October 2012 – Crowdfunding Professional Association

The first annual Crowdfunding Bootcamp co-sponsored by the Crowdfunding Professional Association and Funding Roadmap was held this week in Henderson, NV. In attendance were over 300 investors, entrepreneurs and members of the crowdfunding industry from eight countries. The conference produced some unique insights, and from our vantage point we can already see trends developing in this nascent industry.

When President Obama signed the JOBS Act into law on April 5, 2012 we knew the battle had been won but not the war. The legislation provided the SEC with 270 days to issue the rules for crowdfund investing (aka equity or debt-based crowdfunding) to operate. Soon after, we learned that the industry would fall under the oversight of FINRA. In an attempt to provide a united industry voice for portals, investors, entrepreneurs, and third-party providers two industry associations were formed, The Crowdfunding Professional Association (CfPA), focused on investor education and representation, and Crowdfund Intermediary Regulator Advocates (CFIRA) began actively engaging with the SEC and FINRA to provide accurate and timely information from the industry during this rule-making phase of the process. This conference organized by Ruth Hedges of Crowdfunding Bootcamp was the first time members of all of the associations came together to share best practices, educate entrepreneurs and plan for the future.

Las Vegas, Nevada (PRWEB) October 17, 2012 – The Crowdfunding Bootcamp and CFPA Convention in Las Vegas Nevada, October 9-11, was a pivotal event in the establishment of the Equity Crowdfunding industry. Hundreds of crowdfunding thought leaders, service providers, nascent funding portals, social media experts, accounting, legal and policy professionals, and individual entrepreneurs gathered to understand the challenges, the promise, and the nuts and bolts of the coming equity crowdfunding era, how it will be executed, and how it can be made to work for everyone.

Combined with the event was the first annual Crowdfunding Professionals Association CfPA Conference, a group of first movers in the industry. The Crowdfund Intermediary Regulatory Advocates was a co-sponsor of the event.

“Reflecting crowdfunding itself, the CFPA conference had an authentic DIY spirit and excitement that more ‘corporate’ conferences lack.” said Paul Spinrad, “I connected with people doing a diverse range of great things there, and gathered some information that will really help me. I look forward to an even bigger crowd at the 2013 event.”

CfPA board member Kim Wales said, “We all have a role to play! Whether you led from the front or led from the back; showed up to learn, teach, encourage or laugh – sell products or just to be seen – the conference hall was 250+ persons strong. All of our hands and minds came together in unity; forming the industry’s first Annual Crowdfunding Bootcamp and Crowdfunding Professional Association Conference in October 2012.”

Ruth Hedges, Crowdfundingroadmap.com bootcamp creator and organizer and board member of CfPA, hosted and moderated the event. “We are on the threshold of a new era in the financing and creation of new businesses. The JOBS Act crowdfunding provisions will allow for vastly expanded participation by all Americans who will be able to make small investments to participate in job creation and capital formation,” says Hedges, “the challenge now is two-fold: for the SEC to meet their responsibilities in finalizing the rules of the road by the end of the year, as stipulated in the bill, and the education and creation of a pipeline of entrepreneurs and as well as the education for a country of newly enfranchised small investors -that means you!- to be able to take advantage of this opportunity.”

Keynoter Peter Shankman, founder of Help A Reporter Out (HARO) and now small business evangelist for Vocus, was on hand to help frame conference business in terms of “understanding the rapidly changing technological, social and economic ecosystems that enable crowdfunding, along with examples of viral success stories and why they worked.” said Meghan Cole, VP of Operations for Laughlin Associates one of the event’s coordinators and sponsors.

Alix Shaer, fundraiser and well known for raising millions of dollars for the American Cancer Society, helped entrepreneurial attendees to think about how to leverage and recruit who they know and the importance of communicating one’s passion directly.

Wednesday’s panel featured a heady line-up including; Maurice Lopes of Early Shares, Candace Klein of Bad Girl Ventures and SoMoLend, Scott Purcell of the crowdfunding platform Arctic Island, Joy Schoffler of Leverage PR, D.J. Paul of Crowdfunder, Rodney Sampson of Legacy Opportunity Fund and Dara Albright of NowStreetMedia. “If one could choose one element of the event that people would have wanted a lot more of, it was this incisively intelligent and practical-minded panel,” said conference staffer Joe Phelan.
Other amazing speakers included Douglas Ellenoff, of Ellenoff Grossman & Schole LLP, who has consulted with the SEC on crowdfunding rules and whose firm, along with Sara Hanks founder of Crowdcheck, has played leadership roles in communication with the SEC to help establish those rules; bringing further credibility, Gary Milkwick of 1800Accountant- a firm specialized in small business; Michael Fultz of Fund All Be All, a full spectrum crowdfunding service provider; Bruce Johnston and Zachary Hedges of CaptureTrackConvert, a customer acquisition optimizing platform, and; Karl Burl of Navicate, a service to streamline the valuation process and Arron Young CEO of Laughlin Associates a first mover in providing Incorpoation and corporate veil protection to the crowdfunding industry.

The event featured the first Funding Portal Pavillion TM, with booths featuring 30+ companies who provide services and support to entrepreneurs. Many new portal companies were able to interact with their future customers and each other. “The CFPA conference was an incredible event, probably the largest CrowdFunding event to date in number of attendees. The vibe and deals were so positive that even direct competitors became great new friends.” said Maurice Lopes CEO of EarlyShares.com “When the right people get together to support a new industry great things can really happen!”

Toward the end of the last day, Sherwood Neiss, a founding member of the Crowdfund Professional Association, who also helped push the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act in Congress, stood up and talked about the issues of potential fraud, transparency and accountability, and noted that with equity crowdfunding, as with the current gift-based crowdfunding, the safety is in that one has to build support from your friends and family who expand out to their friends and family; without the trust of the people who know you, there is little chance of your campaign going viral and getting funded. Support doesn’t come from an impulse. The internet has a memory. Neiss explained. “Con-artists will for the most part be identified and the disclosure and transparency as stipulated in the bill and registration process will keep fraudsters from even starting.”

Ms. Hedges emphasized the need for getting entrepreneurs educated and prepared in the crowdfunding process: “To feed the demand next year from these new funding portals and the millions of new investors who will be looking for quality deal flow, we need to start now and build a pipeline of one million crowdfund compliant small businesses who will be ready to launch an equity crowdfunding campaign once its legal to do so. We need to ramp this up now in order to provide a continuous flow to create the new businesses and jobs that will power our economy forward.”

On the last day, Jed Cohen, CEO of Rocket Hu b gave the closing keynote, brilliantly explaining the logical dynamics of crowdfunding with diagrams that in one case resembled the clusters of star systems he studied as an astrophysics student. Rocket Hub is one of the existing crowdfunding sites that sees equity crowdfunding in its own future.