CfPA Board of Directors members Alon Hillel-Tuch, Jordan Fishfeld, and Scott McIntyre hosted at the world’s largest CrowdFunding summit. The October 2015 event in Guiyang, China expected 8000 attendees but received over 13,000. For more information, visit www.GlobalCFC.cn.
Gate Global Impact announced at the recent United Nations Global Compact Leaders Summit a plan to feature select companies from the U.N.’s soon-to-be-launched Social Enterprise Action Hub on the Gate Global Impact GATEWAY Platform, a crowdfunding platform for social entrepreneurs to pitch impact investors…
The world of entrepreneurial finance is changing rapidly; we are at a tipping point that will make what seems like a vibrant part of our global economy today seem small in one year’s hindsight.
Whether you are a service provider, social entrepreneur, angel investor, venture capitalist, or one of the millions of people ready to become a small-scale start up financier, it is time to pay attention.
Estimates for annual crowdfunding transactions go as high as $500 billion annually compared to 2011’s $1.5 billion (anticipated to be $3 billion in 2012). If crowdfunding even begins to approach that scale, it will completely change the landscape for start-up financing.
Equity crowdfunding in the United States is a blank slate. With equity crowdfunding’s recent legalization in the United States, many companies smell an opportunity to develop technical and financial innovations to help the industry mature.
Equity crowdfunding is much like crowdfunding, which has been popularized in the United States through sites such as Kickstarter and Indiegogo. The difference is that instead of individuals supporting campaigns through donations, numerous investors are purchasing small stakes in startups or small businesses. Critics of crowdfunding worry that the industry will be rife with Ponzi schemes or that having too many investors will hurt startups’ prospects for future funding.
Proponents of equity crowdfunding, however, point to its success in countries such as Australia and Germany. For example, Seedmatch, an equity crowdfunding platform in Germany, allows investors to enter long-term investment contracts where they get equity. Australia, where equity crowdfunding has been legal for seven years, already has a platform for “secondary” sales of unlisted issued securities.
Currently, equity crowdfunding in the United States lacks the organizations and support infrastructure, such as investor verification systems and clearing houses, needed for a thriving equity crowdfunding ecosystem.
“We are already beginning to experience the proliferation of financial innovation with secondary exchanges, investor verification systems and private securities-clearing,” Crowdnetic CEO Luan Cox said. “I believe that as the infrastructure matures, more and more financial service providers will adopt crowdfinance and the industry will rapidly develop into a viable asset class.”
Companies such as Finagraph are helping investors cut through the opaque fog often associated with investing in startups. They provide a portal that will allow investors to analyze companies’ current financial health. According to MIT Profssor Christian Catalini, creating more transparency and developing trust will be essential for equity crowdfunding’s success.
“It will be interesting to see how the ecosystem around equity crowdfunding platforms will evolve,” he said. “There is an opportunity for third-party intermediaries to provide certification (e.g., on the technical feasibility of an hardware project) and quality ratings in the market to improve its efficiency. A trustworthy intermediary would increase the number of transactions that can actually take place. Platforms will experiment with different forms of market design and rules, in an effort to select only projects that meet a certain quality level.”
Catalini already sees some healthy equity crowdfunding experimentation that will help the industry mature.
“This will spawn a number of innovations, as traditional institutions and new ones start experimenting with how to bring crowdfunding to the next level,” he continued. “We will see some failures, and we will learn from them in an effort to develop better regulation. It will be interesting to see how crowd due diligence on projects will evolve, as right now it mostly relies on one or a few lead investors taking the lead on the activity. Interestingly, platforms like AngelList are already experimenting with ways to encourage talented investors to use their skills and scale their operations by allowing others to co-invest, and incentives are aligned because they get a carry on the investment.”
One glaring obstacle, according to Director of Research Richard Swart, who oversees crowdfunding research at Berkeley, is the lack of crowdfunding auditors.
“There also needs to be a better way of doing financial audits,” Swart said. “There’s a big gap in the market when it comes to auditing small businesses or early-stage startups. The Big Four accounting firms just don’t have it covered yet. Most startups don’t have great financial accounting. It will take some time for the market to mature. You will probably see institutional investors experiment with equity crowdfunding before you see individual investors. 90% of America doesn’t even know what equity crowdfunding is.”
Swart believes equity crowdfunding will be attractive to “Main Street USA” businesses with loyal customers, but especially attractive to tech startups that do not want to deal with venture capital funds.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw large pools of investment, say 20-40 million dollars,” he said. “They might just find that the costs of capital are much lower with equity crowdfunding. It’s better than dealing with VCs. A lot of people are worried that equity crowdfunding might create problems for startups who later want to seek venture capital money. However, you might see a new convertible instrument, where instead of debt being converted to equity, you will see equity turned into debt. The debt will have a much higher interest rate, so as to make it attractive to the earlier investors, and so that VCs will be wiling to invest in certain companies.”
While opportunities in equity crowdfunding exist, University of Virginia Law Professor Edmund Kitch warns that simpler securities laws are necessary for equity crowdfunding to truly thrive.
“If crowdfunding is to flourish the most obvious need is for a skillfully curated web site that will review projects and their promoters to ensure that they are honest and have the basic skills to succeed,” he said. ”Such web sites are unlikely to develop if the government stands in the way. If the government would simply create an open space for crowdfunding sites to operate, it could monitor their development and if it identified specific problems that create the need for targeted legal intervention, it could then pursue that intervention. Unfortunately, the JOBS Act is enacted within the regulatory complexity of current securities law, and does not accomplish this simple goal.”
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Study: 81% of Americans Don’t Know How to Open an Online Brokerage Account
Ruth Hedges, Founder and CEO of Funding Roadmap and one of the early investment crowdfunding advocates, is interviewed by Devin Thorpe – a frequent Forbes contributor who covers “impact investing”.
The Crowdfunding Professional Association’s (CfPA) 2nd Annual Crowd Investing Innovation Forum will convene top crowdfunding pioneers, policymakers, entrepreneurs and investors in Orlando on August 8th through 9th to address the most urgent issues in capital formation and job creation, corporate and entrepreneurial crowdfunding initiatives.
Following the July 11th rule change by the SEC, the JOBS (Jumpstart Our Business Startups) Act of 2012 now allows for private companies to actively solicit investment in the media and online, giving accredited investors easy access to private equity deals. The crowdfunding industry is coming together here for the first time since the rule change. The conference is timed to spark innovation and frank discussion on how investors and emerging companies both can take advantage of new crowdfunding opportunities.
TubeStart announced today that it will be waiving fees for content creators that sign up campaigns during the first 2 weeks of August. The new platform will provide the more than 1 million YouTube creators from 30 countries with the opportunity to run both traditional rewards based and royalty-based crowdfunding campaigns, as well as launch “unique-to-market” subscription-based crowdfunding campaigns for driving ongoing revenue. Both established YouTube producers as well as creative newcomers will be able to tap into this new crowdfunding model provided by TubeStart. Read More…
The Crowdfunding Professional Assocation or CfPA has issued a release sharing their appreciation of the recent progress made regarding the Jobs Act. Equity-based crowdfunding came one step closer to reality this past Wednesday as the SEC voted to lift the ban on general solicitation of private placements to accredited investors.
The SEC ruling will create a new kind of offering–a 506(c). This allows private companies and investment firms to advertise private securities offerings to accredited investors only. The SEC is still working on proposed rules for Title III, which will enable the general public to participate in equity crowdfunding.
SEC lifts Ban on General Solicitation for Private Placements in 4-1 Vote
WASHINGTON, July 12, 2013 /PRNewswire/ — Equity-based crowdfunding came one step closer to actualization Wednesday with the Securities and Exchange Commission voting 4-to-1 in favor of lifting the ban on general solicitation of private placements to accredited investors. The SEC ruling will create a new kind of offering–a 506(c). This allows private companies and investment firms to advertise private securities offerings to accredited investors only. The SEC is still working on proposed rules for Title III, which will enable the general public to participate in equity crowdfunding.
“We applaud the commission’s progress on Title II of the JOBS Act,” Says Maurice Lopes, Governing Board Member for the Crowdfunding Professional Association and Founder of EarlyShares, “We look forward to working closely with them through the implementation of Title III.”
The SEC issued a statement on the decision, saying, “In connection with this new rule, the Commission voted to issue a rule proposal requiring issuers to provide additional information about these securities offerings to better enable the SEC to monitor the market with that ban now lifted. The proposal also provides for additional safeguards as this market changes and new practices develop.” Among the proposed rules, issuers would be mandated to verify accredited investors instead of relying upon self-accreditation.
“We made a giant step forward yesterday, but the rules have not been implemented yet,” says Joy Schoffler PR committee Chair and Principal of Leverage PR. “What the business and investment community need to do now is educate themselves and entrepreneurs while staying compliant with current regulations.”
One way the CfPA educates the public is through its annual convention, to be held this year in Orlando, FL August 8-9. Media personnel may attend for free. For more information, please contact Joy Schoffler or visit http://events.cfpa.org.
About the Crowdfunding Professional Association:
The Crowdfunding Professional Association (CfPA) is dedicated to facilitating a vibrant Crowdfunding community while advocating for an entire industry view. Uniting a broad-based coalition of industry participants, the association is committed to the credible development of the industry, including the highest ethical standards. The association’s collaborations and insights are shared broadly to avoid onerous, stifling bureaucracy that can endanger innovation and job creation. Learn more: www.cfpa.org.
SOURCE Crowdfunding Professional Association
/CONTACT: Joy Schoffler, Leverage PR, (512) 271-9489 x700
/Web site: https://cfpa.org
The Crowdfunding Professional Association (CfPA), a leading trade organization for the crowdfunding industry, has released the agenda for its 2nd Annual Crowd Investing Innovation Forum. The event is to be held on August 8th – 9th in Orlando, Florida.
Event organizer Luan Cox commented on the forthcoming gathering,
“Whereas most crowdfunding conferences center discussions on predicting and preparing for the SEC’s implementation of the JOBS Act, we’ve decided to instead focus on showing how the entire financial ecosystem can employ presently legal crowdfinancing methodologies and begin capitalizing today,” said Luan Cox, “There is no reason why broker dealers, issuers and investors need to wait for Title III when they can already be contributing to economic growth through mechanisms such as Intrastate Crowdfunding, Reg D Crowdfunding and IPO Crowdfunding.”
Scott McIntyre is currently in his 8th term as Chairman of the CfPA’s Board of Directors and has served in leadership since formation in 2012, including four terms as President & Chair.
Professionally, Scott is an active proponent of regenerative agriculture underpinning his vision for a robust domestic Industrial Hemp landscape. He is a partner at Renaissance Park Corporation, a JV-driven R&D firm based in Sausalito, California, and founded Ohio-based co-op Hemp Made Products (HMP) to help farmers and their communities prosper from the re-shoring of this important industry as shareholders, not just stakeholders.
Further in his volunteer work, Scott founded 501(c)3 non-profit WEconomy-US, Inc. in part to implement the breakthrough economic development platform, Sustainable Communities Framework (SCF). Scott serves as a senior advisor to both the Sustainable Communities Corporation, a 503(c)4 fiscal policy NGO responsible for the SCF, and at Community Vision Associates, helping preserve legacy neighborhoods sustainably and equitably with novel real estate strategies.
Scott is a lifelong entrepreneur and venture catalyst. He founded strategy/media/capital firm Phabriq Development in 1997, and COventures in 2017, providing key technology and practical guidance for aspiring entrepreneurs and innovation communities. Scott recently completed interim CEO roles at Root Origins™ and at a unit of Groupo Venture Capital, a Chilean investment bank.
Scott is a recognized pioneer in Education Technology since his role as a founding executive of REAL Education in 1994, the startup that built the first online education platform, launching worldwide as eCollege at IPO in 1999. eCollege is now a cornerstone of Education market leader Pearson, having acquired eCollege for $477 million in 2007. As a Director at The University of Toledo, Scott was responsible for designing and building the school’s first Office of Student Entrepreneurship and Engagement. Scott previously managed the State of Ohio’s Edison Technology Business Incubator and continues to mentor College of Engineering student entrepreneurs.
Scott is active in impact investor communities both local and abroad, notably as an advisor to the 360 One Firm. Scott was invited by President Obama to The White House in recognition as a Champion of Change related to CfPA’s landmark work. He was also selected by the U.S. State Department to address the Finance Ministers of the European Union on the subject of Alternative Finance at a 2018 meeting in Vienna. Scott has consulted governments and addressed crowds in excess of 20,000 in China, Russia, India, Australia, and Europe, and he maintains an active network of leading foreign alternative finance bodies with colleagues in over 20 countries.
Details of Mr. McIntyre’s work history, achievements and recommendations can be viewed on his LinkedIn profile.
Brian Christie is CEO of Brainsy, Inc. – an innovative SaaS company offering a white label social media engagement platform that can reward participants for their engagement and that can be owned by the community. Brian’s vision for Brainsy is that it will spawn thousands of social media micro-networks – each using their own incentive system and currency (optional) to reward their community of contributors.
Brian is also an Advisor at Crowdfund Holdings Innovators (CHI), a company that incubates innovative crowdfunding concepts and advises issuers on raising money through regulated investment crowdfunding. Brian has advised or invested in various start-ups and served in a board or executive role at companies such as LTVtrade, Promontory Interfinancial Network, and quantumStream. Specialties include: fintech, digital marketing, strategic alliance formation, impact investing, international business development and cross border transactions. He’s a fan of any movement, innovation, technology, law, or regulation that creates opportunities, serves the public interest, and levels the economic playing field.
Brian received a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Miami University and an MBA from Georgetown University
Sara Hanks, Founder and CEO of CrowdCheck, is an attorney with over 30 years of experience in the corporate and securities field. CrowdCheck provides due diligence, disclosure and compliance services for online capital formation. Its services help entrepreneurs and project sponsors through the disclosure and due diligence process, give investors the information they need to make an informed investment decision and avoid fraud and help intermediaries avoid liability.
Sara’s prior position was General Counsel of the bipartisan Congressional Oversight Panel, the overseer of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). Prior to that, Sara spent many years as a partner of Clifford Chance, one of the world’s largest law firms. While at Clifford Chance, she advised on capital markets transactions and corporate matters for companies throughout the world. Sara began her career with the London law firm Norton Rose. She later joined the Securities and Exchange Commission and as Chief of the Office of International Corporate Finance led the team drafting regulations that put into place a new generation of rules governing the capital-raising process.
Sara received her law degree from Oxford University and is a member of the New York and DC bars and a Solicitor of the Supreme Court of England and Wales. She serves as co-Chair of the SEC’s Advisory Council on Small and Emerging Companies. She holds a Series 65 securities license as a registered investment advisor. Sara is an aunt, Army wife, skier, cyclist, gardener and animal lover.
Jenny Kassan has almost three decades of experience as an attorney and advisor for mission-driven enterprises. She has helped her clients raise millions of dollars from values-aligned investors and raised over $3 million for her own businesses.
She is the author of Raise Capital on Your Own Terms: How to Fund Your Business without Selling Your Soul (Berrett-Koehler, October 2017).
Jenny earned her J.D. from Yale Law School and a master’s degree in City and Regional Planning from the University of California at Berkeley.
She served on the Securities and Exchange Commission Advisory Committee on Small and Emerging Companies. She submitted the petition to the SEC that led to the passage of the 2012 JOBS Act and was present at the White House signing ceremony.
Brian is the Founder of Crowdwise, LLC, and is an angel investor in 80+ private startups through equity crowdfunding.
He obtained a dual B.S. in Aeronautical and Mechanical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 2009 with a minor in Economics and French, and a dual M.S. in Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering from the University of Southern California in 2012.
After working as an engineering lead and manager at a Fortune 500 company for 10 years, Brian left the defense and aerospace industry to embark as an entrepreneur and founded Crowdwise in 2019.
Crowdwise is an online startup investing community focused on helping both investors and entrepreneurs navigate equity crowdfunding by providing courses, tools and educational content.
Samson is a classically trained anthropologist, finance and public health expert who advises Fortune 100 companies, executives and startups in Dubai, Washington, DC and Dublin, Ireland.
Samson learned his craft as Emergency Manager at Fannie Mae 2008 – 2016 and has since gone on to be a leading advisor to banks and financial institutions in the Dubai / Middle East North Africa region.
Samson’s focus is helping firms understand the latest human trends in fintech, digital transformation, the Space Economy and Low Earth Orbit entrepreneurship so that they can make profitable decisions for their bottom lines.
Follow Samson on Twitter/Instagram @MilkyWayEconomy or reach out to him on LinkedIn to follow the latest insights in his academic and market research.
Patrick Tracey is Director of Business Development for Morrow Sodali. In this role, Pat brings expertise in a number of areas including Proxy Solicitation – Activism – Corporate Governance Advisory – IPO Prep – Demutualization (Insurance Companies, Community Banks and Credit Union) – Stock Surveillance for Public, Private and Mutual companies.
Pat has an impressive history in the securities industry. He has worked with community banks and insurance companies who have raised capital via mutual-to-stock conversions, mutual holding company formations and sponsored demutualizations, including the historic MetLife demutualization and the 1995 stock offering by the Boston Beer Company to retail customers.
Pat is on the advisory board of Fordham’s Gabelli School of Business program in investor relations and has guest lectured at Fordham, New York University, Baruch College and DePaul University on investor relations topics. Pat is a graduate of New York University.
Blaine McLaughlin is the Chief Product Officer of VIA Folio, an innovative IPO, private and alternative investment platform that makes it easy for online platforms, issuers, investors, brokers and advisors to engage with IPOs, private and alternative debt and equity offerings. Part of Folio Investments, Inc., VIA Folio supports issuance, custody, servicing and secondary transactions in public and private equity and debt investments, and other listed and unlisted securities. McLaughlin joined the company in 2007, and has led retail customer acquisition and management, partnerships, portfolio acquisition, introducing broker services, and other business development activities.
McLaughlin previously served as a Director of Marketing and Analysis at Capital One for credit card and direct banking divisions, and as an officer in the U.S. Navy. He has more than 15 years of experience in the financial services industry, holds a degree in economics from the University of California at San Diego, and an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
Jordan Fishfeld is the former CEO and co-founder of PeerRealty (sold), and current Chairman of the Board and co-founder of CFX Markets and OpenFinance Network, secondary market platforms for traditionally crowdfunded and digital assets, respectively. In this role, he focuses his time on strategic planning and general oversight in the new and growing digital marketplace. With over 8 years of compliance, legal, investing, and sales experience in regulated markets, Jordan understands the need for a single coherent voice in the crowdfunding and blockchain industries.
Prior to founding PeerRealty, Jordan worked as a finance attorney for Katten Muchin Rosenman, LLP, where he assisted on more than $1 billion worth of syndicated loan transactions.
Additionally, Jordan sits on the board of Upstart, a national non-profit tasked with bringing bold, new and innovative Jewish ideas to light through its accelerator and mentorship program.
Jordan received his Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and his Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of Florida and his Masters of Business Administration and his Juris Doctor from the University of Miami, where he graduated Magna Cum Laude.
Over 35 years of experience in Information Technology with the majority of time being spent in the Financial Services industry. Possesses detailed knowledge of all aspects of the online capital formation/crowdfunding, international brokerage, hedge fund and asset management businesses. Able to recruit and motivate strong teams capable of solving mission critical business problems.
Has been involved in the alternative asset space since prior to the passing of the Jobs Act as the founder of CrowdClear a company formed to provide back office clearing and settlement services to firms raising capital using Regulation D. Currently works as the Director of Business Development for Koreconx, the premier supplier of technology and services helping firms manage all aspects of the investment lifecycle.
Devin is a journalist, author and educator. He calls himself a champion of social good. As a new-media journalist and founder of the Your Mark on the World Center, Devin has established himself as a champion of social good. As a Forbes contributor, with over 400 bylines and over
one million unique readers, he has become a recognized name in the social impact arena. His Your Mark on the World show, featuring over 900 celebrities, CEOs, billionaires, entrepreneurs and others who are out to change the world, gives him a recognizable face as well.
Previously, Devin served as the CFO of the third largest company on the 2009 Inc. 500 list. He also founded and led an NASD-registered investment bank. After completing a degree in finance at the University of Utah, he earned an MBA from Cornell University.
Having lived on three continents and visited over 30 countries on six continents and with guests from around the world on his show, Devin brings a global perspective to international audiences–from the UN to Nepal–empowering them to do more good and make their mark on the world. These lessons also enable them to change their personal lives and to drive positive change within their organizations. His books provide roadmaps to audiences on how to use money for good. His books have been read over 1 million times!
Today, Devin channels the idealism of his youth, volunteering whenever and wherever he can, with the loving support of his wife, Gail. Their son, Dayton, works in San Francisco.
Vincent Molinari is the CEO of Templum Markets, (FINRA Registered Broker Dealer and ATS) and Co-Founder of it’s parent company, Templum, Inc. He is also a Co-Founder and Co-Chair of the Blockchain Commission for Sustainable Development and is a Co-Founder and Co-Chair of Blockchain for Impact.
Vincent Molinari has nearly 3 decades of experience as a licensed person in the securities industry where he began his career at Lehman Brothers and later at Janney Montgomery Scott. He is a recognized thought leader on the modernization of securities law and the intersection of breakthrough innovation and technology solutions.
Vincent is an active Global Speaker on Market Infrastructure, Capital Formation, Blockchain, Digital Assets, Impact Investing, and the JOBS Act. He is the host of the Digital Assets Report filmed at the NYSE and has been invited to testify before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Financial Services, Subcommittee on Capital Markets, and Government Sponsored Enterprises. Mr. Molinari has also testified before The Securities and Exchange Commission’s Advisory Committee on Small and Emerging Companies regarding secondary market liquidity.
He has participated in authoring 16 Comment Letters and Petitions for Rule Change to the SEC and FINRA. In addition, he consults with members of Congress and Senate on these issues.
David N. Feldman concentrates his practice on corporate and securities law and mergers and acquisitions, as well as general representation of public and private companies, entrepreneurs, investors, and private equity and venture capital firms. Mr. Feldman also advises emerging growth companies with regard to alternatives to traditional financing through initial public offerings. He is also considered an authority on public offerings through the recently implemented SEC Regulation A+. Mr. Feldman also represents investors, social media sites, public and private issuers and applicants for grow and dispensary licenses in the emerging cannabis industry.
Mr. Feldman has authored four books on finance and entrepreneurship, and contributed to three other books. His latest book, Regulation A+ and Other Alternatives to a Traditional IPO (John Wiley & Sons), was published in March 2018.
Alon is the Managing Partner of Stacked Capital, an early-stage industry agnostic venture capital fund. Previously Alon was the co-founder, Chief Financial Officer, and Chief Technical Officer of crowdfunding platform RocketHub, acquired in 2015. Alon is a founding member of the Forbes Technology Council, and a Strategic Advisor to Zombie Soup (Artificial Intelligence, Virtual Reality, and games); he has twice testified in front of U.S. Congress on equity crowdfunding, co-authored three acclaimed whitepapers on the JOBS Act, and was selected to lead FINRA’s Capital Markets Series on crowdfunding. Alon oversaw RocketHub’s partnerships with the White House, U.S. Department of State, Fulbright Foundation, Cisco, Microsoft, Chrysler, and others. Alon has led large speaking engagements for organizations including American Express, TEDx, Campaign Summit, Re.Comm, and Make Innovation. Alon earned his M.Sc from Columbia University and was a fellow at the Earth Institute’s Advanced Consortium of Cooperation, Conflict, and Complexity; he specialized in genocide prevention and social network theory.
Jason Paltrowitz is Executive Vice President and Global Head of Business Development at OTC Markets Group, where he is responsible for all international and domestic corporate services new business and relationship management. Prior to joining OTC Markets in October 2013, Mr. Paltrowitz was Managing Director and Segment Head at JP Morgan Chase and was responsible for the custody, clearing and collateral management business in the Corporate and Investment Bank division. Mr. Paltrowitz started his career at BNY Mellon serving in multiple senior management positions, most notably as Head of M&A for the Financial Markets and Treasury Services Sector and 11 years in the Depositary Receipt Division as the Head of the Global Capital Markets Group. Mr. Paltrowitz also served as a member of the Board of Directors at OTC Markets Group from 2008 – 2011.
Mr. Paltrowitz holds a Bachelor’s degree in International Relations from Boston University and received his MBA from the NYU Stern School of Business.
Thell Woods, a former interim president of the CfPA, founded and currently serves as chairman of Crowdfunding Services LLC. The company helps establish “Community Centric Crowdfunding” programs offering both non-profit and securities offerings. Thell serves specifically defined communities throughout Michigan developing the www.C3funding.com website as the base for these programs.
A Realtor since 1958, Woods has been President and Realtor of the year of the Gratiot/Isabella Association of Realtors and a Director of the Greater Kalamazoo Association of Realtors. He served as a Vice President of the Michigan Association of Realtors and served 8 years as a National Director of the National Association of Realtors. In 2000, he was honored by the Michigan Association of Realtors as the recipient of the Realtor Active in Politics Award.
In addition to his real estate activities, he has served as the Securities Broker for his Syndications Corporation Broker Dealer which then had over 100 Realtors as licensed direct participation program securities representatives. During this time he also developed and sold over 60 Reg. D type private Real Estate offerings.
Among his other businesses, he developed Internet Connection Services an early Kalamazoo Area internet service provider and established Qualified Intermediary Services to facilitate section 1031 tax deferred exchanges and has earned the CES Certified exchange Specialist designation from the Federation of Exchange Accommodators.
Darren Marble is the CEO of CrowdfundX, a pioneering crowdfunding agency serving corporations and entrepreneurs across a wide mix of industries and geographies. The company helps clients to effectively architect and execute strategic equity and rewards-based crowdfunding campaigns that build brand equity and drive growth.
Notably, under Darren’s leadership, CrowdfundX designed, produced and marketed the Reg A+ equity crowdfunding campaign for Elio Motors, which raised just under $17 million from 6,200+ investors. Elio subsequently listed on the OTC Markets OTCQX under the symbol “ELIO,” making it the first company in the United States to have completed a Reg A+ equity crowdfunding offer and list shares on a public exchange. At present, CrowdfundX is currently managing more than a dozen Reg A+ equity crowdfunding campaigns.
Darren is a featured LinkedIn contributor and an active public speaker, having recently spoken as a guest lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, USC Marshall School of Business, UC Irvine, the CSUN Entertainment Alumni Network and the ESGCI Business School in Paris, France. His insights have been featured in Forbes, the Los Angeles Business Journal, Bankless Times and others.
Dr. Richard Swart is recognized as the global thought leader in the crowdfunding industry. Richard is a founding board member of the Crowdfunding Professional Association (CfPA), the Crowdfunding Intermediary Regulatory Advocates (CIFRA), and an early leader in the field. Richard co-organized the first major national conference on crowdfunding and coordinated several educational events on the JOBS Act throughout the United States for the White House.
As a research scholar in the Institute for Business & Social Innovation in the Haas School of Business, he is the University’s resident expert on crowdfunding and evolving models of alternative finance. He also organized the Annual Academic Symposium on Crowdfunding Research. He currently advises the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and works with several other prominent foundations, think tanks, funds and corporations. He is co-author of the forthcoming book Crowdfunding: The Corporate Era, being published in June 2015.
Richard has emerged as the global expert in developments in crowdfunding. He was the lead author on a research project for the World Bank exploring crowdfunding and funding models for innovative technology. He has lectured in Europe, the UK, Africa, the Middle East and throughout the United States. In recognition of his research in the United Kingdom, he was recently made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.
Dr. Swart was the lead author or researcher on the World Bank’s report on Crowdfunding and it’s Potential Impact for the Developing World. He partnered with the University of Cambridge to complete the first Country level-study of alternative finance: The Rise of Future Finance: The UK Alternative Finance Benchmarking Report. With Crowdfund Capital Advisors he authored the report: How Does Crowdfunding Impact Job Creation, Revenue and Professional Investor Interest? – the first report that empirically demonstrated crowdfunding’s effects on job creation and future investments.
After leaving Utah State University’s Huntsman School of Business where he taught Information Systems, he has worked with a number of startups and has become a key organizer in the entrepreneurial ecosystem. He is a former COO of an Internet startup that had a successful exit in 2010. Richard is a board member and strategic advisor to firms in the crowdfunding and alternative investing space.
Xiaocheh Zhang currently serves on the CfPA Board of Directors. He is also a co-founder of the Crowdfunding China Society (CFCS). As a crowdfunding thought leader, he has advised many organizations in applying alternative finance and result-based approach in transforming their business models. He has provided services to World Bank, United Nations, TUEV SUED, Virginia Tech, Peking University and some other organizations in the past 15 years. Xiaochen has rich experience in both public and private sector in America, Africa, Asia, Latin America and Europe to incubate and scale up innovative programs and projects at all levels. He is also a recognized speaker in climate finance, green innovation and crowdfunding. Here are a few examples:
Rodney Sampson is an innovator, serial entrepreneur, angel investor, published author, and consecrated bishop. As an innovator and serial entrepreneur, Sampson co-founded Multicast Media Networks (Streamingfaith.com) in 2000 (acquired in 2010), a live and on-demand streaming platform that laid the foundation for companies like YouTube and Ustream. Not stopping there, Sampson co-founded Intellectual Currency (an integrated marketing, intellectual property, diversity & inclusion and business development advisory firm) in 2002, Intellect Inspire (a digital publishing imprint of Audible) in 2006, and Legacy Opportunity Fund in 2007 with investments in technology, consumer products, energy, cyber-security, publishing and the entrepreneurial ecosystem. He also serves on the advisory boards of Digit, a disruptive financial technology company, Mark Burnett Productions, Springboard Fund and multiple startup and early stage companies throughout the world.
Sampson is passionate about reducing our nation’s poverty and wealth gap by advancing the cause of S.T.E.M, innovation, entrepreneurship and capital formation as a way of life for all communities. To advance this definitive cause, Sampson created Opportunity Ecosystem (OE). Opportunity Ecosystem includes Opportunity Hub, a multi-campus coworking space, coding college, entrepreneurship school, pre-accelerator and incubator. Opportunity Hub is also home to Opportunity Ventures, a new seed and early stage investment fund. In January 2013, Sampson launched Kingonomics, the nation’s leading platform for minorities and under-served communities to learn, navigate and master the investment ecosystem. Kingonomics conferences, events and trainings attract over 1,500 entrepreneurs, 500 teenagers and 100 accredited investors and mentors annually.
As a member of the Board of Directors of the Crowdfunding Professional Association (CfPA), Sampson is an active advocate and respected authority on Federal equity crowdfunding via the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act (JOBS) Act and intrastate equity crowdfunding via Georgia’s “Invest Georgia Exemption”. Always meditating, thinking, networking and connecting to disrupt economic culture, Sampson is innovating what he has branded as an “ecosystem based capital formation platform” – designed to interconnect the capital markets of minority owned financial institutions, business associations, churches, neighborhood & community organizations, historical black colleges and universities (HBCU’s) and the constituents they mutually and respectively serve. The platform will allow underserved and under-represented communities to learn, engage and invest in the private capital markets by providing access to relevant investment opportunities traditionally reserved for accredited and institutional investors. The long-term outcome will result in sustainable new job creation, wealth creation and a better society for all.
Throughout this journey, Sampson has maintained the creativity of his youth and early entrepreneurial career as an experienced advisor, integrated marketer, business developer and connector. Having worked very closely on Mel Gibson’s The Passion of The Christ, Disney’s The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe & The Untold Story of Emmett Louis Till, Sampson was tapped in 2013 by Mark Burnett to create the diversity and inclusion initiatives at One Three Media, a joint venture between Mark Burnett Productions and Hearst. Mark Burnett is the Executive Producer of The Voice, Survivor, Celebrity Apprentice, ABC’s Shark Tank, The Bible Series, Son of God Movie & A.D. In Seasons 5 & 6 of the hit ABC show Sharktank, more than 15 minority-owned startups were afforded the opportunity to pitch their companies for angel investment on the show. Even in his advisory practice, Sampson is still working tirelessly to close the wealth gap while simultaneously shifting culture’s perceptions of minority entrepreneurs and investors.
Brian Korn was elected to the Board of Directors (Legal P.O.V.) of the Crowdfunding Professional Association in January 2014. Brian is a corporate and securities attorney at the law firm Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP, and has had multiple appearances on Fox Business Television, Bloomberg, CCTV America and National Public Radio as an expert on the JOBS Act, including its impact on crowdfunding, peer-to-peer lending, IPOs and market trading dynamics. He has been published or quoted in Forbes, CNBC, MSNBC, New York Law Journal, Law360, Philadelphia Inquirer, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, The Financier Worldwide and The Review of Securities & Commodities Regulation.
Brian is the author of several articles on capital raising and investor liquidity, and has several clients in the peer-to-peer lending space. Brian is the author of “The Trouble with Crowdfunding” published in Forbes, as well as the Forbes article announcing the SEC’s crowdfunding rules proposal. Prior to joining Pepper, Brian was Head of Equity Capital Markets and Syndicate Compliance at Barclays and was Senior Vice President and Assistant General Counsel for Citigroup Global Markets Inc. Brian is an honors graduate of the University of California at Berkeley and the Northwestern University School of Law.
Thomas Lawson is vice president of private issuer services for VIA Folio, Folio’s private capital network. In his role at VIA Folio, he provides legal and regulatory guidance to business development and operations. As part of this work, he supports VIA Folio’s online transactions in unlisted securities. He joined Folio in 2015.
Prior to joining Folio, Tom was a chief counsel for the enforcement department of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) and assistant director of enforcement at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). In total, he brings more than 25 years of experience in securities law and financial industry regulation.
Tom earned a bachelor’s degree in Classics from Union College and a law degree from Hofstra University’s School of Law.
AdaPia D’Errico is the Chief Marketing Officer at Patch of Land, where she heads up marketing, which includes strategy, brand, communications, partnerships and client services. Prior to joining Patch of Land, AdaPia ran a consulting company that developed growth strategies for major brands at Disney and Mattel, as well as technology and new media startups. AdaPia began her career at CIBC and subsequently spent 8 years in banking and investment management with a focus on customer relationship management, investor relations, and corporate communications. AdaPia is a published writer, blogger for The Huffington Post, and is a public presenter on topics including growth strategies, entrepreneurship, crowdfunding and brand development. AdaPia holds a B.B.A from the University of British Columbia and a B.A in International Business Economics from Hogeschool Zeeland, The Netherlands.
Dara Albright is a recognized authority, thought provoker and frequent speaker on topics relating to market structure, private secondary transactions, next-gen IPOs, P2P, FinTech and crowdfinance. Albright has held a distinguished 23 year career in IPO execution, investment banking, corporate communications, financial marketing as well as institutional and retail sales.
She is a visionary who continues to introduce rising asset classes and crowd-structured financial products to the Wall Street community. Albright was one of the earliest voices covering the JOBS Act and advocating for greater democracy in the equity and credit markets. She produced the very first crowdfunding conference in January 2012 which was headlined by key JOBS Act architects: Congressman Patrick McHenry and Dave Weild. That event helped birth the crowdfinance movement and led to the establishment of the industry’s trade and leadership organizations – which she co-founded. In 2013, she co-founded LendIt, the largest and most recognized global p2p & online lending conference organization. In 2015, she co-founded FinFair, the first conference platform to feature the leadership, products and technologies driving the crowd-centric retail alternatives market. Some of the most prominent figures in the financial industry as well as the legislature continue to participate in Albright’s events. Her leading-edge articles that have helped shape the direction of the crowdfinance industry can be found on Equities.com, Crowdfund Insider, Seeking Alpha, Investing.com, FINalternatives and Business Insider. She has been featured in the NY Times, Forbes, ABA Banking Journal, Thestreet.com, Private Wealth Magazine as well as in a number of leading industry trade publications. Albright continues to help issuers, investors as well as financial service providers across the globe capitalize during this unprecedented period of financial industry disruption and regulatory reform. Prior firms she worked for include: Unterberg Towbin, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, Divine Capital and Citigate Dewe Rogerson. She is a graduate of the George Washington University and holds securities industry Series 7, 24, 31 and 63 licenses.