Crowdfunding Now!

I attended the Government-Business Forum on Small Business Capital Formation held at the US Securities and Exchange Commission on November 19th.  According to the SEC, one of the Forum's goals "is to .. highlight perceived unnecessary impediments to small business capital formation and address whether they can be eliminated or reduced. Each forum seeks to develop recommendations for government and private action to improve the environment for small business capital formation, consistent with other public policy goals, including investor protection. Participants in the Forum typically have included small business executives, venture capitalists, government officials, trade association representatives, lawyers, accountants, academics and small business advocates..the format of the Forum typically has emphasized small interactive breakout groups developing recommendations for governmental action."  Let me just say that the Forum was a  confirmation of some ...

The full Securities and Exchange Commission voted today to approve rules allowing full crowdfunding. This means that, in short order, you will be able to sell stock in your small or startup company over the Internet . Title 3 of the JOBS Act means that issuers can sell securities online to anyone. The SEC voted to create a new SEC Act exemption to do so. The amount of money you can raise and the amount of money you can invest is limited, however. SEC Staff Members John Ramsey and Sebastian Gomez were two of the authors of this exemption. Ramsey noted the new rule requires crowdfunding intermediaries to register with the SEC and FINRA. The new rules create an entirely new type of business financing firm: a Funding Portal (FP). Portals bring investors, companies together. He noted that FINRA will issue a regulatory notice on FPs. SEC Staff Member Lela Bond noted that the proposed rules exclude foreign companies, investment companies, companies with no business plan, and co...