As points out, at a time when raising capital is challenging then inevitably organisations will look for alternative options. Crowdfunding is definitely an option but for all its promise it should not be considered as a replacement of the existing capital markets, its just another part of the mix. We are fortunate it the UK in that we have greater flexibility around equity based crowdfuding than most countries and a global leading platform with
Crowdcube. But it has both supply and demand side aspects, so much of the appeal of crowdfunding is its ability to reach a whole new group of potential investors with a different expectation of return. You are spot on regarding preparation though. We,
twintangibles, advise organisations on crowdfunding and it is amazing how many seem to think that it is straightforward. It's not - particularly if you are going down an equity based route, and if not then expect a great deal of effort to be a success . People tend to forget that on
Kickstarter - the biggest platform still has only about 44% success rate. Most projects fail and for every
LunaTik sensation a great many crash and burn. Wills - I am not sure I would echo your view that there is less scrutiny - in many cases I would contend that there is greater scrutiny and that the distributed cognition model is very valuable. That said the lens used and expectation of return of those scrutinising may be very different from a traditional investor model. Certainly there is a good deal of de-risking going on though - it can be a very stable investment.