Ben joined the No Limit team in February as a Senior Brand Interactor. We had Liza play shrink to figure out what makes him tick.

Full Name: Benjamin Michael Heinemann

Birthday: January 29

Where have you lived? Minneapolis, MN; San Diego, CA; and now Chicago, IL

What did you do before coming to No Limit? I started as an Mac Specialist for Apple and then moved to greener pastures at Roepke, a small boutique Public Relations Firm in Minneapolis

If you could have any superpower, what would you choose?I would be able to play Jedi mind tricks to convince reporters to write about my clients!

What is your biggest accomplishment? My first bi-line in a magazine

What’s your dream vacation? Pompeii, Italy in the summertime to explore the ruins.

Who are your top three favorite musicians? Radiohead, Elliot Smith, Sufjan Stevens

If you were stuck on a desert island with one album, what would it be? Illinois by Sufjan Stevens

Favorite food: Pasta!

Favorite Movie: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Favorite TV Show: Lost

If there was a movie made about your life, what’s the title and who would play you? “Don’t Tell my Dad” with Mary Kate Olsen as the lead.

Favorite Viral Video: Sh*t Fashion Girls Say

You Should Know About is a new column in which a member of the No Limit social team highlights a technology, social network or service that is on the rise.

Crowdsourcing is still a new concept, but it’s one on the rise. Originally coined in 2006 in a Wired article by Jeff Howe, crowdsourcing is the process of drawing upon a group of people to complete a task or tasks. Kickstarter is taking the concept one step further–crowd funding.

Have you ever thought “I would love to see the original Grimm Fairy tails turned into an animated series?”  If so, you should know about Kickstarter. At it’s very core, Kickstarter allows the average Joe on the street to become a venture capitalist by contributing relatively small amounts of cash towards the completion of an assortment of projects. Projects have fundraiding “goals” and an associated time frame within which they are expected to reach that dollar amount.

The beauty of Kickstarter is that it allows people with great ideas to skip what is typically the most difficult step in making their concepts a reality–financing. Game developers and directors can use normal people like you and mean instead of going through publishers or producers. Likewise, inventors with innovative ideas can find the money they need to produce functioning prototypes and begin the transition to large-scale production.

Kickstarter also makes it easier to find financiers by offering multiple levels of commitment, typically ranging from very affordable ($10) to extravagant ($1,000). Backers, as contributors are known, don’t leave empty handed. Each level of commitment has it’s own reward which can be a free product, sponsor credit or even a working 60-watt burning laser. In addition, backers are reimbursed if the project fails to reach it’s goal by the predesignated deadline.

Concepts like Kickstarter are so fascinating because they foster innovation and give us opportunities to benefit from ideas we may never have heard about. I, for one, am excited to see what technological and cultural changes come from future crowd funding projects.

A Blog Post By:Brian Diggelmann (@briandigg)

Brian is a marketing coordinator and is dedicated to breaking out of his losing dart game slump.