Nadine Scholz shows that crowdfunding potentially shortens the development cycle of new
products thus enabling an earlier market entry. Hence crowdfunding serves as a multifaceted
early-stage support instrument for innovation implementation facilitated by the crowd's
resources. It not only provides upfront cash for product development and production more
importantly it enables a firm to show traction through the validation of the market demand that
is based on the crowd's function as information multiplicator generating public exposure and
feedback.
