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Regulations pose greatest concern for Crowdfunding.
In our latest web survey we are seeing some interesting indications that highlight the challenges of Crowdfunding adoption. We asked 
respondents, “What is your top Crowdfunding concern?” The data indicate that by a long way -almost half - that Legal: state, federal and international regulations are major concerns. The second most notable is the immaturity of the model.
POLL
What is your top Crowdfunding concern?
Legal: state, federal and international regulations - 47%
Negotiating with the Crowd - 10%
Misuse of funds - 8%
Lack of documentation - 6%
Immaturity of model - 25%
Other: post comment - 4%
Total votes: 51
What it means.
Crowdfunding is taking off. Certainly, in the charity, film and music industries crowdfunding is proving a model that can work. Just look at organizations like Kickstarter and Indiegogo that are serving a market for funding ideas with an open call to the crowd. No one is expecting (or should not be expecting) financial gain as they do not own equity or debt in a company. Funders are being attributed other benefits like being attributed as exective producers, or being given credits or merely understanding how their money is spent more effectively within the context of donations.
In the private sector, crowdfunding remains significantly more challenging. Regulations are the most apparent inhibitor to uptake as an open call feels very much like a public offering.
Lawyers are starting to establish experience in the matter (or at least have an opinion) and companies such as Trampoline Systems are proclaiming success at reaching Crowdfunding milestones. Trampoline for instance has reached its funding goal of GBP 1million.
Let me share two postings that are worth a read. Tip of the hat to Rick Colosimo and Charles Armstrong
Rick Colosimo highlights some of the US legal issues.
http://rickcolosimo.com/2010/05/crowdfunding-a-startup-rags-or-riches/
Another presentation from Charles Armstrong at Trampoline Systems in the UK where he takes us through his experience.
http://www.trampolinesystems.com/crowdfunding-presentation-at-british-library/events
As a community we would appreciate your thoughts and suggestions.
Thanks for the post. As we have been building our own service for some time and have just launched our service last february, it's nice to see this information. It very well reflects what we have learned along the way.
One of the interesting number is that only 8% are affraid of Misuse of funds, I think that just shows how much trust there is for online services.
For the main issue "regulation", that is so true. Therefore we also needed to come up with a very unique model of our own (pat pending).
http://www.growvc.com/blog/2010/02/grow-vc-model-in-full-detail/