Thank God for federal government grants, and the NIH, and Musk, and Google

[Stephen Gornick]

"Thank God for federal government grants, and the NIH, and Musk, and Google."
 - Serial entrepreneur Steve Blank (and professor at Berkely and Stanford)

BLANK: I see my students trying to commercialize really hard stuff. But the VCs are only going to be interested in chasing the billions on their smart phones. Thank God we have small business research grants from the federal government, otherwise the Chinese would just grab them.

THOMPSON: What's the fix?

BLANK: I don't know what the fix is. Thank God for federal government grants, and the NIH, and Musk, and Google.

"The Golden Age of Silicon Valley Is Over, and We're Dancing on its Grave"
 - http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/05/the-golden-age-of-silicon-valley-is-over-and-were-dancing-on-its-grave/257401

Suggested repeatedly in the comments was crowdfunding / Kickstarter.

Unlike other [Edit: equity] crowdfunding platforms, GLBSE has the opportunity to reach globally.  So maybe there isn't enough backing for something like early Bitcoin enthusiast Mark Suppes (@FamulusFusion)'s $200 million nuclear fusion reactor from the crowd in one country, but perhaps adding the rest of the globe makes it so something that was previously not possible suddenly becomes possible.

 - http://videos.liftconference.com/video/4816805/open-source-nuclear-fusion
 - https://twitter.com/#!/famulusfusion

Because maybe 10 million people in the world with $20 to invest can figure out a better place for that money than the federal government, the NIH, Musk and Google could.

[BinaryMage]

Unlike other crowdfunding platforms, GLBSE has the opportunity to reach globally.

I'm not disagreeing with the potential of GLBSE, but I do not believe that first statement is accurate. Most crowdfunding programs have international support, though currency conversion is often required, but that is no different in comparison with fiat to Bitcoin.

I'm no expert on Dr. Blank and whatever this particular postulation of his is based on, but it doesn't seem particularly convincing.

[Sukrim]

By the way, as cool as bitcoins themselves are - most bills are still paid in fiat (USD, EUR...) and conversion of BTC to fiat is expensive, takes quite long and has fees at every.single.step.

Also I'm not really sure what this thread is even about - GLBSE as alternative to Kickstarter?

[Stephen Gornick]

Unlike other crowdfunding platforms, GLBSE has the opportunity to reach globally.

I'm not disagreeing with the potential of GLBSE, but I do not believe that first statement is accurate. Most crowdfunding programs have international support, though currency conversion is often required, but that is no different in comparison with fiat to Bitcoin.

Sorry, ... I should have clarified.

Unlike other equity crowdfunding platforms.  For donation-based crowdfunding, like Kickstarter, sure -- they take donations from anywhere.

But when you offer shares of your business, investment rules vary from territory to territory, geographically restricting who can support you.

Says CATAAlliance's John Reid: “There will be fragmentation, and there will be different rules and opportunities depending on the country where you source capital.

 - http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/small-business/digital/web-strategy/crowdfunding-the-equity-divide-between-borders/article2433403/

[jackmaninov]

GLBSE as an equity marketplace is still very tenuous. I would want to see legal precedents that rule the shares we're playing with on an unregulated, semi-anonymous service are equivalent to an ownership claim in any of these unincorporated businesses before I would go around preaching it as the Next Big Thing.

Sure, dividends are being paid and contracts don't appear to be getting broken at the moment, but it WILL happen eventually.