Crowdfunding 

Crowdfunding harnesses the power of the web to raise capital—and market interest—by assembling very large numbers of comparatively small investors. It is the best-known example of using the Crowd to serve a higher purpose—such as investing in a new technology, developing a new product prototype, or even creating a new company. It also enables people to participate in acts of charity or social justice and to make political statements.

Nearly $20 billion is raised each year through more than six million different crowdfunding campaigns—an amount that grows by a third every year. Successful campaigns average nearly $30,000 per campaign. Some of the best-known examples of crowdfunding companies include Kickstarter, Indiegogo, FundRazr, Patreon, Wefunder, GoFundMe, and, for social causes, Chuffed.

With crowdfunding platforms like Kickstarter, we can, for the first time in business history, get market validation for a product before building it. In fact, Sony Corporation is listing anonymous Kickstarter projects and funding the successful ones.