Top Publishing-Based Crowdfunding Sites[Click to Tweet]

Directory of the Top Photojournalism-Based Crowdfunding Sites

Directory of the Top Arts & Crafts-Based Crowdfunding Sites:

Directory of the Top International-Based Crowdfunding Sites[Click to Tweet]

Directory of the Top Crowdfunding Accelerators, Boot Camps, and Incubators:

Directory of the Top Lending-Based Crowdfunding Sites[Click to Tweet]

Directory of the Top Donation-Based Crowdfunding Sites[Click to Tweet]

Directory of the Top Equity-Based Crowdfunding Sites[Click to Tweet]

Directory of White-Label Crowdfunding Site Providers[Click to Tweet]

Directory of the Top Securities-Based White-Label Crowdfunding Site Providers: [Click to Tweet]

# # #

AlumniFunder Launches Crowdfunding Platform Where Alumni Can Back Student Entrepreneurs

28 Mar

By Rip Empson

TechCrunch – AlumniFunder launched in beta this week with a simple mission: Help create a deeper relationship between current students and alumni, while supporting collegiate entrepreneurship and creativity. To do that, AlumniFunder wants to give alumni a platform by which they can invest in innovative projects created by students at their alma mater. Whether it be for a new science lab, natural language processing research or a documentary film, the startup also wants to help give students access to the capital they need to get their ideas off the ground.

AlumniFunder Launches A Crowdfunding Platform Where Alumni Can Back Student Entrepreneurs

AlumniFunder Launches A Crowdfunding Platform Where Alumni Can Back Student Entrepreneurs

Riding the crowdfunding wave, the startup is essentially putting a spin on (or splitting the difference between) Kickstarter and education-focused, P2P funding platforms like SoFi and CommonBond. Not unlike these platforms, AlumniFunder has no affiliation with a specific college, instead providing a marketplace for those with ideas that need funding to connect with those looking to open their wallets to a worthy cause.

In other words, the platform works like this: Those registering for AlumniFunder are split into “Doers” (those looking to create a project) and “Alumni” (those looking to browse and fund projects). Doers are required to register with a “.edu” email address to set them up as part of a particular collegiate and alumni network, and then, like Kickstarter, their projects are posted to that network for a specified duration — usually between 30 and 60 days.

If the team or student hits their funding target, the money is then transferred via Stripe to the team; if not, no credit cards are charged. AlumniFunder provides a layer of oversight during the process to make sure the projects meet a minimum level of decency and appropriateness, while providing students with tools from Prezi and Vimeo, for example, to help them build and share their presentations with alumni.

The core value behind AlumniFunder, co-founder S. Ryan Meyer tells us, is to create a more direct and transparent channel for alumni to connect with students, in turn supporting alumni engagement in on-campus programs and entrepreneurial initiatives. Rather than crowdfunding being the focus of the platform, Meyer sees it as a technological tool for pooling resources — not a panacea for every capital-raising scenario and every hobby project out there.

Meyer started AlumniFunder last July as an “elaborate work-around,” he says after experiencing problems raising money for “the technology spinoff” of his brick-and-mortar, children’s brain-training company, Minds-in-Motion. Looking into crowdfunding as an alternative and, after considering using Crowdtilt’s white-label product, Meyer and team decided to create their own solution.

Meyer has raised $125,000 thus far, mostly from friends in his alumni network, he says, “crowdfunding it the old-fashioned way” through phone calls and in-person meetings. Crazy, I know. The team has since grown to five, including CTO and co-founder Brandon Goldman, who was the 13th employee at Box and is building the site in Node.js.

As for pricing, at launch, the site is free to all users, save for the requisite credit card processing fees. Going forward, AlumniFunder plans to launch an equity investing platform (set to launch at some point this summer), which will also be free-to-use. The team is currently raising a fund (at an undisclosed amount) that it will likely use to co-invest one-third with the accredited investor crowd in equity-based campaigns, “using crowd-vetting as a way to deploy capital to early-stage investments,” Meyer says.

Read more…

%d bloggers like this: