Sharewave is a company aimed at helping businesses coordinate and communicate with numerous disparate shareholders. (They’re looking at you, equity crowdfunders.) From their site…
Why do we have so many protections against small investors participating in private equity? Even with the recent JOBS act, which relaxes some of the restrictions, there is still considerable regulation, and hesitancy on the part of many who believe that allowing small investors to participate in private offerings is dangerous or ill-advised.
One of the reasons is the concern about access to information. Much of the regulation imposed on public companies is related to how much information they must disseminate; how and when they must communicate to the investing public. Non-public companies, on the other hand, are more ad hoc and erratic in their investor communications. They tend to be smaller, on average, and often don’t have the resources required to focus on investor relations. Hence, people who are well-connected to the company management will likely have access to better and more timely information than the investing public — handicapping the small investor’s ability to make informed decisions. Hence, regulation.
Instead of relying on government to solve the problem, perhaps there is another way. Perhaps we could make it easier for companies to communicate with their shareholders and the investing public. That’s what Sharewave aims to do.
Sharewave recently won a VentureBeat contest for best pitch video for the video that leads this article. You can sign up to be notified of their launch @ sharewave.com.
I’ve reached out to them and hope to have more shortly.
