IIRC Demon was an early (perhaps the first) example of crowdfunding ... the person who set it up posted on uk.telecom (I think) to say that he'd worked out if something like 100 people were prepared to pay him £10/month then that would cover the cost of him setting up a leased line and bank of modems for those people to dial into and was, at that stage, very much a case of "I want an internet connection at home and if 100 other people agree its worth £10/month then we can all do it together"
Biting the hand that feeds IT
