A website where you can browse between startup seeking money and have the possibility to fund them yourself. For instance, startup X might need 50 000$ . You could give them from 1$ to 50 000$ if you think the startup would be a success. Of course, there would be a way to give back the money if the startup is really a success. It might be a part of the company (such as 50 000$ = 5%), or a simple: 1$ now will worth (1$ + x) in 1 year.<p>Does is already exist?
Look up the term accredited investors and why you would only want them investing. Here I'll help you out:<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accredited_investor" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accredited_investor</a><p><a href="http://thestartuplawyer.com/convertible-notes/life-is-too-short-to-deal-with-non-accredited-investors" rel="nofollow">http://thestartuplawyer.com/convertible-notes/life-is-too-sh...</a>
Wouldn't this quickly run afoul of the SEC? Is this money to be considered equity, a loan, or what? There are many laws to trip over here, especially Federal. I know if I gave such a startup, say, $1,000 and it became huge, I wouldn't want only $1,000 repaid! I'd see myself as an investor for equity and that would invoke the laws governing stocks right there.
I think it is a neat idea and I have not seen such an app yet.The idea can be called micro-investing or micro-entrepreneur.<p>What would be the business model of the company facilitating this transaction (the startup)? Commission on transaction or commission on profits or both?
this exists in the form of kickstarter.com, I think as others have mentioned the legalities of investing make the actual investment quite hard, kickstarter is closer to a charity but with the opportunity for startups to give really good incentives to put money forward