RocketHub was an online

crowdfunding Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising money from a large number of people, typically via the internet. Crowdfunding is a form of crowdsourcing and alternative finance. In 2015, over was raised worldwide by crow ...

platform launched in 2010, its first use was September 1, 2009. Based in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, its users included musicians, entrepreneurs, scientists, game developers, philanthropists, filmmakers, photographers,Hainer, Michelle
"New Site Helps Cash Strapped Creatives"
''Tonic'', June 10, 2010, accessed November 29, 2010. theatre producers/directors, writers, and fashion designers.Users posted

fundraising Fundraising or fund-raising is the process of seeking and gathering voluntary financial contributions by engaging individuals, businesses, charitable foundations, or governmental agencies. Although fundraising typically refers to efforts to gathe ...

campaigns to it to raise funds and awareness for projects and endeavors. Operating in over 190 countries, RocketHub was once considered one of America's largest crowdfunding platforms.

History

Incorporated in 2009, the platform launched by January 2012. The original founders of RocketHub were Brian Meece, Jed Cohen, Alon Hillel-Tuch, and Vladimir Vukicevic.

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...

and

Bill Gates William Henry Gates III (born October 28, 1955) is an American business magnate and philanthropist. He is a co-founder of Microsoft, along with his late childhood friend Paul Allen. During his career at Microsoft, Gates held the positions ...

selected it as part of their guest-edited ''Ways to Change the World'' edition of

Wired Magazine ''Wired'' (stylized as ''WIRED'') is a monthly American magazine, published in print and online magazine, online editions, that focuses on how emerging technologies affect culture, the economy, and politics. Owned by Condé Nast, it is headquar ...

. RocketHub was the first crowdfunding platform to partner with network television, “We believe we’re the first broadcast network to start an initiative using crowdfunding to help people grow their business ideas,” Dr. Libby H. O’Connell, SVP of Corporate Outreach for A&E Networks. RocketHub engaged in a partnership with marketing agency Wieden+Kennedy and Chrysler's Dodge Dart in 2013 allowing users to crowdfund the purchase of a car. It was featured at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival, the campaign video became a Cannes Bronze Film Lion winner. On April 15, 2015, RocketHub was acquired by EFactor Group, an online resource center for entrepreneurs. The acquisition deal was valued at US$15M. In 2018, eFactor Group went out of business and the RocketHub site went offline. In 2022, RocketHub.com domain was acquired by Charlie Patel, CEO of the newly formed RocketHub LLC. It launched as a platform for SaaS (software-as-a-service) products, WordPress plugins, and informational products. The new RocketHub entity and brand is not associated with any of the prior entities or individuals.

Crowdfunding

RocketHub enabled direct-to-fan

social media Social media are interactive media technologies that facilitate the creation and sharing of information, ideas, interests, and other forms of expression through virtual communities and networks. While challenges to the definition of ''social medi ...

-based outreach and

. Project leaders, i.e., fundraisers, publicize campaigns themselves through

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

and similar platforms. When posting a campaign, users chose a campaign deadline, target funding-goal, and offed “perks” in exchange for contributions. Broadly, RocketHub shared similarities with platforms such as

Kickstarter Kickstarter is an American public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative projects to life". As of July 2021, ...

Sellaband Sellaband was a music website that allowed artists to raise the money from their fans and the SellaBand community in order to record a professional album. Sellaband used the mechanisms of crowdfunding and was to be seen as a Direct-to-Fan/fan-fu ...

, and Pledgemusic, however if the selected funding target is not reached by the deadline, the project leader was still able to keep the collected funds. RocketHub charged 4% of funds collected, plus 4% payment processing fees, if the project is fully funded, and 8% plus 4% payment processing fees if the project does not reach its goal.

JOBS Act

On April 5, 2012, President

Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...

signed the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act (JOBS Act) into law. Among other things, the act legalizes investment in

closely held corporation A privately held company (or simply a private company) is a company whose shares and related rights or obligations are not offered for public subscription or publicly negotiated in the respective listed markets, but rather the company's stock is ...

s in exchange for funds from non-

accredited investors An accredited or sophisticated investor is an investor with a special status under financial regulation laws. The definition of an accredited investor (if any), and the consequences of being classified as such, vary between countries. Generally, acc ...

. In response, RocketHub published a

whitepaper A white paper is a report or guide that informs readers concisely about a complex issue and presents the issuing body's philosophy on the matter. It is meant to help readers understand an issue, solve a problem, or make a decision. A white paper ...

entitled “Regulation Of Crowdfunding” offering its perspective on how the

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government, created in the aftermath of the Wall Street Crash of 1929. The primary purpose of the SEC is to enforce the law against market ...

should regulate the industry. On June 26, 2012, Rockethub testified before Congress regarding the JOBS Act, presenting three points. They included how crowdfunding democratizes fundraising; how it will lead to

job growth Employment is a relationship between two parties regulating the provision of paid labour services. Usually based on a contract, one party, the employer, which might be a corporation, a not-for-profit organization, a co-operative, or any other ...

; and how it empowers investors.

Partnerships

RocketHub had partnered with organizations in order to educate the public about the emerging field of

: *

The Recording Academy The Recording Academy (formally the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences; abbreviated NARAS) is an American learned academy of musicians, producers, recording engineers, and other musical professionals. It is famous for its Grammy Aw ...

and The Grammy Awards - November 4, 2010 - ''Music Box Panel: A Professional Development Event Crowd Funding'' * New York City Department of Consumer Affairs and New York City Department of Cultural Affairs - October 23, 2010 - ''The Art of the Deal'' *

CMJ Music Marathon CMJ Holdings Corp. is a music events and online media company, originally founded in 1978, which ran a website, hosted an annual festival in New York City, and published two magazines, ''CMJ New Music Monthly'' and ''CMJ New Music Report''. Th ...

, Music Dish, and Women in Music - October 20, 2010 - ''The "Musicians As Entrepreneurs" Official CMJ Music Marathon Networking & Showcase Event'' * New Music Seminar - July 19, 2010 - ''NMS New York 2010'' *

Fractured Atlas Fractured Atlas is a non-profit technology company that provides business tools for artists. History Fractured Atlas was founded in 1998 by Executive Director Adam Huttler as a theater production company. Between 1998 and 2001, the company p ...

* The Orchard (company)"RocketHub Partners with The Orchard to Fuel Music Industry Marketplace"
September 14, 2011, accessed August 30, 2012.

References

External links