The exponential growth of technology continues to offer the world a wave of opportunities in the 21st century. But depending on who you ask, the innovation sparked by technology runs of the risk replacing, and automating industries in two to three decades from now.
Since the great financial crisis, the marketplace has witnessed an explosion of alternative businesses to traditional industries. The sharing economy has become the centerfold especially since income inequality has grown substantially. Consumers have shifted away from their preferences and now businesses are required more than ever to listen to them.
Crowdholding, based in the Czech Republic, launched on March 17th of this year in beta. The premise of this progressive web application is to connect the crowd to entrepreneurs, which allows the crowd to give feedback on products, services, and ideas for future revenue of sales.
The crowd in some way determines the outcome for how a company designs, rolls out or launches a product. Companies can pledge just one percent of their future revenue. What does this very intriguing scheme do? It allows startups to listen to their customers directly and tailor their efforts in the right direction. And in addition, not have to spend from their limited advertising budgets.
When a company or an organization needs suggestions or ideas they consult with the crowd. Once the idea is commented, liked and upvoted they receive a reward called crowdshares. This in the very near future can look like a cryptocurrency or a blockchain system.
Origins and background on Crowdholding
The whole concept behind Crowdholding and crowdshares stems from a book by Peter Diamandis called “Bold”. Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Ethan Clime discovered it from a Henry Ford case study and that is when the light bulb turned on, and the rest, as they say, is history.
CEO Clime has a background in crowdfunding and was part of two campaigns. The book he read did not just serve as a catapult for starting this venture but led to really involve the crowd in this concept and allow them to co-create. At the core of this is rewarding users with crowdshares and in return, it’s about giving back to both people, and employees.
The Czech-based company did a soft beta launch and are currently at 700 users. To get themselves searched or discovered they are utilizing places on the web like Reddit and Quora. In other words, starting conversations and providing life-hacking techniques. This helps them get visibility and is an effective content marketing strategy. According to the company´s analytics, 41 percent of traffic comes from organic search.
“Basically, what we want to do next is we want to hit a goal of 50 startups with 2500 users and to end beta,” said Crowdholding Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Ethan Clime. “We can’t really state exactly when we will end beta because it is very crucial that we get the proof of concept correct. Once we do a real launch because startups are pledging future revenue when we go live it is very important that no mistakes happen. It is why beta will last until we solve all the problems.”
Next phases and company developments
Before exiting beta Crowdholding wants to remain true to its mission. Their current user base is professional consultant type users who are interested in middle-sized business. It seems small businesses and startups are their niche; they will start scaling as the user base grows.
Businesses that join the platform will be allowed to sell crowdshares to raise capital, so it helps with proceeding investments down the road. In addition, this asset from Crowdholding can be traded the same way you see on Wall Street, except without brokers. The technology does not require brokers to take commissions and this will be visible to the public. A very transparent process. You will not have any speculation taking place.
The actual value of the company comes when you create shares from revenue. Ultimately, it is about creating a secondary financial market. It is a more ethical system, distributing the wealth among the community of users.
Takeaways
Finally, the concept of creating a secondary financial market has become more than just a fad or a hot trend. It is because of rising inequality and economic disparity between the very wealthy, and the rest of society. Furthermore, the bubbles that form and pop, which eventually lead to economic recessions.
The sharing economy has become a force to be reckoned with and self-starter companies like Crowdholding want to meet this very tough challenge. It is about creating a basic universal income. The company´s founder envisions this in the long-term and confirmed during a Skype interview it should not rest in the hands of the government to carry out.
Clime concluded “As for the interest of this, we feel by allowing the crowd to crowdsource in this way it will bring a type of future where people the hope is they decide who they work for instead of the other way around. They work for their interests of what they like, what they enjoy. I really do see a future where that´s how the public way finds their job with a business.”
