Sunday, March 29, 2015

Fw: exciting tech news this week



From: Peter Diamandis <peter@diamandis.com>
Sent: Sunday, March 29, 2015 10:19 AM
To: STeve
Reply To: peter@diamandis.com
Subject: exciting tech news this week

Three exciting developments – that I believe you should know about -- happened in technology this week.

In this blog, I want to share them with you and give you context.

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Pebble Time Crowdfunding > $20 million

A few days ago, Eric Migicovsky and his team at Pebble closed their Kickstarter campaign for the new Pebble Time watch, raising $20,338,986 from 78,471 backers. (They recaptured the crowdfunding record, dramatically dethroning Ryan Grepper's recent Coolest Cooler campaign, which raised $13 million.)

This Pebble Time campaign is important for two reasons.

Crowdfunding is growing, fast: In 2012, crowdfunding platforms raised some $2.7 billion and successfully funded more than a million campaigns, according to a Massolution report.

This year, crowdfunding platforms are projected to raise over $5 billion. Kickstarter alone has raised over $1.6 billion and successfully funded 80,000 projects.

By 2025, the global crowdfunding market will reach about $100 billion — roughly 1.8 times the size of the global venture capital industry today, according to a 2013 study commissioned by the World Bank.

Power in the hands of small entrepreneurs: Rather than try to compete with the Apples and Samsungs of the world, the Pebble team decided to make a BOLD move and play to their strengths.

Their key differentiator was their massive 100,000+-person online community of fans and early adopters.

Clearly the Apple Watch will probably sell 100 times more watches, but this crowdfunding campaign allowed Pebble to "time" their announcement, show their stuff and begin selling their product before Apple flooded the market.

SEC allows non-accredited investors to participate in equity-based crowdfunding

After nearly 3 years of regulatory delays, the SEC has voted to approve equity crowdfunding for non-accredited investors.

This is huge.

This breakthrough in Equity Crowdfunding (as distinct from reward-based crowdfunding, like Pebble Watch) will open the door for billions in investment capital to be injected into the entrepreneurial economy.

The SEC approved the rules for Regulation A+, under Title IV of the JOBS Act, allowing companies to raise up to $50M with non-accredited investors.

In 60 days, the new regulations will go into effect, and will create a new market for both accredited only (current Title II), as well as non-accredited crowdfunding.

Now, if you have a strong community, and you need to raise money, you can sell shares (stock) in your company directly to your community of followers, users and raving fans.

In my opinion, we are now at the knee of an exponential growth curve in equity-based crowdfunding that will empower millions of entrepreneurs globally to start new businesses, create new jobs, and to solve some of the world's toughest challenges with backing from the crowd.

Chance Barnett of equity-crowdfunding platform Crowdfunder provides an excellent explanation here, if interested.

Facebook announces their plans for virtual reality

At their recent F8 conference, Mike Schroepfer, Facebook's CTO, described their vision for the future of virtual reality.

Three years ago, many were asking: Why did Facebook pay $2 billion for Oculus Rift?

And why is VR going to work now, especially when it didn't work in the 80s or 90s or 00s?

The team at Facebook laid out four major reasons that this time is different.

  1. Key convergence of exponential technologies: The key tech to make VR work is now finally here and cheap enough to mass produce. Namely: integrated circuits, IMUs, gyros to track head location, high-resolution screen, and high-resolution, high-performance cameras.
  2. It's just good enough: VR is already just far enough along to enable compelling experiences on consumer hardware, as seen by demand for consumer systems like the Oculus or Samsung Gear VR.
  3. Lots of Investment & Broad industry participation: It's not just Facebook. Billions are being invested by Google/Magic Leap, Microsoft, Samsung, Sony and Valve/HTC. Expect a lot of breakthroughs and new capabilities.
  4. Companies are making long-term commitments: Developing better VR technology is hard and will require long-term commitment. The companies above are planning to make long-term investment commitments to take VR into a multitude of markets from gaming, to retail, to real estate and beyond.
We live in the most exciting time ever

This is the sort of content and conversations we discuss at my 250-person executive mastermind group called Abundance 360 — the convergence of technology leading to the dematerialization, demonetization and democratization of products, services and industries. The program is 85% filled. You can apply here.

Share this email with your friends, especially if they are interested in any of the areas outlined above.

We are living toward incredible times where the only constant is change, and the rate of change is increasing.

Best,
Peter

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P.S. Every weekend I send out a "Tech Blog" like this one. If you want to sign up, go to PeterDiamandis.com and sign up for this and my Abundance blogs.

P.P.S. Please forward this to your best clients, colleagues and friends — especially those who could use some encouragement as they pursue big, bold dreams.


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PHD Ventures , 800 Corporate Pointe, Culver City CA, 90230


Sunday, March 8, 2015

Fwd: equity crowdfunding is taking off




-------- Forwarded Message --------
Subject: equity crowdfunding is taking off
Date: Sun, 8 Mar 2015 10:18:59 -0700
From: Peter Diamandis <peter@diamandis.com>
Reply-To: peter@diamandis.com
To: STeve <stevescott@techacq.com>


Over the last 30 years, I've raised hundreds of millions of dollars for my startups and XPRIZEs.

This is a critical blog for any entrepreneur trying to raise money. As the saying goes, no bucks, no Buck Rogers. Every entrepreneur needs access to cash flow and risk capital to innovate at scale.

This blog is about a new and powerful mechanism for getting you the capital you need – "Equity-based Crowdfunding."

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Reward vs. Equity Crowdfunding

In my newest book BOLD, I have a whole chapter that teaches you how to run a "reward-based" crowdfunding campaign. It's a mechanism I've personally used to raise $1.5M for Planetary Resources and $950,000 for the Global Learning XPRIZE.

Reward-based crowdfunding is where you "pre-sell" a product or service.

The first major reward crowdfunding success took place in May 2012 when Eric Migicovsky, CEO of Pebble Watch, presold $10.2M worth of his product in 31 days.

Two years later, Coolest Cooler took the lead by selling $13.3M worth of Coolers.

This week, Migicovsky launched a new Kickstarter campaign for Pebble TIME and raised $17 million in only 11 days ($7.4 million in the first day!). With 19 days left (as of the writing of this blog) it's crushing the record.

As powerful as this is, even more important is the ability you now have to sell shares (equity) in your company to the crowd – something called "equity-based crowdfunding."

I recently had the chance to catch up with Chance Barnett, the CEO and Co-founder of the leading equity crowdfunding platform called Crowdfunder.

This blog is the detailed "how-to"…

What is Equity Crowdfunding?

In Equity Crowdfunding, investors are buying equity from your company (rather than buying your company's product).

Chance Barnett's company, Crowdfunder.com, is a platform that makes it easy (and legal) for you to do this by creating a profile, uploading your offering documents and adding fundraising information.

Accredited investors perusing Crowdfunder can review the deal flow and invest in the ones they like – typically anywhere between $5,000 to $500,000 (there is no maximum).

Before going into more detail on how you can use Crowdfunder, let's cover the legal landscape surrounding equity-based crowdfunding.

The Legal Landscape

Right now, only "accredited investors" are allowed to participate in making online equity-based investments.

To be an accredited investor, you must, broadly:

  • Have made over $200,000 a year for the last two years, --OR--
  • Have $1 million in assets, not including your primary residence

This comes from Title II of the Jobs Act (2012) that allows any company to publically advertise their fundraising raise efforts.

Title II takes the 80-year-old, highly regulated, private placement deals (~$1.2 trillion dollars/year) from the hush-hush boardrooms into the open public forum (at least for accredited investors).

Since 2012, under Title II, there has been around $400 million invested through equity crowdfunding.

And this is just the beginning…

Title III of the Jobs Act, when it passes, would allow non-accredited investors to invest up to $2,500 in any deal they desire, alongside the VC's. This could unleash many trillions of investment dollars now locked up in personal savings, IRAs, investment accounts that sit around and basically only finance large companies in the public market.

The Opportunity for Entrepreneurs… and the 1 - 2 Punch

If you are an entrepreneur, you should definitely experiment with both reward-based and equity-based crowdfunding as tools.

This powerful combination allows you to first validate your idea, and then raise the growth capital to implement it.

Allow me to explain… As an example, look at Pono.

Neil Young created a high-definition audio device called the Pono.

They ran a Kickstarter campaign, and presold 15,000 units, raising $6.4 million in advanced market commitments.

The Pono team next came to Crowdfunder to raise equity and allow their community to also become shareholders.

Based upon the massive market interest, they then raised $10.2 million in equity funding for Pono music…

…In 12 days.

Now they are off to the races and looking to disrupt the music device industry.

Consider doing the same… Rewards-based crowdfunding, followed by an equity-based campaign that leverages the first campaign's momentum.

How to get involved?

I am not a shareholder in Crowdfunder. I am just a fan and an advocate of equity crowdfunding.

Crowdfunder has seen over 22,000 companies sign up on the platform.

They've closed 50 deals in the last 13 months, with an average deal size of $1.8 million.

They have a network of over 10,000 institutional and individual accredited investors who are averaging $15,000 investments.

If you are an entrepreneur or investor, I highly recommend you check it out.

My Syndicate & My First Deals: Experfy and SU Labs

One cool feature on Crowdfunder is the ability to follow what deals I'm investing in, and co-invest alongside me – essentially for me to create a "Syndicate."

I am seeing amazing deal flow these days.

If you'd like to join my Syndicate – to follow the companies I'm personally advising/investing in, click here: https://www.crowdfunder.com/user/12066

The first deal I am backing on the platform is an exciting machine learning and data mining platform called Experfy. Check it out: https://www.crowdfunder.com/experfy

At Singularity University, we've also launched a Crowdfunder campaign to raise capital for our SU Labs Accelerator Seed Fund. This fund will invest exclusively into companies that make it into the SU Labs Startup Accelerator -- these are companies that leverage exponential technologies, solve for a global grand challenge, and positively impact 1BN people in ten years.

The Fund will invest into about 25 startups at $100,000 in the form of a convertible note. Find out more here: https://www.crowdfunder.com/singularity-university

Capital isn't scarce… it's Abundant!

I was recently asked on NPR: "Isn't it the case that all the money is being concentrated in the hands of Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, Larry Page, and other billionaires? Don't you need to know a billionaire to actually get funding for your big ideas?"

The answer is: No!

Right now, more than ever before, capital is Abundant.

Experiment! Go big! Be bold!

All the best,
Peter

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P.S. Have you purchased a copy of BOLD? I'd love it if you could share a review here.

P.P.S. Every weekend I send out a "Tech Blog" like this one. If you want to sign up, go to PeterDiamandis.com and sign up for this and my Abundance blogs.

P.P.P.S. Please forward this to your best clients, colleagues and friends — especially those who could use some encouragement as they pursue big, bold dreams.


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PHD Ventures , 800 Corporate Pointe, Culver City CA, 90230






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Wednesday, March 4, 2015

Fwd: What's with all the free books?




-------- Forwarded Message --------
Subject: What's with all the free books?
Date: Wed, 04 Mar 2015 14:22:56 +0000 (UTC)
From: Danny @ Firepole Marketing <support@firepolemarketing.com>
Reply-To: support@firepolemarketing.com
To: im1@bydf.com


What's with all the free books?
As you may have noticed, over the last year or so there's been a huge rise in the number of authors that are giving their (physical, paper) books away for free

Hi steves,

As you may have noticed, over the last year or so there's been a huge rise in the number of authors that are giving their (physical, paper) books away for free (plus shipping), and the number of marketers telling you about it.

Wondering why?

Well, if you are, you're not alone; lately I've been asked a number of times "what's with all the free books?", so in this email, I'll explain what's going on.

At the core of it, a lot of it boils down to the big best-seller lists, like the NY Times and the Wall Street Journal. Making it onto those lists requires you to sell a *massive* number of books; estimates vary, but it's something in the range of 11,000 copies in your first week to make it onto the listing, and another 8,000 books or so each week that you want to stay on there.

That's a *lot* of books!

And there's a huge value to making it onto these listings; for one, it'll help to sell a lot more books, but in addition to that, there's massive street cred that comes with being a "NY Times Best-Selling Author", and that translates to increased speaking and consulting fees, and lots of other advantages.

So the pressure's on for serious authors (working with serious publishing houses) to sell *very* large quantities of books.

But how can they do it?

Sure, if they've been smart about growing their audience, they've got a list of people who like and trust them, that they can email about the book. But how many book sales is that really going to create?

Not as many as you'd think. Here's some rough, back-of-the-napkin math, assuming an author has 50,000 subscribers (a list size that most authors can only dream about!):

50,000 subscribers x 20% open rate = 10,000 email opens

10,000 opens x 10% click rate = 1,000 clicks

1,000 clicks x 30% conversion = 300 books sold

Just 300 books sold?!

(And a 20% open rate, 10% click rate, and 30% conversion rate are all insanely high, and unlikely to happen in real life.)

Now, sure, you can have special incentives and bonuses, and you can email more than once, but even if you do all that, it's unlikely that even an author with a very significant mailing list will get anywhere near the 11,000 book sales that it takes to make it onto the best-seller lists.

So the author needs to reach a *lot* more people.

That's where JV partners come in. This isn't new in the online marketing world; if you've got something great that will benefit a lot of people, of course you'll enlist the support of sympathetic marketers to your cause!

But you can't ask someone to promote your book the way they would promote a regular training program, because there's no money in it. Say, for example, they're promoting a $1,000 program... well, a standard 50% commission will earn them $500 on every sale, so there's a business case to be made for doing the promotion.

The math looks very different with a $20 book, though; after the publisher, printer, and distributor all take their cuts, there's only about $1.50 left over for the author, and even if the author very generously gives his entire cut to the promoting partner, it still wouldn't be attractive.

It sounds like a dead end, but often dead ends are where the most elegant solutions are found, and that's exactly what happened here.

The solution that emerged is to offer the book for free + shipping, for a limited time. It's a more attractive offer, which means that a lot more people are going to raise their hand and pull out their wallet to get a copy of the book.

If that's all that was involved, though, the author would end up losing large amounts of money, and the promoting partners wouldn't get paid!

That's why a second step is then added, either immediately upon checkout, or in the days or weeks ahead: a special offer is made for everyone who bought the book to buy a special, limited edition, discounted training program offer, that is only available to them, for a limited time.

It's generally a great offer (better than anything usually available publicly), and even though most people are satisfied with just the free book, enough people do buy that second offer to pay for the cost of printing and mailing all the books, and also to pay the promoting partners a healthy commission.

It's pretty brilliant, actually, because it's a true win-win-win.

The reader wins by getting a free book, and also a very special offer that isn't available anywhere else.

The promoting partner wins because it's something great to offer to their readers, and they'll earn a generous payout for their trouble.

And the author wins because a lot of partners have good incentives to promote, and a lot of readers have good incentives to grab the book, which means the book gets into the hands of a lot of the right people's hands.

So yeah... that's what's going on with all the free books. :-)

And speaking of free books, two of my friends are offering them, right now!

There's Jeff Goins with his new book The Art of Work (free + shipping). It's a great book that I've read cover to cover, and I know you'll enjoy.

And there's Ryan Levesque's new book Ask (completely free if you enter the coupon code DINY2015 while supplies last). I've learned a lot from Ryan, and I know you will to.

Grab them while they're still available, and let us know what you think of this whole strategy! :-)

Danny Iny

Firepole Marketing

P.S. I hope you're enjoying these daily doses of Firepole goodness (including blog posts, podcasts, and exclusive Q&As that aren't found anywhere else on the web), but if it ever feels like too much, and you just want a digest of the week's content (minus the Q&As), you can always switch to a short weekly summary:

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