風投力挺“占領華爾街”運動
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????“占領華爾街”運動（Occupy Wall Street movement）或許痛恨商界的貪婪，但他們不排斥像任何一家優(yōu)秀的初創(chuàng)企業(yè)那樣去募集種子資金。抗議運動之前已經通過自身網站募集了的300,000美元，存于工會所持銀行聯合銀行（Amalgamated Bank）的賬戶。目前，該運動的組織者們正在通過兩年前由布魯克林人揚西?斯楚克勒、查爾斯?埃德勒和派瑞?陳創(chuàng)立的創(chuàng)意項目大眾集資平臺Kickstarter為抗議活動的系列報紙籌款。 ????Kickstarter在科技界以外鮮為人知，但它已經幫助占領運動的組織者們募集到了75,690美元，并于上周推出了《占領華爾街日報》（Occupied Wall Street Journal），募集到的這筆資金數額大約是最初目標的6倍。如今，波士頓的占領團體業(yè)在為自己的《占領波士頓環(huán)球報》（Occupy Boston Globe）籌措資金；還有一些團體則在為拍攝反映抗議示威活動的照片和電影募集資金。 ????Kickstarter成立之初專注于為布皮書、iPhone手機套等創(chuàng)意項目提供大眾集資資金，它對全額融資項目收取5%的傭金（部分融資則不收取傭金）和相關的信用卡手續(xù)費。雖然Kickstarter主要從事小額捐贈，但公司自身已獲得總計高達1,000萬美元的投資。投資者中不乏大名鼎鼎的風投機構和其他投資者，包括Twitter聯合創(chuàng)始人杰克?多西、合廣投資（Union Square Ventures，定位社交網站Foursquare和社交游戲開發(fā)商Zynga的投資者）和企業(yè)孵化器Betaworks （社交網絡分析服務提供商bitly,和輕博客服務平臺Tumblr公司的投資者）。 ????占領運動是Kickstarter的亮相派對嗎？我聯系了多家風投置評，但是目前都沒有得到回音。然而，從支持者名單來看，Kickstarter確實被寄予厚望。 ????科技行業(yè)免費數據庫Crunchbase網站的數據顯示，除了上述三位投資方，參與Kickstarter這輪1,000萬美元融資的投資者還有： ????斯科特?埃費爾曼, 社交網絡Meetup首公司席執(zhí)行官 ????扎克?克萊恩, 流媒體視頻網站Vimeo聯合創(chuàng)始人 ????卡特琳娜?費克, 照片共享網站Flickr聯合創(chuàng)始人 ????喬什?斯蒂爾曼, 涉獵廣泛的天使投資人，包括投資團購聚合網站Yipit ????彼得?赫斯伯格, 社交媒體營銷平臺SocialFlow總裁 ????克里斯?薩卡, Twitter投資者，前谷歌（Google）雇員 ????伊藤穰一, 麻省理工學院大學媒體實驗室（MIT Media Lab）董事 ????約書亞?沙克特, 書簽分享網站Delicious創(chuàng)立者 ????賈德?庫斯納, 《紐約觀察家報》（New York Observer）的所有人，地產大亨之子 ????麥特?豪希, 社區(qū)博客網站Metafilter締造者 ????克里斯?卡斯基, 獨立在線音樂媒體Pitchfork Media總裁 ????克里斯?迪克森, 消費點子網站Hunch聯合創(chuàng)始人 ????丹?羅森維格, 教科書租賃網站Chegg.com首席執(zhí)行官 ????克雷格?夏皮羅, 聯合基金（Collaborative Fund）創(chuàng)始人 ????Thrive Capital投資公司, 該公司是庫斯納家族旗下的一家風投基金 |
????The Occupy Wall Street movement may hate corporate greed, but they're not averse to raising seed money like any good start-up. In addition to the $300,000 the group has raised through its website and deposited at union-owned Amalgamated Bank, organizers are raising money for their Occupy newspapers using Kickstarter, a crowd-source funding platform for creative projects started two years ago by Brooklynites Yancey Strickler, Charles Adler and Perry Chen. ????Little known outside of tech circles, Kickstarter enabled the Occupy organizers to raise $75,690 to launch its Occupied Wall Street Journal last week, about six times the group's initial goal. Now Occupy groups in Boston are raising money for their own Occupy Boston Globe paper, while other groups are raising money for photos and films about the protests. ????Founded to focus on crowdsoucing funding for creative projects such as cloth-backed books and iPhone cases, Kickstarter takes a 5% commission on projects that get fully funded (no fee for partial funding) and passing along credit card processing fees. While Kickstarter may be enabling small donations, the company itself has gotten big donations totaling $10 million from an impressive list of VCs and other investors, including Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, Union Square Ventures (Foursquare, Zynga) and Betaworks (bitly, Tumblr). ????Is the Occupy movement the coming out party for Kickstarter? I haven't heard back from any of the VCs I contacted for comment, but judging by the list of backers, there are high hopes: ????In addition to the three investors mentioned above, the other $10 million funding round investors, via Crunchbase: ????Scott Heiferman, CEO of Meetup ????Zach Klein, Vimeo cofounder ????Caterina Fake, Flickr cofounder ????Joshua Stylman, wide ranging angel investor including in Yipit ????Peter Hershberg, president of SocialFlow ????Chris Sacca, Twitter investor, former Google employee ????Joi Ito, director of MIT Media Lab ????Joshua Schachter, Delicious creator ????Jared Kushner, New York Observer owner, real estate empire scion ????Matt Haughey, builder of Metafilter ????Chris Kaskie, president of Pitchfork Media ????Chris Dixon, cofounder of Hunch ????Dan Rosensweig, CEO of Chegg.com ????Craig Shapiro, founder of Collaborative Fund ????Thrive Capital, a Kushner family VC fund |
