crowdfunding for science, march 2016
TRANSCRIPT
Crowdfunding: A whirlwind tour
Claire IngramStockholm School of Economics
A true story
That made 2 million GBP for cancer research at Uppsala University
How does it work?• Reduces transaction
costs (e.g. Search costs)
http://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/strategic-decisions-for-multisided-platforms/
• Reduces bargaining costs• Reduces
enforcement costs
Research funding in Sweden
• Research funding in Sweden is worth about 0.87 percent of Swedish GDP.• Approx. 40 billion SEK was spent on research in
Sweden in 2014.• The Swedish Research Council received an
estimated combined total of 22.1bn SEK worth of R&D funding in 2014.
Where are the gaps?
• Small projects, including experiments• Purchasing software• Commercialisation?• Human trials?
“The Valley of Death”
Form of Funding Benefits for Funders
Donation Donation Intangible benefits.
Reward Donation or pre-purchase
Rewards in addition to intangible benefits.
Equity Investment Return on investment if company does well.
Rewards sometimes also offered and intangible
benefits may motivate too.Debt Loan Repayment of loan with
interest. Alternatively intangible benefits if loan
given interest-free.
Royalty Royalty Royalties on creation. Also potentially intangible
benefits.
604m USD 706m USD
3.05bn USD1.2bn USD
Who are the funders?
Educated experts? 85 % of respondents have university degree (vs 16% of women
and 22% of men in general population, 2013) 42% had knowledge in same field as project they funded 49 % reported to have been better at judging project quality due
to previous experience
The “in-crowd” 47 % of “the crowd” classified themselves as entrepreneurs –
compared to only 7 % of Swedish population (2012) 77 % never bought shares in unlisted company before 41 % risk lovers
Skoglund & Stiernblad 2013
But Marketing principles apply...
• Make the project easily understood• Make it personal• Often, means telling a story• This helps with sharing and social media• But when you attract a crowd, you need to keep
them happy too – so keep in touch!
Skoglund & Stiernblad 2013
“I want to see a Facebook page being connected. Basically, the more social services are connected the better because that adds to credibility, you can check
up on the person and see if they are who they say they are and if they’re cheating.”
Form of Funding Benefits for Funders
Donation Donation Intangible benefits.
Reward Donation or pre-purchase
Rewards in addition to intangible benefits.
Equity Investment Return on investment if company does well.
Rewards sometimes also offered and intangible
benefits may motivate too.Debt Loan Repayment of loan with
interest. Alternatively intangible benefits if loan
given interest-free.
Royalty Royalty Royalties on creation. Also potentially intangible
benefits.
Claire IngramStockholm School of [email protected]@Claire_EBI