Crowdfunding platforms like Patreon and Tilt have been used for community-based initiatives like this, some with great success (this self-funded private police force in Lower Rockridge dramatically reduced crime according to my conversations with @jjbeshara).
What common use cases have you seen (or expect) to emerge through Neighborly, @jase?
@rrhoover thank you for reaching out. Donation-based platforms like Tilt are very powerful for funding all kinds of change in communities especially at the prototype stage. Neighborly started out as a donation-based platform to get started, and helped dozens of communities raise millions of dollars for things like playgrounds and low-cost wireless broadband for low income communities. During that time we learned worlds about the potential and also the limitations of the donation model in funding public goods.
We're bringing some of the power of crowdfunding to the $3.6 Trillion municipal securities market. As a scale reference, people (who Wall Street call "retail") buy more municipal bonds every week than Kickstarter has raised in its entire history.
Use cases we're already seeing include new types of schools (some charter, others not), municipal wireless mesh networks, low income housing in high-priced markets, skate parks, community solar infrastructure and more.
Our hope in the long term is to make the giant, murky market that funds civic projects more accessible to both sides of the table, starting with investors, but eventually making it possible for civic visionaries to do nearly turnkey capital formation for civic projects we're not even thinking about today.
@jase@rrhoover I spent a couple of years looking at donation-based models for civic projects, and while I think they're awesome at solving, small-scale, uncontroversial issues, they haven't proven they can solve big, hard problems. That's the main reason I decided to join Neighborly last year. The long version: http://rodrigodavies.com/blog/20...
Excited to hunt Neighborly today. They're making it easy to invest in community projects that matter. I believe platforms like this will provide a better way forward for America. It's also one of our first investments at Sound Ventures. We're excited for what's to come. Hit up @jase their CEO with any questions or ideas.
Thank you @aplusk! Honored to be part of the Product Hunt community. Our cities borrow over $1 billion each day to build and maintain schools, parks, and other important civic projects, through a process that's been taken over by middlemen and global banks. Neighborly lets you invest directly in those projects, so you can do well financially by doing good for your community.
We'd love to hear more about what projects you want to see built in your community! This marketplace is being built for civic visionaries like you and we're working nonstop to curate projects that people care about most.
Also, a little more about why this matters for anyone interested.
@jase This is a greet idea as P3's become more popular and more troublesome. We're doing something slightly similar but strictly for restaurants. (@aplusk we should talk ;) ).
Infrastructure (including schools, etc.) is something that people who live in the community should be able to have a stake in, with more than just tax dollars.
Great concept. I remember Neighborland working in a similar arena. Couple questions:
1. Why do you think other companies that have tried this have failed?
2. What are you doing to bring in the members of the local communities and connect them with each other?
@davidspinks thank you for reaching out. We are huge fans of @neighborland and their work in the civic engagement space. To our knowledge they don't work on anything in the realm of financing projects, so a different and very complementary space.
To your questions --
1. To our knowledge, no company to date has attempted to bring crowdfunding to the $1 billion per day municipal bond market. If you know of any we'd love to learn more about them.
2. Individual investors join to invest in the places they love, and eventually communities will be able to turn to Neighborly to handle the entire financing project.
Been fortunate to see this space develop over the years. I met the Neighborly while they were going through @500Startups. Very impressive team, with a smart angle on where the market is today, and a vision for how the platform can grow as the space evolves. As @davidspinks referenced, there is a real social component to community based initiatives; and local support around projects is becoming ever more vital to usher them to success.
Q - @jase How do you see the interaction with local city councils, government officials, etc helping/hurting growth in the short term, as they become more accustomed to a "new model"?
@jonathancordeau thank you for the kind words and support.
As a double-sided marketplace we've chosen to focus on buy side (individual investors) for the start. Muniland is enormous, with around 50 or so unique new issuances per calendar day. We won't necessarily need support or buy-in from communities to access the buy side of the market, but eventually want to be helpful as a one stop shop for communities doing finance. By which time we need to have figured out the answer to your question :)
Although we've been astonished by the number of communities who reach out to see whether there is a chance to use the system now. Charter schools, low income housing, shipping container community retail parks... really innovative and inspiring stuff that gives us hope about the future of the nation.
@jase Love the idea. Couple questions come to mind. How you guys are planning on making money? Are investments only in San Francisco right now? What do you project returns to be and what sort of time horizons?
@ekryski wonderful questions. We're less focused on revenue / business model at the moment, more focused on doing something revolutionary in a market where there are lots of little evolutionary fixes happening. Fortunate to be well supported and to have lots of persistent team members in it for the long haul :)
First deals will be all around the bay area. We'll be looking at CA deals outside the bay later this year, and elsewhere in the US early 2016.
Expected returns vary depending on project, investment duration and financial situation of each individual investor. While I can't state expected returns in general terms, the table in this independent article about Taxable Equivalent Yield is a reasonable approximation of what folks might expect from some opportunities on Neighborly.
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I've known these guys for a long time and have been super impressed at how they've grown and executed over time. Really exciting opportunity to crack this market open and Jase and his team are the only people I've seen who have a real shot at it. Much love gentlemen.
@bowman thank you that means the world coming from you. We're huge, huge fans of @Zaarly and you personally
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Great concept - may I suggest changing the landing page marketing copy? I do not mean this as a negative comment, if anything, your concept and mission goals are so strong that the copy should be unique and stand on its own. Clearly, Gandhi is an influence here, but that quote is so attached to his political activism and I feel that your brand is going for a different tone.
Best of luck!
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