TheSpec.com | Lisa Marr  | Feb 20, 2014

Serial entrepreneur Jim Rudnick has launched a crowdfunding site to help other HamOnt entrepreneurs — FundHamOnt.com.

Rudnick, owner of KKT Interactive SEO optimization company and one of the founders of Snap-pay.com — a credit card program that can be used on a mobile phone, is somewhat familiar with startups and online platforms.

For Rudnick, it's not just what crowdfunding sites can do for local entrepreneurs now, it's what they can do in the future.

NCFA Webcast (Feb 21, 2014):  Equity Crowdfunding and Global Trends

"I've been watching a lot of interactions on crowdfunding sites and I didn't intend to provide a platform where it ends up just being a buffer between a startup and a bunch of friends and family," said Rudnick.

So he was intrigued when the United States relaxed rules over equity funding, following the path of many other European countries.

In Canada, the matter of equity funding is under provincial jurisdiction and last year the Ontario Securities Commission held a roundtable discussion seeking input on the issue.

The way many crowdfunding sites work is this: an entrepreneur has an idea for a business, or needs some capital to buy equipment to expand or grow the business and initiates a crowdfunding campaign — there are more than 400 available sites such as Kickstarter (which landed in Canada in September, 2013) and indiegogo — to raise money.

According to the National Crowdfunding Association of Canada (NCFA), there were 45 crowdfunding platforms in Canada as of Jan. 2013.

Eventually, there may be an opportunity to have an equity-based crowdfunding site, but for now, Rudnick's interest is in launching a geospecific site, something he said he could not find anywhere else.

Continue to the full article --> here