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> There are public platforms for crowd investing of startups, but they require users to be accredited investors due to regulations.

Perhaps in the US? In the UK we have Crowdcube which anyone can sign up to and invest in new (and older) startups.

There's also Seedrs which was just acquired by Republic[1], the major US platform pursuing the crowdfunding model. The difference vs. Kickstarter is the barrier to entry: companies must go through approval to list on CrowdCube, Seedrs, Republic etc. (which is probably for the best!).

The OP is correct though, crowdfunding (in the UK at least) is complete and utter garbage, where most companies raising are untouchable by traditional investors.

[1] https://republic.com/

> If the customer would receive shares of the company in exchange for their money, that’s just investing.

How about the customer paying for future services?

Isn’t that just normal Kickstarter

> How about the customer paying for future services?

That’s just Kickstarter.

> The real issue is that good startup teams don’t have any problem raising normal investment capital right now.

I know plenty of founders of companies that raised huge rounds from top VCs and most of them would have preferred to avoid dealing with VCs if there was an alternative. VCs are a hurdle and their incentives are not really aligned with yours. Getting buy in from your customers and peers is a much more sustainable path long term if your goal isn't to pump and dump your business in 4-8 years.

The VC path is littered with dead companies that could have been sustainable mid sized businesses and successful mid sized businesses that were pumped full of cash and ran off the cliff.