Here’s the latest from the guys leading the charge to legalize Crowdfund Investing (CFI) in Washington, DC.
LegalizeCrowdfunding.org goes live.
Already 138 entrepreneurs have registered to create 2,500+ jobs, which will have over $100M in stimulus! Let’s show Washington, DC the power of Crowdfund Investing! If you are an,
1. Entrepreneur: Register to show how many people you need for your business (eg: jobs you will create) and the economic impact it will have.
2. Investor: Register to show the impact your dollars will have stimulating our economy.
3. Crowdfunding Supporter: Send an email to your Legislators, Tweet and Post about the site!
Endorse Crowdfund Investing! SBE Council plans to send this group letter to U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) in the coming week. If you would like to sign onto the letter and add your name to the growing list of groups representing small business owners and entrepreneurs that are urging the U.S. Senate to take action, please send your name, affiliation and email contact information to SBE Council at info@sbecouncil.org.
Status of Legislation
1. The Good: As it stands we have 3 bills before Congress. HR 2930 passed the House with an overwhelming 96% approval – Yes that’s true bipartisan support. President Obama came out and endorsed the Bill with a Statement of Administrative policy and also included our framework in the Startup America Legislative Agenda. Things have slowed down in the Senate but to help move things along we went back to Washington and presented them with some Commonsense Consensus ideas that pull the best of the 3 bills into one.
2. The Bad: NASAA’s opposition to crowdfunding is also in opposition to the needs of our economy, entrepreneurship and jobs. NASAA argues that they are best suited to regulate simple, transparent markets for businesses on Crowdfunding Intermediaries. This would create 50 different markets for Crowdfunding, rendering Crowdfund Investing dead on arrival. This is part of the reason it is so hard for small businesses to raise money today; different bureaucratic, costly rules for each states. Since CFI is based on community financing, we believe the crowd can do a better, faster, cheaper and more efficient job of determining which ideas, if any, should be funded and with how many dollars. It is that simple. Leave the heavy-handed, traditional regulation and oversight for the larger businesses that can access traditional capital. We advocate state regulation preemption, while preserving the enforcement power of the states to pursue fraud when it occurs.
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