Opinion

February 26, 2014 @ 7:21 pm By Tom McGinn  |  

“Kickstarter is crowdfunding with training wheels.” For many, equity-based crowdfunding is the final stage of crowdfunding’s evolution. The United Kingdom was an early adopter of equity crowdfunding. Less than two months after President Barack Obama signed the JOBS Act in 2012, dubbed the “Crowdfunding Bill”,… Read More

February 24, 2014 @ 7:00 am By Samuel S. Guzik, The Crowdfunding Counselor  |  

Crowdfunding May Require JOBS Act 2.0. It started out as a noble idea. If only crowdfunding could go to the next level – from a paradigm where a multitude of individuals could join together – courtesy of the Internet – and fund a worthwhile social… Read More

February 23, 2014 @ 6:09 pm By JD Alois  |  

Blue Patent GmbH, a company funded in the fall of 2011 on the German equity crowdfunding platform Seedmatch, has suspended operations.  In a disappointing announcement made this past week, Seedmatch shared the news the young company was ceasing operations.  In an effort to support transparency,… Read More

February 20, 2014 @ 10:33 am By Christian Faes  |  

“Glaring Omissions” with FCA Regulations Regarding Due Diligence by Platforms. There is a lot of hype about the future potential of crowdfunding and peer-to-peer (P2P) lending. The United States has shown the huge potential with platforms such as Lending Club and Prosper lending billions of… Read More

February 18, 2014 @ 7:53 pm By JD Alois  |  

CultureCrowd, an organization that helps the arts and creative industries with equity crowdfunding by connecting their audiences and developing new revenue streams, has declared the future has arrived and that 2013 will be noted as a turning point for crowdfunding and the arts. Back in… Read More

February 17, 2014 @ 11:18 am By Charles Luzar  |  

If we were tallying states up today, Kansas, Georgia, Michigan and Wisconsin have made equity crowdfunding legal and are in some stage of implementation. Alabama, Washington, Maine and North Carolina are all considering exemptions. Of course, that may change tomorrow. Amidst all the hoopla about a… Read More

February 12, 2014 @ 10:05 am By Charles Luzar  |  

It’s one of the top 1,000 web sites in the world. It’s been used to fund small, personal pet projects and it’s been used to spur enormous companies. It creates jobs. It’s a platform, an idea, and now even a verb. Do you start a… Read More

February 7, 2014 @ 10:24 am By David R. Burton  |  

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is considering substantial increases in the Regulation D thresholds for “accredited investor” income and net worth, which would reduce the pool of potential investors in small businesses and start-up companies by 60 percent to 70 percent. This will impede… Read More

February 7, 2014 @ 9:08 am By Charles Luzar  |  

Representative Sam Graves (R-Mo.) has submitted a comment letter on proposed rules for Title III crowdfunding. He is the Chairman of the House Committee on Small Business, the same committee that has seen various testimonies on the subject of crowdfunding and the alternative finance industry… Read More

February 5, 2014 @ 11:36 am By Charles Luzar  |  

Crowdfunding and health-related initiatives are invariably linked. Crowdfunding can drive funding for outreach programs, research and even specific surgeries, which was the goal of a FundRazr campaign launched by The Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation. The campaign launched seeking $15,000 in order to pay for six… Read More

February 4, 2014 @ 11:00 am By Charles Luzar  |  

TheCHIVE is a hugely popular web site organized around sharing all things good in the world. You may have seen their ubiquitous KEEP CALM and CHIVE ON shirts adorned somewhere near you. If you didn’t know what they were, now you do! One local faction… Read More

February 3, 2014 @ 9:57 am By JD Alois  |  

Title III of the JOBS Act is the portion of the legislation which has become emblematic for the concept of “crowdfunding”.  This section of the act guides “retail” crowdfunding or the ability of non-accredited investors to participate in crowdfunded public offerings of up to $1… Read More

January 31, 2014 @ 3:32 am By Mary Juetten  |  

If you are an entrepreneur with an opinion on crowdfunding, please take note – Monday, February 3rd, 2014 is a very important day for you. Public comments on the proposed rules for securities crowdfunding under the Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act are due to… Read More

January 29, 2014 @ 8:23 am By JD Alois  |  

SeedInvest, an equity crowdfunding platform that is currently operating as an accredited investor site, recently submitted two comment letters to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).  The documents were posted to the section regarding proposed rules regarding the JOBS Act, Title III commonly referred to… Read More

January 27, 2014 @ 4:19 pm By Samuel Guzik  |  

In a speech delivered today by SEC Chair Mary Jo White at the 41st Annual Securities Regulation Institute in Coronado, California, entitled: “The SEC in 2014,” it appears that Chair White has “gotten the memo” from her predecessors, and is well on her way to… Read More

January 26, 2014 @ 1:30 pm By JD Alois  |  

Securities attorney, JOBS Act authority and Crowdfund Insider columnist Sam Guzik was recently interviewed on It’s Rainmaking Time by Kim Greenhouse.   Her guests were bestselling authors, leaders of industry, and pioneers attracting listeners from around the world. Greenhouse, having met Guzik a the Crowdfunding Bootcamp… Read More

January 24, 2014 @ 10:18 am By Brad Feld  |  

Brad Feld is a venture capitalist with the Foundry Group in Boulder, Colorado. He invests in software and Internet companies around the United States. The following post was shared with permission. When the JOBS Act was finalized, one of the rule changes that had a lot of… Read More

January 22, 2014 @ 12:23 pm By Kiran Lingam  |  

Since the proposed crowdfunding rules were released on October 23, 2013, the top concern for many in the industry has been that the costs of compliance would make crowdfunding too expensive to be useful. Our Crowdfunding Cost Model further backed up this concern, indicating that… Read More

January 22, 2014 @ 1:08 am By Samuel S. Guzik, The Crowdfunding Counselor  |  

December 18, 2013 may well mark an historic turning point in the ability of small business to effectively access capital in the private and public markets under the federal securities regulatory framework.

January 21, 2014 @ 12:02 pm By Charles Luzar  |  

In an op-ed published to The Digital Journal today, Maryland State Senate candidate Don Quinn presents his case for an intrastate crowdfunding exemption in his home state. It goes without saying that each small business is more than just a single unit employer. Every small… Read More