May 22, 2013 @ 10:14 pm By Techonomy  |  

When the JOBS Act was signed into law, its knotty crowdfunding provisions quickly became a source of consternation for the SEC. More than one year later, the law continues to languish, as the SEC moves slowly to implement its two most important provisions. One would enable general advertising for private investment offerings, and another would open the floodgates by… Read More

Read more in: Politics  |  Tagged debt, equity, jobs act, lending, mary jo white, sec

May 22, 2013 @ 10:26 am By Charles Luzar  |  

Dealstruck is a debt-based crowdfunding platform based in La Jolla, California. It was launched by co-founders Ethan Senturia and Russel McLoughlin. In a recent interview with Xconomy, Senturia describes the process of launching the company. The throught process he alluded to should raise a red flag for equity crowdfunding’s stakeholders, and it outlines the biggest… Read More

Read more in: Crowdfunding Portals, Strategy  |  Tagged cost, dealstruck, equity, jobs act, regulations, sec

May 20, 2013 @ 8:13 am By Charles Luzar  |  

A report released last month entitled Equity Crowdfunding and Venture Capital included some interesting revelations regarding what US venture capitalists and lawyers expect from equity crowdfunding. The report surveyed VCs and lawyers based in the states. Questions sought to gauge expectations about the JOBS Act’s trajectory and future effect. Overall, most view equity crowdfunding in a positive… Read More

Read more in: Featured Headlines, General News  |  Tagged fraud, jobs act, pretail, sec, sharewave, vc, venture capital, venture capitalists

May 17, 2013 @ 10:58 am By Charles Luzar  |  

Lona Nallengara has been named the SEC’s chief of staff today, leaving his previous post as the director of the agency’s Division of Corporate Finance. Nallengara took his lumps in a recent House Committee hearing over the SEC’s delay in implementation of the JOBS Act, and especially on the delay of Title II. Committee members… Read More

Read more in: General News  |  Tagged jobs act, lona nallengara, sec

May 17, 2013 @ 9:52 am By Northwest Public Radio  |  

Crowdfunding websites have grown rapidly as a way to raise money for creative ventures… everything from movies to scientific research to clever inventions. You might have heard of Kickstarter, Indiegogo or Rockethub. It would be just a small leap to use those same platforms to sell shares in a startup. That’s illegal right now, but… Read More

Read more in: Politics  |  Tagged equity, jobs act, sec, washington

May 15, 2013 @ 7:58 am By Charles Luzar  |  

Title III of the JOBS Act stands to legalize the participation of non-accredited investors in crowdfunding offerings. One of the wildcards in the approach up to the implementation of Title III is the cap on how much an individual is allowed to invest per year, a number based on things like personal income and net… Read More

Read more in: Crowdfunding Portals, Featured Headlines, Strategy  |  Tagged api, compliance, crowdbouncer, crowdit, equity net, jobs act, sec, venturedocs

May 14, 2013 @ 9:58 am By The Hill  |  

The JOBS Act has the potential to help entrepreneurs finance their small and emerging growth businesses through “crowdfunding,” but only if we get the costs right. In the year since the measure was signed into law, online technology platforms have continued to successfully disrupt the costs of fundraising, necessitating a reevaluation by the Securities and… Read More

Read more in: Strategy  |  Tagged cost, jobs act, sec

May 14, 2013 @ 9:55 am By Charles Luzar  |  

Yesterday a group of GOP lawmakers including Representative Patrick McHenry sent a letter to newly minted SEC chairman Mary Jo White. The letter urges timely implementation of Section 201 of the JOBS Act, which calls for the removal of the ban on general solicitation for private offerings under Rule 506. This echoes the sentiments presented… Read More

Read more in: Politics  |  Tagged congressman kevin mccarthy, congressman patrick mchenry, general solicitation, mary jo white, rule 506, sec, senator john thune, senator pat toomey

May 9, 2013 @ 9:59 am By CrowdCheck  |  

Everyone in the startup world knows a good pivot story, right? The wedding planner site that became a peer-to-peer boat rental outfit, the “gay Groupon” that became a fabulously successful retailer. It’s not that unusual for a team to find that their original concept just isn’t going to work, but they have this other idea that is going to… Read More

Read more in: Strategy  |  Tagged crowdcheck, disclosure, pivot, sara hanks, sec

May 9, 2013 @ 9:57 am By Crowd Valley Blog  |  

AngelList and FundersClub both recently requested and received “no action” relief from the SEC staff. “No action” letters are often complicated and the law surrounding the discussion is extremely opaque. We have sought to set out the implications of the relief granted by the staff at the SEC as well as a summary of the… Read More

Read more in: Politics  |  Tagged crowd valley, regulation, sec

May 8, 2013 @ 9:54 am By Wired  |  

… It would be one thing if the SEC were painstakingly crafting rules to prevent fraud and investment bubbles, they add, but instead turnover at the top has kept commissioners sitting on rules that were drafted five months ago and due for release at the end of last year under the terms of the JOBS… Read More

Read more in: Opinion  |  Tagged candace klein, jobs act, sec, somolend

May 8, 2013 @ 9:52 am By The Business Journal  |  

In some ways, America’s pending shift to allow equity crowdfunding starts with beer. Two advertising executives in 2009 created a website to raise money from individuals to buy Pabst Brewing Co., which makes the hipster favorite Pabst Blue Ribbon. They raised more than $200 million, according to a report from The New York Times. Problem was,… Read More

Read more in: General News  |  Tagged equity, history, sec

May 7, 2013 @ 6:00 am By CFI Correspondent  |  

In two recent no-action letters the SEC granted exemptive relief from broker dealer registration to crowdfunding sites accepting only pre-screened accredited investors on the basis that the platforms received carried interest rather than transaction based compensation. According to securities attorney Simon Riveles of Riveles Law Group, the no-action letters in FoundersClub and AngelList do not represent… Read More

Read more in: General News, Politics  |  Tagged angellist, foundersclub, jobs act, sec, simon riveles

May 6, 2013 @ 1:47 pm By CNN Money  |  

Sarah Dvorak was desperate. The former retail executive had depleted her savings accounts, borrowed from family members, and secured a microloan from a local development group to launch Mission Cheese, a San Francisco café that would specialize in domestic products like Minnesota-made Camembert and a silky sheep’s-milk cheese from Northern California. But three weeks before… Read More

Read more in: General News  |  Tagged danae ringelmann, equity, indiegogo, jobs act, kickstarter, sec

May 4, 2013 @ 12:00 pm By CFI Correspondent  |  

The SEC yesterday announced the release of the final report from their Forum on Small Business Capital Formation for 2012.  The Forum included discussions regarding the implementation of the Jobs Act and elements of crowdfunding.  The announcement was distributed by Chief of the Office of Small Business Policy Gerald J. Laporte to interested parties. During… Read More

Read more in: Featured Headlines, Politics  |  Tagged forum on small business capital formation, gerald j. laporte, sarah hanks, sec, vincent molinari