Is crowdfunding the new tech bubble? Or just a good old-fashioned junk bond?

Despite the headline, I’m a proponent of crowdfunding and believe it can bring innovative ideas to market. Fundamentally, I feel that new forms of financing provide additional access to much-needed capital and bring healthy competition to the lender market, benefits that all entrepreneurs and inventors can appreciate.

So why the negative headline? It’s not meant to be sensational. I have real worries about the mania that seems to strike the markets with every shiny new opportunity. Some would call it systemic greed. Others may be more forgiving, and call it the cost of innovation. Whichever camp you choose, it’ impossible to deny that there’s extreme pressure on everyone in business to return continuous, increasing profits to shareholders – whether the shareholders are ourselves, our families or the public markets.

Crowdfunding, of course, is the rapidly growing practice of funding creative projects or startup ventures by raising small amounts...

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