Cameron encourages Seedrs – no torrents in sight

The world divides a lot of different ways, male and female, young and old – but one of the most basic and long lasting divisions that's not related to genetics, must be ‘worker' and 'employer'. Boosting the technology industry means increasing sales, which means increasing employment. The Coalition seems to have spotted a link between employment and employers. KitGuru pays its union fees to get a seat at the table.

In the US of A, Kickstarter seems to have been a roaring success. The concept is simple. You want to get a business off the ground, so you put your project on Kickstarter's site with an idea of how much is needed to make it work. People can then assess your proposal and, Dragon's Den style, pledge money toward it. If you get all your funding before the deadline expires, then you're up and running.

Kickstarter's Perry Chen puts it like this, “Thousands of creative projects are funding on Kickstarter at any given moment. Each project is independently created and crafted by the person behind it. The film makers, musicians, artists and designers you see on Kickstarter have complete control and responsibility over their projects. They spend weeks building their project pages, shooting their videos, and brainstorming what rewards to offer backers. When they’re ready, creators launch their project and share it with their community”.

“Every project creator sets their project’s funding goal and deadline. If people like the project, they can pledge money to make it happen. If the project succeeds in reaching its funding goal, all backers’ credit cards are charged when time expires. If the project falls short, no one is charged. Funding on Kickstarter is all-or-nothing”. So, basically, exactly like Dragon's Den.

Now we are faced with Kickstarter in the UK – starting 31st October. Which appears to put it in direct rivalry with UK-based Seedrs, but – according to Seedrs CEO Jeff Lynn, the two programmes are very different. From what Jeff has been saying recently, the US-based Kickstarter gives you a chance to give money to a worthy cause, whereas Seedrs allows you to own part of what your paying into.

Call KitGuru a stark raving nutter, but the British way seems better.

That said, Jeff is backed by a PR spinning company called Beacon Strategies that includes The Guardian's old Media Editor, Charlie Burgess. They have helped craft a nice welcoming message from Jeff that reads like this:-

“We are very happy to see Kickstarter enter the UK like this – it is great news for people in this country seeking funding for non-commercial projects and creative works.  Although our business models are fundamentally different, because Kickstarter enjoys such a high profile from their huge success in the USA, their arrival will help to raise the profile of the attraction of investing in start-up projects and businesses – even if the rewards we each offer are so very different. I wish them the best of luck and I am sure they will be successful in the UK”.

So, it seems, the publicity surrounding Kickstarter will help increase interest in Seedrs.

KitGuru says: They're right. We'd never heard of Seedrs and now we're thinking of joining. Blimey, this PR stuff seems to work. Now if only we could find a way to help us get proper compensation for accidents at work.

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