Elizabeth Gerber:
Does Crowdfunding Fail Some Of The Most Promising Entrepreneurs?
She'll also face more hardship trying to find the time to launch her
Kickstarter campaign. Our research found that entrepreneurs who seek
crowdfunding spend between two to eleven hours a day running their
campaign. They write a project description. They film their pitch video.
They update contributors and would-be contributors. They reach out to
news outlets to feature their projects. They monitor Facebook for
potential new contributors. They wait in lines at UPS to send out
products to each contributor. If the average crowdfunder added up all
the hours he or she had worked on the campaign, our research suggests,
most would not have earned minimum wage.
Who can afford to work for less than minimum wage? People who already
have savings, or whose families have savings. That doesn't include
anyone who is working half-time and going to class half-time, or whose
minimum-wage paychecks are needed to keep a roof over the family's
heads.
How can we expand the promise of crowdfunding to those who enter the
system with less privilege? First, successful crowdfunders should be
required to reinvest in the systems that led to their success, keeping
in mind that some people have less opportunity than others to ask for
financial resources. They can mentor budding entrepreneurs helping them
to grow their networks before they crowdfund. And the platforms could
select promising projects from under-represented populations, and
showcase them to others in high net-worth networks. Full Text on HuffPost
