New Crowdfunding Site Predicts Future Earnings A new financing platform lets aspiring 'treps sell equity in themselves.

It used to be that entrepreneurs needed a business plan to raise capital. But a handful of new crowdfunding sites let investors back hopeful entrepreneurs who show potential, even if they don't have a business idea yet. Upstart is one of them.

Launched in November by former Google employees Dave Girouard and Anna Mongayt and Thiel Fellow Paul Gu, Upstart utilizes an algorithm that draws on the academic and professional experience of aspiring entrepreneurs or upstarts to predict their future earnings. Interested accredited investors can then fund those wannabes in exchange for a percentage of their income over the next decade. "The theory is that $20,000 or $30,000 today can have a huge impact on their career and be much more valuable to them than it will be in 20 or 30 years," says Girouard, Upstart's CEO.

So far, backers have invested $1.3 million in upstarts through the site, which features more than 100 upstart and 160 backer profiles. Upstart collects 3 percent of the money entrepreneurs raise on the site and charges backers 0.5 percent of the amount they invest annually.