We began exploring crowdfunding research when we were contacted by a number of crowdfunding companies following the release of our research report on microtasking (another field of crowdsourcing); they all us wanted to see a similar report for crowdfunding. So, we decided to test the waters by talking with a large number of crowdfunding companies, enthusiasts, and bloggers. At a time when donation based platforms are really taking off, and the possibility of equity based crowdfunding is around the corner for Americans, we found that everyone, from the small start-ups to the big players, like RocketHub, was interested.  

We found that the existing research on crowdfunding wasn't doing what people wanted; it wasn't providing people a snapshot of how big the market was, what Americans can learn from Europe's experience with equity based crowdfunding, a good taxonomy for crowdfunding, or fully express who was donating and where from. All of this information we believe will be a tremendous help to businesses and investors. 

It has been great fun talking with incredibly clever new start-ups and hearing their own angles on crowdfunding as well as getting the perspectives of the more established sites. The diversity of their input and interests has been providing us a great basis for building a comprehensive report. Crowdfunding is a fascinating phenomenon, and our analyst, content, and marketing teams have been excited to get all this valuable information into the limelight.

Our approach to getting funded has been a mix of pre-selling and garnering excitement for preparing for all the new developments in crowdfunding by being in the know. To meet this challenge, we have tried to offer a variety of prizes to meet people at their level, explaining to people why this research is needed, and understanding our audience. When we learned that our largest audience were start-ups, not companies in their prime, we realized it made sense to pre-sell our reports for hundreds, not thousands. Also, we realized that we should be helping both donation based and equity based platforms, and we have split up the report and offered it at different prize levels accordingly. Since our goal is to provide something valuable to the industry and to help grow crowdfunding, keeping our audience's needs in mind has helped us raise more funds and more excitement.

In the end, whether they know it or not, we create these reports also for the end user; once armed with the right knowledge, companies, the media, and bloggers and enthusiasts can spread the right message about crowdfunding for inventors, artists, entrepreneurs and the everyday Joe who has an idea. This report is one of our many efforts to grow crowdsourcing, and we are excited that we have had the experience of crowdfunding to get there.

- The Daily Crowdsource Team