Summary: The dirty little secret about Kickstarter and Indiegogo was that you could contribute, but you couldn’t get equity because, at least in the US, it was illegal to solicit investors that way.If you wanted to raise money for a business, there was a mountain of paperwork you had to file and compliance hurdles you had to clear before you could sell shares to individual investors. Originally, these laws were put in place to protect individual investors from getting fleeced. Today, anybody can set up an options trading account and short the stock market. But before the internet, that was not the case. You had to go through a broker. Why should crowdfunding be any different? After all, if you can contribute $20 for a t-shirt or a movie ticket, why not get a be able to buy a piece of the action as well? The JOBS Act was designed to change that. And it has. In this social media podcast, we cover the SEC's recent vote to lift the ban on soliciting investment opportunities to unaccredited investors. In this episode, Daniel K. Stuart, California Attorney at Law at Manatt explains the JOBS Act, which provides a legal framework for people to invest in start-ups by crowdfunding businesses online, and discusses how the new rules could radically reshape the way startups raise capital. read more
