Interview with future Crowdfunding Innovator - CrowdAboutNow

Gijsbert Koren the co-founder of CrowdAboutNow reached out to us and we thought we might profile his views on Crowdfunding to the CrowdfundingCentral community. 

Please find some views on the development of Crowdfunding from a Dutch and EU perspective. We would value any comments:

1) Crowdfunding interest is taking off.  Tell us about how you heard of it?

Crowdfunding platforms are popping up, companies and individuals start their own crowdfunding campaigns and banks are watching the rise of a new financial model. KIVA and SellaBand were my first encounters with crowdfunding, but also Wikipedia's call for donations to support their organisation was a form of crowdfunding that inspired me to look into this innovative and democratic financial model. The current state of technology and consumer acceptance (the internet and social media) make it possible for crowdfunding to be and become a very successful model and we see a huge potential in using crowdfunding to raise capital for start-up companies and that is why we started CrowdAboutNow.

2) What is CrowdAboutNow?  What are you trying to do?

CrowdAboutNow will be the crowdfunding platform for Dutch start-up companies. We will provide the start-ups with global visibility and access to investors of all sizes, from all over the world. Towards investors we provide interesting investment opportunities and give them the possibility to directly invest in start-up companies from €10 onwards. So, everybody can become an investor!

We believe in the wisdom and power of the crowd and will supply the infrastructure for a unique combination between crowdfunding & crowdsourcing. This means that the investors will be able to help the entrepreneurs by advising them on critical issues and supporting them with promotional activities!

3) What are the specific issues with regards Crowdfunding in the Netherlands / EU countries?

There are some legal issues to take into account; you cannot offer financial products without obliging to certain rules and regulations. This is by the way the same for the United States, although the details are different. 

I believe crowdfunding can thrive in ecosystems like Europe and the US where consumers are comfortable with internet transactions and have capital (of all sizes) available for investments that have the potential to generate returns after a few years. We believe that the sizes of capital available are very different; this is why CrowdAboutNow will facilitate investments from €10 onwards.

4) How big will Crowdfunding be in Europe?

I believe that crowdfunding will become a major way to invite individuals to directly invest in projects and companies and to participate in the co-creation of innovations that the society asks for. If you take for instance a look at Diasora: Diaspora is a start-up company that basically wants to make a Facebook 2.0 that is more privacy aware. They recently received funds through crowdfunding of over $200.000 on Kickstarter (a crowdfunding platform), while they asked for only $10.000. In addition to money, there are a lot of organisations and people that want to help them. This clearly shows the power of crowdfunding: if you have a great idea and other people want it to become reality, they can put money and effort into it to help in making it happen! This mission of CrowdAboutNow is to democratize our economy and create a new source of capital for entrepreneurs.

Thanks Gijsbert, please keep our community updated with your progress!