What Equity Crowdfunding Campaign Types Are Best for Startups and Small Companies – Title III or Title IV, Reg A+ ?

A Quick Guide to Launching Title III vs. Title IV Equity Crowdfunding Campaigns

By Robert Hoskins

VerifyInvestor.com’s Guide to JOBS Act Crowdfunding Options and Rules

Trying to Determine What Equity Crowdfunding Option is the Best Method of Fundraising to Fund Entrepreneurs and Startup Companies?

Here are some simple questions that you might ask yourself when planning a fundraising campaign to raise money in order to launch a new startup or expand an existing business:

• Maximum Offering for Equity Crowdfunding

How much money do you want to raise? And what step of the crowdfunding escalator does your company currently reside?

1. Donation Crowdfunding – For ideas or concepts, entrepreneurs should consider Donation Crowdfunding and try to raise $10,000 or less with the goal of putting together a business plan, developing a website and begin working on prototypes or service beta programs.
2. Rewards Crowdfunding – Once a prototype and/or beta test program has been developed and is ready to be tested for marketplace acceptance, startups should consider using Rewards/Perks Crowdfunding and set a goal of raising $25,000 to $100,000, but should have a crowdfunding PR and social media marketing campaign designed to raise up to $1 million or more based on marketplace demand. This crowdfunding step should be targeted to raise enough money to pay for the first manufacturing production run or minimum viable product (MVP) and provide a sufficient marketing budget to continue selling the produce/service and gaining marketplace traction once the crowdfunding campaign concludes.
3. Equity Crowdfunding – Depending on the marketplace success, the final step is using equity crowdfunding to raise sufficient capital to launch a business on a regional, national or international level. Similar to an Initial Public Offering, the company can offer investors convertible notes, debt, revenue sharing or equity shares via a Title II (Rule 506 and Rule 144A offering), Title III offering or Title IV offering, which each has its own set of rules briefly outlined in the chart above.  Title III is capped at $1 million every 12 months, Title IV is capped at $50 million every 12 months and Title II can raise unlimited funding with no time limit.
4. Crowdfunding Escalator – This entire process is called a crowdfunding escalator by many in the crowdfunding industry, which is a step-by-step process that allows a creative ideas to work their way into becoming successful and thriving businesses via larger and larger crowdfunding campaigns as a company grows, matures and gains marketplace traction.

• Investor Types for Equity Crowdfunding

Do you want to target 8.7 million sophisticated accredited investors or open the offering up to 188 million non-accredited, novice investors throughout the U.S. (and Canada)? 

1. Accredited Investors – Only about 3% of the accredited investors are active investors in the United States because until 2013 it was illegal to use general solicitation to reach this target audience and most deals were channel through registered broker dealers. The key is to know how to reach these angel investors and venture capitalists with advertising, email marketing, publicity and targeted social media marketing.
2. Non-Accredited Investors – The other 97% of the population falls into the novice investor category that is literally an untapped target audience because it has been illegal to market fundraising campaigns to this segment of the population since 1934.  Title III and Title IV crowdfunding are designed to educate this new class of investors, teach them how to vet deals and allow them to make the same type of early stage investment usually reserved for venture capitalists by carefully researching the Form C disclosure documents for Title III and Form 1-A disclosure documents for Title IV, Reg. A+ offerings. And now that marketing offerings to this audience is legal, success is only limited by a company’s marketing budget.

• Method of Offerings for Equity Crowdfunding

Do you want to utilize a registered Title III crowdfunding portal or regular website combined with general solicitation (advertising/PR/social media)? 

1. Title III/Advertising Offering Terms is Prohibited – In contrast to Rule 506(c) offerings, which permits general solicitation if certain conditions are satisfied, an eligible issuer or persons acting on its behalf cannot advertise, directly or indirectly, the terms of a crowdfunding offering.  However, an issuer can publish notices (for example, in newspapers or on social media sites or the issuer’s website) that direct investors to the intermediary’s platform and contain only limited factual information about the offering and the issuer.   Despite this advertising prohibition, an issuer (or persons acting on its behalf) may communicate with investors about the offering terms through communication channels provided on the intermediary’s platform if the issuer identifies itself (or persons acting on its behalf identify their affiliation with the issuer) in all such communications.
2. Title IV Utilizing General Solicitation – Title IV offerings are allowed to use any website/portal combined with advertising, email marketing, PR and social media to market the terms of their offerings in order to attract new investors, which means investors throughout the entire United States and Canada.

VerifyInvestor.com’s Guide to JOBS Act Crowdfunding Options and Rules – Page 2

 

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(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.

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

Mr. Hoskins is one of the crowdfunding industry’s foremost crowdfunding advocates and has amassed a huge social media following that is dedicated to supporting donation-, rewards- and equity-based crowdfunding campaigns. Due to the overwhelming demand from the general public for crowdfunding information, he empowers entrepreneurs with some of the internet’s most affordable ($20) online crowdfunding training classes, which provide insight to startups around the world on a 24 x 7 basis.

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SEC Approves Regulation A+ Rules under Title IV of the JOBS Act that Pre-empts State Law and Paves the Way for Selling Up to $50 Million of Equity Crowdfunding Securities to Unaccredited Investors

There are no general solicitation restrictions so companies can freely advertise, market and publicize offerings at demo days, trade shows, mass media and via social media networks

 By Robert Hoskins

Washington, D.C. – The Securities and Exchange Commission adopted final rules unanimously to facilitate smaller companies’ access to capital.  The new rules provide investors with more investment choices.The new rules update and expand Title IV Regulation A+, an existing exemption from registration for smaller issuers of securities.

SEC Approves Regulation A+ Rules under Title IV of the JOBS Act

The rules are mandated by Title IV of the Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act.The updated exemption will enable smaller companies to offer and sell up to $50 million of securities in a 12-month period, subject to eligibility, disclosure and reporting requirements.

“These new rules provide an effective, workable path to raising capital that also provides strong investor protections,” said SEC Chair Mary Jo White.  “It is important for the Commission to continue to look for ways that our rules can facilitate capital-raising by smaller companies.”

The final rules, often referred to as Regulation A+, provide for two tiers of equity crowdfunding securities offerings:

• Tier 1:  Offerings of securities of up to $20 million in a 12-month period, with not more than $6 million in offers by selling security-holders that are affiliates of the issuer; and
• Tier 2: Offerings of securities of up to $50 million in a 12-month period, with not more than $15 million in offers by selling security-holders that are affiliates of the issuer.

Both Tiers are subject to certain basic requirements while Tier 2 offerings are also subject to additional disclosure and ongoing reporting requirements.

The final rules also provide for the preemption of state securities law registration and qualification requirements for securities offered or sold to “qualified purchasers” in Tier 2 offerings.

Tier 1 offerings will be subject to federal and state registration and qualification requirements, and issuers may take advantage of the coordinated review program developed by the North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA).

The rules will be effective 60 days after publication in the Federal Register.

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Crowdfunding PR Offers Texas Co-Working Space, Incubator and Accelerator Members a 50% Discount on Media Lists, Press Releases, PR and Media Relations Pitching Services

Texas Entrepreneurs and Startups Located Anywhere in Texas are Encouraged to Take Advantage of Front Page PR’s Free 30-Minute Crowdfunding Consultations to Learn How to Raise $1 Million per Year from More than 20 Million Texas Crowdfunding Investors

  By Robert Hoskins

Company Details:

Front Page Public Relations

Front Page Public Relations has been helping startups, mid-sized companies and Fortune 500 corporations develop corporate communications programs for more than 25 years. Our fields of expertise include building websites, generating persuasive content, developing corporate message maps, and planning integrated marketing communications programs that include advertising, media relations, PR and social media management.

Nothing is more important than the story you tell investors and your future customers. Gaining traction during startup mode is one of the toughest challenges bootstrapped entrepreneurs need to master.  Front Page PR specializes in helping young startups develop interesting, polished and persuasive marketing communications messages that will convince new customers to buy your products and services and persuade angel investors to invest in your business. 

For most entrepreneurs, removing the fear, uncertainty and doubt from the sales equation is a critical 1st step in the business development process.  Let us help you gain some marketplace momentum and start building a loyal customer base.  

Below are some very cost-effective ways to start generating some positive publicity for your business. A typical press release generates around 100 stories on leading blogs, magazines, TV stations and other types of media outlets, not just in the United States, but on a worldwide basis.

Offer Details:

For entrepreneurs of co-working spaces, incubators and accelerators, Front Page PR will offer a 50% discount on the following services: 

1. Building Press/Media Contact Lists

Front Page PR will build a targeted list of media contacts in the United States that cover your product or service category. Front Page PR will spend up to 4 hours @ $150 per hour to build and clean a reporter/media contact list. 

Click here to purchase a Press List at the 50% discounted rate of $300.

2. Writing/Issuing Press Releases

Front Page PR will spend up to 4 hours @ $150 per hour performing a competitive analysis of your top three competitors as well as research how leading publications are covering their stories. Based on this research we will write a 400-word, highly targeted and SEO’ed press release and issue it over Marketwired.com, the #1 news wire service in the United States.

Each release comes with an analytics report that shows how many media outlets picked up the release, how many people read the release as well as the geographical click-through rate for people who visited the company’s website.

This price does not include external wire service costs, which range around $250 for a 400-word release released in Texas that includes one logo. Extra photos and video attachments range from $75 to $125. Large city releases such LA and NY cost around $390.

Click here to purchase a Press Release at the 50% discounted rate of $300.

3. Media Relations Campaign

Front Page PR will spend up to 25 hours @ $200 per hour each month calling, emailing and texting tailored media pitches to a precise list of the top 50 reporters that cover your companies products. The goal of this program is build relationships between your executive management team and the media. It is a very labor-intensive process for your execs who will need to develop a message with our help and scheduling time to prepare for interviews and then spending time speaking with the press. It is a process that does not happen overnight and will grow slowly over a 12-month period and may involve press tours and travel. This option requires signing a 12-month contract.

Click here to purchase a Media Relations PR Campaign at the 50% discounted rate of $2,500.

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Contact:
Robert Hoskins
Front Page PR
(512) 627-6622
www.linkedin.com/in/roberthoskins
rhoskins[at]frontpagepr.com
@Crowdfunding_PR (fastest response)
@FrontPage_PR
@Crowdfunding TX

 

 

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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Front Page PR offers Texas Crowdfunding Sites Advertising, PR and Social Media Marketing Campaigns to Attract More Shoppers to Buy Rewards, Perks or Equity Shares

Crowdfunding platforms that provide a portfolio of marketing services to help crowdfunding campaign managers significantly increase their site’s ability to generate successful fundraising campaigns

By Robert Hoskins

Austin, Texas – Does your crowdfunding site need more website traffic? Front Page PR, one of the industry’s premier crowdfunding PR firms, now offers a special package of advertising, content marketing, CRM, email marketing, gamification, PR, and social media marketing programs engineered specifically to help new crowdfunding platforms increase the number of shoppers who visit their websites to shop for perks, rewards or equity shares to purchase.

Front Page PR is one of the leading Crowdfunding PR firms in the United States

In addition, Front Page PR offers crowdfunding training classes and consulting services to educate crowdfunding campaign managers on how to shoot more convincing pitch videos, how to use proven words/phrases to make crowdfunding profiles more persuasive and how to offer more attractive perks/rewards with better calls-to-action to improve conversion rates. The firm’s principles are based on time tested and proven old-school rules on how to plan successful marketing campaigns.

According the Crowdfunding Press Center’s Top 100 Crowdfunding Sites list, poor marketing programs account for significant drops in website traffic falling by 60% at 97^th place and 400% at 100^th place. Marketing consultants can teach crowdfunding campaign managers how to implement more effective marketing programs to give these underperforming sites a much better chance for success.

“Our firm offers crowdfunding campaign managers a menu of à la carte services, pre-packaged deals and/or post-paid commission options,” said Robert Hoskins, Front Page PR’s Director of Crowdfunding Campaigns. “One of our most popular options is a $2,500 down payment, plus a 5% post-paid commission based on the total funds raised.”

Campaign managers benefit from the post-paid 5% option because it provides them a way to run a decent marketing campaign and gives them a much a better chance for success than running no marketing programs at all. Platforms benefit because running twenty marketing campaigns simultaneously can generate an extra $50,000 per month to market the crowdfunding site, which brings in new clients, shoppers and investors.  It’s a true win-win situation for everyone.

Crowdfunding platforms and crowdfunding campaign managers that need help putting together customized marketing programs should contact Robert Hoskins at (512) 627-6622 or visit www.crowdfundingPRcampaigns.com.

Front Page PR is always seeking advertising, PR, marketing social media freelancers to participate in regional, national and global integrated marketing communications programs. If you’re interested in joining Front Page PR’s team, please follow us on Facebook, Linkedin and Twitter and send us a Direct Message (DM) to @Crowdfunding_PR.

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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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Top 10 Crowdfunding Sites Increase by an Average of 524% based on the United States Fastest Growing Internet Traffic Research Report

Over the past 12 months the top 10 crowdfunding sites have experienced exponential growth. Click here to research their website statistics to see what type of advertising, content marketing, email marketing, geographic locations, mobile wireless apps,  search engine results (SEO), social media, and referral partners are driving the world’s fastest growing crowdfunding rewards and equity investment websites

The Top 10 Fastest Growing Crowdfunding Sites in the United States Increase Internet Traffic by an Average of 524%

By Robert Hoskins

Austin, Texas – Want to know who the Top 100 Fastest Growing Crowdfunding sites  in the world are? The graph above shows the top 10 crowdfunding sites based on their website’s internet traffic. From a competitive analysis standpoint it might make you wonder how these companies are growing at such a phenomenal rate.

What type of marketing campaigns are they running to achieve this success?  Advertising? Email Marketing? Affiliate Marketing? Referral Partners? Direct Traffic?  Search Engine Results?  Alexa provides a little bit of information, Compete has even less, but SimilarWeb is building a great business by providing a ton of competitive information that up and coming crowdfunding sites and crowdfunding campaign managers can use to improve their marketing efforts.

Want to see the competitive analysis marketing report for each of the sites below? Simply click the % link for each one and you’ll be able to see what type of marketing campaigns are driving these sites’ traffic, where that traffic is coming from, where their visitors are going next, plus a whole lot more.

For examples, scroll down to the bottom of this page to see what types of marketing programs are driving the top 10 crowdfunding site’s rapid acceleration of website traffic.

If you would like to receive an Excel Spreadsheet that has last year’s statistics, this year’s stats, as well as the list of the Top 100 Crowdfunding Sites sorted by overall global ranking, fastest growing and biggest losses in website traffic, then follow these instructions to receive a free copy:

     1st – Follow @Crowdfunding PR, click here to send a Connect Request via Linkedin, or do both.

     2nd – Tweet us a message that says, “Please send me a copy of the #Top100CrowdfundingSites”

     3rd – We’ll follow you back and send a Direct Message for your email address

    4th – Want to improve your crowdfunding site’s results/ranking? Call us at (512) 627-6622. Front Page PR will put together an aggressive marketing program to improve your competitive position!

Overall Rank	Top 10 Fastest Growing Crowdfunding Websites	Past 12 Months
#5	FundingCircle	1946%
#3	Angel List	760%
#8	YouCaring	597%
#4	LendingClub	440%
#13	Crowdrise	429%
#2	GoFundMe	360%
#10	GiveForward	355%
#7	Quirky	222%
#9	JustGiving	82%
#12	Kiva	52%

 

1st Place = FundingCircle

FundingCircle makes Top 10 List of Fastest Growing Crowdfunding Sites

2nd Place = Angel List

Angel List makes Top 10 List of Fastest Growing Crowdfunding Sites

3rd Place = YouCaring

YouCaring makes Top 10 List of Fastest Growing Crowdfunding Sites

4th Place = LendingClub

LendingClub makes Top 10 List of the Fastest Growing Crowdfunding Sites

5th Place = Crowdrise

Crowdrise makes Top 10 List of the Fastest Growing Crowdfunding Sites

6th Place = GoFundMe

GoFundMe makes Top 10 List of Fastest Growing Crowdfunding Sites

7th Place = GiveForward

GiveForward makes Top 10 List of Fastest Growing Crowdfunding Sites

8th Place = Quirky

Quirky makes Top 10 List of Fastest Growing Crowdfunding Sites Worldwide

9th Place = JustGiving

JustGiving makes Top 10 List of Fastest Growing Crowdfunding Sites

10th Place = Kiva

Kiva makes Top 10 List of Fastest Growing Crowdfunding Sites Worldwide

 

Second Equity Crowdfunding Investing Portal, PennStarter, Begins Advertising Private Placements Under the JOBS Act

PennStarter carves out niche in the equity funding world, connecting qualified investors to early-stage public and private companies

By Robert Hoskins

PennStarter, based in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, states that the 2012 JOBS Act began allowing for certain equity funding raises to be advertised through exemption Regulation D, Rule 506(c) in September, 2013. The PennStarter portal is focused on early-stage public and private companies.

PennStarter Equity Crowdfunding Platform and Broker Dealer

While many broker-dealers and issuers have been reluctant to utilize advertising as they must verify the accreditation of their investors when relying on this exemption, the PennStarter portal was designed to make the investment process both open and transparent, while ensuring strict compliance.

Company President Ron Nicklas states, “We have worked hard to put procedures in place to make the process of verifying accreditation as simple for investors as possible. For investors interested in gaining access to quality deals, we believe that the PennStarter platform offers a unique opportunity to connect with early-stage companies.”

PennStarter has carved a niche in the equity funding world, connecting qualified investors to early-stage public and private companies. For companies and their investors, PennStarter offers the security of a FINRA/SIPC member broker-dealer, and thorough due diligence is done prior to listing.

For private companies, PennStarter is uniquely positioned to help properly position them to become publically traded, should they choose to do so. Since one of the typical challenges of investing in private placements is the lack of an exit strategy, this approach has become attractive to investors.

PennStarter is currently working with two companies conducting capital raises utilizing the 506(c) exemption, and which are available only to accredited investors.

1. Touchpoint Metrics: A fully reporting, early-stage company quoted on the OTCBB under the symbol TPOI. Touchpoint Metrics is a SaaS-based customer experience software and services company working with large, medium and small enterprises to measure and improve the experiences they deliver to their customers.
2. Funding Wonder: An online lending platform, which blends finance with social networking to provide loans to small businesses. Funding Wonder plans on offering its lending opportunities to both accredited and non-accredited investors utilizing state and federally regulated Crowdfunding after its implementation.

PennStarter is a division of Pennaluna & Company and was launched in late 2013. Pennaluna & Company is a full service stockbroker focused primarily on the mining, metals and Canadian markets since 1926 and many PennStarter opportunities reflect that niche.

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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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