Orlando Realtor Creates Down Payment Crowdfunding Site HomeFunded.com

The innovation of Crowdfunding has helped people raise money for everything from business startups to inventions to movies but never before in the form of down payment funds to be used to purchase a home

By Robert Hoskins, Front Page Public Relations

When an Orlando Realtor presented his client’s offer for $30,000 over asking price in order to compete with private investors and hedge funds using all cash to buy a home, he never knew that the idea he had that day would become a reality. Now the local Realtor is making his way into the crowdfunding industry to help potential homeowners raise the down payment needed to buy a home with HomeFunded.com.

First Home Down Payment Crowdfunding Site, Provides Hope to Potential Home Buyers

“Who would have thought that on a day when a client had to offer $30,000 over the asking price just to get an accepted offer would also bring hope for potential home buyers” states Realtor Aaron Mighty. He has started what many would have thought unlikely in the current improving housing market, an opportunity for those with less resources, building a crowdfunding site from the ground up all on the simple premise that home buyers should come first not hedge funds.

Not only will HomeFunded.com provide qualified home buyers an opportunity to put down more on a home to compete against hedge funds, who seemingly are buying up every quality home on the market for rental purposes, but it will also open up more opportunities for homeownership to working class families who have been struggling to bridge the gap between renting and owning.

HomeFunded.com will work by bringing together home buyers who will start a down payment campaign by sharing their stories of what homeownership means to them with their social network via Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and the HomeFunded.com community to attract contributors who will gift funds in increments of five dollars to help them reach their down payment goals.

So will HomeFunded.com change the way home buyers look at down payments? Only time will tell if the concept is viable but the idea is certainly innovative and “the future of the American dream of homeownership has never been brighter” says Mighty.

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Wowcher Selects BankToTheFuture.com as Equity Crowdfunding platform for Fabfob fundraising campaign

By Robert Hoskins

BankToTheFuture.com, an equity crowdfunding platform that allows people to invest in start-ups and mature businesses, is providing an investment platform for Fabfob, the latest venture by Wowcher founder, Nick Brummitt, who has chosen crowdfunding over traditional venture capital funding.

If the government was serious about helping SMEs, it would pump cash into companies like BankToFuture.com. BankToFuture.com is a job creating machine

Fabfob is designed to tag valuables such as keys, mobile phones, laptops, cameras, iPods and passports. If these items are lost – and subsequently found – Fabfob gets them back to their rightful owner quickly and safely.

Since the pitch went live, it has already raised over £40k. BankToTheFuture.com provides funding through the collective effort of individuals who network and pool their money to support the efforts of entrepreneurial people and organizations.

Simon Dixon, CEO of BankToTheFuture.com, says, “Working with high profile entrepreneurs like the founder of Wowcher, is great news for us. We aim to make crowdfinance less alternative and more a first choice for investors seeking credible businesses and credible businesses seeking finance. It is very exciting that now anybody can invest in such an entrepreneur starting from as little as £50, everybody is now a dragon.”

Brummitt recalls numerous problems while raising finance from banks for Wowcher, the UK’s first daily deal site. He said, “It soon became apparent that banks don’t provide support to those who require it. When I read about Simon Dixon and BankToTheFuture.com about a year ago, I began to follow them with interest. I am impressed with Simon’s vision, truthfulness and experience as an investment banker.

“I did not want to be in the same position as I was with Wowcher, where I create a great product with global appeal only to find I am strangled for cash. Banks are no longer an option. They are just a waste of time and a distraction.”

Seeing the potential of Fabfob, BankToTheFuture.com helped Brummitt develop his skills through The Incubator Course which helps delegates write a business plan, prepare financial forecasts and create a slide show and promotional video. This allowed him to develop a strong pitch for investors.

“Simon is an inspirational character with real vision,” says Brummitt. “He says it how it is, how it has been and how it will be in the future. He showed us an alternative to banks and gave us the confidence to go out there and try it.

“The Incubator Course gave me new skills. It was tough, some didn’t make it through and some realised that they were not quite ready to seek investment, but we all learnt a huge amount. I cannot recommend the course highly enough. It should be on the school curriculum for all business-related courses.”

Brummitt strongly believes that BankToFuture.com will be an answer to the issue of funding. “If the government was serious about helping SMEs, it would pump cash into companies like BankToFuture.com. BankToFuture.com is a job creating machine,” he says.

With the funding raised through BankToFuture.com, Brummitt is confident that he will reach his funding target quickly and get his product to a global market.

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Bellevate Launches Boutique Crowdfunding Site for Women Entrepreneurs, Startups and Inventors with Great Ideas

By Robert Hoskins

Bellevate.com launched a new crowdfunding site dedicated to helping women use the internet, and their social media currency to start or expand a business. Crowdfunding represents the next generation of alternative financing tools that allow women with creative ideas to open doors that have never been possible before.

Bellevate uses Dreamfunding^SM,  the next generation of Crowdfunding finance – a hot new way for entrepreneurs to raise funds through small individual contributions. It’s a way for businesses to use the Internet and their established social media networks to find the funding to launch new ideas or expand existing operations.

But, many times women’s ideas and business plans are often lost in the shuffle.

On most crowdfunding sites, businesses looking for funding are all pooled together. One artist is raising funds to write the next great American novel while two-clicks-away another is hoping to fund a movie. Entrepreneurs can easily get lost amidst a sea of others all clamoring for the same thing – money.

The inability to stand out from the masses can be especially harmful for women-owned businesses. According to Forbes magazine, women-owned businesses represent nearly 50% of privately held companies in the U.S., however, three quarters of these businesses are not able to grow their businesses past $50,000 in annual gross revenue.

Biz2Credit, an online matchmaker for entrepreneurs and lenders, found that women-owned companies were 15 percent to 20 percent less likely to be approved for small business loans during the last six months of 2012.

Bellevate.com is a platform that offers women a solution. Bellevate is dedicated to helping women owned start-up companies, new projects, and existing businesses find funding.

Bellevate.com expects to become a location where female entrepreneurs can find encouragement, guidance, and funding.

“Our unique approach to Crowdfunding allows each entrepreneur to be in the spotlight,” said Becca Sanders , spokeswoman for Bellevate.

Sanders continued, “Bellevate is a new word and we want it to represent a concept that everyone understands. Bellevate is a verb. It’s an action.  We want women to have their businesses Bellevated.”

The Bellevate site celebrates the courage it takes to say, “I am ready to launch my idea.”

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BancBox Launches First Automatic Escrow Service Aimed At Crowdfunding Platforms

By Mike Butcher

Last June, BancBox, a payment services platform similar to Stripe, debuted its platform allowing developers to build a lot of different payment services. As cofounder Sanj Goyle claimed at the time, “PayPal could be built on top of our platform.” Now it has launched BancBox Crowd, what is — as far as we can tell — the first independent escrow service aimed at crowdfunding portals that operate on equity, debt or revenue share models.

BancBox Launches ‘First’ Automatic Escrow Service Aimed At Crowdfunding Platforms

The company is also announcing partnerships with crowd investing services 99Funding, SoMoLend and Localstake.

BancBox Crowd claims to be the only solution on the market that provides online investment portals with an automated escrow solution that can replace the manual paper escrow process. They also say it is compliant with FINCEN, FINRA and SEC requirements.

In essence it means being able to create independent escrow accounts for each crowd-backed project, collect funds from those many investors, and either safely return funds if the project doesn’t work out, or disburse those funds when the project, whatever it is, reaches its funding goal.

Goyle says, “We want to have the payment part of the experience of an investor to be a sticky experience so we make it as easy as possible to pay and go through the process.” He says the business model is based on a set transaction fee to the platform partner.

You could say they know about payments. BancBox manages $100 million in consumer deposits daily in nearly 200,000 individual accounts. Its transaction volume has increased 100 percent to nearly $2 billion annually.

Read more…

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PledgeCents Launches New Education Crowdfunding Platform to Help Schools K-12 Move to a New Level of Fundraising for Field Trips to Science

By Robert Hoskins

PledgeCents, a new crowdfunding website dedicated to raising funds for public schools, plans to open its doors on Saturday, April 13, at the National School Boards Association’s 2013 conference in San Diego. PledgeCents plans to connect individual investors and corporations with schools seeking alternative ways to offset recent educational funding cuts.

New Education Crowdfunding Site, PledgeCents, Launches at National School Board Association’s 2013 Convention

“Many educators we consulted said they want to fund a wide variety of micro-projects that would otherwise either be underfunded or completely eliminated. Now, teachers can create projects they need financial help on while administrators can control the process and provide oversight to ensure funding priorities are met.”

Ricky Johnson, co-founder of PledgeCents, said the new crowdfunding website will help public schools continue offering programs, services and school supplies that are desperately needed to maintain, or raise, the educational standards for children. “The slow economic recovery continues to impact school funding across the United States. Many educators are waking to the realization that they must find alternative funding for programs, services and supplies which are at risk of being cut.”

School projects which crowdfunding can help include:

• Equipment for marching bands and athletics
• Field trips involving tour buses or overnight lodging
• School security personnel or monitoring equipment
• Supplies for science labs, art or theater

“PledgeCents is open to any schools with funding needs,” said Andyshea Saberioon, co-founder and CEO of PledgeCents. “Many educators we consulted said they want to fund a wide variety of micro-projects that would otherwise either be underfunded or completely eliminated. Now, teachers can create projects they need financial help on while administrators can control the process and provide oversight to ensure funding priorities are met.”

Students can join in the fundraising activity by wearing “PledgeCents bracelets,” which come in a variety of school colors and feature a penny to remind them that “every cent counts” toward making the world a better place through education. PledgeCents will also award monthly monetary prizes to school campaigns that raise the most funds.

Unlike some crowdfunding websites, fundraising campaigns on PledgeCents will be paid to the school regardless of whether the project is fully funded.

Become a Crowdfunding Advocate

To learn more about the Crowdfunding industry and startup local Crowdfunding community outreach programs, please join our free American Crowdfunding Center on LinkedIn.com or Meetup.com and don’t forget to follow us onTwitter. Both social media sites allow platform owners and crowdfunding campaign managers to post their news and press releases into the discussion forums. This will help us find new and exciting crowdfunding stories to cover.  We are currently covering crowdfunding topics such as Business Services,Cities/Communities, Crowdfunding Platforms, Education,Film/Music/Entertainment, Games/Videos, Social Good, Solar andSoftware/Hardware Technology Gadget crowdfunding PR campaigns.

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Seattle Theater Company, Twisted Cabaret, Successfully Completes Kickstarter Crowdfunding Campaign

By Robert Hoskins

Kickstarter claims to have raised almost a half a billion dollars via crowdfunding campaigns to fund new business endeavors since it’s inception three years ago. The latest venture to successfully raise money is a small theater company called Twisted Cabaret. Twisted Cabaret closed funding this morning after reaching a modest goal of $11,000 to cover the costs of producing a live concert video of their Seattle show.

Frank Olivier’s Twisted Cabaret & Pandemonium Vaudeville Show

Nearly a hundred people contributed to the project, achieving their goal and completing funding just minutes before the cutoff of 11:00 a.m. This was lucky for Twisted Cabaret, as Kickstarter only pays out to projects that make their goal. According to Kickstarter less than half of the projects hit their mark. If a goal is not reached then all the money is returned to the would-be philanthropists and the project gets nothing. Not only do the fundraisers get Twisted Cabarets eternal gratitude for their contribution, they will receive copies of the finished video.

Twisted Cabaret star, Frank Olivier said, “I feel an excited buzzing energy of ‘YES!’ inside me, knowing these people are all there, helping bring this together.” Olivier recounts the final funding countdown. “We were about a hundred dollars short of our goal with just a few minutes to go when two folks came on board and carried us to victory.”

One of the final donors and the one who took the funding across the line to success had been monitoring the progress. He wanted to be the one who crossed the finish line and so he was, with just two minutes to go he pledged $40 which was exactly how much was needed to achieve the goal. When asked how he felt about funding a project like this he said, “It was like winning a race.”

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Crowd Outlet Opens Online Shopping Mall for Shoppers Who Missed Initial Crowdfunding Campaign Perks

By Robert Hoskins

Anyone who has successfully crowdfunded a product on websites like Kickstarter and Indiegogo now has a new tool to help ensure continued success beyond the initial funding campaign. Crowd Outlet’s new post-crowdfunding marketplace seeks to connect innovative inventors with consumers who are anxious for unique and groundbreaking products.

New Crowdfunding Shopping Mall Marketplace Helps Crowdfunded Products Achieve Continued Success

“Far too often, innovative crowdfunded products fall flat after the initial funding due to lack of continued support or exposure. We want to keep these products in the spotlight and give them a chance for success among consumers who may have missed the initial campaign. Our goal is to make the entire process simple, reliable, and rewarding,” said Crowd Outlet President, Chris James.

Whether manufacturing products long-term or just selling the remaining inventory from a small production run, approved vendors can gain renewed exposure for their products by listing them for sale on Crowd Outlet. Crowd Outlet has launched with 40 products funded on Kickstarter and Fundable, but accepts products funded through all current and future crowdfunding platforms. Crowd Outlet is quickly growing, with new products being added daily.

Crowd Outlet will be integrated with the popular crowdfunding analytics site, Kicktraq, which will provide a link on each project page to either purchase the product or request it for sale on Crowd Outlet. Reviews, product highlights and a customer newsletter, among other tools, will also be employed to gain exposure for products initially. According to Melanie James, Crowd Outlet Vice President, “We know what a challenge it is to get the word out about a product—and how vital. It’s our goal to help project owners build their post-crowdfunding success by increasing awareness of their products and creating an effective sales platform.”

Crowd Outlet is a Tucson-based startup founded by Chris and Melanie James, a dynamic husband and wife entrepreneurial team. Together, they have completed three successful Kickstarter campaigns and achieved success in product development, publication, marketing, website design, and e-commerce.

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