Skip to content
Who's in the Video
Kay Koplovitz is the Founder of USA Network and the visionary who created the business model for cable networks by introducing the concept of two revenue streams – licensing and[…]

Kay Koplovitz, founder of the USA Networks, talks about the potential that crowdfunding has to give opportunities to more investors.

Kay Koplovitz: I think crowdfunding is a wonderful democratization of capital. It allows many more people to come into the marketplace. Heretofore when companies had to market themselves in closed networks that were presented as accredited investors by people they knew and had to go around one on one or in groups of people to promote your company and try to raise capital. Today on the platforms for crowdfunding really opens it up to anyone that can qualify as an accredited investor to really see all kinds of deal flow. So that's a good thing. I think what we need to look at is as we develop this marketplace, most of it is early seed stage funding that is going on. So what is the next level? Where does this play in the food chain of capital raising? And right now it is mostly at the seed stage. And I think that one of the wonderful questions we'll explore at Exponential Finance is, what are the next stages? How do venture funders look at the crowdfunding group of people as shareholders in the company? Will crowdfunding go to the next level and raise significantly more and really challenge some of the venture firms in funding companies?

Unlikely that it would be at the 25, 50 and 100 million dollar levels but it certainly could be at the five million dollar level where a lot of early stage venture firms are today. I think that angel investing clubs which are very popular now around the country -- and I know they're those that are investing in women. We have, you know, Bell Capital and Golden Seeds and 37 Angels and they're all over the country. But, how do they feel? I think there's a little feel of threatening their marketplace by crowdfunding and so I think there are a lot of questions about how companies present themselves. But I do think bottom line it is a democratization of capital and it'll work its way out in the marketplace and it'll be a mature way of raising fund as we go forward. So I think it's a very exciting time in the marketplace and this, I think, is going to loosen up some of the capital that is really in the hands of individuals around the country who haven't had the opportunity to really see a good deal flow and they are going to be able to access it now if they want to be active on any of these platforms raising funding.

Directed/Produced by Jonathan Fowler, Elizabeth Rodd, and Dillon Fitton


Related