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Comment by kdsudac | Hacker News Reader

I checked out the video. Was disinterested until 0:50 mark. Once I saw minimum investment as low as $1,000 my interest went up. Kinda lending club meets kickstarter.

Probably a fair amount of people (myself included) would like to be an angel investor. For people who are rich but not one-percenters cutting a check for $100,000 for a risky investment is a high barrier to entry. I'd be more inclined to make 10 x $1,000-$2,000 investments (bets?).

Could be interesting for niche markets if it bring in people with expertise, high income and are also decision makers in their day jobs: doctors, lawyers, small business owners, senior managers, corporate officers, etc.

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Perhaps eventually. At the moment you need to be an "Accredited investor" in order to actually join and invest. They define an "Accredited investor" as meeting at least one of the following criteria:

- Someone who has made $200k+ for the past two years and will continue to do so.

- Someone with joint income with a spouse exceeding $300k for the past two years.

- Net worth or joint net worth exceeding $1 million.

While this does make sense, it basically means the type of folks who are already quite rich and would be making these sorts of investments just have the tools and ability to make investments at a lower scale, and through a website.

It's definitely an interesting idea, but I'll be more excited about it when the investors they allow get closed to the "average people" in the industry who aren't sitting on a million dollars.

They don't define an accredited investor, the SEC does:

http://www.sec.gov/answers/accred.htm

My point is those thresholds aren't that high for people like "doctors, lawyers, small business owners, senior managers, corporate officers, etc."

Senior level engineers, accountant, etc could have net worth exceeding $1 million once you factor in home ownership, 401k, stock portfolio, 401k, IRA, etc.

Potentially you'd open up angel investment from the 1-2% to the 5-10%.

I think the 1 million minimum doesn't include the value of your primary residence.

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