The $40,000 T-Shirt: Oculus Rift and Ownership in Crowdfunding

Kickstarter backers experienced a rude awakening when Oculus Rift was acquired by Facebook.

Monetary pledges, developer time and emotional investments in the virtual reality startup offer no legal recourse and no payoff for a company that is acquired for $2 billion. Only people with equity stakes — private stock — in the company enjoy the windfall.

It was just a matter of time until one of Kickstarter's projects blossomed into what investors call a "unicorn," and began to beg the question — should companies using crowdfunding to launch a business also offer some stake in the company? Read more...