Crowd-Based Funding Enables Innovation at Luxury Adult Toy Company

CREDIT: Crave View full size image

No one needs reminding that times are tight. A tanking stock market, global credit problems and a drop-off in consumer spending have put a chokehold on small business startups. Combining an industrial design mentality reminiscent of Apple with a Web-based fundraising scheme, the adult toy manufacturer Crave has not only successfully built a new company amidst the ruin of the so-called Great Recession, but they have laid out a blueprint for how other small businesses can help bring their consumer-ready products to market.

After the online group-funding site Kickstarter rejected ((CONLINK|2707|the project as too risquÃ