Words like internationally and globally have lost their significance from the past to the community and interconnected environment that’s been shaped for creative thinkers and every day people alike by technology and all its advancements. With this comes the platforms of Kickstarter and Crowdfunder.com and their influences on the economy and entrepreneurial process of creators not just in the United States, but also in Mexico.
While crossing the border and entering into the world of Mexico and all it has to offer it’s impossible not to notice the way in which their economy functions. More than anything, the small and medium sized businesses and informal economy in Mexico has developed into an essential part of every day life that thrives for a large majority of the people.
When Chance Barnett and his colleagues started Crowdfunder.com they had a very specific vision in mind. Being an entrepreneur himself, that vision was to zero in on small businesses, startups, and social enterprises to work with the entrepreneurial world that had developed in recent years. Accompanied with their success was their influence on the U.S. JOBS Act legislation.
In short, this piece of legislation was introduced to encourage funding of small businesses within the United States by reworking various securities regulations that had been previously installed by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which was enacted in response to the major corporate and accounting scandals that deterred public confidence in security markets in the early part of the 2000’s.
After having established a name for his company, Barnett was invited down to Mexico by business leaders to hopefully create something very similar to the JOBS Act to help aid the small business environment that is extremely prevalent in Mexico. Shortly there after, Crowdfunder.mx was started to create an on-line community for investors and creators to help bring in capital for their projects.
Although many people may be unaware, small and medium sized businesses in Mexico account for somewhere around 52% of the GDP and nearly 72% of job creation. These numbers are even higher than the amount of small businesses that occupy the economy in the United States. In addition to these facts, more than half of all small and medium sized businesses in Mexico are self–financed. With this comes the risk of failure, which is considerably high and leaves room for a platform like Crowdfunder.mx to come in and help with this process.
Undoubtedly, a grassroots approach and easier access to capital would heavily influence the success of these small businesses in Mexico. When dealing with personal savings and loans from family members, it’s difficult to create the kind of start up money that is required in beginning a business that can survive in today’s economy.
Thanks to the help of Barnett and his company, a variety of new platforms have been created in Mexico to help provide the small and medium sized businesses with the help that they need to allow their start up companies to flourish. Among those is Fondeadora.mx, a crowdfunding platform much like Kickstarter and Crowdfunder.com designed to help fund creative projects.
To have an idea is one thing, but to have created something that has the ability to foster talent, creativity, and innovation that helps to materialize the creative ideas of entrepreneurs is something special that Fondeadora.mx has achieved. With a situation such as this one, everyone involved benefits. The platform creators have the luxury of seeing inventive artists see their ideas come to life while also having helped with the creation of an entire community of innovative thinkers and motivated entrepreneurs.
Very similar to the United States and especially Chicago, Mexico has a rich bicycling culture that has utilized the streets just as much as cars for some time now. In 2011, in response to the local government’s lack of investment in bicycle lanes and concern for cyclists, a group of urban cyclist activists turned to crowd funding to help raise money for the idea that they had developed regarding creating their own bike lanes.
Once again, the forces of crowdfunding joined together to raise over $13,500 for the group to create their own “guerilla cycling lane”. In defense of public space, the group of cyclists organized to preserve tens of acres that the government had planned to eliminate to give way to cars and other motor vehicles. No matter what country or what language, crowdfunding has crossed borders and helped innovators of all walks of life to help make their visions a reality.
Especially in today’s society, new business ideas come in all shapes and sizes. From film and art to technology and the economy, new ideas are being presented every day. Particularly in Latin America, the lack of jobs and opportunity that the struggling economy has presented has caused a tremendous amount of people to migrate north to other cities, often times the United States, in search for work and a better living situation. However, as a result, dysfunctional families are created in the process as children are left to grow up with a single parent or sometimes without any parents at all.
Laura Lopez is a filmmaker that has started to attempt to fund her new short film idea, “When You Grow Up” using Fondeadora.mx. This particular project centers around the relationship between a mother and a daughter that reflects a situation that countless individuals encounter every day of all socioeconomic levels, a dysfunctional family. Although not fully funded just yet, Lopez is over 80% of the way there to reaching her goal of raising $40,000.
Whether in the United States or in Mexico, crowdfunding has provided a much needed boost for the world of small and medium sized business owners. Entrepreneurs today are seeking out any way possible to help see their ideas funded. With platforms and outlets such as Fondeadora.mx that Chance Barnett and his company Crowdfunder.com helped to influence, the future for small business owners, not just in Mexico, but all across the globe has developed into something extremely promising for innovative thinkers.
References
- Fondeadora: how it works
- El Economista: Las cifras del financiamiento a pymes
- Información Cívica: Crowdfunding in Latin America
- Fondeadora: Cuando seas grande
- Financial Times, beyondbrics: Mexico reform
- Howard Community College: International Education photo gallery
- The Huffington Post, April 2, 2014