How can you get money to develop your invention?

One interesting way to obtaining funding to develop an invention is to go through crowdfunding to obtain the necessary money. Many of my clients are independent inventors who may have a great invention, but they do not have the ten’s of thousands of dollars necessary to have prototypes built, and to finance a manufacturing run. Crowdfunding may be the answer. Wikipedia has a nice definition for crowdfunding: “…the collective cooperation, attention and trust by people who network and pool their money and other resources together, usually via the Internet, to support efforts initiated by other people or organizations.” Fon instance, one may post to a Crowdfunding site his or her invention and request a small amount from each person to fund a manufacturing run of the invention. However, make sure you have filed for patent protection PRIOR to disclosing your invention to the public! The Wikipedia article on Crowdfunding is a good place to get more information.