Let’s allow crowd-funding to help entrepreneurs: op-ed from Wharton lecturer

An op-ed in the San Francisco Chronicle caught our eye: With surprisingly little fanfare and even more surprising bipartisanship, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a crowd-funding bill this month that would allow startup companies to sell securities by way of social networking and crowd-funding websites. In essence, crowd-funding affords the public at large the […]

By:

Christopher Wink, @christopherwink

Dec 8, 2011 10:00am

23 points. (Photo credit: LendingMemo.com)

An op-ed in the San Francisco Chronicle caught our eye:

With surprisingly little fanfare and even more surprising bipartisanship, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a crowd-funding bill this month that would allow startup companies to sell securities by way of social networking and crowd-funding websites.

In essence, crowd-funding affords the public at large the opportunity to provide small amounts of incremental funding to entrepreneurial companies. Think of it as charitable giving for startups, although the return comes not in peace of mind or a tax deduction but in the form of equity in the company.

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Patrick K. FitzGerald is a serial entrepreneur, angel investor and MBA lecturer on entrepreneurship at the Wharton School of Business.

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