Start-ups Starving for Investment; A Western Crisis
The western world is still in crisis. Following the financial tsunami of 2008/9 the West faces another emergency. As the dust settles on the economic meltdown it is becoming clear that not only did we strangle our recent start-ups, but there is no capital around for the new ones. Banks are still not lending to new businesses and Venture Capital firms are focusing on later stage investments. There is almost no institutional, early stage, risk capital available but the world needs start-ups now more than ever.
Recent US research reveals that nearly all net hiring across the US in the last 10-15 years came from businesses that were less than 5 years old. Barack Obama and David Cameron have made innovation, aspiration and increased private sector employment central to their election manifestos and government strategies – yet start-ups cannot start without funds. Money that they re-invest in people, technology and innovation.
Following the recent crisis, every sector of business and government could do with innovation – sometimes even disruption. Big business and big government is outdated, bureaucratic and inefficient. The opportunities that await us in the digital world, Web and mobile universe, healthcare sector, clean energy space, financial services industry and beyond are unprecedented. We need start-ups to invent, innovate and lead these changes. Start-ups need capital. In philosophy, we call this a conundrum.
The established routes to capital have been levelled in the recent banking collapse. As a result we need something new. Something that facilitates the breakdown of the barriers between the ever rarer beast, the investor, and his counterpart, the entrepreneur. We need a Web platform that brings together the best entrepreneurs and their ideas with the most relevant early stage investors and angels. It has arrived. Innovatrs, a leading Crowdsourcer of early stage entrepreneurs, has just launched a Web service that sources and introduces entrepreneurs with great ideas to early stage investors. See Innovatrs.com. Crowdsourcing could prove to be the best mechanism for tackling the age old challenge of how entrepreneurs find quality angels and vice versa.
Innovatrs sources and develops entrepreneurs. The innovatrs crowd is approaching 500 early stage entrepreneurs from around the world and they attract 5 new entrepreneurs per day. Today, Innovatrs added a novel, early stage, introduction and matching system for investors. They are calling all angels to Innovatrs.com. Hopefully this international service can help address the crisis and funnel deserving start-ups to active, early stage investors. There are plenty of both still around, but they require an efficient, universal platform to unite them. If it works a paradigm shift in start-up investing could unfold. It is sorely needed.
