Show HN: Our Equity Crowdfunding Platform Is Officially Live | Hacker News Reader

Show HN: Our Equity Crowdfunding Platform Is Officially Live

rockthepost.com

16 pointsacremades13 comments

They appear to be using the Regulation D exemption to SEC registration, so generally among the other restrictions:

- no soliciting or advertising the offering to the general public (though state exceptions to this limitation apply for offerings < $1 million)

- all investors must receive restricted shares (shares which are not publicly tradeable for at least 6 months without registration)

If seeking investment of greater than $1 million, generally...

- company financial statements must be audited

- no soliciting or advertising the offering even pursuant to state exceptions

Note that Reg D precedes the crowdfunding bill, so the restrictions will probably change/go away when the appropriate federal agencies finally issue regulations promulgating the new crowdfunding rules.

So this is completely worthless to the average person on the street, since you have to be an accredited investor in order to participate. This is no more "crowdfunding" than getting on a private jet is "crowdboarding."

Why do you need to access my connections, and send messages and invitations as me? http://d.pr/i/Ikf2

Not signing up..

We don't automatically send anything through LinkedIn. However, we have a feature that allows an entrepreneur to send an invitation to someone else via LinkedIn's API. In order for that to function we need the permissions you are referring to. When we have more time we will probably reduce the number of requested permissions for general users.

First: Cool idea.

> Minimum investments from $1,000-$5,000.

Hmm ... imho that's too much for 'casual for the fun investing'. I'd be willing to 'invest' $250 into some cool idea just because I like it. But $1k is over my pain barrier for mindlessly throwing money at stuff and most probably lose it.

Also are there already startups signed up? I can't find a way to browse active projects.

We have over 6,000 registered startups and 3 are currently in preview mode before accepting investments in 6 days. One of them won the “Audience Choice Award” at TechCrunch Disrupt NYC.

I'm assuming that the accredited investor requirement is still in place (i.e. this isn't the new JOBS investment opportunity)?

Correct. We are operating via Regulation D.

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

Hmmm. The video pitch seems to put them in an investment banking/advisory role, whereas their Ts&Cs disclaim everything :

"For investors, you can rest assured that the deals you're seeing on our platform are highly vetted, and they're top-notch. We've done the homework, we've done all the due diligence, we've done the background checks..."

There is something jarring about the concept of jewelry designers pulling in mid-six-figures from accredited investors.

Why is the maximum amount an individual can invest $5000? Even trying to raise $100,000, that is 20 people. Is this a limit baked into the law?

Maximum and minimum amounts are set by the startup. On average $1k-$5k is the lower range of investments.

Congrats!

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