New Crowdfunder 33 Needs Looks to Engage Businesses, Investors Worldwide
A new crowdfunding outfit launched last week is connecting social entrepreneurs seeking to do good with investors hoping to generate a return on their socially-responsible investments.
New York-based company 33 Needs, works by creating a space for social entrepreneurs to post a profile of their business, set a funding goal, and disclose a percentage of revenue to share with investors for a set period. Since its launch on February 1st, the company has facilitated investments for 54 companies in the U.S. and around the world. With a minimum investment of $1, the barrier to entry is low enough to attract investments from people at all income levels.
33Needs CEO Josh Tetrick spent time in sub-Saharan Africa and was struck by people who had great ideas for solving local issues via business, but no access to the capital needed to get them off the ground. In Kenya he worked with the United Nations Development Program Growing Sustainable Business Initiative to provide that funding, and later witnessed how effective fundraising via social networks was to the success of President Obama’s 2008 campaign.
“$1 donated was so much more than $1. It created a sense of community engagement” that connected people individually with the campaign, said Tetrick. He hopes to build the same sort of community with people funding companies through 33 Needs.
One of the new companies accepting funding through 33Needs is Careersters, an Oakland-based enterprise that bills itself as a network offering career matching for kids. Tetrick connected with Careersters founder Kalimah Priforce via Twitter and was impressed with their concept of showing kids how their interests now can lead to different career paths in the future.
“Careersters excites me because as a young person I don’t think I had enough mentorship and guidance in how to align my skills with what I could do for the rest of my life,” said Tetrick.
This type of enterprise is just the type Tetrick hopes to support now and into the future as awareness of social entrepreneurship grows
“Beyond the funding, we want to provide a step toward building a community that wants to support good people doing good business,” Tetrick said.
Category: Startups | Tags: 33 Needs, Careersters, Crowdfunding, crowdsourcing
About the Author Lesly Simmons is a freelance writer and interactive communications and events specialist based in San Francisco, California.
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