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Friday, 14 February 2014
French Startups Can Now Raise Up To $1.4 Million In Crowdfunding And Syndicates In France
The crowdfunding rules in France will become startup-friendlier in the coming months. The government announced today that companies will be able to raise up to $1.4 million (€1 million) per Kickstarter-like crowdfunding campaign. The same limit will apply to equity crowdfunding (also known as AngelList-style syndicates) — startups will be able to raise up to $1.4 million per year without having to notify the financial markets authority.
Previously, equity crowdfunding was limited to $140,000 (€100,000) and your company couldn’t be an SAS (the French equivalent of an LLC). And if you raised more than $140,000, you had to work with a lawyer to produce hundreds of pages of legal documents. With the new law, as long as you raise less than $1.4 million in an equity crowdfunding round, you only have to file a short document of 3 or 4 pages.
Investors have been anticipating the new law for months. Back in September, the government presented a half-baked law with a very low limit of $410,000 (€300,000) — the government had to go back to the drawing board.
There are a couple of restrictions. When it comes to Kickstarter-style crowdfunding, individuals won’t be able to invest more than $1,400 in a campaign (€1,000). This will prevent, or at least limit, potential disappointment from over-promising campaigns. This only applies to French crowdfunding platforms, such as Ulule, KissKissBankBank and My Major Company.
Until now, many French companies chose to create an LLC to launch a Kickstarter campaign in dollars. It might change with the new rules, especially for French companies that don’t plan to sell 3D printers or other expensive items.
Banks, regulators and consumer associations all took part in the making of these rules. But today’s announcement is just the beginning. First, the law will be passed around June. Every six months after that, all the key players of the crowdfunding space will meet again to see if they should raise or lower the $1.4 million limit. The government will also nominate a new crowdfunding official to take care of these questions. Overall, it’s great news for French startups.
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Marshall Kirkpatrick’s Social Marketing Startup Little Bird Raises $1.7M More
Little Bird, the startup led by former tech writer Marshall Kirkpatrick, is announcing that it has raised $1.7 million in new funding.
Kirkpatrick, formerly an editor at ReadWriteWeb (now ReadWrite) and before that a writer at TechCrunch, launched the company in October 2012. He told me then that his goal was to help companies find people who are influential on any topic, based on an analysis of who follows them on Twitter.
Since then, Little Bird has changed in couple of key ways, he said. First, the service isn’t just limited to Twitter. It now includes Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Google+. Second, it has been adding tools that don’t just help companies find influencers but “make influencer identification valuable” — not just identify influencers but intract with them too.
Kirkpatrick contrasted Little Bird with Klout — the main way Klout connects brands and social media influencers is through the discounts and deals of its Perks program, which Kirkpatrick suggested is “a crass, shallow way to engage people.” Little Bird, on the other hand, is supposed to give companies more substantive ways to talk to influencers, particularly when it comes to business (rather than consumer) products and services.
The broader trend, he added, is that “the line between sales and marketing is increasingly being blurred.” In other words, salespeople are no longer “the guardians of information about a company,” so they need to find other ways to stand out: “You need smart things to talk about.”
The new funding was led by the Oregon Angel Fund and brings Little Bird’s total funding to $2.7 million. Oregon Angel Fund’s Drew Bernard is joining the Little Bird board.
Kirkpatrick said he’d only intended to raise a $500,000 bridge round, but ended up raising more money based on the interest that the product has received from sales organizations, content marketers, and large enterprises. Nonetheless, he called the new funding a “Series Seed” intended to help the company grow and eventually raise a larger Series A.
The company is also announcing that it’s starting to fill out its executive team with the hire of CTO Michael Jones (formerly of the Dachis Group) and COO Ben Kaufman (previously of Monsoon Commerce).
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This Week On The TC Gadgets Podcast: Android-Flavored Nokia Phone, LG G Flex, And The Crunchies!
Happy Valentine’s Day, lovebirds. We’ve got quite the treat for you.
This week, rumors spread that Nokia and Microsoft are working on an Android phone, to be released later this month. Meanwhile, LG has been making waves with the new curved-screen LG G Flex. And finally, we all returned from a super fun, 7th annual Crunchies award show, where Kickstarter won best overall startup.
We discuss all this and more on this week’s episode of the TC Gadgets Podcast, featuring John Biggs, Matt Burns, Jordan Crook, and Darrell Etherington.
Enjoy!
We invite you to enjoy our weekly podcasts every Friday at 3 p.m. Eastern and noon Pacific. And feel free to check out the TechCrunch Gadgets Flipboard magazine right here.
Click here to download an MP3 of this show.
You can subscribe to the show via RSS.
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Intro Music by Rick Barr.
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GoPro's IPO isn't about selling cameras, it's about creating a media empire
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Necessary violence: The creators of The Last of Us defend its reliance on combat
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Your iPhone can now help you find your way around MLB ballparks
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No presentado el texto del proyecto de reforma de la Ley de Propiedad Intelectual
El Consejo de Ministros de hoy ha aprobado remitir a las Cortes el proyecto de ley mediante el que se pone al dÃa la Ley de Propiedad Intelectual; de hecho el mismo ministro Wert compareció después del Consejo para informar de ello…
Pero más allá de lo publicado en la referencia del Consejo de Ministros el texto del proyecto no está disponible, con lo que más allá de la indignación que Wert suele causar cada vez que habla, decir casi cualquier otra cosa es especular por especular.
A los abogados me remito:
Alguien tiene el texto del proyecto de reforma de la LPI o estamos como siempre? Gracias.
— Javier de la Cueva (@jdelacueva) febrero 14, 2014
Y si es un texto tan estupendo y fantástico, por qué ocultarlo y no soltarlo a los cuatro vientos para que la gente lo pueda analizar?
— Sergio Carrasco (@sergiocm) febrero 14, 2014 Asà que habrá que esperar a que el gobierno tenga a bien hacer público ese texto para poder opinar con conocimiento de causa, aunque a priori la cosa parece como para tenerle mucho miedo.
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Olympus' small and mighty E-M10 is priced to sell (hands-on)
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Meet The Companies Pitching At The Atlanta And New Orleans Meetups
Watch out, Atlanta and New Orleans. TechCrunch is coming to town and we have lined up a stellar list of companies to pitch at each city’s meetup.
We’re rolling into your fine cities next week. The Atlanta Meetup is on Tuesday, Feb. 18 and New Orleans is Thursday, Feb. 20. Along with the meet-and-greet networking found at these meetups, there will be a 60 second pitch-off battle. The full list of companies can be found below.
For the pitch-off, we will have 3-5 judges, including TechCrunch writers and local VCs, who will decide on the winners. First place will receive a table in Startup Alley at the upcoming TechCrunch Disrupt NY; second place will receive two tickets to TechCrunch Disrupt NY; and third place will receive one ticket.
Are you a funded startup? Local employer? A company looking for a few good code ninjas? Consider emailing Sponsors@techcrunch.com to help support the event. If you’d like to exhibit, please pop over to Eventbrite and help out below. The goal is to make this a great event for everyone and we can’t do that without your help. Bootstrapping and can’t afford a table? Let John or myself know. Matt@techcrunch.com or john@techcrunch.com.
General admission tickets are only $5 thanks to our amazing sponsors. Age 21 and older only, please. See you there!
Atlanta
- Tiemac
- Gather
- LastVine
- My Cluck Cluck
- Production Operations Desk
- Vayia
- StytchPad
- TixSameDay
- Embre
- PeachDish
- Kanga
- The Icon
- Skeddi
- tinker
- TrackShoo
- CheerMe
New Orleans
- VSporto
- Crusher.io
- Lock
- LocalMed
- Hallspot
- niko niko
- FunDat
- TWT.FM
- Education Everytime
- BarNotes
- Tutti Dynamics
- mrQuery
- Air Pee and Pee
Atlanta tickets
New Orleans tickets
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Cazado el primer avión de Air Nostrum con la nueva librea
El EC-JZS aterrizando en Sevilla
Francisco Bonilla, uno de los miembros de Spotting AndalucÃa, ha cazado al EC-JZS, el primer CRJ de Air Nostrum en estrenar la nueva librea de la aerolÃnea, aterrizando en Sevilla.
Si quieres intentar pillarlo, permanece atento a @AirNostrumLAM, que está tuiteando las rutas que hace, al menos en estos primeros dÃas de servicio.
Air Nostrum ha sido la última, tras Iberia e Iberia Express, en estrenar la nueva librea que se corresponde con la nueva imagen de la aerolÃnea.
(VÃa @SpoAnd).
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Aiming Olympus' Stylus SP-100, the 50x superzoom camera with a gun sight (hands-on)
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Turn Your iPhone Into A Combination GoPro Mount And Monitor With The GoPhone
A new Kickstarter project aims to make your GoPro filmography easier to handle, with a case designed to hold the GoPro in such a way that you have a full view of the screen of your iPhone 5s or 5, so that you can monitor all the action while you shoot one-handed.
There are no shortage of iPhone cases that offer double-duty performance with some other task, be it acting as a wallet, or opening beers, or propping up your iPhone itself, but the GoPhone might have just the right feature mix for the action hero in your life. It features a hump at one end that’s designed to allow you to slide in your GoPro’s quick release buckle, giving you full access to the screen at any orientation.
The iPhone still connects to the GoPro in the traditional manner – wirelessly, using the camera’ s inbuilt Wi-Fi connectivity, but now a shooter can watch the action as they film while operating as a follow cam, which is particularly useful if you’re trying to capture your buddy showing off at the skatepark or on the bike track.
It’ll come in multiple colors when it ships, and offers not only live video while shooting, but also a quick and easy way to review footage just shot without having to put down one mount and pick up your phone. Australian project creators Andrew Dorn and Carson Tully have aimed for an economy of design here, and they’ve also spent months testing it in real-world situations at the skatepark. Tully is an industrial designer and illustrator, and Dorn works in the film industry and previously created an iPhone app called ‘Ramped Slow Mo.’
The GoPhone case is seeking $15,000 AUD ($13,538 U.S.) in funding over the next 60 days, with backers at the $40 level securing a pre-order. If all goes according to plan, the accessory should ship this September.
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Fujifilm's dial-filled X-T1 is a manual shooter's dream (hands-on)
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South Korea shuns Huawei over fears that it spies on the US
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Desenterrada una cápsula del tiempo con un ratón propiedad de Steve Jobs de hace 30 años
En este vÃdeo de National Geographic, con las consiguientes dosis de guionización y dramatización propias del programa ese de la casa de empeños de Detroit o del explorador «behind the musgo», se cuenta algo sobre la historia de una cápsula del tiempo enterrada hace 30 años en la que invitaron a Steve Jobs a dejar un recuerdo para generaciones futuras. Al parecer debÃa haberse abierto en 2000, pero alguien no guardó los mapas o algo asà y habÃa permanecido perdida estos últimos 14 años.
El dÃa en que le pidieron su colaboración (fue en 1984) el cofundador de Apple habÃa terminado de dar una conferencia sobre el futuro de la tecnologÃa, asà que le ocurrió donar el ratón de su Apple Lisa para que fuera enterrado. No creo que sea siquiera spoiler decir que éste ha aparecido perfectamente conservado en una bolsa de plástico en la cápsula, junto con otros objetos de la época: un cubo de Rubik, casetes de los Moody Blues y similares.
(VÃa Update or Die.)
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El 24sutra de las tabletas
En 24 Symbols se inventaron este simpático Kamasutra digital que han dado en llamar 24sutra y que explica cómo leer algunas de las más famosas novelas de todos los tiempos en una tableta.
Mi favorita: la ingrávida 2001.
(¡Gracias Abeja!)
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