Traditional product crowdfunding, a la Kickstarter, is meant to act as product pre-sales (debt financing). I think we&#x27;re starting to move further away from flashy CGI promising us a concept (and subsequently squandering investment money) towards more mature companies able to actually deliver. Though this is taking the magic out for those makers with fewer resources, it&#x27;s certainly better for the backers.<p>Equity crowdfunding is... very risky business. This is where mom and pop can get involved. If professional investors routinely lose out of the majority of their investments, Joe Everyman is in for a ride. But should he be protected? The first line of investment are usually the 3 F&#x27;s -- family, friends, and fools. By making these type of investments more networked and liquid (particularly the fools part), more startups could raise capital at the expense of fools. I guess we saw that didn&#x27;t work out too well about a decade-and-a-half ago, because there will always be more swindlers than legitimate entrepreneurs.