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Crowdfunding is not just for cash anymore.
Danae Ringelmann, co-founder of Indiegogo, the world's largest crowdfunding website, said what was once thought of as a niche funding mechanism is now attracting businesses and projects for countless reasons.
"Indiegogo is actually a lot more than an alternative form of financing," Ringelmann said. "It's doing something very fundamental in the whole financial equation, and that is it reduces risk and specifically market risk and execution risk."
Ringelmann shared her experience July 28 at the Anchorage Economic Development Corp.'s Crowdfunding AK forum, held at the Bear Tooth Theatrepub in Anchorage as part of AEDC's annual Entrepreneurship Week.
Almost all startups share three types of risk, she said, the first being funding. Naturally, crowdfunding mitigates funding risk by allowing a project or business to be pitched to millions at once rather than to just a single boardroom.
When crowdfunded, a start-up's market risk dissipates as funding grows, Ringelmann explained. Being funded by hundreds or thousands of individuals from every corner of the globe proves an idea's merit from the get-go, she said.
And even more specifically, crowdfunding allows entrepreneurs to conduct market research...