Tagged: perspective

Women Entrepreneurs, Crowdfunding, and Access to Capital

Last month PwC and the Crowdfunding Center partnered on a report regarding women and crowdfunding. Referencing data collected by the Crowdfunding Center that analyzed 450,000 rewards based crowdfunding campaigns, the document entitled “Women Unbound: Crowdfunding – Unleashing Female Entrepreneurial Potential,” showed that women-led campaigns reached their… Read More

Report: Analog Regulations Built for the Traditional Banking Space are not Conducive to Fostering Innovation in Financial Services

  The digitization of finance is upon us. Fintech is rapidly changing all aspects of the financial services sector but different countries are adapting at different paces – regulation is largely why. Jackson Mueller, writing for the Milken Institute, hosted several roundtables earlier this year… Read More

FCA Survey: 25% of Regulated Firms Believe FCA is Facilitating Innovation in the UK

In the financial services sector clear and transparent regulation is vital to a healthy marketplace. There is no financial services firm that will take issue with this statement. Yet regulation that balances on the tightrope of an efficient market and investor protection is quite hard…. Read More

Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment: Poised to Inspire the Next IPO Boom

It was the summer of 1995. Hootie and the Blowfish were on tour and Brad Pitt was People Magazine’s sexiest man alive. It was a time when salads were big and shirts were puffy. Microsoft released Windows 95, fueling a revolution that helped shape the… Read More

Data Proves Regulation Crowdfunding is a Revenue, Income Generator AND a Jobs Engine: What is our Government & Media Waiting For?

Regulation Crowdfunding is a little over a year old and the data indicates that it is a revenue and income generator for companies and a jobs engine for the economy. The law requires companies that complete successful campaigns to file an Annual Report with the… Read More

Look in the Mirror: Why the Number of Public Companies & IPOs are in Decline

  The decline in the number of public companies in the United States and the decline in the number of initial public offerings (IPOs) that occur each year are widely decried. It is irony that many who bemoan these changes are the very persons who… Read More

“Sarbanes-Oxley is Shutting Out Average Investors from the Early Growth Stages of the Next Cisco & Starbucks”

It is a fact that the number of public companies and the number of companies going public have dramatically decreased over the last 15 years. For private investors like High Net Worth Individuals or Venture Capitalists this has not been an issue. It is arguable… Read More

The Psychology of Crowdfunding

Working with crowdfunders for nearly five years we’ve seen and heard almost everything.  While I could write a book – or perhaps even a series of books – on all the different experiences, observations and encounters I’ve accumulated over time – I’m writing this article… Read More

Financial Innovation Now Lauds Payment Task Force Report, Asks Congress to Move Forward (Faster)

Today the Faster Payments Task Force, created by the Federal Reserve, released its final report along with their recommendations on what needs to be accomplished to bring the US up to date in the payments space. Anybody engaged in the payments sector understands that the US… Read More

Commissioner Piwowar Shares Insight into Securities Rulemaking, Fintech & SEC Direction on Capital Formation

Commissioner Michael Piwowar, who was Acting Chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) until the successful appointment of Jay Clayton, visited with David Burton of the Heritage Foundation earlier this week providing a unique glimpse into the world of the SEC. Burton, who is… Read More

Acting Comptroller Answers Fintech Question: “What are your thoughts on granting national bank charters to financial technology companies?”

The Acting Comptroller of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, Keith Noreika, answered a pressing question today in a speech delivered at the Exchequer Club in Washington, DC. Noreika asked the question of himself that everyone in finance had been wondering; “What are… Read More

Eyes Wide Shut: ICOs as a New Path to Startup Fundraising (Password Required)

This article is my attempt at providing a definitive guide to the complex, and so far, self-regulated, landscape of ICOs. Warning: mature content. What on Earth is ICO? Just as how in the ancient movie “Eyes Wide Shut” the password “fidelio” gave access to a… Read More

PwC: Fintech Survey China 2017

PwC has recently published a report on the status of Fintech in China, which happens to be the largest Fintech market in the world. This week, PwC Chairman and CEO of Greater China Raymund Chao presented the research in Hong Kong to the LendIt China… Read More

What the Heck is Going on with Ethereum?

Ether, the cryptocurrency based off of and powering the blockchain technology Ethereum, made headlines last month after soaring to over $400 a coin. The huge surge caused many people to speculate that Ethereum would one day surpass Bitcoin, the world’s most valuable cryptocoin both by market… Read More

Vanishing IPOs: A Discussion Of The Causes, Cures & Implications

In a recent testimony to the Investor Advisory Committee of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Scott Kupor, CEO & Managing Partner of Andreessen Horowitz, a $6.5 billion multi-stage venture capital firm, gave an amazingly comprehensive and concise description of today’s vanishing IPO market, the… Read More

New Routes to Funding: What I Learned from Writing the Book

  The thing that has struck more most forcibly is just how much untapped potential there is here – and how badly it is going to be needed. I’ve lived near the leading edge of technology for several decades now and seen how it has… Read More

New & Improved: Reg A+ May Soon Be Available for Publicly Traded Firms

There is a bill circulating in Congress that may dramatically impact Reg A+ utilization – the crowdfunding rule that currently allows issuers to raise up to $50 million in a scaled disclosure environment. Sponsored by House Representatives Kyrsten Sinema and Trey Hollingsworth, the bill (HR… Read More

Investor protection vs Access to Finance: The Growth of Alternative Finance

The presentation embedded below is an interesting perspective on the growth of alternative finance, specifically in Europe. There has been a certain amount of discussion regarding the tepid growth of investment crowdfunding in the US (not including marketplace lending) and the reasons why the sector… Read More

COUNTDOWN:  2 Weeks from Now Crowdfunding Will Change the World of Men & Women Forever

As impact goes it doesn’t get much bigger. Crowdfunding has been much misunderstood and, let’s be honest, has underperformed our best expectations. It was supposed to “democratise finance” – and much more. Much focus has been on equity, regulation and the JOBS Act. The friction… Read More

Is Crowdfunding to Blame for the Decline of IPOs?

    In a recent article published in the Hastings Law Journal (embedded below), Duke University School of Law Associate Professor Elisabeth de Fontenay discusses the relationship between the recent decline of IPOs and the deregulation of private capital. Professor Fontenay also spoke at the… Read More

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