Here Are the Biggest Crowdfunding Campaigns of 2015 – Bloomberg Business:
Crowdfunding really hit its stride this year with people just crowding in to jump on the bandwagon of new and innovative ideas. Of course great fundraising ideas are for books and movies, especially those that sequels or follow-ons with an established groupie base. Veronica Mars, the high-school sleuth, is and example from last year on Kickstarter. (See our blog here,)
This years list from Bloomberg Business is very enlightening. Of course there are follow-ons to games and movies. That’s a very straightforward use of crowd funding. There are philanthropic approaches, like remodeling historic buildings. And, of course, new inventions.
One that caught a lot of buzz is Flow Hive, that raised ~$12m for a process to put a tap into a bee hive and simply pour honey when you want some (money). This process avoids the pain and suffering of opening the hive in order to get at the honey.
Other things that draw funding include eclectic games and exploding kittens.
No matter how you look at it, however, the Internet (and crowdfunding) is one of the great equalizers of our lifetime. Anyone, anywhere, can raise money for a good idea; simply spread the word in the right settings.
Now, if the idea has intellectual property protection as well (patents, copyright, trademark), then the scaleability of funding and adoption could be off-the-charts.