Insight
BanktotheFuture By: Niamh Coghlan O
ne of the most difficult parts of starting a startup for any entrepre- neur is finding that small bit of seed capital to get things going. The fact is that raising money is really hard un- less you've built a successful business before. More than two-thirds of over a 1,000 entrepre- neurs polled in a survey recently released by Ernst & Young found it difficult to gain access
to the capital they needed to grow. Many entre- preneurs go wrong in their fundraising strategies by failing to understand the differing needs of lenders and investors. It’s all a very complicated realm, where banks and wealthy investors try to take advantage of the up and coming. Enter “Bank to the Future”. An online plat- form that helps entrepreneurs, business’s and project creators raise finance from a crowd of investors, donors and ordinary people. It is one of the many new crowd-funding websites pop- ping up online. Crowd-funding is a commu- nity that funds ideas, dreams, and projects.
Simon Dixon and his wife Bliss Dixon who co-founded Bank to the fu- ture spent over 2 years developing this company after the idea was born having being let down personally by investors. The ethos behind the company is to “get as much money into the hands of entrepreneurs and in- vestors who deserve it”. This company works on an idealistic view of good people investing in good ideas. What it does take advantage of is the ever grow- ing internet-based websites, “LILO’s” (A little in - a lot out).
60% of all jobs in the UK come from small to medium businesses. “Over the last 8 years the UK’s money supply has literally doubled and it’s not making its way to entrepre- neurs who can create new value, inno- vative and cre- ate new jobs in
10
the future.” – Simon Dixon CEO of Bank to the Future.
Is now the right time for such a company?
With banks and investors not supplying much capital to entrepreneurs and start-ups, now seems like the ideal moment for such a business. The company gives off a real “by the people for the people” vibe and in times of strain they band together to support each other. Now is a time of strain for entrepreneurs. How does the company work? There are sev-
eral different types of memberships depending on what kind of involvement you want, whether you’re just an investor or someone looking for capital or possibly both, they have membership to suit your needs. Once set-up there are three types of funding methods:
1. Crowd-funding 2. Crowd-investments 3. Crowd-loans
Depending on the potential you see in a com- pany or how you want to invest they adapt to suit your needs. The website offers training video’s and online tutorials to guide you step by step through the process. However there is a catch! Each pitch, when set up, must decide the exact capital they need and set a target amount of days in which they must gain their capital by. You must raise all the funds in the time frame set or all investors get their money back and you have no capital. Building a business from just an idea is chal- lenging at the best of times, what these companies like Bank to the Future are enabling people to do is connect on a professional level to fund great ideas, even through times of austerity. Bank to the Future is a straightforward idea and its simplicity is the key to its encouraged success.
New European Economy
Finance
Investment
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124