Last week I delivered the keynote address at the first Crowdfunding Made Simple conference in Salt Lake City, sponsored by theCrowdfunding Professional Association (CfPA). The CfPA plans another Salt Lake City event within the next several months.  The first event was well received by more than 200 attendees.  The slides from my presentation are available at http://www.slideshare.net/cconner01/crowdfunding-made-easy-conference-may-31-2012-slc. I was asked to give the audience a high level overview on the various sources …Read More

CfIRA representatives have already met with the members of the Corporate Finance, Trading and Markets and Office of the Compliance Inspection Divisions of the SEC. Our interest was to hash out new rules and regulations governing crowdfunding. The process is ongoing, and this meeting was just the start. In this series, we’ll lay out some of the important points covered, our concerns and suggestions. Any workable crowdfunding regulation will require an …Read More

Last week I spoke with Carl Esposti, CEO, and Gerrit Ahlers, Sr. Analyst, of Massolution, who played key roles in authoring Crowd Funding Industry Research, the first market research report on the crowd funding industry.  This document is available as a summary or as an entire report at www.crowdsourcing.org, and is also available through the Crowdfunding Professional Association (CfPA). I wrote about their findings earlier this month in Harvard Business Review: There’s no doubt crowd …Read More

Digital media startups seeking investments through crowdfunding may get a boost with today’s launch of the Crowdfunding Professionals Association (CfPA) in New York. The CfPA announced today that it will offer its expertise to help the Security and Exchange Commission form rules to govern online equity crowdfunding under the newly enacted JOBS Act. The CfPA will serve as an ally with sister entity the Crowdfund Intermediary Regulatory Advocates (CFIRA), an association previously organized to work with the SEC and other …Read More

When it comes to raising equity for new business startups all the buzz these days revolves around crowdfunding. However, when you ask most Canadian entrepreneurs or small business owners what they think about all of this the majority of those who answer haven’t even so much as heard the term let alone understand what it all means. Hey, I’m a fellow Canadian myself so don’t take that last statement personally, …Read More

In the recent HBR article “The Crowdfunding Road to Hell,” Daniel Isenberg argues persuasively that crowdfunding — specifically equity crowdfunding — cannot work. As an entrepreneur, angel investor, VC, philanthropist, and CEO with 40 years’ experience, I cannot agree. From my experience investing in emerging start-ups (I’m invested in 60 right now) and launching my share of both failures (4) and highly successful (3) companies, I can attest that Mr. Isenberg is perfectly correct …Read More

We’ve been watching in amazement as organizations such as Kickstarter gain steam, revolutionizing the way that entrepreneurs go about raising cash for their projects. And it appears that the concept of crowdfunding will continue to gain momentum, especially in light of the new Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act that was signed into law by President Barack Obama last month. Now, the industry, is getting more serious, forming its very own …Read More