Crowdfunding

(20:08) Guest: John Mullins, Professor of Marketing and Entrepreneurship at London Business School, and author of the new book, The Customer-Funded Business  Last month, a video game development company crossed the $73-million mark, and solidified its position in the Guinness Book of World Records as the “most-funded crowdfunding project anywhere." $73-million dollars to develop a game called “Star Citizen” that people are apparently very excited about.  The tracking firm Crowdfunding Centre says that $60,000 dollars was raised ever hour on sites like Kickstarter, Kiva, Gofundme or IndieGoGo in 2014.  You can give online to teachers trying to raise money for class supplies or grad students raising money for tuition or musicians trying to put out an album – even entrepreneurs trying to start a company. Last year, a guy went on Kickstarter to raise $10 for his first batch of potato salad and the page went viral. He ended up with $55,000 – that’s a lot of potato salad.  Amid all this crowdfunding fervor, are some voices of warning. John Mullins, a Professor of Marketing and Entrepreneurship at London Business School, and author of the new book, The Customer-Funded Business, says donors and entrepreneurs ought to beware the downsides of crowdfunding.