Posted on

No rush on companies using ‘crowdfunding’

by Chris Newmarker for finance-commerce.com

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission appears to be in no hurry when it comes to creating a framework for a business to assemble a bunch of small donations from numerous donors over the Internet – a practice called “crowdfunding” that is already widely employed by nonprofits and artists.

Jeffrey Robbins, an entrepreneurial law expert at Messerli & Kramer, recently returned to the Twin Cities from the annual Securities Regulation Institute near San Diego.

Generally, SEC staff at the gathering will promote soon-to-be-released rules from the agency, Robbins said.  Not so with crowdfunding, even though the 2012 Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act tasks the SEC with setting up mechanisms for businesses to raise up to $1 million annually from the practice.

For now the SEC is “reminding issuers that any offers or sales of securities purporting to rely on the crowdfunding exemption would be unlawful under the federal securities laws.”

Full Story Here

Posted on

Jason Best – All About Crowd Funding – Interview

Jason Best – All About Crowd Funding – Interview – Goldstein on Gelt

Jason Best and Sherwood Neiss are the owners of Crowdfund Capital Advisors (CCA). Find out what crowdfunding is and how it could help your business on this great show. “Goldstein on Gelt” is a global investment and financial planning radio show designed to educate and entertain its listeners with financial strategies and investment tips. Investment advisor Douglas Goldstein hosts the weekly show and is the director of Profile Investment Services, Ltd., www.profile-financial.com.

Posted on

P&G Taps Crowdfunding Site to Scout for Startup Brands

By John Tozzi for Businessweek

For small companies selling consumer products such as makeup or snack food, a partnership with a big multinational company can mean the difference between obscurity and becoming a household name. How does a small brand get a behemoth’s attention?

CircleUp, a crowdfunding website that connects startup consumer brands with investors, wants to be part of the answer. Today, the company announced a partnership with Procter & Gamble (PG) to get companies on CircleUp in front of P&G executives scouting for new brands. It made a similar deal with General Mills (GIS)last year.

Most companies on CircleUp have $1 million to $10 million in yearly sales and are trying to raise about $1 million from wealthy individual investors, says Chief Executive Ryan Caldbeck, a former private-equity investor. Since opening its doors last April, CircleUp has helped eight companies close funding deals. In addition to connecting young companies with investors, CircleUp wants to expose them to multinationals that could lead to partnerships or acquisitions, he says.

Full Story Here

Posted on

Free Crowdfunding Webinar

Dealflow Media brings us a free webinar on how crowdfunding will play a role in a revolution in early-stage capital formation.  Indiegogo’s own Founder & COO Danae Ringelmann as well as Crowdcube’s managing Director Darren Westlake will be speakers.

Take a moment to register for this exciting webinar Tuesday, March 13th @ 2pm (EDT). This webinar will also be recorded, so still take a look even if you missed the date.

To be covered in the webinar:

  • Overview of the Crowdfunding Market
  • Policy Issues and Securities Rules in the U.S.
  • Understanding the Potential for Fraud
  • Social Impact of Different Types of Crowdfunding
  • Opinions on Crowdfunding in Business Finance

Have your own webinar going on?  Or do you have a crowdfunding related guest post to share?  Let us know This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. , and we may just publish it for Crowdfunding Month.

Posted on

Platform Review: Credibles

Summary: Credibles, a service offered by Slow Money, offers crowdfunding services to small, sustainable food-related businesses. The site offers a redemption service for prepaid crowd funding, donation tracking, and more.

Best Feature: When donors prepay their favorite business, they’re repaid with edible credits, or “Credibles,” which can be redeemed at the business. These credits, worth $1, serve as an incentive for fans and customers to participate. A customer who invested in a food-related business could, for instance, be paid back for their investment in ice cream. Credibles can be given as gifts and transferred for use at partnering businesses.

What To Consider: The service is currently limited to businesses in New York City and California, so businesses in other areas will have to wait before they’re able to use the service.

Ideal User: Credibles is ideal for professionals and business owners in the food and restaurant industry.

Cost: Credibles charges a small service fee when a supporter pays via the “pre-pay” option, though the site does not specify how much.

Posted on

Will Crowdfunding Change the Face of Consumer Electronics?

By Jim Handy for

At this year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) a number of companies showed wares developed using the crowdfunding finance model popularized by Kickstarter, Indiegogo, and a variety of other firms.  Some of these devices were recently reviewed in another Forbes article and include:

  • Two watches: the Pebble and ConnectedDevice’s COOKOO,
  • A minimalist home phone by UrbanHello,
  • The Turtle Shell line of loudspeakers by Outdoor Technology,
  • Robots designed to look like the Android mascot by Reality Robotics,
  • The Shine activity monitor by Misfit Wearables,
  • HAPIfork, a food intake monitor,
  • Two 360-degree lenses for the iPhone, made by Kogeto and GoPano,
  • The Ouya game console,
  • The Good Night Lamp, a product that defies categorization.

These companies have raised anywhere from $100,000 to about $10 million using crowdsourcing, largely by taking pre-sale orders for upcoming products

Full Story Here

Posted on

CFA: Crowdfunding Explained

Interview from WPRI-TV, channel 12, a CBS-affiliated television station located in Providence, Rhode Island, USA. WPRI-TV is the flagship station of LIN Television Corporation, and also operates Fox affiliate WNAC-TV (channel 64) through a local marketing agreement (LMA).

 

Posted on

Crowdfunding Efforts Draw Suspicion

By Jean Eaglesham for The Wall Street Journal

Regulators are scrutinizing about 200 websites set up by entrepreneurs to profit from a more lenient law on the sale of shares in small companies.

State securities officials identified the websites after a sweep of thousands of Internet addresses for possible threats to investors following the looming change.

The probe was triggered by the Jumpstart Our Business Startups, or JOBS, Act, which dismantles many of the legal constraints on small companies selling shares on the Internet.

Securities laws currently prohibit private companies from advertising or selling shares to investors who aren’t relatively wealthy. The JOBS Act will allow companies to raise up to $1 million a year through small share sales to ordinary investors.

Full Story Here

Posted on

Equity Crowdfunding Rules Stalled at SEC

By Kyle Stock for Entrepreneur.com

To make the leap from theory to reality, crowdfunding will require the core elements of entrepreneurial spirit: a tolerance for risk and an urgency to execute on a great idea.

Sadly, both of those qualities are in short supply in Washington, D.C.

While the U.S. government slid under its New Year deadline to avert the fiscal cliff, it blew right past its milestone calling for a comprehensive set of rules to control crowdfunding, where small firms sellequity stakes without having to go through the expensive registration traditionally required by regulators.

Full Story Here