Crowd control

The crowdfunding industry is growing, and Sarasota entrepreneur John Montelione wants area entrepreneurs to consider how crowdfunding might help them launch a product.

Montelione led a Manasota SCORE workshop June 27 about crowdfunding, which he defined as “the practice of raising small amounts of money from a large number of people.” He focused on rewards-based crowdfunding platforms, such as Kickstarter and Indiegogo.

Montelione says it's important to pick the right platform — some specialize in certain types of crowdfunding projects. He suggests reading the mission statements of various crowdfunding platforms to determine which one might be the best fit.