The crowd funding fatigue that I saw setting in about a year ago has dissipated and it seems to have entered into the public-norm. It's here, and it's here to stay. And like everything in this world it can't be painted with an over-all brush.

Unlike other start-ups, Ms. Mehrvar knows each of these women in Cambodia who is counting on her company, Lotus, to succeed. She launched the firm as a for-profit social enterprise, and for the textile industry in the developing world, her company couldn't have arrived at a better time.