CrowdIt Unveils Crowdfunding Platform to Finance America’s Dreams

By Robert Hoskins

CrowdIt, the crowdfunding site that helps American’s finance the “American Dream,” announced early crowdfunding projects submitted to its site are now available for public preview through its new “Project Carousel” at www.crowdit.com.   CrowdIt will continue to populate the carousel with additional projects leading up to the official launch of funding activity on June 4.

CrowdIt acts as a “virtual incubator” and represents a new approach to crowdfunding by including peer-review feedback, mentoring and business networking as part of its offering. As part of its launch, CrowdIt will contribute $10,000 to the project that reaches the highest amount of funding by Aug. 18, 2013.

“CrowdIt has garnered the attention of entrepreneurs and startup communities that are looking for more than just funding support, and it shows in the type of projects being loaded into the site for launch on June 4,” said Jason Graf, co-founder and CEO of CrowdIt. “Every day we see more exciting projects come in and we can’t wait for the projects to go live so dreamers can move to the next step in their journey to success.”

Examples of projects being submitted to CrowdIt include:

• EZ Learn Stencil Tablet – patent-pending technology helps children in math, reading and literacy skills by helping them to trace and recognize letters, numbers, words, shapes and colors.
• Chalam – this songwriter from India who survived the great 2004 tsunami wants to record and make her music available for the world to hear.
• Imagine IPD – this clean energy startup has a mission to implement its technology to introduce a new and innovative clean energy alternative to decrease the dependence on fossil fuels and reduce carbon footprints.
• Chic Furniture on a Budget – this Tampa Fla. startup helps those on a tight budget find, restore and furnish their home or apartment through well-proven techniques.
• Simply Sinful Lingerie Parties – After more than 20 years in retail and direct sales, this Dreamer wants to incorporate a love for sales and creativity to offer unique and fun products to the world.

CrowdIt’s vision is that crowdfunding needs to extend beyond the funding event – exemplified in its tagline, “Don’t Just Dream It: CrowdIt!” Its website is architected to offer a new crowdfunding experience and to optimize the crowd in all facets of the site – from project evaluation and acceptance to peer review and networking.

The CrowdIt site includes:

• Flexible Funding – CrowdIt offers Dreamers the flexibility to fund either “all” or “partial” projects based upon the unique needs of the campaign.
• Networking – CrowdIt incorporates social networking into its site to encourage mentoring and business-to-business networking.
• Peer Review – CrowdIt believes in the “power of the crowd” to provide feedback for project proposals, ideas and strategies presented by Dreamers.
• Interactivity – CrowdIt is a highly social, interactive and collaborative community site that provides an engaging experience for all who visit and participate in it.
• Crowd Power – unlike other crowdfunding sites, CrowdIt is designed to empower the community to drive decisions concerning project review and acceptance, feedback and advice, and input for future features to improve the site.

CrowdIt is now accepting crowdfunding projects and projects will go live on the site June 4, 2013. The company is contributing $10,000 to the project that reaches the highest amount of funding by Aug. 18, 2013, 75 days after the go-live date.

Based in America’s heartland of Springfield, MO, CrowdIt is the crowdfunding site for believers of the New American Dream. Its crowdfunding site goes beyond just funding great ideas, but focuses on supporting success through peer and expert advisory support, business networking and sharing of best practices and knowledge. CrowdIt’s belief is that crowdfunding will help drive the next wave in innovation and economic expansion, and underpins its mission to support small business growth.

Crowdfunding CEO Predicts Industry Shakeout in 2013

By Robert Hoskins

We agree with the CrowdFunding Incubator that there is a growing misconception that if you just toss an idea up on a crowdfunding website, money will come running after it. Or the belief that contributors stay up all night scouring the internet for projects they can toss extra money at. This grandiose belief in monetary magnetism is going to cause a lot of crowdfunding project sponsors incredible grief in 2013. The fact is that any venture requires a vigorous and continuous participation on the part of sponsors in promotion. Project sponsors will have to put more of their resources into promotion and building credibility, and this will translate to an improved standard of quality in this new capital market medium.

The Crowdfunding Proposition

“When the credit card bills from Christmas come rolling in, and when some crowdfunding platforms and sites start to post their actual success and failure numbers, prospective contributors are going to be tougher to come by. They will be more cautious, more skeptical and have less money to gamble with than in 2012,” says Douglas E. Castle, the CEO of CrowdFunding Incubator, LLC (CFI), looking ahead to an inevitable shakeup in the crowdfunding industry.

Castle continued by saying, “If anything, entrepreneurs are going to have to do everything that they can to convince an increasingly disenchanted public that their projects will not turn out to be embarrassments, and to persuade the public that contributors, as true believers, will receive some form of compensation, either real or emotional, in exchange for their paid vote of confidence.

The notion of just posting up a request for funding on the web and waiting for the money to materialize is disappearing. Now, more than ever since the crowdfunding phenomenon started gaining media traction and public attention two years ago, organizations which require crowdfunding for their capitalization base are going to have to participate actively in the promotion of their ideas.

This will include more than ever a great deal of blogging, classified advertising, emailing, text message announcements, press releases, videos and social media activity And while that doesn’t have to be expensive, the small sums and significant hours required to get the news of a project to stand out and reverberate are going to be a requirement. Sponsors who are truly ambitious about raising money through this supercharged vehicle will have to drive much of their own traffic to the crowdfunding sites or platforms where they are being featured.”

CFI’s Chief Operations Officer, RD Watkins added, “The better crowdfunding websites are going to be getting more choosy about which project promoters they want to rent out their valuable website real estate to. The decision makers who own these crowdfunding platforms are going to be looking very, very carefully at not only the viability of any given project, but they’ll also be looking at how much the project’s sponsors are willing to participate in the promotional process.

Money is not getting easier. It is getting harder and will probably continue along that trend for some time to come. The whole process is becoming much more active and participatory than before; especially in light of some recent refunds to contributors and some funded but badly stalled projects.”

Castle added, “People are getting educated about crowdfunding. Contributors as well as the operators of the funding sites want to see three things. They want an idea or a business plan that makes sense; they want some kind of consideration in exchange for their contributions of seed or early-stage capital; and they want to see that the innovators and entrepreneurs who are looking to them for funds have some serious skin and sweat in the game.

“Projects just don’t fund themselves. In the coming year, the entrepreneurs are going to have to do everything within their power in order to drive prospective contributors to the platforms where their businesses or business ideas are being showcased.

“On an optimistic note, this market scenario will impose a higher standard of quality on the part of both the website owners and the entrepreneurial hopefuls. It’s an inevitable form of ‘market adjustment’ or ‘correction’ that follows a period of too much money and too little oversight. This will benefit the contributors and the private sector. It will be refreshing to see some sensibility and sanity brought home to the crowdfunding market.”