A new tool for Iranian entrepreneurs; CrowdFunding

Balatarin
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rbnfl
by rbnfl
03-Jun-2012
 

As early as next January, the U.S. law will again (after nearly 75 years) allow individuals and small businesses to raise up to $1,000,000 a year from the general public to start new companies or expand thriving businesses.  U.S. citizen/residents can invest $2,000-$100,000 a year depending on their income level, in businesses that they like or think may have a bright future.  

This new law in effect allows ordinary people to be angle investors or venture capitalists.  The tool that makes all this possible is called CrowdFunding.  Web based platforms (websites) bring inventors and investors together.  Obama's JOBS act was made into law on April 5th and between then and Jan 5th 2013 the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) will be putting together the rules and regulations which guide and control CrowdFunding platforms.

Inventors and entrepreneurs publish product and financial information about their product/idea/company on these platforms and potential investors evaluate the available information and hopefully make informed investment decisions.

Will there be fraud committed by those who seek funds or platform operators?  You bet!  But overall this is a great opportunity for young smart visionaries with good ideas who would not otherwise have access to the conventional/traditional venture money; ie wall street and large Silicon Valley, Manhattan or Boston based venture capitalist. 

Currently platforms like Kickstarter are helping entrepreneurs raise funds in form of  prepaid orders for products or services.  This has been a great start.   Pebble Technology, 
a start up in Palo Alto, CA  raised more than $10,000,000 for a Product Design project via 68,000 backers in a matter of a few weeks.  Could this have been possible in any other way?  My response is a confident no. 

Kickstarter is not a full fledged Crowdfunding site; but it has helped educate the public about the potential of Crowdfunding (CF). You can find out more about Kickstarter's model by visiting www.kickstarter.com

There are at least 100 other CF sites in operation today.  A few new CF sites are in the works that will be owned and operated by Iranians.  One such CF site is TechnologyCrowdFund.  There cannot obviously be a working platform for this name because SEC rules are not finalized yet.  But you can get a gist of what this site is about by visiting their Facebook page@ www.facebook.com/technologycrowdfund.

Between 2000-2010 there have been almost 100 (91 to be exact) highly successful hightech Iranian-American startups in the U.S.  Lets hope that in the next 10 years we have thousands of successful Crowdfunded startups.

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rbnfl

Response to doorbin

by rbnfl on Fri Jun 08, 2012 07:34 PM PDT

Thanks for your post.  As I am sure you'd appreciate, any sort of market info is normally kept close to the vest.  You can, as you undoubtedly already know, use google to come up with at least half the 91 figure in less than an hour.

For correspondance, you can use the email address: babak@technologycrowdfund.com

This email is off line for a few days but you should be able to use in a week or so.

Our platform will be dedicated to tech related projects.  Unless your project has a tech related element, other crowdfunding sites may be better for you.

I look forward to finding out more about your project and thanks again for your inquiry.   Please give us a LIKE at our facebook page in case you have a facebook account


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Doorbin

Two Questions

by Doorbin on Wed Jun 06, 2012 04:31 PM PDT

Thanks for the good blog. A couple of questions for you: 

1- What is the source of the following info in your report:

"Between 2000-2010 there have been almost 100 (91 to be exact) highly
successful hightech Iranian-American startups in the U.S.  Lets hope
that in the next 10 years we have thousands of successful Crowdfunded
startups."  

Is there a list of these companies somewhere?  You must have counted 91 names somewhere ...

2- What is your personal or business email address? We'd like to stay in touch regarding an ongoing project having to do with business and economics. I'm sure you'd want to be informed.

Thanks.

 


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khaleh mosheh

Thank you for your helpful response

by khaleh mosheh on Mon Jun 04, 2012 12:18 PM PDT

In any case its good to see the power of internet being used in this way- seems a good alternative to the traditional business angels and VC's.

best wishes 

 


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rbnfl

Please LIKE on Facebook

by rbnfl on Mon Jun 04, 2012 12:05 PM PDT

By the way, in case you visit www.facebook.com/technologycrowdfund  please click the LIKE button.

Many thanks.


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rbnfl

Olberon Medical

by rbnfl on Mon Jun 04, 2012 12:03 PM PDT

Thanks for your post and the excellent question.  The short answer is maybe.  The reason has to do with where the company is "incorporated".  Olberon seems to be a British company.

The CrowdFunding law only allows for U.S. companies to raise monies this way from the American general public.  But, its quite possible for your friend to move the company HQ to the U.S. or make other arrangements better explored by attorneys versed in SEC regulations.

There are CrowdFunding companies that already do this in the U.K.  That is certainly another alternative although size and quality of the investors pool is much larger/better in the U.S.

Hope this helps.


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khaleh mosheh

This seems a novel way of fund raising..

by khaleh mosheh on Mon Jun 04, 2012 11:46 AM PDT

A friend has set up a medical company called 'Olberon Medical Innovations'- at www.olberon.com. 

Is there a possiblity of him raising funds through this mechanism? 

Thank you for your help. 


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divaneh

Thanks for the useful information

by divaneh on Sun Jun 03, 2012 05:48 PM PDT

Many thanks for this useful blog. I also hope that this sites would help moving Iranian capital from property and pizza to technology and allow us to see more Iranian high tech start ups.


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