Indiegogo CEO Slava Rubin wants corporations to try crowdfunding

Crowdfunding and CES have been deeply intertwined for years, with some of the industry’s most exciting and ambitious wearables, drones, and wacky consumer tech getting their starts on platforms like Indiegogo and Kickstarter. For Slava Rubin, who co-founded Indiegogo back in 2008, there are still untapped areas crowdfunding can reach. At this year’s show, Indiegogo launched what it calls Enterprise Crowdfunding. The initiative invites companies as large as GE and Hasbro to launch campaigns for new projects, and Rubin wants anyone and everyone with an idea to come launch it on his platform. (Of course, Indiegogo takes a 5 percent cut.)

While a multinational corporation doesn’t need your money to fund its next product, Rubin says the idea is to help foster relationships between scrappy entrepreneurs and big-name brands. He also thinks the conservative, risk-adverse nature of large corporations could use a little experimentation, and crowdfunding is the perfect place to do market research and get feedback. Rubin stopped by The Verge booth at CES this week to tell us more about the future of crowdfunding, and explain why the little guys shouldn’t be worried about sharing the stage with household names.