growvc

(Photo credit: Sasha Y. Kimel)

Throughout the entrepreneurial world there is a common pattern. Maybe through the success of Silicon Valley, a notion was created in the investment world, that software or tech should be the focus because of low overhead and high returns. News stories and blogs have a persistence with reporting what is going on in the tech world. Today it seems that if one says they are an entrepreneur, it’s immediately assumed that you are involved with either an internet startup or with apps.

With the large valuations of platforms such as Facebook and apps such as Instagram and draw something, It’s understandable that others would want to clone the success. Since the Instagram deal i’ve noticed an increased promotion of the app Via.Me, which is a creation of serial entrepreneur, Gurbaksh Chahal. This is another Instagram type of app as well. I always read a lot of talk about innovation here in the US, but i’m actually going to disagree with that overused expression.

Here in the US, we actually see less and less creativity and more tweaking of preexisting ideas. Granted, that any one thought may be the same idea of countless others around the world, but i digress. Let us take crowdfunding as another example. Since the Jobs Act, i’ve received a slew of new followers from new crowdfunding platforms. Some of these seem to have appeared overnight. With the passing of the Jobs Act comes a whole new set of funding possibilities for all categories of startups. So here, we now have the chance to create something new and not just another tech bubble. An entrepreneurial ecosystem where more startups of all different kinds, have the same possibilities to seek funding and there is more of a chance to actually seek out real innovative ideas.

More individuals are now able to invest in companies, rather than only accredited investors with specific tastes or investment interests. Anyone can actually be considered an investor. Essentially, whether many realize it, these individuals have the ability to set a new course in the history of entrepreneurship and potential prosperity. There will now be a whole new population of investors each bringing along their own individual idea of what they believe investing to be. It is no longer just the top dogs of the financial industry, but a set of fresh minds ready to begin their first investments. In a sense, they can be thought of as micro-angel investors contributing towards dreams and visions of the future.

With an increase in crowdfunding in the US, this is bound to impact the rest of the world. Already, one company has announced it has raised funds of 4.5M in only 7 days using Kickstarter’s platform. However, the platform does not offer equity for investments but rather collects donations in exchange for rewards to contributors. Nonetheless, it’s going to be interesting to see how things progress on sites such as our own, where you can own a piece of a startup’s journey. Even more exciting, will be seeing what happens as more platforms begin working together to draw even larger crowds around the world. GrowVC has already begun this process with our Networks Program and we can’t wait to see what new possibilities unfold for entrepreneurs around the world.

Join Grow Venture Community

Register Now! or Join to build our venture!

Tags: crowdfunding, entrepreneurs

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 18th, 2012 at 2:30 pm and is filed under Entrepreneur Inspiration. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.