A resident of Prior Lake, Minnesota, Michael VanErdewyk is a veteran business executive and serial entrepreneur. Michael Van Erdewyk currently serves as the CEO of Bright Bucks, a Mobile App platform driving success for Organizations and their People by transforming Engagement, Information and Rewards. With a mission that empowers organizations with insights and tools to increase engagement with members, employees, and customers leading to enhanced satisfaction, loyalty and productivity. The vision is to revolutionize organizations engagement by enhancing communication and data-driven decisions and provide personalized incentives that foster stronger connections and drive sustainable growth.
Members can earn extra money by completing tasks, as well as cash-back rewards on everyday purchases to save, spend, or give back to their community. In his leadership role, Michael VanErdewyk has helped his startup raise over $3 million from seasoned early stage tech investors.
Raising capital is a major requirement for the success of many startups. Investors view this as a sign that a business is headed in the right direction and stands a good chance of being profitable. One startup that raised an enormous amount of money from investors is Meta, (formerly Facebook), through an initial public offering (IPO) in 2012. An IPO transforms a privately held company into a publicly traded corporation. It gives a startup the chance to raise substantial capital, boost its visibility, and offer its early investors an exit strategy that is financially lucrative.
One of the biggest tech IPOs in history, Meta raised $16 billion when it went public, establishing the company as a tech titan. Investor expectation for the IPO was extremely high because of Facebook's growth potential and domination of the social media industry.
Alibaba, a Chinese e-commerce giant, also raised money for its operations in a well-publicized deal. Their IPO on the New York Stock Exchange in 2014 is the largest in US history, raising an astounding $21.8 billion. The IPO demonstrated the enormous upside of the Chinese market and reaffirmed Alibaba's position as a leader in e-commerce worldwide.
Ride-hailing pioneer Uber also had an impressive IPO in 2019, garnering $8.1 billion, which valued the business at about $75 billion. Because of Uber's disruptive effect on the traditional taxi sector and its aspirations for developing driverless vehicles, the IPO was eagerly awaited.
