Showing 47 posts in Venture Capital/Funding.
The SEC Crowdfunding Proposed Regulations: Platform for Offering Issuer’s Maximum Offering Size
Platform for Offering. The SEC is proposing to limit the availability of the crowdfunding exemption to offerings that are made through a registered intermediary on an Internet website or similar electronic medium, referred to in the proposed regulations as a “platform.” Accessibility through mobile devices is permitted. What the SEC wants to assure is that the offering occurs in a technology environment that will be accessible to the public and allow members of the crowd to share information and opinions. The JOBS Act does not require this limitation. It appears that the SEC is placing considerable emphasis on the benefits of the role of online discussion forums. Read More ›
Categories: Crowdfunding, Venture Capital/Funding
Share
The SEC Crowdfunding Proposed Regulations: Process Overview
In his recent blog posting, my colleague, John Mashni, noted that on October 23, 2013, the SEC issued a release containing the long awaited proposed crowdfunding regulations.
The SEC release is 568 pages long with an additional 17 page exhibit. Reviewing the release is not for the faint of heart!
We will share some of the highlights from the release and proposed regulations in bite sized pieces over a period of several weeks. We hope this will make the information easier for you to digest. Read More ›
Categories: Crowdfunding, Venture Capital/Funding
Welcome to the World of General Solicitation
As of September 23, 2013, the ban on general solicitation has been lifted for private securities offerings exempt from federal registration under Rule 506. Entrepreneurs can now publicly advertise the sale of securities by complying with the newly-effective regulations.
General solicitation means to publicly advertise an investment opportunity in a private company using a means of mass communication. This includes communication via email, website, public speech, or even social media.
These rules are complex and any entrepreneur should seek professional guidance before engaging in any fundraising. Read More ›
Categories: Venture Capital/Funding
Internet Based Offerings to Accredited Investors Will Soon Be Legal
Access to capital is one of the most challenging issues facing young companies today. In order to engage in a private placement of securities that is exempt from registration under the federal securities laws, the most popular approach has been an offering under Rule 506, under which most of the requirements that may be imposed under state law are preempted. An offering under Rule 506 permits sales of securities to an unlimited number of accredited investors, and up to 35 non-accredited investors. As described in greater detail below, accredited investors are people who meet minimum wealth or income standards, or institutional investors. Read More ›
Categories: Venture Capital/Funding
Veronica Mars Kickstarter Success
As noted in a prior blog article, investment crowdfunding is awaiting SEC regulations. However, “reward” and “experience” based crowdfunding via websites such as Kickstarter have seen success.
On March 13, 2013, Rob Thomas, the creator of Veronica Mars, launched a Kickstarter project to fund the making of a Veronica Mars movie. Veronica Mars was previously a television show on UPN that aired from 2004 to 2007. It took only 11 hours for the project to meet its funding goal of $2 million dollars. The initial fundraising goal was to raise $2 million in 30 days. Read More ›
Categories: Crowdfunding, Venture Capital/Funding
While We Wait for the SEC on Crowdfunding, UK Sees Success
Here in the U.S., we continue to wait for the SEC to issue regulations before we can use investment based crowdfunding under the JOBS Act. In the meantime, investment crowdfunding has been available in the UK for two years.
Crowdcube, a UK based crowdfunding portal, recently released its results after two years of operations: Read about Crowdcube's success ›
Categories: Crowdfunding, Venture Capital/Funding
FINRA Issues Voluntary Interim Form for Equity Crowdfunding Portals
On January 10, 2013, FINRA (the Financial Regulatory Authority) issued a voluntary Interim Form for Funding Portals. Under the JOBS Act, once the SEC adopts its crowdfunding regulations and equity crowdfunding becomes legal in the United States, equity crowdfunding portals will be required to become members of FINRA. FINRA currently regulates broker-dealers.
In the meantime, FINRA is requesting confidential information from equity crowdfunding portals that it can use to help it develop the rules it will impose on portal members. Click here for the FINRA release and link to the form (We have identified that the following link is no longer active, and it has been removed).
Categories: Crowdfunding, Venture Capital/Funding
No Movement Yet On Crowdfunding Regs
The SEC has a very large task ahead of it in order to complete adoption of the regulations required under the JOBS Act.
One provision of the JOBS Act permits general solicitation of investors by a company if only accredited investors are allowed to invest. This will permit the use of a web portal or other electronic platform for the solicitation of accredited investors. Congress gave the SEC a deadline of July 4, 2012 to adopt regulations specifying the steps a company is required to take in order to clearly establish that each investor is accredited. The SEC proposed these regulations on August 29, 2012. Because the SEC had invited comments before the proposed regulations were issued and those comments were factored into the proposed regulations, we had anticipated that final regulations would issue soon after expiration of the comment period. Read More ›
Categories: Crowdfunding, Venture Capital/Funding
Intellectual Property Rights and the Crowdfunding Platform
Crowdfunding, some would say, is the new social networking platform of raising money from people online. While crowdfunding is a relatively new term and concept, traditional principles of law still apply. Artists, startups and online creators using this new platform are governed by Intellectual Property principles.
Intellectual Property (IP) refers to the creations of the mind; and most commonly include ideas or inventions, literary and artistic works, symbols that identify your brand, names, logos and/or competitive business ideas or information. Under this broad umbrella of Intellectual Property, there are generally four categories that govern the use of Intellectual Property:
- Trademarks
- Patents
- Copyrights
- Trade Secrets
Before pitching or disclosing your concept to an online crowdfunding community to raise money these four categories of protection and the potential resulting consequences should be thoroughly examined. Failure to do so could result in the inadvertent theft, infringement or forfeiture of your IP rights. Let's take a deeper look at these four categories. Read More ›
Categories: Copyright, Crowdfunding, Intellectual Property, Patents, Trade Secrets, Trademarks, Venture Capital/Funding
Crowdfunding (Non-Investment) May be a Good Fit for Some Businesses
The JOBS Act, which became law on April 5, 2012, included for the first time in the U.S., a legal structure that will permit the use of general solicitation in connection with small, non-registered investment offerings in the context of crowdfunding. The SEC still needs to adopt implementing regulations before this funding vehicle becomes available and the market decides if it is viable. This will take several months, if not a year. In the meantime, and even after investment crowdfunding becomes available, regular, non-investment crowdfunding may be a viable alternative for your enterprise. Read More ›
Categories: Crowdfunding, Venture Capital/Funding
Categories
- Intellectual Property
- Artificial Intelligence (AI)
- Electronic Health Records
- Alerts and Updates
- HIPAA
- Insurance
- Corporate Transparency Act (CTA)
- Sales/Disputes
- Sales Tax
- Liability
- Copyright
- Fraud & Abuse
- Technology
- Criminal
- Entity Selection, Organization & Planning
- Mergers & Acquisitions
- Distribution
- Labor Relations
- Compliance
- Tax Disputes
- Financing
- Domain Name Registration
- Department of Labor
- Inspirational
- Social Media
- Privacy
- Hospice
- Trade Secrets
- Lawsuit
- Hospitals
- News
- Contracts
- Entity Planning
- Trademarks
- Patents
- Employee Benefits
- Retirement
- Crowdfunding
- Personal Publicity Rights
- Employment
- IT Contracts
- Billing/Payment
- Did you Know?
- Licensing
- Cybersecurity
- Cloud Computing
- Legislative Updates
- Venture Capital/Funding
- E-Commerce
- Digital Assets
- Tax
- Regulations
- Chapter 11
- Startup