ME Clock combines hardware and software to serve as a “personal trainer for your mind.” The system is designed to help people break bad habits and make lasting positive changes. The ME System 24 provides a specific sequence of mind empowering exercises, behavioral modification. learning techniques, yoga moves, music and meditation. It looks like a digital alarm clock radio but has far greater ambitions than waking you up to Top 40 tunes. The accompanying apps deliver the audio content to your smartphone.

“The self-improvement industry is a 12 billion dollar a year industry in the US alone,” said founder Mike Squirrell in a Q&A.” We want to remove the never-ending burden of accumulating hundreds of self-help books and courses that cost people a lot of money and usually yield little effect, not to mention therapy. Our aim is to change the face of 21st century psychology and brain-training by giving everyone access through technology.

Squirrell spent 10 years researching and developing the ME system at his practice in London where he provided integrated medicine, personal development and behavioral training to clients looking for “sustainable transformation.” People are always striving to be thinner, richer, happier, fitter, smarter, less anxious, and more confident and Squirrell said that bad habits and negative thoughts are what inhibit people from achieving their goals. There is a whole field of study called positive psychology that centers around breaking these patterns. The ME Clock incorporates these techniques into a simple training system that customers can embark upon independently.

There are twelve “ME Programs” geared towards your specific goals, including thin, happy, calm, rich, love, energy confident, and smart. Each program has three separate levels which take between one and three weeks to complete and ME Clock will guide people through various mental exercises throughout the day. People can pick and choose the apps to suit their ambitions.

The self-help industry is massive and largely conducted offline in books, seminars and workshops, and private sessions. Sure the idea of  becoming “the ME you want to BE” invites cynicism and eye-rolls. Affirmations are not for everyone, but there are millions of people out there are looking to improve their lives in one way or another. Popular devices and tracking apps like Fuel Band, FitBit, Endomondo, MapMyFitness (and on and on) are a different incarnation of this idea. They  also provide people with information and social motivation to sustain positive habits. However, Squirrell said these systems are geared towards tracking, rather than “fixing,” and fixing requires mental training. That is where MEClock comes in.

ME Clock is hoping to raise $75,000 through the IndieGoGo campaign. The company is based in London and currently has 6 employees.

Anonymous, the unorganized hacker organization that has attacked everyone from North Korea to SendGrid to you name it, decided it needed better news capability than Your Anon News, which currently depends on Tumblr and Twitter, can provide. So Your Anon News decided to crowdfund a new Anonymous news agency via Indiegogo … which was then promptly DDOS’d by — presumably — Anonymous.

Of course, when I’m saying “it decided,” that’s not strictly accurate. Your Anon News says it supports Anonymous, but is not officially speaking part of Anonymous. Realistically, however, no one is officially a part of Anonymous, and the edges of the unorganized organization are so frayed as to make it impossible to determine who or what actually is part or not part of it.

In any case, some in Anonymous decided the Indiegogo campaign was not kosher and promptly went nuclear, kicking off a Distributed Denial of Service attack on all of Indiegogo to disrupt it.

UPDATE: Yesterday’s DDoS attack was on the Your Anon News campaign (ow.ly/jLaxS). We don’t yet know who the attackers were.

— Indiegogo (@Indiegogo) April 4, 2013

Indiegogo has fought through the attack, and the campaign, far from being disrupted, has been very successful. With 12 days left in its campaign, Your Anon News has raised $9,857, almost five times its original $2,000 goal. Apparently, the crowd is beating the bullies.

One funny note: As TechCrunch’s John Biggs notes, the Your Anon News contribution perks are lame in the extreme — buttons, mugs, and T-shirts. In other words, just the same as every other campaign’s.

Why not be a little creative?

For $1,000, we’ll hack the Department of Justice. For $5,000, the FBI. And for a platinum-level contribution of $10,000, we’ll hack the CIA and finally reveal the truth about Area 51.

Now that would be something more interesting.

Here’s Your Anon News contribution-seeking video, which sounds like it was narrated by a Mac’s text-to-speech:

In fact, Scout Alarm crowdsourced that cash all on its own.

The Scout Alarm is a $120 “next generation” alarm system that is designed for renters as well as home owners. It’s clean, simple, doesn’t require wires or a landline, and it comes with you to your new home when you move. In other words, a Scout representative told me, it’s the perfect system for urban dwellers who may not be living in the same home for decades on end.

Scout says that Kickstarter wouldn’t allow it on its service as its product was not far enough along in preproduction yet, so the company followed in the footsteps of Lockitron, which crowdfunded its keyless lock solution, then open-sourced the needed software. A month later, the company has 596 backers who have pledged $159,180 for the new alarm systems, which start shipping in August.

“Scout has been the most successful project of its kind that we can find,” a company representative told me via email. “Even if you look at the top 15 projects of 2012 from Indiegogo, Scout would be in the top 10 … we believe we are the most successful independent crowdfunding campaign to date, excluding Lockitron, which was on their second product.”

The company put together two blog posts highlighting how to make a private crowdfunding campaign work. Here’s the short version:

1. You’ll need to do some programming. Even though Lockitron open-sourced its crowdfunding code, it may not be perfectly suited for you.
2. Press helps
3. This may be a well-duh one, but if you can get the attention of people that have others’ attention, it helps.
4. PR people help, too. Let me just put it this way: There’s a reason you’re seeing this article, and it’s not because I woke up this morning thinking I was going to write about Scout Alarm.
5. Sweat the small stuff. Distributors? Shipping rates? Know them.
6. Remind me later. Some people can’t buy right away. Some don’t want to. Give them a way to get you to remind them later.
7. Live chat on your site. Talk to people who hit your site — they’ll have questions.
8. Talk to backers early and often. Keep them informed, excited, and sharing.
9. Have a second angle on press. Initial press doesn’t last. Have a new angle for week two, three, and so on.
10. Retargeting from day one. Set up AdRoll or another retargeting solution on your site so that you can market to people who visit but don’t buy. “It’s cheap,” Scout Alarm says on its blog. “We’ve spent $340 to get 43,000 impressions and 81 clicks in two weeks.”
11. Video, demos, pictures. People don’t like to read; they like to see.
12. Ask for help. Other startups and entrepreneurs like to help startups and entrepreneurs.
13. Help backers go viral. Give them simple ways to share news and updates.
14. Hire a virtual assistant. Keeping up with the flow of information is hard.
15. Ask for the sale. Don’t be shy!
16. Track referrals and conversions from day one. Know what’s working … and what’s not.

The results?

In the first three weeks, Scout Alarm received 48,500 visitors, including 36,500 unique visits, from people who pre-ordered $140,000 worth of home security equipment. Now the campaign is near $160,000.

Scout’s campaign is continuing for another five days, and it’s looking for about $20,000 more in preorders.

The development studio teamPixel is asking Homeworld fans a question: Do you trust it with the potential future of the space-themed strategy franchise?

In the case of Homeworld, THQ’s farewell to the industry means that other studios with interest in the series can resurrect a name that hasn’t seen a game in almost 10 years. Homeworld is a space-combat real-time strategy (RTS) series developed by Relic Entertainment. Relic’s last entry was Homeworld 2, which released in 2003.

GamesBeat interviewed Rob Santos, the head of teamPixel, the independent developer that launched a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo in hopes of buying the property when THQ auctions it off. The developer has a background in web design, web development, desktop software, and mobile applications, according to its Indigogo page. It has also made games on-commission for smaller companies, so taking on a franchise with a hugely dedicated fanbase like Homeworld is a major challenge for the developer. TeamPixel is aiming quite high, but Santos argues that if he doesn’t take that risk, who will?

GamesBeat: Our understanding is that teamPixel wanted to buy Homeworld, but you had to wait because THQ will sell it in a separate process. Is that right?

Rob Santos: This is correct. We tried getting the bidder qualification process started a few weeks before the Jan. 22 date for the first auction. We jumped through a few contacts in the associated law and banking firms, and when it became apparent none of our interest was in the larger properties or studios, we were told to sit tight for further information regarding THQ’s legacy assets. This furthered our desire for a SaveHomeworld.com campaign because it became apparent at this point that Relic would not be keeping the Homeworld IP, at least according to the contacts we spoke to. For weeks, we sat waiting and hoping the information was wrong and that Homeworld did stay with Relic, but when word leaked that legacy IPs were still being held with THQ, we launched our campaign hoping to provide an indie-solution to the 10 year wait for more Homeworld.

Rob Santos, head of teamPixel, the indie developer interested in buying Homeworld.

GamesBeat: You have a goal of $50,000. Will this likely be your maximum bid?

Santos: We’re trying to position ourselves as a messenger through which fans can collectively express their desire for future Homeworld games. I have to state it this way because the SaveHomeworld.com cause can’t be quantified purely through dollar amounts. We’re trying to be very sensitive to the deeper intentions of our contributors. Most fans that donate to us send their best wishes to our indie studio but also state they wish Relic were involved. With this in mind, if we arrive at the auction and find ourselves bidding against a Relic representative, it’s likely we’d withdraw through whatever legal means available during auction proceedings. So far, that’s the feeling I’m getting from our contributors about what they want.

GamesBeat: Most of the companies making these bids are larger ones like Sega, who bought Homeworld developer Relic. What made an indie developer like teamPixel decide to do this?

Santos: You actually point out a business irony that’s often related to the innovator’s dilemma in the tech industry at large. There are a lot of successful gaming companies out there available to accomplish great things. Sometimes you get trapped in your own success and only start to work on things you think will bring even more guaranteed success. Homeworld has a dedicated fan-base, but I think many businesses classify it — and space games in general — as higher-risk with lower return. They’d rather stick to their more trusted and mainstream successes. When larger companies choose this route — and in Homeworld’s case choose this route for nearly 10 years — I feel it’s up to smaller companies to be more entrepreneurial risk-takers.

GamesBeat: The answer may seem obvious, but how do see this as an opportunity for the revival of long-gone franchises like Homeworld? After all, that’s your plan here. That’s definitely a positive side to the THQ situation, right? Or do you?

Santos: Sometimes, the most obvious things are not the most apparent. I love the industry too much to ever utter good riddance over a dying company. The toll it takes on employees and potential creativity in the industry is an overwhelming loss that touches everyone in some way. I think technology is advancing such that there will be more and more profound connections between gamers and developers. In addition, the tools to create games are becoming pervasively accessible to everyday people. All of these together give the industry a lot more economic granularity and traction for identifying opportunities in lost franchises and matching them up with the right developers so fans can be satisfied and businesses can benefit.

GamesBeat: If you don’t win this bid, is there anyone you’d like to see pick up Homeworld?

Santos: After Relic and other ex-Relic-staffed studios were unable to make headway with the series after nearly 10 years, our goal was to provide gamers with an indie-studio choice for the franchise. Otherwise, Homeworld belongs with Relic. The guys over at Blackbird Interactive seem like a really great choice, too. Fans should definitely check out their upcoming Hardware game.

GamesBeat: I read on the Indiegogo page that the team has made games for local companies. What other experience does teamPixel have in the gaming space?

Santos: For outside companies, we’ve made smaller games as marketing tie-ins to other nongaming products. These were done on commission and branding them as a teamPixel production was not allowed in our contracts. I think there’s a lot of misperception about how much work we’ve actually done simply because our website looks a little sparse. When you do a lot of B2B work as a smaller company,  sometimes many of those contracts don’t let you put your name on deliverables to avoid diluting the company’s branding. Maybe we should push more to stick our logo on things. Generally, we take on outside contracts to fund our own company projects. Right now the ratio is probably 15 external for every one project of our own, but we’d like to switch exclusively to our own stuff by the end of the year.

Internally, we’ve been experimenting with Flash and the Source Engine for game development for years, and we added Unity to our repertoire in 2012. We’re targeting developing some UDK proficiency in 2013. We also have staff that have been involved in modding before the company was even founded eight years ago. I personally got into modding games due to Homeworld and Half-Life 1. We were actually three months deep into producing our own independent space RTS inspired by Homeworld when the opportunity to buy Homeworld itself popped up. Our Homeworld Touch demo is all our own code with some borrowed assets for non-commercial demonstration. It is actually our own space RTS game, modded to look like Homeworld 1 as a concept demo for the fans, and it runs on desktop [PC/Mac] in addition to Android and iOS touch platforms.

If we don’t end up making a Homeworld game, we’re all still very excited to be launching our own unique IP. We’re hoping to take some chances in game design that bigger and more risk-averse companies are too afraid to do.

[Above: The Homeworld Touch demo as shown on teamPixel's Indiegogo campaign page.]

GamesBeat: Is this Indiegogo campaign more about raising awareness for the game than it is about winning the property? Could you be getting a bid in with hope that a larger developer raises it and scoops up the IP?

Santos: In my opinion, there’s definitely a “David vs. Goliath” feeling about the whole campaign. Most rational people will probably think it’s ridiculous to even try, and they are probably right, but we push forward because we really believe fans deserve a chance to fight alongside each other for the future of this franchise. With these in mind, I believe the campaign is half awareness of the 10-year wait fans have endured and half an offering to have an indie studio helm the franchise. In the end, we’re fans just like everyone else, so not a day goes by where we don’t look toward Relic or Blackbird Interactive wondering if they’ll step in. We’re not adamant that the next Homeworld be made by teamPixel. Rather, we’re dedicated to promoting a future for the franchise, and releasing our own space RTS somewhere along the way.

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It may sound like an impossible dream, but two designers in London have built functioning prototypes of GravityLight, a cheap way for people in developing countries t0 light homes, recharge batteries, or power a radio. And they just exceeded their Indiegogo fundraising goal by more than 500 percent with 21 days left in their campaign, so they’ll have the resources to mass-produce the light for less than $5 a unit.

Source: GravityLight

The GravityLIght comes in the bag that will be filled with dirt or stones to power it

Martin Riddiford and Jim Reeves have spent four years developing GravityLight, which uses the Earth’s gravity to generate enough power to light an LED bulb for half an hour — no electrical grid, batteries, or any external generator required.

Using the GravityLight simply requires removing the small white lamp from its bag, hanging it up, filling the bag with about 20 pounds of dirt or rocks, and attaching the bag to bottom of the device.

Gravity powers a generator, light fills your room, and every 30 minutes, you hoist the bag back up.

The goal is to provide clean, efficient light for the 1.5 billion human beings on this planet who still do not have reliable access to electricity and use kerosene-powered lamps. According to Riddiford and Reeves, the use of kerosene results in vastly higher cancer rates due to smoke inhalation, and 2.5 million burn victims due to dropped or jostled lamps every year in India alone. Not to mention the cost: 10 percent to 20 percent of a household’s income in the developing world can go to fuel for lighting.

The initial run of 1,000 GravityLights will be distributed for free to villagers in Africa and India, the designers say. Based on the results, they will tweak the product and then seek NGO and non-profit organizations’ help in distributing it even more widely.

Here’s their explanatory video:

Thousands of backers have contributed anywhere from $10, which gets a thank-you, to $100, which pays for three GravityLights to be sent to needy villages in developing nations, a GravityLight of your own, and several other perks. And four sponsors have signed up at the $5,000 level to help the project succeed — and get their names and logos on the initial run of devices.

Image credits: GravityLight Project

Crowdfunding platform Indiegogo has brought in more than $200,000 in donations to help victims of superstorm Sandy.

Indiegogo, which competes with Kickstarter, typically caters to inventors and entrepreneurs trying to pool funds to finance their big ideas. In recent days, the site has become a home base for Sandy recovery, with community members turning to peers to fund not-for-profit relief efforts.

Currently, 107 Sandy disaster relief campaigns are taking donations. The Help Long Beach project, for instance, was started by teachers in Long Beach, New York to feed and clothe the people in that area devastated by the storm. The NYC Food Truck Sandy Outreach initiative raised more than $24,000 to deliver hot meals to people in the most affected parts of New York and New Jersey. Altogether, these types of campaigns have pooled together more than $205,000 in Sandy relief donations.

“There’s a huge and growing number of people who want to do more than just click a ‘donate now’ button,” Indiegogo co-founder and COO Danae Ringelman told VentureBeat. “They want to mobilize their friends, families, and social networks to join with them in making a difference at a deeper level.”

For its part, Indiegogo is offering its platform free of charge to all verified nonprofits. The startup has also partnered with the American Red Cross in an effort to funnel even more money to the organization and provide shelter, food, and assistance to Sandy victims. Indiegogo and PayPal have waived their fees so that members who start campaigns to raise money for the Red Cross can do so with 100 percent of funds going directly to the Red Cross.

“Our objective is to harness the passion and energy of these motivated folks and ignite a flurry of crowdfunding campaigns for Sandy Disaster relief,” Ringelman said. “We want people and organizations to know that there’s more they can do via crowdfunding and it’s easy, impactful, and lets them target causes they specifically care about.”

Indiegogo joins a host of other technology companies rallying to support the victims of superstorm Sandy. Community-powered hotel alternative Airbnb is helping victims find free temporary housing, last-minute booking app HotelTonight partnered with 25 New York City hotels to donate $60,000 to the American Red Cross, and Apple ponied up $2.5 million in a generous donation to the Red Cross.

Photo credit: NYC Food Truck Sandy Outreach/Indiegogo

The clock is ticking. Hunched over the computer screen, a backer of a popular crowdfunding site hits the refresh button every few seconds to check whether his latest investment, an online game, has hit its target funding amount.

Does this sound like a healthy dedication to helping entrepreneurs start companies? The experts believe otherwise; they argue that this is an addiction not too dissimilar to Internet poker or online shopping.

“I admit there’s something seductive about Kickstarting a game,” one user confessed on a community forum dedicated to the topic of “Kickstarter addiction.”

Kickstarter is one of a growing number of crowdfunding sites for creative people to showcase their ideas and ask for funding. For gamers and hardware enthusiasts, it is often the only way to get their ideas off the ground. Venture capital funding —  if it comes at all –usually goes to later-stage companies with a full engineering team, distribution strategy, and over a million users.

The site made headlines this summer with a record amount raised for a new gaming console. Equally as fascinating as the Ouya console, which topped a record $8.5 million on Kickstarter, are its 63,000 backers, many of whom frequently pour thousands of dollars into projects that may never see the light of day.

A growing number of people attest to the rush of donating their hard-earned cash to projects on crowdfunding sites, tracking them as companies either develop or crash and burn.

It’s time we took a deep dive into the mentality of the “serial backer”: Are they good-hearted souls who can’t stand to see young visionaries give up, or are they like stockbrokers, making a bet on the companies that can succeed?

And this raises the bigger question: If their addiction is actually helping people, should we try to stop them?

Backers carry the lion’s share of the risk

Kickstarter is still a relatively young business, so it has some flaws to fix. It’s still unclear what happens when a developer cancels a project or doesn’t deliver its product on time. Hacker friends have told me they are tempted to launch fake Kickstarter projects — and simply walk away with the cash.

The rights of the people who back Kickstarter companies are also ambiguous, particularly when plans go awry.

According to the site’s Terms of Use, Kickstarter isn’t liable for damages or loss relating to “rewards or any other use of the Service.” It takes a 5 percent cut from any successful project. If a disagreement rises between a project and backer, the official rules stipulate that Kickstarter is not required to intercede.

“Kickstarter is under no obligation to become involved in disputes between any users, or between users and any third party.” (Kickstarter’s Terms of Use)

The media has speculated about what happens if a funded project fails and whether backers receive refunds. Backers are well aware of the risks. Yet, some seem to disregard the risk and pour money into project after project.

The Internet’s philanthropic generation?

Joshua Rogers, who works in quality assurance for an interactive media agency, has backed 32 Kickstarter companies. His pledges range from $10 to over $2,500 across a variety of project types.

“I feel like I’m not a terribly creative person myself, but by enabling others to express their creativity, I might be helping in some small way,” he told me.

Typically, Rogers funds teams from the Chicago area where he lives, such as Arcade Brewery and Nova Cry, or themes he’s interested in, like gaming projects OGRE and Shadowrun. For him, it’s about the all-important personal connection.

This tactic seems to be working. Rogers is one of the lucky ones. He hasn’t been burned by the experience, and only one of the projects he funded didn’t meet its goal. However, he told me that like most of his fellow backers, he’s still “waiting on a lot of deliverables” from projects he has backed in the last six months. (Read more about Kickstarter project delays here.)

For Scott Morrison, who has backed 111 projects and counting in the past six months, it’s about feeling a sense of pride and ownership. “I back projects primarily because the project is for something that I want to possess,” he said. He told me he relishes the feeling of being one small part of a budding company.

Morrison works in the oil and gas industry. He also has a soft spot for the underdogs; teams that are struggling to meet their goal. “The other reason [I fund projects] is because I think the project should exist, and I’m willing to fund it even if it does not directly benefit myself,” Morrison said.

Good news for humanity: These crowdfunding sites appear to attract their fair share of genuinely well-intentioned people.

It’s not charity: Tangible rewards

However, note that it’s not just good will. While Kickstarter backers cannot ask for financial returns or equity or solicit loans, they do have early access to products. It may seem like a small gain to you, but it matters in the startup community, where many pride themselves on being early adopters.

With the passage of the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act (JOBS), the tide may be turning. Although he’s satisfied with the current system, Rogers said that he’s in favor of the idea of trading equity in exchange for crowdfunding. It’s not Kickstarter’s policy, but competitors like Fundable and Founders Club let anyone back a project for as little as $1,000 — and offer a piece of the company in return.

If Kickstarter does revise its policies, these serial backers may have the know-how to pick up the most promising ideas and could be well-positioned to reap the rewards.

“I didn’t sleep until it was finished. I was refreshing too much.”

Gaining early access to new products doesn’t seem like sufficient explanation for the preponderance of people that back dozens of projects.

A Google search for the term “Kickstarter addiction” finds scores of community forums dedicated to the topic. As one anonymous backer posed (and received over a dozen responses):

“[It] feels like I’m checking the Board & Card Games section every day to see what’s new…I can’t be the only one…  Am I?”

“None of the projects that I have backed have so far failed since I backed them,” said Morrison.

Serial backers are always testing themselves on their capability to pick the most successful projects, similarly to placing a bet on the speediest racehorse or greyhound.

Some also experience a rush that comes with watching the total funding amount increase as the clock ticks. Will the project meet its goal? It’s similar to the excitement that you feel when you’re in a heated bidding war on eBay.

“Backing Kinetic Void was quite memorable,” said David Paye, a serial backer from Australia who has funded over 50 Kickstarter projects. “On its final day, it managed to get the 45 percent needed to get it over the line.

“It practically came down to the final hour. I didn’t sleep until it had finished, I was refreshing so much.”

How do you know if you have a problem?

“We have some sense of the power of cyber-technologies to transform our society, but we do not yet have a clue about how they impact the functioning and structure of the human brain,” said Kevin Roberts, an addiction counselor specializing in online behavior.

Roberts, author of Cyber Junkie: Escape the Gaming and Internet Trap, counsels people who are addicted to video games or rely heavily on their smartphones. He provided a list of warning signs to look out for. Ask yourself the following:

1. Do you lose track of time when you are on Kickstarter?
2. Do you think about Kickstarter when you are in bed?
3. Have you contributed so much that you are damaging your budget? Are some financial obligations going unmet?
4. Does the “good feeling” you get from Kickstarter serve to keep your mind off of something you’re avoiding?
5. If you stay off of Kickstarter, what happens? Do you feel upset? Do you crave it? Do you experience any negative emotions like anxiety, depression, or anger?
6. Do you spend less time with family and friends since you’ve been using Kickstarter? Do you justify this by saying that Kickstarter is more important, or that you’re doing more important and meaningful things?
7. Have you lost interest in other hobbies or activities that you used to enjoy?
8. Are you on Kickstarter an average of more than two hours a day?
9. Do you suffer from backache, carpal tunnel syndrome, stiff neck, nerve pain, eye strain from spending so much time in front of a screen?
10. Do you know you need to cut down but have been unable to do it?

Roberts said that research on the subject of cyber-addictions still limited. However, scientists have recently uncovered that compulsive Internet use and video game play exhibit the same “signature” in the brain as other addictions. If you answered “yes” to one or more of the above questions, consider seeking additional help, he said.

The rise of the crowdfunding community

For some backers, it’s not just about chasing a high or the opportunity to do some good. Funding a projects gives them the sense of being part of a budding online community.

In his day job, Paye works for a hardware store in Australia. Backing Kickstarter projects lets him feel connected to the tech scene. He admits he’s “not exactly in the target country” for startups and that he is too “separate from the epicenter to feel connected.” For wannabe entrepreneurs or startup enthusiasts in the scattered corners of the world, crowdfunding offers an escape.

Similarly to many angel investors, Kickstarter backers often tell you they like to get personally involved with their projects, and take an active role in mentoring the teams.

“That’s one of the keys to a successful project,” said Morrison, “The establishment of that connection between creator and backers.”

Top image via Shutterstock

Currently, entrepreneurs starting a company can crowdfund, but only by offering products or services in exchange for contributions. That’s due to an SEC rule that forbids the marketing of “private securities,” Econ 101 for shares that do not trade on a public exchange, such as the NASDAQ or NYSE.

The SEC is proposing to amend that rule, which will allow sites like Fundable to publicly offer and solicit the sale of actual shares in companies in exchange for investments. That’s in recognition of President Obama’s JOBS act of 2011, which was intended to open up investment opportunities for startups.

The announcement is a welcome one for crowdfunders such as Fundable:

“We are confident that this is a promising step in the right direction, and look forward to their recommendation becoming a reality after the allocated thirty days of public comments,” said Fundable’s chief executive Wil Schroter. “The execution of the JOBS Act will open up hundreds of millions of dollars of potential investments and make drastic improvements to the US economy.”

Other sites such as Gambitious and Indiegogo would also be able to raise capital for startups with this rule change, but crowdfunding titan Kickstarter would not — unless it changed its community rules. Currently, Kickstarter is only for projects, and explicitly bans “starting a business” as a reason for initiating a funding attempt.

One thing that still blocks most Americans from funding startups: accreditation. All investors who buy equity in a startup through a crowdfunding site must still be accredited investors, which generally means someone richer than you.

Perhaps that’s something crowdfunding sites can work on … we’ve seen how projects can be funded $5 at a time.

Why not startups?

photo credit: Mukumbura via photo pin cc

And they work, he says, whether you’re crowdsourcing or pitching venture capitalists.

Indiegogo, along with Kickstarter, leads the crowdfunding revolution. Chapnick bills it as the place to “raise money from anyone for anything from anywhere.”

But even though it is one of the few original crowdfunding services, the site is only one of 540 competing services today, according to Chapnick. Even with that competition, Indiegogo is one of only a handful that have raised over $10 million in venture capital.

Source: Indiegogo

A recent Indiegogo project

Chapnick says that the methodologies people used on Indiegogo to raise money for a movie project, a product, or a business are exactly the same methodologies he used to get millions in venture capital.

First, he said, make a big fat business plan — then throw it away. It was important to go through the process of creating a business plan, according to Chapnick. But things change fast, and the plan boiled down to “We’re the eBay of ideas: YouTube on the front, PayPal in the back.” Simple, easy to understand, and quick to convey.

Second, traction comes from action. Ideas are nice, Chapnick says, but execution kills. Without execution, ideas are useless, but when there is execution, it generates more ideas — and more execution. When venture capitalists see execution, they’re more likely to invest. And the same is true for indie project funders — action builds trust.

Third, people don’t fund projects, they fund people. Video campaigns raise twice what nonvideo projects raise, and the personal connection is the difference. Connecting personal to investors is critical, whether they are VCs looking to put a few million dollars to work or individuals who might send you $25 for a copy of the the DVD.

Fourth, the more you update, the more money you raise. Crowdfunding efforts that update 31 or more times raise four times more money than projects that update infrequently. And when Chapnick was raising VC, he made sure to communicate something positive at least twice a week.

The added benefit? This forces the right actions:

“When you know you have to update, it focuses all your daily actions: You have to move something up and to the right by tomorrow.”

Fifth, deadlines give life. Indiegogo uses GOTP deadlines: “Get off the pot.” That helps them try things but to stop beating dead horses — they call it “killing babies.” Being willing to fail but quick to adapt makes a company or project not doomed to fail, says Chapnick.

And sixth and finally, say what you must before they click away. Everything happens fast online, and if you don’t capture attention quickly, you’re out of luck. That’s also true with venture capitalists.