I am not a big fan of end-of-year predictions, as they are usually not worth the bandwidth they take up; instead, I thought I would instead start the year by discussing two areas that I feel are the most exciting part of the tech space. These are already sectors that are experiencing strong growth and have generated a lot of attention from investors, but hopefully this post will help you see the opportunity and how it could impact your efforts.
Equity crowd-funding
Although Kickstarter and its reward-based crowd-funding has already found a solid position in the game space, crowd-funding will explode once non-accredited investors can actually obtain equity in companies. In the spring of 2012, President Obama passed an act that will drastically alter the landscape of crowd-funding platforms. Prior to this act, a small pool of existing crowd-funding sites were only permitted to operate on a reward or donation basis (e.g., Kickstarter), essentially offering a product, discount, or enticement in exchange for monetary funding. With the launch of the JOBS Act, the ability for the general public to receive company equity in exchange for funding is now a possibility. Continue reading “Two big trends in 2013”