Monthly Archives: July 2014

Fighting Crowdfunding Failure

Posted on July 30, 2014 by JeffKoeppel

Crowdfunding is now a pretty established way of raising funds for your project, but 57% of projects (on Kickstarter, for example) fail. So, to up your odds, Seed&Spark, a film makers portal has provided “The Introvert’s Guide to Crowdfunding,” with … Continue reading →

Posted in Crowd Fund Act, Crowd Fund Act of 2012, Crowd Funding At the Margins, Crowd Funding Platforms, Film, Funding Portals, Investments, Jobs, Legislative Intent, SEC, Small Business, Venture Capital | Tagged accredited investors, advocates, convert, crowd fund, Crowd Fund Act, crowdfunding, donors, DVD, emissary, empower, film, film finance, Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, financing, FINRA, fraud, funding portal, honesty, IndieGoGo, introvert, investors, JOBS Act, kickstarter, plan, rewards, SEC, Securities and Exchange Commission, Seed & Spark, video | Leave a comment

Crowdfunding Scam Alert

Posted on July 29, 2014 by JeffKoeppel

Watch out for Maksym and Denys Pashanin who have allegedly defrauded Kickstarter investors out of $40,000 with a pixel-art RPG video game called “Confederate Express” in the fall of 2013 that did not deliver, then started a new crowdfunding campaign … Continue reading →

Posted in Congress, Crowd Fund Act, Crowd Fund Act of 2012, Crowd Funding At the Margins, Crowd Funding Platforms, FINRA, Funding Portals, Investments, Jobs, Legislative Intent, SEC, Small Business | Tagged AirBnB, campaign, condo, crowd fund, Crowd Fund Act, crowdfunding, delivery, donor, Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, FINRA, IndieGoGo, JOBS Act, kickstarter, rewards, scam, SEC, Securities and Exchange Commission, squatter, video game | Leave a comment

In-State Crowdfunding Emerges

Posted on July 28, 2014 by JeffKoeppel

Eleven states have enacted statutes to permit real crowdfunding by in-state companies looking for in-state investors. To service these nascent deals, new funding portals are springing up to provide internet financing vehicles for recently enacted “intra-state” offerings of securities. One, … Continue reading →

Posted in Broker dealers, Congress, Crowd Fund Act, Crowd Fund Act of 2012, Crowd Funding At the Margins, Crowd Funding Platforms, Film, FINRA, Funding Portals, Investments, Jobs, Legislative Intent, SEC, Small Business, Venture Capital | Tagged 3(a)(11), accredited investors, advertising, background check, bad actors, Bohemian Guitars, crowd fund, Crowd Fund Act, crowdfunding, debt, donors, due diligence, equity, exemptions, film financing, Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, financing, FINRA, general solicitation, Georgia, IGE, IndieGoGo, indies, intra-state, Invest Georgia, investors, JOBS Act, kickstarter, listing fee, movies, non-accredited investor, notice filing, rewards, SEC, Securities Act of 1933, Securities and Exchange Commission, SparkMarket, state, TuffTV | Leave a comment

SEC Coy on Timing of Final Crowdfunding Rules

Posted on July 25, 2014 by JeffKoeppel

Yesterday, the head of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Division of Corporation Finance gave testimony to the House Committee on Financial Services Subcommittee on Capital Markets and Government Sponsored Enterprises with respect to the SEC’s progress on finalizing the rules … Continue reading →

Posted in Broker dealers, Congress, Crowd Fund Act, Crowd Fund Act of 2012, Crowd Funding At the Margins, Crowd Funding Platforms, Film, FINRA, Funding Portals, Investments, Jobs, Legislative Intent, SEC, Small Business, Venture Capital, Wall Street | Tagged advertising, capital, comment letters, crowd fund, Crowd Fund Act, crowdfunding, Division of Corporation Finance, final rules, Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, FINRA, funding portals, JOBS Act, Keith Higgins, kickstarter, Mary Jo White, proposed rules, recommendations, Reg D, SEC, Securities and Exchange Commission, timing, United States House of Representatives Committee on Financial Services Subcommittee on Capital Markets and Government Sponsored Enterprises | Leave a comment

Crowdfunding Suckers?

Posted on July 23, 2014 by JeffKoeppel

Sorry, you 9,522 “backers” of Oculus Rift who donated $2,437,429 in its Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign in September 2012. The Facebook acquisition of the company closed yesterday and you won’t get to share in the $2 billion in cash and stock, … Continue reading →

Posted in Congress, Crowd Fund Act, Crowd Fund Act of 2012, Crowd Funding At the Margins, Crowd Funding Platforms, Funding Portals, Investments, Jobs, Legislative Intent, SEC, Small Business, Venture Capital, Wall Street | Tagged accredited investor, backers, crowd fund, Crowd Fund Act, crowdfunding, donation, donors, equity, Facebook, FINRA, IndieGoGo, investment, JOBS Act, kickstarter, Mark Zukerberg, Oculus Rift, OR, Palmer Luckey, pre-order, pre-sales, Reg D, SEC, Securities and Exchange Commission, T shirt, virtual reality | Leave a comment

NBA Star Starts Seed Investment Fund

Posted on July 22, 2014 by JeffKoeppel

When you think wearable technology is your first thought Carmelo Anthony? The NBA star is partnering with Stuart Goldfarb, the former executive vice president of NBC, to make seed capital investments in digital media, consumer tech and internet of things. … Continue reading →

Posted in Congress, Crowd Fund Act, Crowd Fund Act of 2012, Crowd Funding At the Margins, Crowd Funding Platforms, Film, FINRA, Funding Portals, Investments, Jobs, Legislative Intent, SEC, Small Business, Venture Capital | Tagged Alexis Ohanian, Andreessen Horowitz, app, Apple, Bertelsmann, Carmelo Anthony, crowd fund, Crowd Fund Act, crowdfunding, Gary Vaynerchuk, Gokul Rajaram, Hullabalu, iPad, JOBS Act, Knicks, M7 Tech Partners, Melo, Michael Jordan, National Basketball Association, NBA, NBC, SEC, Securities and Exchange Commission, Silicon Valley, Stuart Goldfarb, Suzanne Xie, V Angel, VC, venture capital | Leave a comment

Crowdfunding Drug Startups Still Iffy

Posted on July 21, 2014 by JeffKoeppel

The University of British Columbia study suggests that crowdfunding may be a way to provide seed capital to risky pharmaceutical and/or disease diagnostics startups. Reviewing 97 campaigns, it was determined that average donations ranged from $59 to $199 on seven … Continue reading →

Posted in Charity, Congress, Crowd Fund Act, Crowd Fund Act of 2012, Crowd Funding At the Margins, Crowd Funding Platforms, FINRA, Funding Portals, Investments, Jobs, Legislative Intent, SEC, Small Business, Venture Capital | Tagged accredited investor, cancer, crowd fund, Crowd Fund Act, crowdfunding, cure, diagnostics, diseases, drug, drug discovery, drug investment, government funding, grant, JOBS Act, medical, medicine, National Institutes of Health, NIH, orphan drugs, patent, patient, pharma, pharmaceuticals, rare disease, risky, SEC, Securities and Exchange Commission, startups | Leave a comment

Indiegogo Crowdfunding Discount

Posted on July 18, 2014 by JeffKoeppel

Not an ad, but indie filmmakers who are members of the Independent Film Project in NYC get 25% off on Indiegogo campaign fees. Members and alumni of IFP have already raised more than $250,000 on the site. Note also that … Continue reading →

Posted in Congress, Crowd Fund Act, Crowd Fund Act of 2012, Crowd Funding At the Margins, Crowd Funding Platforms, Film, Funding Portals, Investments, Jobs, Legislative Intent, SEC, Small Business, Venture Capital | Tagged backers, campaign, crowd fund, Crowd Fund Act, crowdfunding, discount, donors, DVD, equity, fees, film, film finance, FINRA, IFP, incubator, independent film, Independent Film Project, indie, IndieGoGo, JOBS Act, kickstarter, Made in NY, Media Center, movies, payment processing, rewards, SEC, Securities and Exchange Commission, seminar | Leave a comment

What Investors Really Mean…

Posted on July 17, 2014 by JeffKoeppel

If you’re trying to raise funding, you soon realize that you need a pretty thick skin and can’t be afraid of rejection. PandoDaily has cracked the code that we all know, but just can seem to translate (reality check in … Continue reading →

Posted in Broker dealers, Congress, Crowd Fund Act, Crowd Fund Act of 2012, Crowd Funding At the Margins, Crowd Funding Platforms, Film, Funding Portals, Investments, Jobs, Legislative Intent, SEC, Small Business, Venture Capital | Tagged blowing smoke, campaigns, capital, crowd fund, Crowd Fund Act, crowdfunding, entrepreneur, equity, Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, FINRA, funding, JOBS Act, money, PandoDaily, saying no, SEC, Securities and Exchange Commission, Silicon Valley, smokescreens, success, time, VCs, venture capital | Leave a comment

Major Corporations Using Crowdfunding

Posted on July 11, 2014 by JeffKoeppel

Major corporations are jumping on the crowdfunding bandwagon. The Wall Street Journal profiled $7 billion (market value) semi-conductor chip maker Marvell that recently used Indiegogo to crowdfund Kinoma Create, a software and hardware tool kit that includes a Marvell chipset … Continue reading →

Posted in Congress, Crowd Fund Act, Crowd Fund Act of 2012, Crowd Funding At the Margins, Crowd Funding Platforms, Film, FINRA, Funding Portals, Investments, Jobs, Legislative Intent, SEC, Small Business, Venture Capital | Tagged backers, campaign, capital, chipset, crowd fund, Crowd Fund Act, crowdfunding, customers, donors, equity, FINRA, IndieGoGo, JOBS Act, kickstarter, launch, Marvell, pre-sales, products, rewards, round, SEC, Securities and Exchange Commission, seed capital, Series A, Silicon Valley, Slava Rubin, test market, valuation, VCs, venture capital, Zach Braff | Leave a comment