• Home
  • Latest
  • Fortune 500
  • Finance
  • Tech
  • Leadership
  • Lifestyle
  • Rankings
  • Multimedia

Trendingnow

1

Ex-PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi worked from midnight until 5 a.m. as a receptionist to pay for her Yale degree—and she says ‘respect went up’ because of it

2

Shark Tank's Kevin O'Leary says if he were 25 today, he'd chase these two booming opportunities in the world of AI

3

China’s birth rate just hit its lowest point since 1949—and Trip.com cofounder James Liang thinks that’s a threat to innovation

1

Ex-PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi worked from midnight until 5 a.m. as a receptionist to pay for her Yale degree—and she says ‘respect went up’ because of it

2

Shark Tank's Kevin O'Leary says if he were 25 today, he'd chase these two booming opportunities in the world of AI

3

China’s birth rate just hit its lowest point since 1949—and Trip.com cofounder James Liang thinks that’s a threat to innovation

The venture capitalists fueling Occupy Wall Street

By
Brendan Coffey
Brendan Coffey
Down Arrow Button Icon
By
Brendan Coffey
Brendan Coffey
Down Arrow Button Icon
October 19, 2011, 12:00 PM ET
Add Fortune on Google for similar content.


source: Flickr

FORTUNE — The Occupy Wall Street movement may hate corporate greed, but they’re not averse to raising seed money like any good start-up. In addition to the $300,000 the group has raised through its website and deposited at union-owned Amalgamated Bank, organizers are raising money for their Occupy newspapers using Kickstarter, a crowd-source funding platform for creative projects started two years ago by Brooklynites Yancey Strickler, Charles Adler and Perry Chen.

Little known outside of tech circles, Kickstarter enabled the Occupy organizers to raise $75,690 to launch its Occupied Wall Street Journal last week, about six times the group’s initial goal. Now Occupy groups in Boston are raising money for their own Occupy Boston Globe paper, while other groups are raising money for photos and films about the protests.

Founded to focus on crowdsoucing funding for creative projects such as cloth-backed books and iPhone cases, Kickstarter takes a 5% commission on projects that get fully funded (no fee for partial funding) and passing along credit card processing fees. While Kickstarter may be enabling small donations, the company itself has gotten big donations totaling $10 million from an impressive list of VCs and other investors, including Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, Union Square Ventures (Foursquare, Zynga) and Betaworks (bitly, Tumblr).

Is the Occupy movement the coming out party for Kickstarter? I haven’t heard back from any of the VCs I contacted for comment, but judging by the list of backers, there are high hopes:

In addition to the three investors mentioned above, the other $10 million funding round investors, via Crunchbase:

Scott Heiferman, CEO of Meetup
Zach Klein, Vimeo cofounder
Caterina Fake, Flickr cofounder
Joshua Stylman, wide ranging angel investor including in Yipit
Peter Hershberg, president of SocialFlow
Chris Sacca, Twitter investor, former Google employee
Joi Ito, director of MIT Media Lab
Joshua Schachter, Delicious creator
Jared Kushner, New York Observer owner, real estate empire scion
Matt Haughey, builder of Metafilter
Chris Kaskie, president of Pitchfork Media
Chris Dixon, cofounder of Hunch
Dan Rosensweig, CEO of Chegg.com
Craig Shapiro, founder of Collaborative Fund
Thrive Capital, a Kushner family VC fund

About the Author
By Brendan Coffey
See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon
Add Fortune on Google for similar content.

Latest in

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025

Most Popular

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Fortune Secondary Logo
Rankings
  • 100 Best Companies
  • Fortune 500
  • Global 500
  • Fortune 500 Europe
  • Most Powerful Women
  • World's Most Admired Companies
  • See All Rankings
  • Lists Calendar
Sections
  • Finance
  • Fortune Crypto
  • Features
  • Leadership
  • Health
  • Commentary
  • Success
  • Retail
  • Mpw
  • Tech
  • Lifestyle
  • CEO Initiative
  • Asia
  • Politics
  • Conferences
  • Europe
  • Newsletters
  • Personal Finance
  • Environment
  • Magazine
  • Education
Customer Support
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Customer Service Portal
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
  • Single Issues For Purchase
  • International Print
Commercial Services
  • Advertising
  • Fortune Brand Studio
  • Fortune Analytics
  • Fortune Conferences
  • Business Development
  • Group Subscriptions
About Us
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • Facebook icon
  • Twitter icon
  • LinkedIn icon
  • Instagram icon
  • Pinterest icon

Latest in

Close to a million investors of the Trump memecoin lost a collective $3.8 billion, even as the president disclosed $636 million in earnings
CryptoCryptocurrency
Close to a million investors of the Trump memecoin lost a collective $3.8 billion, even as the president disclosed $636 million in earnings
By Marco Quiroz-GutierrezJuly 7, 2026
7 hours ago
The Best Berberine Supplements (2026): Everything You Need to Know
HealthDietary Supplements
The Best Berberine Supplements (2026): Everything You Need to Know
By Christina SnyderJuly 7, 2026
7 hours ago
Presidents aren’t supposed to pick winners, former White House ethics lawyer says. Trump keeps choosing Dell
PoliticsDonald Trump
Presidents aren’t supposed to pick winners, former White House ethics lawyer says. Trump keeps choosing Dell
By Mia OsmonbekovJuly 7, 2026
7 hours ago
Meet the former Goldman Sachs exec who became the America’s Cup Partnership’s first CEO and is running the 175-year-old trophy like a startup
C-SuiteSports
Meet the former Goldman Sachs exec who became the America’s Cup Partnership’s first CEO and is running the 175-year-old trophy like a startup
By Catherina GioinoJuly 7, 2026
7 hours ago
Palantir CEO Alex Karp with his arms outstretched while making a point on stage.
NewslettersEye on AI
Palantir CEO Alex Karp is wrong about the threat Anthropic and OpenAI pose to most enterprises. That doesn’t mean he doesn’t have something to lose
By Jeremy KahnJuly 7, 2026
8 hours ago
Scott Wu, in front of a blue background, sits in a gray chair and speaks to a person out of frame.
AIProductivity
Cognition CEO says tech companies got ‘carried away’ with token leaderboards and should measure employees on output instead
By Sasha RogelbergJuly 7, 2026
8 hours ago

Most Popular

Ex-PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi worked from midnight until 5 a.m. as a receptionist to pay for her Yale degree—and she says ‘respect went up’ because of it
Success
Ex-PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi worked from midnight until 5 a.m. as a receptionist to pay for her Yale degree—and she says ‘respect went up’ because of it
By Preston ForeJuly 6, 2026
1 day ago
Shark Tank's Kevin O'Leary says if he were 25 today, he'd chase these two booming opportunities in the world of AI
AI
Shark Tank's Kevin O'Leary says if he were 25 today, he'd chase these two booming opportunities in the world of AI
By Marco Quiroz-GutierrezJuly 5, 2026
3 days ago
China’s birth rate just hit its lowest point since 1949—and Trip.com cofounder James Liang thinks that’s a threat to innovation
Asia
China’s birth rate just hit its lowest point since 1949—and Trip.com cofounder James Liang thinks that’s a threat to innovation
By Nicholas GordonJuly 7, 2026
19 hours ago
Current price of oil as of July 6, 2026
Personal Finance
Current price of oil as of July 6, 2026
By Joseph HostetlerJuly 6, 2026
2 days ago
Even as Elon Musk calls philanthropy ‘very hard,’ everyday Americans gave a record $617 billion—despite feeling the squeeze over the cost of living
Success
Even as Elon Musk calls philanthropy ‘very hard,’ everyday Americans gave a record $617 billion—despite feeling the squeeze over the cost of living
By Preston ForeJuly 4, 2026
4 days ago
The man who ran Bernie's campaign says Democrats are still making the same mistakes with Democratic Socialists, and they should laud Mamdani's win
Politics
The man who ran Bernie's campaign says Democrats are still making the same mistakes with Democratic Socialists, and they should laud Mamdani's win
By Catherina GioinoJuly 6, 2026
1 day ago

© 2026 Fortune Media IP Limited. All Rights Reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information
FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.