ScitechStarter… Kickstarter for mad(ish) scientists and inventors?
Are you a scientist, engineer or inventor? Do you have plans for a James Dyson-like reinvention of some field of industry, scientific research into green energy, or maybe a new form of rocket engine that could propel the private space industry to Mars? Then have we got a new site for you… ScitechStarter… which aims to be a Kickstarter for the science crowd.
They are now accepting applications for projects that require dosh. If you’re accepted, you be showcased on the site’s official launch in Q1 of next year (2013). And because – if accepted – you be will a launch project, you’ll even be listed free.
The site has thirty science categories including everything from aerospace and archaeology to systems engineering and zoology. Each project undergoes review and requires approval before it can be launched (they want to weed out the crackpots).
Joseph Baylon, owner of ScitechStarter, commented, “I wanted to invest in start-up companies that had promise and actually contributed to innovation,” explained “I have a passion for science and technology, and I believe they are the driving force of the economy. While there are other crowdfunding websites that cater to scientific projects and research, ScitechStarter differentiates itself from those sites via the broad array of scientific fields that we serve.”
The US is aiming to make crowd investing legal in January 2013, and Joseph says he is developing the site to take advantage of this change.
There are several types of pledge amounts that a project owner can request: fixed minimums, unspecified amounts, fixed overall amounts or multiple suggested amounts. Project owners will only receive the money they raised when they have reached their stated goal amount. This also means that the amounts that funders pledged will be cancelled if the total goal amount is not met. ScitechStarter allows projects to collect more than the goal amount by default, a process which is called overfunding. It is the discretion of the project owner to override this setting and disable overfunding.
More over at http://scitechstarter.com
