It's official: The Internet is Owned by White Dudes

[OneGrassRoot]

102. Thanks for such a thoughtful, detailed reply.

(Love the quote in your signature, btw)

Regarding #1, that is very interesting. I got the impression that over the last five years or perhaps more, fewer website ventures are being funded (though mobile apps are a different story, yes?). Many of the sites which are the most popular now received huge sums for funding many years ago, but such investments have dissipated over the years. Yes, I do realize that.

Timing is everything.

Regarding #2 -- yep, I hear you. On one hand, I am a good investment (if I wanted to go that route...I'm very torn about it still) in that I have diligently built and continued to improve what I've created in spite of the hurdles life has thrown at me. On the other hand, one of the reasons younger people are more attractive investments is that they usually have fewer responsibilities which could interfere with their work. This is rather obvious because most of the incubator challenges and whatnot require that you live on site for 3-6 weeks or longer. Commitments few people I know are able to make.

I have invested a lot of money over the years, not to mention time. But I hear you that that isn't what investors want to hear.

Regarding my own funding, it's a Catch-22. I need to raise funds to hire help in order to move forward -- and that is because the site became very popular very quickly and I never had a chance to catch my breath -- but because one of the core intentions is to come together to explore ways to diminish the need for money in our daily lives by helping one another in creative ways (many of the tools offered within Wishadoo 9 years ago are now commonplace standalone businesses, like kickstarter, gofundme, etc...but I hold onto the need for community, not drive-by help), and to diminish worship of the Almighty Dollar, it's a bit of a conundrum when seeking monetary investment! lolol That's also why I continue to envision the structure being a member- and worker-owned cooperative. Educating people about that continues to be an uphill climb, but at least Bernie Sanders is making that a more visible alternative structure.

Lastly #3. How very sad about the three gentlemen you mentioned. Again, I hear you about the environment for such businesses as far as investments.

Thank you again so very, very much for this. You've pretty much removed any lingering doubt (or hope) I had about pursuing large-scale investment. It's not a world I'm comfortable in anyway, so it never would have worked.

I'll put all of my energy into crowdsourcing and the co-op structure.