The Crowd Cafe: Small business still reeling from credit crunch [CNBC]

 

Selected Articles

• Small business still reeling from credit crunch [CNBC]
  “The data on small business lending paint a bleaker picture. FDIC data show a 19.1 percent decrease in small business loans ($1 million or less) outstanding since the start of the Great Recession… Even the $30 billion Small Business Lending Fund launched in 2010 as part of the Small Business Jobs Act was a nonstarter. It dispersed only $4 billion because many community banks found the program’s requirements too stringent, and the Treasury Department was slow to approve applications.”
• Will Crowdfunding Kickstart an Investment Revolution? Policy and Political Implications of Peer-to-Peer Financing [Roosevelt Institute] 
  Peer-to-peer funding experiments first emerged in the nonprofit sector, but have since expanded to the realms of for-profit investment and political activism. The proliferation of crowdfunding models and uses requires a nuanced policy response, one that balances the imperative to support the growth of small businesses and new jobs with safeguards for investor protection.
• How crowdfunding drives development [The Guardian]
  Crowdfunding is enabling more aid organisations, charities and civic projects to bypass traditional fundraising techniques
• Why The Next Steve Jobs Will Come From Kickstarter [Business Insider]
  The Kickstarter pitch video is the modern-day equivalent of two guys poking at a boxy computer in front of a crowd of bearded tech enthusiasts. It’s a 21st-century version of a 1975 meeting of the Homebrew Computer Club where the attendees have just gotten a walkthrough of the first Apple computer from two young Steves Jobs and Wozniak.
• Genesis Rounds vs. Institutional Seed Rounds [RobGo]
  Over the past couple years, there has been an emerging bifurcation in the seed investing market. We’ve noticed this both in the industry broadly, as well as in the companies that we have invested in or seriously considered. Essentially, there are 2 flavors of seed rounds that are emerging (EXCLUDING seed extension rounds, which are a whole other story).  We’ve come to describe these as “Genesis Rounds” and “Institutional Seed” rounds.
• After Upworthy exposure, crowdfunding campaign for Boulder municipalization triples goal
  [Commentary] Not in a position to opine on the issue (Upworthy tends to be sensationalistic) but this story yet another great example of how crowdfunding is leveling the playing field and empowering bottom-up citizen activism.

Industry Chatter

• CommonBond raised more than $100 million for its student loan platform
• Mosaic (formerly SolarMosaic) profiled in the NYTimes
• Fundrise Co-Founder Ben Miller discusses the state of commercial real estate investing on Bloomberg’s “Taking Stock”
• David Rose, CEO of Gust, on the two investment structures he believes will best facilitate security crowdfunding 
• Georgia tech launches its own crowdfunding site for science research
• Social Enterprise and Crowdfunding Conference To Be Held September 27, 2013At Snowbird
• RockThePost submits Title II comments to the SEC

International

• [Canada] OSC considering prospectus exemption for crowdfunding
• [UK] Microco.sm raised £100k on Seedrs in under three hours
• [Scotland] Squareknot, Scotland’s first equity and loan crowdfunding platform, set for launch
• [Russia] Crowdfunding gaining popularity in Russia
• [Global] Crowd Valley Celebrates First Year of Operations, Offers Predictions for 2014