I came across Kickfurther today and think there is a really big idea somewhere in their premise.
Wrote about it on Medium (https://medium.com/@jmj/startup-...) and wanted to share my thoughts here.
* What if there was a Kickstarter for small businesses?
* What if you could fund specific products they sell and receive a % of sales from that product?
True story:
I recently visited a trendy, family-owned clothing store in San Francisco and noticed a Golden State Warriors sweatshirt in their storefront window.
I asked the storekeeper how many of the sweatshirts he sells and he told me they are his most popular item.
The interesting part of this discovery is that the sweatshirt was the only Golden State Warriors sweatshirt in the entire store.
Knowing this sweatshirt is their top-selling product, you could reasonability predict that purchasing more inventory of this item would be a worthy investment at this particular store.
Would that be an attractive investment? If the store owner released these sales figures and offered investors a percentage of future returns (in return for taking on part of the initial risk), would you be interested in the opportunity?
I would be.
I'm not sure if Kickfurther will nail the opportunity but I love the premise.
@jmj so, what happens to the "investor"? You essentially take on inventory risk in the hope that you can 1) sell off the inventory and 2) pocket some type of incentive fee?
@jmj Very interesting, in my ecomm experience the best sellers are always in there driving the majority of business and usually is pretty organic/stable. So being able to help invest in and gain from those could be compelling.
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@jmj is that shop on Polk between pacific / Jackson?
This is a neat way to get around the SEC dragging their feet with enacting equity crowdfunding. The reason I'm a big fan of true equity crowdfunding is that investors don't need to bring the same skills to the table. Personally, I'm not great at selling products (I'd feel very Avon-ish too), but if a company I invested in needed a website or mobile app, then I would make that happen for them because those are my skills and I'm financially a part of the company's success.
@EquityEats, we're getting around the slow enacting of Title III by doing intrastate non-accredited raises. We just became the only one approved by DC to do a non-accredited raise and the demand has been huge: http://www.washingtonpost.com/bu...
I'm excited to see any form of crowdfunding help small businesses though and I can't wait to see how successful this twist on the idea is!
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Also check out http://www.wefunder.com. They have funded some really awesome projects like a flying car.
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