Interesting History: Kickstarter! (crowdfunding)

[YonaJones]

An early example of crowdfunding was in the late 1800’s when the Statue of Liberty had just arrived in New York from France, but there weren't enough funds to successfully build the base for the monument.

The mayor of New York refused to provide the funds for the project & other cities were jumping at the opportunity. In an attempt to keep the monument in New York, Joseph Pulitzer decided to launch a fundraising campaign in his newspaper, The New York World.

In doing so, Pulitzer managed to successfully raise over $100K from 160,000 donors. The $100K translates to $2.5M in today’s dollars.

- from an industry analysis report I created for my Entrepreneurship class.

 

[n8800]

Cool Story bro.

 

[ayzo]

You forgot about the time Jefferson and Jackson went halfsies on a dime bag

 

[avatar33]

Only 2.5 million? More like 5+ million dollars...

$100,000 USD in 1914 would be worth $2,367,360 USD in 2014 (Source)

I can't find inflation data for 1800's but yeah, must be close to double.

 

[potentialeight]

You forgot about the time Jefferson and Jackson went halfsies on a dime bag

I laughed way too hard at this.

 

[KennyPowers]

Here's a better early example of crowdfunding:

People used to pool their money together to buy weapons so that when the enemy came they wouldn't fucking die. Oh, wow, who would've thought!

Lol, OP, your example is the equivalent of saying that people never paid taxes, gave donations, or pooled money together to buy anything. "Crowdfunding" has been around for forever.

And here's a better account of kickstarter:

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXOywGjYuIk[/ame]

 

[YonaJones]

Here's a better early example of crowdfunding:

People used to pool their money together to buy weapons so that when the enemy came they wouldn't fucking die. Oh, wow, who would've thought!

GD you sound like a miserable fuck. Lol

 

[Kiopa_Matt]

So... Jesus Christ himself was the inventor of crowd funding? Cool.

 

[CCarter]

Cartman's Keynote - YouTube

I loved this episode XD​

 

[drave]

GD you sound like a miserable fuck. Lol

29 posts, 303 likes given. nice stats.

 

[galacon]

"Crowdfunding" as commonly used refers to a grass-roots campaign to raise capital for a commercial venture, usually with some sort of participation in profits or reward offered for taking the associated risk.

What you have described is a civic charity drive, not "crowdfunding", imho, and has nothing to do with "entrepreneurship".

What was your grade on the report?

 

[YonaJones]

"Crowdfunding" as commonly used refers to a grass-roots campaign to raise capital for a commercial venture, usually with some sort of participation in profits or reward offered for taking the associated risk.

What you have described is a civic charity drive, not "crowdfunding", imho, and has nothing to do with "entrepreneurship".

What was your grade on the report?

Agree this story had little to do with entrepreneurship itself; I just thought it was interesting and it made for a good transition into the rest of my presentation.

How I defined crowdfunding: when a person or group with a vision for a service, project, investment, cause, or experience needs funding to help bring their vision to life & asks for the public to contribute funds to support their cause. SOURCE At the time, the class was emphasizing using business as a tool to bring about change in the world.

Received an A on the project. If not for content, for the fact that I can give a 20 minute presentation without saying "umm" or "like" every other sentence.