title: The Crowdfunding Revolution: Social Networking Meets Venture Financing
author:  Kevin Lawton 
description: Kevin is a progenitor of PC virtualization (now a multi-billion dollar cloud-related industry), many-time startup entrepreneur, trend-caster and visionary blogger at the intersection of biz &amp; tech (www.trendcaller.com/), contributor for VentureBeat and SeekingAlpha, public speaker, prolific idea creator, protagonist of two open source projects, and news, innovation, economics and business book junkie. Kevin holds a B.A in computer science and started his career at MIT Lincoln Laboratory. Dan is a PhD candidate in Finance at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He has been highly engaged in R&amp;D and management for several years, as a technologist and a CEO and co-founder of a startup company. Although currently concentrating on academic activities (researching and teaching), Dan is also involved in several technology ventures as a consultant. Dan holds a MBA (Cum Laude) and a B.Sc in electrical Engineering.
zlib_text: The dynamics of crowdfunding: An exploratory study☆,☆☆
  Ethan Mollick⁎
  The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, United States
  a r t i c l e
  i n f o
  a b s t r a c t
  Article history:
  Received 22 February 2013
  Received in revised form 26 June 2013
  Accepted 27 June 2013
  Available online xxxx
  Field Editor: Gavin Cassar
  Crowdfunding allows founders of for-profit, artistic, and cultural ventures to fund their efforts
  by drawing on relatively small contributions from a relatively large number of individuals
  using the internet, without standard financial intermediaries. Drawing on a dataset of over
  48,500 projects with combined funding over $237 M, this paper offers a description of the
  underlying dynamics of success and failure among crowdfunded ventures. It suggests that
  personal networks and underlying project quality are associated with the success of
  crowdfunding efforts, and that geography is related to both the type of projects proposed
  and successful fundraising. Finally, I 