Regular crowdfunding allows accredited as well as non-accredited investors to lock their money in with a start-up in exchange of various type of securities (preferred equity/convertible debt etc...). In this scheme the investors have most of the time absolutely 0 liquidity to exit their investment until the start-up goes public.
The DAO proposals in contrast offers a revenue sharing proposition. The startup can receive a lump sum or stream of payments in exchange for a promise to execute on their business plan. Once the company gets revenue (on the blockchain) a piece of it (like 1%) will be redistributed to token holders (as a form of dividend if you want).
In contrast to illiquid/bottom line offer available in regular crowdfunding platforms, the DAO offers a topline/liquid investment. The liquidity comes from the fact that although the DAO technically "locks" its investment with the startup, the DAO token themselves are a tradeable assets which can be exchanged against other cryptocurrencies (BTC mainly) as soon as the DAO is officially created.
In this light the DAO is akin to some kind of decentralized investment firm because the token holders are not directly owners of any share in the beneficiary business. On the other hand it is a transparent investment firm because no portfolio manager takes discretionary decisions about which startup funds will be allocated to.
the fund allocation logic is organized as "proposals" that can be voted in a secure and transparent fashion on the ethereum blockchain through a smart contract.
hope this clarifies some aspects of that project!