Luke Lang

Co founder

Silicon South West 2011

The Importance of being small

“History teaches us that it is small companies that produce the majority of radical technical innovations. Their size is their strength.”

Prof Stephen Hawking

"Since the second world war 95% of all the radical new innovations have come from businesses employing less than 5 people. The formation of those businesses is critical to our economic success"

David Irwin DTI 2001 "We've got to back the big businesses of tomorrow, not just the big businesses of today"

Prime Minister, David Cameron

The Status Quo

A wealth of entrepreneurial talent

Access to finance is key to success

• Venture capital difficult to find for smaller businesses• Debt finance hard to come by• Grants have been cut by the coalition government• Business angels – maybe more risk adverse?!• What if there was a way to have say 2000 angels

each investing £50?• What if anyone could become a business angel?

The Status Quo

The Status Quo

Crowdcube and Crowdfunding

• Crowdcube provides a web-based central hub for entrepreneurs to meet micro-investors

• It uses the power of Crowdfunding to provide a unique service to two types of people:• for entrepreneurs to source funding more accessibly than

conventional routes• for smaller investors to have the opportunity to invest in exciting

Limited businesses

What is Crowdcube?

“$100 invested in Microsoft at their IPO would now be worth approximately $35k.”

Crowdfunding

Crowdfunding• Crowdfunding is an approach to raising the capital required for a new

project or enterprise by appealing to large numbers of ordinary people for small donations

• Why now? Broadband penetration, Social Media, online micro-payments• Crowdfunding examples:

• Kiva.org – $212m funding raised, >800,000 lenders, ~500,000 entrepreneurs

• Kickstarter.com – 7,496 projects funded, $27m pledged in 2010, $7m/mth

How it works

How it works

How it works

Benefits

Benefits

Summary

• Provides entrepreneurs with a much-needed new route to finance

• No up-front fees – no risk for the entrepreneur• ANYONE can invest as little as £10• Investors get real equity

Summary

This is the future of seed and early stage investment

www.crowdcube.com

Thank you