Funding a startup is very different than something like Kiva. Startups are new untested theories put into practice. To succeed, you need not just money but quality advice. My parents might be able to provide money to a startup, but they could never provide critical advice around an inflection point and guide me in what to do.
The idea of crowdfunding a startup to "spread risk" focuses on the wrong reason for raising money. You also do not give up less ownership just because you spread the risk farther. You would give us less ownership for equal funding if your backers are more naive, maybe (this assumes that we are not talking about experienced investors calculating the right price for a round and valuing it based on competing internal theories - reasonable considering the average knowledge level of the likely crowdfunders), but that would not serve your company in the best way.
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Funding a startup is very different than something like Kiva. Startups are new untested theories put into practice. To succeed, you need not just money but quality advice. My parents might be able to provide money to a startup, but they could never provide critical advice around an inflection point and guide me in what to do.
The idea of crowdfunding a startup to "spread risk" focuses on the wrong reason for raising money. You also do not give up less ownership just because you spread the risk farther. You would give us less ownership for equal funding if your backers are more naive, maybe (this assumes that we are not talking about experienced investors calculating the right price for a round and valuing it based on competing internal theories - reasonable considering the average knowledge level of the likely crowdfunders), but that would not serve your company in the best way.