The traditional way of bringing products to the marketplace is being turned on its head with the growing popularity of crowdfunding. While this method of funding new products and startup companies has been around for years, it was heavily regulated and difficult for entrepreneurs to take advantage of in the U.S. That all changed in 2012, when President Barack Obama signed the Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act into law, which essentially legalized equity crowdfunding.
Since then, numerous crowdfunding websites such as Indiegogo, Kickstarter, and Fundable have popped up, raising billions of dollars for various products, causes, and ventures. And, this trend is expected to grow. Fundable acknowledges this trend on its website, noting that over the last five years the crowdfunding industry has grown 1,000 percent, and is expected to generate $500 billion in funding and $3.2 trillion in economic value annually by 2020. As a result, companies are looking at this alternative method of financing in order to bring all kinds of new products to market, including products for the HVAC market.