Category: News and Views
22 Crowdfunding Sites (and How To Choose Yours!) | Inc.com
Crowdfunding used to be pretty simple. Artists, inventors, and filmmakers posted their ideas, and funders chipped in a few bucks to make something happen. Kickstarter, the site that triggered the crowdfunding movement, was the cornerstone. In three years, the site has helped launch more than 95,000 projects.
Today, there are scores of crowdfunding sites. Indiegogo, Bolstr, Fundable–the list goes on. With the SEC poised to allow projects to offer equity, crowdfunding has the potential to revolutionize how entrepreneurs raise money. (For now, you have to offer some kind of reward in exchange for donations.)
But all sites are not created equal. Some specialize in nonprofits, or in certain types of products; others offer consulting services in addition to sourcing funding. In an increasingly crowded and complicated marketplace, where should you turn to fund your endeavor? Follow our map.
From the frontier to fashions peak |money.cnn.com
I was born in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, and grew up during World War II. Dad sent us to a farm on the outskirts of Maribor to be away from the city bombings, and he went to Austria to make arrangements for us to move.But with the war ending, he was unable to get back.
When I was 9, my mother wanted to escape Yugoslavia to reunite with my father. So in 1945 she paid a man to take me across the border to Austria, but we were caught. He was arrested, and I was released. My mother, sister, and I tried again several days later but could not get anyone to take all three of us.
So she paid another man to take me across, but he only took me part of the way. He told me to stay on the road until I came to the house at the top of the mountain. There was only one house visible in the distance, and I walked and ran toward it. It was getting dark, and I was scared. I could hear voices and several gunshots. Inside that house my father waited for me. My mother and younger sister followed months later.
Back then I had only two dresses to wear to school, and they got shorter and shorter as I grew. I hated feeling out of place and really wanted to have clothes that fit and were appropriate. Having a limited wardrobe, I always dreamed of clothes.
New York Fed Chief Levels Explosive Charge Against Big Banks | Huffington Post
“There is evidence of deep-seated cultural and ethical failures at many large financial institutions,” he continued. “Whether this is due to size and complexity, bad incentives, or some other issues is difficult to judge, but it is another critical problem that needs to be addressed.”
via New York Fed Chief Levels Explosive Charge Against Big Banks.
Weekly Economic Update | LAEDC
THIS WEEK’S HEADLINES:
- U.S. Retail Sales in September
- August S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices
- Events of Interest
- November 13, 2013: Real Estate Voices: The Past, Present and Future of the Real Estate Industry
- November 14, 2013: LAEDC 18th Annual Eddy Awards
Food Startups | Business Insider
Theres a growing number of startups focusing on the food market. Thats likely because, as VC Dave McClure says, the market opportunity for food technology is huge.
Last year, investors poured in roughly $350 million into food startups, according to CB Insights. Last month, Food Hackathon hosted its inaugural event in San Francisco with the goal of teaming up entrepreneurs, developers, and designers to create products geared toward the food ecosystem. And just last week, Seamless and GrubHub announced a merger, bringing even more attention to food startups.
World’s Biggest Data Breaches & Hacks | Information Is Beautiful
Check out an infographic that puts all of the data breaches of the last few years in visual terms
Report: Teens’ interest in Facebook wanes | FastCasual.com
Investment bank Piper Jaffray & Co. has released its 26th semi-annual “Taking Stock With Teens” consumer insights project, which pointed to a sequential sign of spending moderation and tempered intent to spend across multiple categories and household income levels.
“Our fall 2013 survey results suggest teens are experiencing general spending fatigue across key categories, specifically fashion related items. The absence of a clear product catalyst is a key contributing factor to diminished spending proclivity. Intent to spend also moderated, despite over two-thirds of teens signaling confidence the economy is stable to improving,” Steph Wissink, co-director of research and senior research analyst at Piper Jaffray, said in a news release. “We are also observing trends that imply teens are browsing regularly on their mobile devices, shopping less frequently and engaging with brands ‘on demand’ on their own time. This dynamic alters the assumptions surrounding the square footage and retail inventory needed to service this target demographic. A period of rationalization may be needed.”
Some findings from the survey include:
Think You Can Live Offline Without Being Tracked? Heres What It Takes | Fast Company | Business + Innovation
“Every time you upload a photograph to Facebook or put one on Twitter for that matter you are now ratting out anybody in that frame to any police agency in the world that’s looking for them,” digital privacy advocate Eben Moglen told BetaBeat last year during a rant against one of its reporters. “Some police agencies in the world are evil. That’s a pretty serious thing you’ve just done.”
High unemployment? Blame high home ownership, study says – NBC News.com
…the linkage, established using data on millions of randomly sampled Americans, was extraordinarily robust.
Doubling home ownership in a state can lead to more than a doubling of the jobless rate.
“I have become convinced that by boosting home ownership we have ruined our labor market,” Oswald said.
Dispatches From The Front 