Comments on: The Wiki Fund: People Powered Venture Capital

By: Mark

Mark — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 03:57:33 +0000

This concept is being tackled by a few organizations that I know of. You can break the legal barrier you speak of… I am involved in an organization that is doing it… contact me

By: Venture Capital 2.0: Sorry, Crowds Lack Wisdom | ScottDig

Venture Capital 2.0: Sorry, Crowds Lack Wisdom | ScottDig — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 17:42:01 +0000

[...] month I proposed that a supplemental model to venture capital be adopted, The Wiki Fund. The post has generated a ton of traffic, great insight and interesting discussion. Most of the [...]

By: Cornelius

Cornelius — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 05:11:17 +0000

Just like that, fools in the internet software space think they own the world of venture investing. Look guys, the real model that entrepreneurs are going to switch to is one of
three ways: grants, starting with a contract/another business and fund with products, or
using corporate money for larger investments. A much-needed shakeout is going on in VC land, across all funds, and everybody thinks they will be the ones to survive. What they do not realize is that nobody needs them anymore. Crowds are inherently foolish, and it is individuals who drive everything anyway, so this idea that small amounts of money will add up only works when it is given away freely, as fundraising shows every day.

By: Scott

Scott — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 23:35:08 +0000

FN – Yep, I think DFJ was a bit ahead of their time.

By: FN

FN — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 23:27:36 +0000

Sounds a bit like meVC 2.0. At the height of the last bubble the guys at DFJ set up a closed-end mutual fund, listed the shares and then invested in private equity. At that time they didn't have any crowd-sourcing capabilities so they just set up an advisory subsidiary of DFJ and they did the investment selection and management. I don't know what happened to them, but they're not around anymore and I'm pretty sure it didn't end well. Anyway, as many mentioned already, you'd have to get around the '40 Act among other requirements and these guys pioneered one way. If you used that and added a web 2.0 wisdom of the crowd bit (something like TheFunded then you just might have something.

By: sscheper

sscheper — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 17:34:27 +0000

Valto, great to hear about your current undertaking.
It’s going to be an exciting and interesting journey. I’m looking forward to this model taking place. Best of luck in 2009!

By: Valto

Valto — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 09:49:38 +0000

I’m excited. I have been thinking this problem of old VC model for several years from my start-up advisor role.

From the beginning of 2008, I started thinking solutions for this, in more serious level. On July I got an idea for an overall solution and started working on the business model for Venture Capital 2.0. At that time I had not heard or read about wiki fund or Entrepreneur Commons. These posts I have discovered after, we started to work on this in more serious way.

While working on building our founders team for Grow VC and doing some other stealth mode activities and viral marketing, I have found these articles and to me these all just proves the great potential of our model version, that still remains as it’s been since July (for the main concept and solutions).

We now have a great team of founders committed to setup our version of Venture Capital 2.0 service and are excited about all of this – I can’t wait to get 2009 going. Lucky for me it’s only few hours to new year

I feel this model will get sorted one way or the other, the path seems “so clear”. Will it be us or someone else that will eventually succeed, remains to be seen….

By: Mark

Mark — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 03:38:13 +0000

Scott et al, see my post mentioning the Wiki Fund at Mark to Market … “Joe the Plumber and Venture Capital” http://adjix.com/jrf

By: Joe the Plumber & Venture Capital

Joe the Plumber & Venture Capital — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 03:36:21 +0000

[...] my peace about it, perhaps more than once, but a different aspect of the discussion that my friend Scott Scheper brought up, has me thinking a little deeper on the [...]

By: Crowds Are No Wiser Than They Ever Have Been | WOWNDADI

Crowds Are No Wiser Than They Ever Have Been | WOWNDADI — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 18:52:50 +0000

[...] VC world? Of course not. Models are shifting – for example Scott Dig has an interesting post on crowd sourced investment, but scroll down to Fred WIlson’s comments on that same post and you’ll see that he has [...]