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Comment by vincentmarle | Hacker News Reader

> found, however, that there was an “internet adviser exemption” for advisers that give advice entirely through the internet. That sounded like an exemption I could qualify for — I would just have to commit to not giving any face-to-face investment advice

One thing I didn’t understand from this article is what “giving investment advice” has to do with being an accredited investor and investing into startups. Can someone clarify that?

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> One thing I didn’t understand from this article is what “giving investment advice” has to do with being an accredited investor and investing into startups. Can someone clarify that?

The article addresses this: the SEC accredited investor classification has several ways to qualify, the older ones are variants of “rich enough to presumably know what they are doing” and the newer ones added are “has one of a specified list of professional licenses/certifications that directly relate to knowing what they are doing with investments”, and the particular one that the author chose to pursue for that purpose was related to giving investment advice.

Ok so he doesn't actually plan to give investment advice, he just wants the license to be considered an accredited investor. Got it, thanks!

Investing in startups generally requires being an accredited investor. To be an accredited investor they need to pass the Series 65 test and get licensed. Licensing can be state or federal, but federal is generally more convenient. Federal registration usually requires significant assets under management which the author certainly doesn't have, but the "internet adviser exemption" allows them to register federally (SEC) without the $ minimum.

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