Digital DUMBO‘s latest social gathering took place at the Dumbo Loft last month. The event was called “Venture Together” and it was sponsored by TD Bank, featuring newcomer Alphaworks (a Betaworks creation) and Indiegogo.
Brandon Williams, Senior Vice President at TD Bank, welcomed the crowd to the event. “If you look around and see a lot of suits, that’s TD Bank,” Williams joked. He highlighted a few things that he felt make his company unique. First, he said it was the first large North American bank to make a commitment to being carbon neutral (more details here, plus an analysis from SmartPlanet from when the bank first announced the initiative). Second, he pointed to TD Bank’s emphasis on convenience. One aspect of this that stood out for us was his point that the company has 60 people devoted to social media full time, engaging customers and responding to issues as they arise.
Nick Barr is the VP of Product at Alphaworks. The company is looking to give early supporters of businesses a way to really invest in them. The crowdfunding of Oculus Rift has been widely revisited as a missed opportunity for microinvestments, a point he hammered home during his talk. Alphaworks isn’t just interested in tech companies, but also in giving people a stake in other kinds of businesses, such as restaurants and bars.
In Britain, where the regulatory issues are already sorted out, there’s a similar company called Seedrs.
Some companies that have already been supported by the new venture include Quibb, a new professional social network; See Me, a Queens-based monetization service for artists; and Giphy, a search engine for GIFs.
We met Evan Cohen of Indiegogo (on the right) with Nick Barr, before the presentations started. Indiegogo has an office in Tribeca now and he said the company is, “Making a very big push to support the New York maker community.” Cohen is the company’s Manager of Design and Technology.
Don’t miss the next dd:Social. Go to the Digital DUMBO Brooklyn page and scroll down to the bottom to sign up for the group’s mailing list.
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