How has Crowdfunding Affected the Tech Industry Globally?

Crowdfunding is a way to raise cash for your startup or business with a little help from crowdfunding platforms. These places help you meet thousands of people, some who are willing to invest in business ideas. Crowdfunding platforms raise billions of dollars annually to fund budding entrepreneurs with hundreds of product ideas. This money allows peoples’ ideas to meet reality. It’s obvious that crowdfunding is a great new concept which is quickly getting momentum.

Crowdfunding initially started gaining traction by influencing various industries all over the world. We wanted to know how crowdfunding affected the tech industry globally? So, we asked some experts this question and here is what we got as their views. What do you think? Keep the conversation going in the comments at the bottom!

Who did we interview?

          Mark Harris                   Karyne Levy                         Rob Gordon

How has Crowdfunding Affected the Tech Industry Globally?

Mark Harris – Sunday Times and The Metro

“I write about technology, science, business, the environment and travel for a wide range of editorial outlets. If you’re interested, there are links to lots of work samples below. Feel free to explore, comment and get in touch (links to the right and here’s my Facebook page).”

• Courtesy of Meharris.com

What did Mark say?

Crowdfunding is one of the most exciting developments in consumer technology of the past decade. With Oculus Rift and Pebble, it kickstarted two entire product segments (VR and smartwatches) that are likely to become multi-billion dollar markets in the years ahead. In an era of increasingly massive and increasingly sclerotic product companies, crowdfunding sidesteps marketing-led product cycles to reconnect enthusiasts and innovators. The resulting explosion in creativity has been nothing short of breath-taking.

However, it’s not without problems. High-profile failures like the Zano drone project highlight how easy it is for the tech community to let its guard down and experience a collective hype that can lead to creators getting out of their depth and failing to deliver. Whether it moves forward to become a genuine mass-market movement will depend on bankers, journalists and the buying public educating themselves about the risks of crowdfunding, and the crowdfunding platforms themselves evolving to deal with the problems that come with scale.

Karyne Levy – Nerdwallet.com

“I’m a word nerd and tech lover at heart and adore anything (and everything) to do with pop culture, video games, arbitrary grammar rules, food, and musical theater.

When I’m not editing, writing, or trying new restaurants in town, I can be found singing in my a cappella group around San Francisco.”

What did Karyne say?

Crowdfunding has allowed various good ideas get off the ground, where they might not have seen the light of day in the past. It also gives the little guy a chance to compete with the big guys, putting everyone on their toes. I think it’s laying the groundwork for some healthy competition among all the players in the field.

Rob Gordon

Rob Gordon is a tech columnist and gadget lover and writes techoven.com. He also has a love of smarter working through the use of devices and services to get more done in less time. Fuelled by a love of coffee you can catch up with him at about.me/robgordonuk or on Twitter @robgordon

What did Rob say?

Crowdfunding has made a huge change to the tech industry, fundamentally affecting how the development of products can be approached.

It provides the ability to sell a vision of a product, and have it resonate, or not, with others.

There are numerous examples of crowdfunding disrupting a market, providing a solution to a problem that inexplicably remained beyond reach.

Perhaps my favorite of these is the Pebble smartwatch, becoming one of the most successful ever projects on Kickstarter and surging demand for smart devices and wearables.

What do we think?

Crowdfunding is a great tool that allows anyone with a great idea to raise funds for their business. This can help people bring their dream to reality which otherwise would have been a traditional route to the bank for cash and quite possibly a refusal. Crowdfunding has influenced various industries, especially technology. Facebook has recently bought a virtual reality gaming company Oculus VR for $2 billion.

Smartwatch maker Pebble is a Kickstarter project that is now selling more smartwatches than ever before. Lastly, there are products like Gravity Light that provides access to electricity to about 20% of the world’s population – all come from crowd funding. The initial traction and various successes of crowd funding have motivated investors to place their cash in these amazing, motivated start-ups.

Thus, opening new opportunities for hi-tech industry growth in the various untapped niche market. The influence of crowdfunding in the tech industry can easily be seen but wait. . . there is more to come in upcoming years.

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