iFundie, based in Atlanta, is a crowdsourced-funding site for filmmakers, musicians, fashion designers, event promoters and others in the entertainment industry — a novel way to enable them to raise money for their latest projects and reward their contributors.

HOW MENTORING WILL HELP: “I’m equally, if not more, excited about the mentoring than the money,” Otu says. “We think we’ve hit on a good market with our product, but we need guidance on how best to position ourselves. Hearing from those who have been there will cut down on our trial-and-error mistakes tremendously. And being exposed to a network of professionals with aligned goals throughout the country adds that much more strength to what we’re trying to accomplish.”

HOW $10,000 WILL HELP: “It will relieve a tremendous amount of pressure,” Otu says. “It’s a morale booster, and serves as validation that all this sweat equity we’ve put forward hasn’t been in vain. We’ll put the majority of the money into our core technology, improving our design on the front end and code on the back end.”

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CROWDSOURCING — taking advantage of the collective wisdom, financial muscle and expertise of large groups of people — is a concept that never really existed until the advent of the Web. Seeking to leverage crowdsourcing’s power to help those in the entertainment industry finance their latest projects is the aim of Atlanta-based iFundie.

Cofounded by (from left in photo) managing partners Tareq Dowla, Lamont Franklin and Steven Otu, all 24, iFundie, which formally launched on the auspicious date of 1/11/11, aims to help entertainment-industry participants of all stripes — filmmakers, musicians, fashion designers, event promoters — gain access to the money they need to get their newest projects off the ground. They can set their own goals and terms, as well as establish rewards programs that will give their contributors extra incentive to help them obtain financing.

“The original idea came about around December 2009, while I was working for a startup real-estate company in India,” Otu says. “I read an article about how President Obama had used Facebook and other social media to raise more than $200 million for his 2008 campaign. I thought it would be great to attempt to apply this same model to a different industry.” •