The Crowdfunding Revolution

Websites like Kickstarter, IndieGoGo, RocketHub, Ulule, and dozens of other websites have radicalized the start-up and taken out the middleman investor altogether. Now instead of relying on a handful of major investors for start-up funding, now businesses can tap small sums from core groups of fans (and future customers) who believe in your entrepreneurial vision.

THE CROWDFUNDING REVOLUTION explains how the explosive growth of connectivity via physical and social technologies is obviating human-to-human networks and centralized planning of capital allocation—and describes how crowdfunding can be used to tap into a “collective intelligence” for far superior results.

The authors assert that crowdfunding does not represent a modular "drop-in" replacement for classic venture financing. Rather, they argue, it is now in the process of permanently changing how we allocate capital – and the business world as we know.

One of the hottest topics in investing today, the advent of crowdfunding increases the ranks of possible venture capitalists by virtually billions and is sure to precipitate structural change to the world of venture capital. Here’s how to tap into the revolution.

About the Authors: Kevin Lawton is a progenitor of PC virtualization (now a multi-billion dollar cloud related industry), many-time startup entrepreneur, trend-caster and visionary blogger at the intersection of biz & tech (www.trendcaller.com), contributor for VentureBeat and SeekingAlpha, public speaker, prolific idea creator, protagonist of two open source projects, and news, innovation, economics and business book junkie

Dan Marom is a PhD candidate in Finance at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He has been highly engaged in R&D and management for several years, as a technologist and a CEO and co-founder of a startup company.