• Description: Crowdfunding organisation
  • What is good: Links small investors with small startups
  • HQ Location and Country: Brooklyn, New York, USA
  • Operation locations: US and Worldwide

Kickstarter is a public benefit company and uses crowd sourcing to get projects up a running. and uses crowd sourcing to get projects up a running.

How it shows

Using technology; This it is an example of crowdfunding, as a mechanism for investment this enable small amounts of money from investors are put at risk but that significant amounts can be raised for entrepreneurs who don't have to deal with aggressive/controlling banks or investment funds. It provides clarity on the cut it takes (5%).

Characteristics

Good process/wide engagement; Crowd sourcing, and producer control - it provides a good experience for producers, and through its public benefit status accepts that it has wider responsibilities than just making a profit. 

Caveats

  • Kickstarter is positively anti-union. Article in Current Affairs.  Anti-unionism sits uneasily with holistic political economy.
  • It is firmly part of the globalised economy, the manufacturing for projects is done in China requiring shipping and with little visibility about pay and conditions that apply