SEC Issues Three-Year Research Study on Title III, Regulation Crowdfunding (Reg CF) Fundraising Campaigns

Leading Crowdfunding Industry Analyst Firm, Crowdfund Capital Advisors, States Now is the Time to Update the Regulation to Further Enable Capital Formation

Washington, DC – Recently the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) published a staff report on Regulation Crowdfunding (Reg CF), also known as Title III Crowdfunding. The Commission, in the adopting rules, stated that the “staff will undertake to study and submit a research report to the Commission no later than three years following the effective date of Regulation Crowdfunding on the impact of the regulation on capital formation and investor protection.” The report finds the size of market, while modest in comparison to the broader financial markets, is evolving and doing so without any material risk to investors. Crowdfund Capital Advisors (CCA) data and analysis were cited in 7 references throughout the report.

“The industry is evolving systematically and responsibly,” says CCA Principal Sherwood Neiss. “With the appropriate adjustments to the regulation we can further enable capital formation without risk to investors. The time is now for the SEC to act.”

Sherwood Neiss, Crowdfunding Capital Advisors, testifies at the SEC The CCA data and references used by the SEC were attributed to analysis by CCA and published in VentureBeat as well as Crowdfund Insider. The data comes from CCA’s CCLEAR Database. CCLEAR is the leading Regulation Crowdfunding database that collects, cleans, aggregates and reports on all companies seeking funds via Regulation Crowdfunding as well as those doing parallel 506(c) offerings. A 506(c) offering is an online accredited investor offering. A parallel offering allows an issuer to run two offerings side-by-side and group the accredited investors in one pool and the Reg CF investors in another. This type of offering is popular for issuers that seek to raise in excess of the $1.07M cap in Regulation Crowdfunding. Issuers that seek to raise funds via Reg CF must file a Form C (a form filed by a company (issuer) with the SEC before starting to raise capital and discloses financial information for its current and prior fiscal years) as well as a Form C-U (a progress report that an issuer files that discloses total capital raised). Data that the SEC does not collect in either of these disclosures includes information like industry, a breakdown on the cost of the offering, daily change in capital commitments, daily changes in investors and information on a company’s valuation. CCLEAR collects all this missing data which allows for more detailed analysis of the market including which industries are most popular with the crowd, which regions of the country have the lowest/highest overall valuations, what industries the crowd is most interested in supporting, etc. An entire section of the report titled “Cost to issuers of undertaking a crowdfunding offering” came directly from research CCA did with issuers successful with Regulation Crowdfunding. A key finding from our research, which was highlighted in the report, was that “the total cost of creating a campaign page, issuer disclosures, film, and video, and hiring a marketing firm, a lawyer, and an accountant amounts to approximately 5.3% of the amount raised.” This average was based on feedback from 81 issuers. “This amount is substantially less than what a typical issuer would incur in a Regulation D offering,” says CCA principal Sherwood Neiss “and is a key reason why more companies should be looking at Reg CF as an attractive pathway to raising funds.” The report provides a detailed look at how Regulation Crowdfunding has performed through December, 2018. (For people interested in data through today’s date, you can find it on CCLEAR’s Daily Dashboard – see below for the latest data).

“Unlike opponents who said regulated crowdfunding would open the floodgates to fraud, we have yet to see fraud materialize,” says Neiss. “This is because there are easier ways to defraud investors than to come up with an idea for a business, incorporate it under federal laws, convince a funding portal to list you, spend hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars trying to bring your friends, family and followers to the campaign page, and then hitting 100% of your funding target or the commitments get returned. Add on top of this the hundreds of discerning eyes picking apart a campaign in the comments section. These types of ‘built-in investor protections don’t exist in other parts of the private capital markets.” Multiple recommendations were included in the report on how to improve Regulation Crowdfunding. The SEC cited a US treasury Report entitled “A Financial System That Creates Economic Opportunities.” The Report recommends: Allowing single-purpose crowdfunding vehicles advised by a registered investment adviser; Waiving certain crowdfunding offering limits for accredited investors; Amending certain crowdfunding investment limits by other investors; Modifying the Exchange Act’s Section 12(g) exemption; And increasing the limit on how much can be raised through crowdfunding from $1M to $5M. CCA’s principals were interviewed and cited in the Treasury report. The Fed’s recommendations were a summary of CCA’s more detailed recommendations as requested. “The industry is evolving systematically and responsibly,” ended Neiss. “With the appropriate adjustments to the regulation we can further enable capital formation without risk to investors. The time is now for the SEC to act.” # # #

Robert Hoskins
(512) 627-6622
@Crowdfunding_PR

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Mr. Robert Hoskins is a seasoned marketing veteran with a proven track record of helping entrepreneurs, startups, small businesses as well as Fortune 500 corporations launch successful marketing communications campaigns to gain market traction for a wide variety of products and services.

On a regular basis, Mr. Hoskins consults with crowdfunding campaign managers as well as crowdfunding sites, portals and platforms to deliver successful crowdfunding marketing campaigns.

Google search “Robert Hoskins Crowdfunding PR” to see why Mr. Hoskins is considered one of the industry’s foremost crowdfunding experts that has amassed a huge social media following, which is dedicated to supporting donation-, rewards- and equity-based crowdfunding campaigns.

Utilizing Equity Crowdfunding Campaigns to Cross Pollinate College Education with the Opportunity to Launch Real World Startups and Conduct Equity Fundraising Campaigns

Providing students with a way to contribute their skills to a steady stream of equity crowdfunding campaigns is a great way to gain valuable industry experience and make money

By Robert Hoskins

Real World Benefits of Equity Crowdfunding Campaigns

Depending on the strength of their various colleges, equity crowdfunding programs can help universities begin to leverage the resources from each college and begin to cross pollinate equity crowdfunding campaigns by harnessing the strength of the entire student body.  

Providing students with a way to contribute their skills to a steady stream of equity crowdfunding campaigns would be a great way for them to gain valuable industry experience while earning a college degree.

Instead of working in non-paid internships performing menial tasks, students can invest their time and sweat equity in real world startups by helping startups work their way through the seed investment raising process.  Getting paid with equity shares versus the opportunity to add one line-item bullet point to their resume is a much more attractive option for students worried about paying off their college tuition.

By providing any of the following services below to crowdfunding campaigns, students would benefit from the opportunity to practice their intended field of study as well as enjoy the potential payoff by aggressively seeking risk, innovation and entrepreneurship opportunities.  As a part of the mentoring process students and faculty could setup a management consulting firm that specializes in equity crowdfunding campaigns. 

• Research & Development
  • Recognition for discoveries made at the institution
  • Compliance with federal regulations
  • Attraction and retention of talented faculty
  • Attraction of corporate research sponsors

• Business Administration
  • Accounting/Audits
  • Finance
  • Business Planning
  • Investor Relations

• Computer Science
  • Ecommerce
  • Social Media
  • Programmers/Coders

• Law School
  • Private Placement Memorandums
  • Intellectual Property Protection
  • Copyrights/Patents
  • Legal Contracts
  • Corporate Structures
  • Licensing revenue to support further research and education
  • Technology Transfer Offices

• Mass Communications
  • Advertising
  • Film/Broadcast
  • Journalism
  • Marketing
  • Mass Communications
  • PR
  • Social Media

Learn more about crowdfunding:

• Building a Rewards-based and/or Equity-based Crowdfunding Ecosystem;
• Providing Easy Access to Seed Investment Capital with Crowdfunding;
• Generating More Revenue to Support Co-Working Spaces and Startups;
• Using Equity Crowdfunding Sites to Finance Incubators and Accelerators;
• Taking Advantage of Investor Syndicates that are Seeking Better Deal Flow;
• Splitting Revenue from Incubator and Accelerator Mentors Consulting Fees;
• Streamlining Technology Transfer Offices (TTOs);
• Cross-Pollinating College Education with Real World Startups; and
• Learning to Build Better Alumni and Local Community Relationships

 

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Vignet’D Lauches Record $2.9M Equity Crowdfunding Campaign for Investors on Symbid in the Netherlands

The company has already completed funding from informal investors, but now seeks the participation and knowledge of Symbid’s 27,000 active investors

By Robert Hoskins

Rotterdam, The Netherlands – Vignet’D plans to break records on the Symbid (OTCQB: SBID) equity crowdfunding platform by seeking $2.9 million (EUR 2.3m) in investment from Symbid’s investment community. Symbid became the first publicly listed crowdfunding platform worldwide in December 2013.  If successful, this will be the largest campaign ever at Symbid, one of the first investment crowdfunding platforms worldwide, while also ranking among the largest equity crowdfunding campaigns globally. Vignet’D expects to build on the success of their campaign by going public on the AIM London Stock Exchange in 2015.

The Vignet’D has a digital agency specialising in mobile strategies & concepts that ensures deep engagement with your customer. Scanning the product package or using AR techniques allows you to use multimedia to further enhance your product’s message.

Unlimited Crowdfunding Potential
By fluidly integrating digital codes into packaging designs, Vignet’D aims to transform a simple box or carton into a powerful marketing communication tool. While scanning codes with a smartphone is not necessarily new, the company’s emphasis on the whole user experience from shelf to social media is revolutionizing consumer packaging. Vignet’D specializes in an integrated approach to marketing strategy, app development, interactive and package design.

The company creates everything in-house to ensure that the final experience is both beautiful and engaging: consumers are stimulated to access additional content, ranging from nutritional information to online games. The invisibility of the code means manufacturers can also use Vignet’D technology to prevent product imitations. The commitment to a fully interactive design, with safeguards against fakes, means Vignet’D is able to take retail packaging into new directions which traditional 2D barcodes (like the QR code) could not.

Although a young company, Vignet’D has already had several successful demo projects with global fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) manufacturers and retailers. Game developers and publishers, including Rovio (Angry birds) and Triangle Studios, are pursuing the Vignet’D technology because of its clear potential for merchandising.

The Added Value of Crowdfunding Campaign Launches
Vignet’D is now seeking funding to further develop this groundbreaking technology and scale up their marketing and sales activities globally. The company has already completed funding from informal investors, but now seeks the participation and knowledge of Symbid’s 27,000 active investors: the crowd.

“With our solid partnerships and tested products, Vignet’D has already been validated by the market for its huge global potential,” said CEO Martin Bril. “For us this campaign is about more than just finding investment. We want the crowd’s involvement, their experience, their ideas and ultimately the extra value this generates. Together with Symbid we want to give investors large and small the opportunity to buy a stake in our company’s future.”

The sheer business potential of Vignet’D is a sign that the investment crowdfunding industry is making significant progress, with Symbid leading the way.

“After the exponential growth we’ve been seeing here at Symbid, for us this campaign is a large cherry on the cake,” said Korstiaan Zandvliet, Symbid CEO and co-founder. “As crowdfunding matures and people begin to realize its true potential, it’s crucial that Symbid continues to attract innovative, high-growth startups like Vignet’D. We see 2015 as a big year for the Symbid funding platform.”

International Ambitions
When the $2.9m funding target is reached, Vignet’D will not only become the largest Symbid campaign ever, but also one of the largest investment crowdfunding campaigns worldwide. However, in line with their strategy of international expansion, the company plans to complete another crowdfunding campaign in Germany with Symbid.

Founded in April 2011 as one of the first investment crowdfunding platforms worldwide, Symbid allows non-accredited investors to invest online in start-ups and SMEs with as little as EUR 20 in exchange for shares in those companies. Based in the Netherlands, Symbid has emerged as a global leader in investment crowdfunding due to our innovative technological infrastructure, user-friendly interface and commitment to providing a secure funding environment for both investors and entrepreneurs.

The Symbid team’s extensive experience with start-ups means entrepreneurs choosing our platform receive all the coaching and advice necessary for a successful campaign. This, in turn, ensures that investors using the Symbid platform can be confident in the profitability of their investment.

As of December 2014, Symbid has successfully funded over 65 start-ups for a total capital sum of $7,000,000.

In 2015 the company is expected to expand its product portfolio with several new (alternative and traditional) financial services in order to develop the Symbid platform towards an online fundraising network. Meanwhile, Symbid anticipates a European roll-out of its investment crowdfunding platform beginning in Q4 2014.

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Cutting Edge Capital Equity Crowdfunding Platform Partners with Mercury360 to Offer its Direct Public Offerings Full-Service Marketing Support

New alliance between Cutting Edge Capital and Mercury360 delivers marketing expertise to small and medium sized businesses looking to raise capital through Direct Public Offerings (DPOs)

 By Robert Hoskins

San Francisco, CA – Cutting Edge Capital (CEC) and Mercury360 announced a partnership allowing CEC to offer its clients full service marketing support provided by Mercury360. With this partnership, CEC will not only provide all types of assistance for clients to achieve approval for a DPO but also help clients reach the right investors in California, New York, Massachusetts and other states marketing services.

Cutting Edge Capital Equity Crowdfunding Platform

After working with many clients on strategy and compliance for DPOs, CEC recognized a significant challenge that small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs) face: the ability to market and attract investors to their offering. CEC realized that in order for many of their clients to be successful, they would need to be supported by strong marketing acumen to help attract investors and successfully complete their DPOs.

In searching for a marketing partner, CEC solicited and received numerous proposals from marketing agencies nationwide. CEC selected Mercury360 based on the agency’s strong understanding of the fundraising process and experience meeting the needs of SMBs in a wide spectrum of industries.

“Our clients are successfully executing in many different aspects of their business. By providing marketing expertise through Mercury360, we’re lessening the strain that raising capital puts on small businesses, helping to ensure they can meet their objectives,” said Jenny Kassan, CEO of Cutting Edge Capital.

“We are delighted to be partnering with Cutting Edge Capital and its extraordinary list of clients,” said Ren Bloom, CEO of Mercury360. “It’s exciting to be working with so many pioneering firms and helping them achieve their capital raising goals through our marketing services and expertise,” continued Mr. Bloom.

SMBs have limited avenues to raise money to start, run and grow their business. DPOs allow a business or nonprofit to market and advertise its offerings publicly and to anyone, by any means it chooses. This opens up a whole new world to SMBs. CEC, along with its sister law firm, Cutting Edge Counsel Inc., is helping SMBs and nonprofits successfully meet their financing goals by providing assistance with the structuring, compliance and other aspects of a DPO. Crowdfunding in general, and DPOs in specific, open up new avenues for businesses to raise much-needed funds.

Both organizations are taking immediate steps to coordinate their efforts, including reaching out to clients that are launching DPOs, organizing workshops and meeting one on one with companies to present the new capabilities made possible by the partnership.

Cutting Edge Capital (CEC) provides small and mid-sized businesses with the information, tools, and expertise they need to raise capital in a way that fits with their unique business model and long-term goals. The firm has completed more than ten DPOs for clients that raised over $5M, and has another 30+ DPOs in the pipeline.

As experienced business lawyers, entrepreneurs, and finance experts, the CEC team helps businesses solicit non-traditional sources of funding. In addition to being a great way to raise capital, DPOs allow businesses to build public support and recognition at the same time they are raising funds.

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Houston to Host Kickercon Crowdfunding Conference & Expo for the Lone Star State’s Entrepreneurs, Startups and Small Businesses

The Texas crowdfunding event will provide bootcamps, seminars, & networking events for entrepreneurs, startups and crowdfunding summits for real estate investors

 By Robert Hoskins

Houston, Texas – Kickercon announced the final lineup for its all-encompassing Crowdfunding Conference & Expo that will provide crowdfunding educational seminars, boot camps and networking event that will be held in Houston at the Hilton Americas-Houston from Thursday, August 28th to Saturday, August 30th.

Houston to Host Kickercon Crowdfunding Conference & Expo for the Lone Star State’s Entrepreneurs, Startups and Small Businesses in Texas

The event, which caters to entrepreneurs, investors and students, captures the state’s “everything is bigger in Texas” personality, as it features five dynamic workshops and more than 50 speakers, in the three-day expo.

“What initially started as a fad, crowdfunding has become the status quo in the pursuit of securing equity in the growing startup culture,” said Terell Jones, Director, Kickercon. “In order to support the burgeoning entrepreneur community, Kickercon is establishing itself as the go-to national event for those interested in educating themselves on all-thing crowdfunding.”

No matter what industry your idea falls into, Kickercon has a speaker for you. The speaker lineup includes Indiegogo experts, Nathan Jones of ABC’s “Shark Tank,” crowdfunding success stories such as Misfit Wearables, numerous venture capitalist firms and investors, and even Forbes reporter Mark Fidelman, who will be moderating the “Social Media & Marketing Training” session.

Registration is now open to the public with general registration for the three-day expo starting at $399.99, available at Kickercon.com. Through the month of July, attendees can receive up to 20 percent off the price of a ticket with the coupon code Kicker20. Students may also register for a significant discount with evidence of their school ID.

Kickercon will also be held in conjunction with sister events including:

• Crowdfunding Bootcamp – Receive insider tips and real-life case studies from industry experts.
• Houston Investor’s Summit – Held on Saturday, this workshop is for the season investor who is seeking deeper insights into how to leverage the latest crowdfunding best practices.
• Houston Real Estate Summit  – Held on the Thursday and Friday of the expo, learn how to start investing into real estate through crowdfunding and alternative funding.

Kickercon is the second major educational and networking crowdfunding event to be held in Texas. The three-day event is designed to appeal to crowdfunding enthusiasts, entrepreneurs and investors who are interested in learning about the various crowdfunding platforms and how to launch a successful campaign in various capacities, including real estate, social good, technology, and more.

Visit Kickercon.com or follow on Twitter or Facebook for the latest news. and information.

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506 Docs Charts Course to Help New Start Ups Prepare Legal Documentation for 506 Reg. D Private Placement Offerings

506 Docs launches IndieGoGo Crowdfunding Campaign to fund new website that will provide 506 Reg. D FAQ sheets, tutorials, blogs and templates

By Robert Hoskins

Temple, Texas – The Texas-based Encite Financial Group announced a new business unit called 506 Docs, which will help small business owners who want to take advantage of  the SEC’s Regulation D during the private equity investment capital raising process.  To fund the new division, 506 Docs management team has launched an IndieGoGo Crowdfunding Campaign to raise the funding needed to educate the general public on the Rule 506 exemption, which allows an issuer to raise an unlimited amount of capital from an unlimited number of “accredited investors” and up to 35 non-accredited investors.

Regulation D 506 Equity Crowdfunding Campaigns

The website’s goal is to  provide tutorials, educational blog posts, FAQ Sheets, Private Placement Memorandum (PPM) templates and everything else  that a small business owner needs to file the right legal paperwork to conduct a small capital raise using the Reg. D rule.

A new portion of the Reg. D 506(c), which was passed on Oct. 23, 2014, now allows small business owners to market private equity investments opportunities using the SEC’s new General Solicitation rules, which allow broker/dealers to use advertising, PR, social media and other types of marketing campaigns to target only accredited investors.

According to the 506 Docs blog, Facebook and Twitter both got started raising capital using Regulation D. It might be hard to believe but Facebook’s first capital raise yielded just $6,750, but now has a market cap of $172 Billion that was developed in only 10 years. For people curious about researching their Reg. D paper trail, the 506 Docs blog contains links to Facebook’s first few SEC filings.

Reg. D is relatively unknown in the world of small business finance. While doing their research the 506 Docs management team discovered that finding real-time information from knowledgeable industry experts in the crowding in the industry was tough.

As a result the 506 Docs management team’s primary research, they determined that over $1 Trillion was raised using Regulation D during the period between 2010 to 2012, and then the industry saw a dramatic spike during 2013, when the SEC finally released the formal rules governing Regulation D investments.

 

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hyperfund Launches Business Crowdfunding Site that Makes It Easy for Investors to Find, Research and Invest in Private Business Equity Deals

hyperfund offers crowdfunding site where businesses at any stage of the growth cycle can find and reach potential investors using crowdfunding advertising, email marketing, PR and social media campaigns

By Robert Hoskins

Anacortes, Wash. – hyperfund is a new business crowdfunding marketplace where investors can easily find, research and invest in private businesses. It is a crowdfunding site where entrepreneurs can easily and efficiently reach a large number of potential investors and is one of the first crowdfunding platform providing all three primary strategies for businesses raising capital on the internet with rewards, security, and debt crowdfunding options.

hyperfund enables entrepreneurs, startups as well as growing businesses to take advantage of the explosive growth of crowdfunding campaigns and leverage the power of the SEC’s new General Solicitation Rules that allow private companies to market their equity investment opportunities to millions of accredited investors via advertising, marketing, PR and social media programs.

Hyperfund Local National Crowdfunding for both Rewards and Equity Based Crowdfudning Campaign

The investing ecosystem continues to evolve as traditional sources of funding, angel investors and venture capitalists, focus more on revenue-producing businesses. At the same time, new technologies enable new ways for growing companies to connect with potential investors. Crowdfunding is becoming a primary solution for pre-revenue businesses to raise capital and most crowdfunding platforms, to date, have only offered investors a single option.

hyperfund offers three different crowdfunding options:

• Rewards, such as preferential product acquisition opportunities,
• Security, to participate more directly in a company’s financial growth, and
• Debt, to be repaid over time.

“Now startups and growing businesses can raise capital on the Internet with a reward-based seed funding round to validate their business model, followed by an equity or debt round on the same platform,” said hyperfund’s CEO Denis duNann. He emphasized, “On hyperfund’s marketplace, investors can now back business-focused rewards rounds, track the businesses performance and potentially invest in a later securities round.”

Luan Cox, CEO at partner company Crowdnetic, stated, “We are impressed with hyperfund’s unique and complete approach to business crowdfunding. The breadth of their offerings addresses the needs of small businesses throughout the growth cycle.” She added, “We are pleased to include their Private Issuers Publicly Raising (PIPR) listings in our marketwatch.com feed, the nation’s first real-time aggregated listing of offerings and pricing information on private issuers raising capital.”

There are no transaction or subscriber fees for investors to research private offerings on hyperfund. There are no upfront fees for entrepreneurs to easily and efficiently reach millions of potential investors.

hyperfund is launching with two recent winners of the Florida Atlantic University’s Business Plan Competition:

• BiologicsDirect™, the first and only online virtual marketplace that connects blood centers, which are the suppliers of blood products, with hospital and blood center users, positively impacting critical blood-product supply chain management.
• Owl Educators, with its breakthrough online service, connects tutors and students, making their educational relationship more effective and efficient.

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EquityNet Unveils First General Solicitation Equity Crowdfunding Investment Deal Distribution Network

EquityNet Teams Up with MarketWatch, CrowdWatch to begin Broadcasting Equity Investment Deals Where Accredited Investors Can Invest Online through Crowdfunding Platforms such as SeedInvest and RealtyShares

By Robert Hoskins

 More than 4,500 broker dealers now have the legal right to market equity investment deals via advertising, marketing, PR and social media now that the SEC has lifted the 80-year ban on General Solicitation.   And while most broker dealers have not taken advantage of the new law, EquityNet has now taken the lead by announcing the launch of a new equity investment deal distribution network with Dow Jones MarketWatch via Crowdnetic and with North Capital Private Securities.

Through partnerships with Crowdnetic and North Capital, businesses can now use EquityNet to showcase their private offerings on MarketWatch, CrowdWatch, and other crowdfunding platforms such as  SeedInvest and RealtyShares, thereby gaining exposure to thousands of additional investors.

EquityNet Equity Crowdfunding Platform for Accredited Investors

EquityNet founder and CEO, Judd Hollas, stated, “I am excited about our new partnerships with Crowdnetic and North Capital Private Securities.  Businesses using EquityNet now have the unparalleled ability to distribute their deals to large extendable networks featuring tens of thousands of visitors and potential investors.”

“As a leading provider of financial information and market data, we at MarketWatch are pleased to offer the first publicly available private offerings on a major financial media website” said Ian Rosen, Vice President and General Manager of MarketWatch.

According to Crowdnetic founder and CEO, Luan Cox, “EquityNet is a wonderful addition to our Private Offerings dashboard on MarketWatch and CrowdWatch and is bringing many new private offerings and quality businesses to MarketWatch, CrowdWatch, and our broader distribution network.”

In addition to deal distribution with MarketWatch and CrowdWatch, businesses using EquityNet can also tap into the placement capabilities of North Capital Private Securities, a registered broker-dealer and member of FINRA and SIPC, to distribute their private offerings to other crowdfunding platforms such as SeedInvest and RealtyShares.

“EquityNet has built a great technology platform that prepares entrepreneurs to access the capital markets and enables investors to research, compare, and benchmark private companies.  We are excited for the opportunity to offer North Capital’s distribution abilities to their customers,” said Jim Dowd, Managing Director of North Capital.  “We expect that our relationships with other platforms, angel networks, independent broker-dealers, investment advisors, and institutional investors will help many EquityNet customers secure the financing they need to grow their businesses.”

Privately-held businesses can use EquityNet’s new distribution network and patented technology to showcase their private offerings on MarketWatch and CrowdWatch with the click of a button and on other crowdfunding platforms through engagement of North Capital Private Securities.  Both of these distribution abilities are readily available to all businesses that sign up with EquityNet and create a free business profile.

According to industry research by Massolution and the World Bank, crowdfunding generated $5.1 billion in funding transactions in 2013 and will surpass $300 billion in funding transactions by 2025. Within the next year, Title III of the US JOBS Act is expected to go into effect, allowing non-accredited investors to invest in startups in exchange for equity.  Experts have estimated that crowdfunding could expand the population of potential investors from 2 million to over 50 million investors.

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JobsinCrowdfunding.com Launches the Industry’s First Job Recruitment Website for Crowdfunding Professionals in Engineering, Finance, Marketing and #Sales Careers

The advanced career placement platform will connect job seekers with crowdfunding intermediary employers and service providers that are expected to create 170,000 jobs over the next five years

By Robert Hoskins

The booming crowdfunding industry was predicted to blossom to an impressive $5.1 billion industry in 2013 and is expected grow to over $93 billion by 2025.  In the past 12 months more than 600 startups have launched new businesses and are now seeking very specialized crowdfunding careers that have never existed before.  To adapt to this highly personalized demand, JobsinCrowdfunding.com has introduced its next generation recruitment platform, which delivers superior job posting capability, enables employers to access the latest technology for candidate matching and provides the one central specialist site for all Industry job seekers and employers alike.

Jobs in Crowdfunding Launches the Industry’s First Job Recruitment Website for Crowdfunding Professionals for Engineering, Finance, Marketing and Sales Careers

“The Crowdfunding industry needs a hiring solution that is simple, industry specific and most importantly cost-effective,” said Lucia Amador, Limitless People’s CEO.  “Our platform offers a wide range of monthly access packages that can be easily budgeted and will allow small companies to hire as many employees as they need for just one set price, which provides an incredible ROI.”

“Our next generation Jobs in Crowdfunding platform provides employers with advanced ‘anytime’ direct access to industry specific candidates including a customized hiring module that can isolate selected candidates from the open market during the initial interview process to maximize efficiency,” Amador added.

The career placement site offers employers five cost-effective packages, including: Starter, Basic, Standard, Premium and Executive Search.  These packages offer employers an advanced, but affordable hiring solution that addresses their unique recruiting needs quickly and easily.

For crowdfunding startups that have limited resources and budget, Limitless People’s management team offers an Executive Search Package, which allows employers to leverage the firm’s extensive recruitment experience.  Seasoned HR professionals can be utilized to provide customer-tailored job searches allowing crowdfunding companies to stay focused on their core business of raising money for campaign managers.

For crowdfunding intermediaries, Limitless People offers cost effective access packages so that all recruitment activities can be integrated into one place effectively streamlining their candidate search activities rather than posting jobs and collecting candidates from multiple sources to save considerable time and money, while achieving higher results.

For crowdfunding job seekers, the free JobinCrowdfunding.com site is already live and accepting resumes to help candidates find new jobs and careers in the crowdfunding industry.

Limitless People is a worldwide software application development company that specializes in building career placement platforms for the crowdfunding, sports, entertainment, software, recruitment and telecommunications industries. For more information on Limitless People professional services, please visit the company’s website at www.limitlesspeople.com.

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How to Plan the Right Sized Marketing Budget to Conduct a Successful Crowdfunding Campaign

The #1 Mistake that Crowdfunding Campaigns Make Is Not Spending Enough Money on Marketing to Reach a Sufficient Universe of Potential Donors/Investors to Complete a Successful Fundraising Campaign

By Robert Hoskins

For Fortune 500 companies in the United States, launching a successful product or service involves many months of research, product development, focus groups, and beta testing before introducing a product or service into a competitive marketplace.

In addition, successful campaigns hire professional advertising, marketing, PR and social media firms that know how to target and reach a very specific target audience with carefully engineered marketing messages designed to elicit a predetermined response rate such as making a donation or investing in a small company’s equity stock.

Front Page PR is the #1 Crowdfunding PR firm in America

Success is very rarely achieved by building a single-page crowdfunding profile  with limited company or product information and hoping that there is enough website traffic on sites such as Kickstarter and indiegogo to find sufficient donors to push a crowdfunding  campaign reach its financial goal.

This is reason that Kickstarter campaigns have a 65% failure rate and more than over 90% of indiegogo campiagns fail to achieve a 100% funding rate.

Many entrepreneurs that launch crowding campaigns are duped into working with crowdfunding consulting companies that charge $100 to do unlimited press releases or think they can be successful by asking crowdfunding PR and marketing companies to work on a contingency-basis.

Other marketing firms offer low-cost crowdfunding training programs that claim to teach novice crowdfunding campaign managers how to plan and execute their own marketing, PR and social media campaigns. The problem with all of these cheap marketing solutions is that they are offered by crowdfunding consultants with little to no real marketing experience and take advantage of entrepreneurs that do not know better. Most copy their workbook marketing materials straight out of college text books that can be bought at any book store for $20.

Professional adverting agencies, PR firms and marketing consultants that can deliver real results usually charge $5,000 to $10,000 per month for their services because they know they can deliver the marketing results that crowdfunding campaign managers need to complete a successful fundraising drive.  Anyone that charges less does so for a reason.  They simply do not have the experience to get the job done right.

Experienced marketing firms that can deliver the goods do so because they have a staff of seasoned, highly trained marketing executives with 15 to 20 years of proven, real world experience.  They also have the specialized media planning tools that cost thousands of dollars per year to use, but are essential in planning targeted marketing campaigns.

Anyone can buy a text book on how to fix cars, but without an auto shop full of experienced mechanics and the right set of tools, they will fail miserably when trying to rebuild a motor.  The same is true for people that try to plan marketing campaigns without the right set of media planning tools and professional skills that take years to learn.

In addition to the right tools and highly trained marketing executives, marketing campaigns cost money to implement.  They involve many hours of researching media outlets,  building databases of reporters and bloggers, and hundreds of hours send to pitches to the media and social media networks.  This work load simply can not be executed for free.   An important rule to remember is that it takes money to make money. The same is true when launching a successful crowdfunding campaign.

How much does it cost to conduct crowdfunding marketing, PR and/or social media campaigns? The answer really depends on selecting the target audience that needs to be reached, the number of media outlets that can effectively reach the desired target audience, and the time it takes to evaluate various media outlets and prioritize which ones will be the most effective.  This effort requires a tremendous amount of time and effort.

Media outlets also have a ton of different options that can be utilized to reach various segment that comprise the right target audience.  Most media outlets offer digital/print advertising, email blasts, direct marketing, blogs, newsletters and multitude of other marketing options that all cost money to reach the correct target audience.   They also have a masthead full of reporters that might be enticed into writing a news article for free, but pitching stories to the press also takes a considerable amount of skill, expertise and experience.

The work doesn’t stop there.  Next comes the conversion rate factor.  A typical marketing “call-to-action” can persuade around three-percent (3%) of prospective donors to visit a crowdfunding campaign’s profile.   More critical is the actual number of visitors that read through the crowdfunding profile and are converted to actual donors or investors, usually around one percent (1%).

The final question to be answered is how many people need to be reached with 3% call-to-action and a 1% donation/investment rate to meet a crowdfunding campaign’s financial goal?  And most people do not respond to the first message they are exposed to. It usually takes three or more exposures to cross the “threshold of consciousness” and be enticed into following the desired course of action; in this case making a crowdfunding donation or equity crowdfunding investment.

A simple way to figure out how much money needs to be spent on marketing is for Crowdfunding campaign managers to divide their total fundraising goal by the lowest priced perk being offered in order to determine how many donors they will need to achieve their goal.

For example, a $10,000 goal divided by a $25 perk would require 400 donors to become successful. At a 3% response rate, a campaign would need to reach a total universe of 1,333,330 potential donors to convince at least 40,000 prospects to visit the crowdfunding profile and convert 1% into active donors.  The cost to reach any given target audience really depends on the industry be served and the costs to reach them through paid advertising and PR/media relations campaigns.

The bottom line is that crowdfunding campaign managers need to plan on spending at least $5,000 per month to conduct a successful campaign.  And most of the work needs to be done several months prior to the campaign to build a loyal crowd of followers/donors who will support the campaign once it goes live.

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More Articles on Crowdfunding Marketing Strategies:

• Five Tips on How to Get Great Publicity for Crowdfunding PR Campaigns in Media Outlets Everywhere
• Planning an Effective Crowdfunding Campaign
• Planning Successful Crowdfunding PR & Marketing Campaigns
• Tips on How to Plan a Successful Crowdfunding Campaign
• Front Page PR Launches New $75 Crowdfunding Campaign Profile Evaluation Service
  
• Kickstarter vs. Indiegogo: Which is the Best Crowdfunding Site, Platform or Website to Launch a Crowdfunding Campaign?
• Broker Dealers Offered General Solicitation Campaigns to Market the Oncoming Wave of Equity Crowdfunding Investment Opportunities to the Next Generation of U.S. Accredited Investors
  
• Hourly rates for Crowdfunding Marketing, PR and Social Media Services