[noneckbeard]

As a founder I've raised through crowdfunding multiple times. The experience is great on both the startup and the investor side, and I love that crowdfunding lets more startups get off the ground, especially ones that don't have access to SV money.

But this should really be thought of as "gambling" instead of "investing." There's very little ability to do due diligence and the companies are usually so early that it's impossible to know if it's going to work or not. However, if you have money you're willing to lose it's a lot more rewarding than spending it at the blackjack table.

[johnwaldie]

I agree with this premise regarding equity crowdfunding as it currently stands in absence of any professional guidance. We at XX have tried to improve this and mitigate risk by:

1) having a screening committee with deep founder operational experience and industry insight to identify the companies most likely to be successful.

2) attracted exceptional startups to broaden our applicant pipeline by making it open to the global community and guaranteed a $50k pre-seed investment.

3) had three month mentoring period where startups were stress tested and cleared for launch on Wefunder.

It's similar to LPs investing in a VC fund and trusting that the VCs performed the proper diligence.