Potentials of crowdfunding of startup companies on the example of slovenian companies

Vzpodbujanje podjetništva je ključnega pomena za gospodarski razvoj države. Inoviranje bo postalo motor gospodarstva na vseh ravneh in v vseh organizacijah. Inoviranje pa nastaja tam, kjer je veliko podjetniških talentov z visokim potencialom. Podjetja ambicioznih podjetnikov, ki najdejo in udejanjajo poslovne priložnosti rastejo hitro in pri tem dodatno zaposlujejo. To so start-up podjetja, ki prispevajo k hitremu razvoju novih tehnologij, ustvarjajo velik del delovnih mest, prispevajo h gospodarski rasti držav, v gospodarskem sistemu vnašajo dodatno dinamiko in konkurenčnost ter spreminjajo vrednote družbe in prinašajo nov miselni vzorec, skladen z družbo znanja in ustvarjalnosti. Največji izziv tem podjetjem predstavlja pridobitev finančnih virov za zagon podjetja. Podjetnik se mora od samega začetka truditi, da pridobi zaupanje vlagateljev in potencialnih strank ter si upati tvegati. Start-up podjetja potrebujejo kapital že v zelo zgodnjih fazah, saj želijo vstopiti na trg z inovativno idejo, ki pa za realizacijo na trgu potrebuje dolgo pot, veliko znanja, časa in vztrajnosti. Ob tem pa mora imeti start-up podjetje ekipo različnih talentov, kjer vsak prispeva svoje znanje in spretnosti. Posamezniki pa za uresničitev svojih idej potrebujejo zagonska sredstva pri katerih pa lahko nastane problem, saj so tradicionalni viri financiranja zelo omejeni. In ker se Slovenija že nekaj časa sooča s krizo, ki se najbolj kaže v podjetništvu so začeli podjetniki iskati alternativne metode financiranja. Pred nekaj leti se je tako v ZDA pojavil nov trend imenovan množično financiranje. Deluje po principu kolektivne akcije zbiranja sredstev za določen projekt na izbrani spletni platformi. Ta način financiranja poteka tako, da s predstavitvijo inovativne ideja, na izbrani spletni platformi ,podjetniki spodbudijo množico ljudi in jih pripravi do investiranja manjših zneskov, v znak podpore projektu. Ker se že skozi vsa leta množično financiranje izkazuje kot zelo uspešna metoda so se te metode začeli posluževat tudi Slovenci. Diplomski seminar je sestavljen iz dveh delov – iz teoretične osnove, kjer bomo na grobo opisali osnovne pojme s področja start-up podjetij in podrobneje predstavili množično financiranje. V praktičnem delu pa smo predstavili uspešne slovenske Kickstarter projekte, ki so bili financirani s množičnim financiranjem. Izmed vseh slovenskih Kickstarter projektov smo izbrali štiri najuspešnejše in to so FlyKly, Chipolo, Lumu in Musguard. Osrednji del raziskave izhaja iz aktualnih člankov in intervjujev, ki se nanašajo na štiri slovenske Kickstarter projekte. Z raziskavo smo želeli izvedeti, kakšen je bil njihov finančni cilj, kakšna je njihova zgodba, kdo sestavlja ekipo, kaj so predstavili na platformi Kickstarter in kakšni so bili njihovi rezultati.Encouraging entrepreneurship is vital for the economic development of the country. Innovation will become the engine of the economy at all levels and in all organizations. Innovation is occurring there, where there are a lot of entrepreneurial talents with high potential. Companies of ambitious businessmen who find business opportunities grow rapidly and take additional employment. These are start-up companies, which contribute to the rapid development of new technologies that generate a large proportion of jobs, contribute to the economic growth of the countries, they bring additional dynamism and competitiveness in the economic system and are changing the values of the society and creating a new mindset, consistent with the society of knowledge and creativity. The biggest challenge for these businesses represents obtaining financial resources for start-up companies. The entrepreneur must work hard from the beginning, he has to gain trust of investors and potential customers and has to dare to take risks. Start-up companies are in need of the capital in very early stages, because they want to enter the market with an innovative idea, but the realization of it needs a long way, a lot of knowledge, time and perseverance. At the same time the start-up company must have a team of diverse talents, where everybody contributes his knowledge and skills. Individuals need start-up funds for the realization of their ideas but there can be a problem, since the traditional sources of funding are very limited. And since Slovenia has been faced with the crisis for some time, which is the most evident in business, entrepreneurs have begun to seek alternative methods of funding. That is why a few years ago in the United States appeared a new trend called crowdfunding. It works on the principle of collective action on raising funds for a definite project on the chosen web platform. This method of funding is carried out with the presentation of innovative ideas, on the selected web platform, with which entrepreneurs encourage the crowd and get them ready to invest smaller amounts as a sign of support for the project. Because crowdfunding has been very successful over the years, the Slovenes started to use it too. The diploma seminar consists of two parts – the theoretical base, where we roughly describe the basic concepts of start-ups and details of the crowdfunding. In the practical part, we presented the successful Slovenian Kickstarter projects that were financed by the crowdfunding. Of all Slovenian Kickstarter projects we selected four the most successful, and these are FlyKly, Chipolo, Luma and Musguard. The central part of the research results from the actual articles and interviews related to the four Slovenian Kickstarter projects. With this study we wanted to find out what their financial goal was, what is their story, who composes the team, what was presented on the platform Kickstarter and what were their results