If you’re an entrepreneur with a great idea, you’re probably going to need funding at some point in time. The way it works is that you usually give away equity in your company in exchange for cold hard cash. This funding can come from a venture capital firm, a private equity firm, an angel investor, or even through crowdfunding.
What is crowdfunding? It’s where a large group of people each contributes a small amount to your business idea and the result is a large amount of money with the risk spread out among 100s or 1000s of investors. In a previous article titled “A Warning About Crowdfunding“, we discussed crowdfunding sites that allow you to “pre-buy” products in exchange for an upfront investment. We call that “project crowdfunding“. You are investing in a project and your return is in the form of a product. In many cases though, these products aren’t delivered and you lose your money.
But what about crowdfunding that allows us to buy equity in a promising startup instead of just a product? This type of crowdfunding is called “equity crowdfunding” and one of the leading players in this space is a company called EquityNet. Let’s review what EquityNet has to offer investors and entrepreneurs.
Founded in 2005, EquityNet is the original and only patented equity crowdfunding platform that has taken in just $2.1 million of funding. The platform matches qualified investors with startup companies that are looking to raise anywhere from $10 thousand to $10 million. With over 100,000 individual entrepreneurs and investors using the platform, it has managed to raise over $115 million in the past 12 months. The platform has two value propositions; one for investors and one for entrepreneurs.
EquityNet for Entrepreneurs
If you’re an entrepreneur, you can sign up to EquityNet for free and create a company profile, complete their online business plan, and show off your company to potential investors. Have a go at filling out the EquityNet detailed
online business plan to see if you’re an entrepreneur or a “wantrepreneur”