Your Business Deserves To Thrive
Business plans may sound boring, but they’re really important. Why are business plans so important? Why do they matter? There are a lot of reasons why it’s critical that you have a good business plan. Let’s break it down a little bit. Let’s think about how and why business plans are so important. Let’s assume you’ve done the hard work…
When we write about securities law issues here, we tend to focus on enforcement actions or investor alerts by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). For instance, in our previous blog series “SEC Issues an Investor Alert on Social Media and Investing,” we discussed the SEC investor alert warning investors about fraudsters who attempt to manipulate share prices through social…
Startups and early-stage companies often ask us when they need securities law advice (other than when obviously dealing with securities). Our answer is: as soon as you start thinking about raising capital or bringing in investors. Here’s why. Under the federal securities laws, a company may not offer or sell securities unless the offering has been registered with the SEC…
On June 23, 2016, Shawn McBride was featured in a Huffington Post article titled “What the New Equity Crowdfunding Rules Mean for Business Owners and Investors.” This article is based on the podcast interview with Deirdre Sanborn of The Ambition Project Show on the same subject, which we blogged about just this past week (here). The Huffington Post article focuses…
What the New Equity Crowdfunding Rules Mean for Dallas Business Owners and Investors. On June 22, 2016, Shawn will be featured in a podcast interview with Deirdre Sanborn of the Ambition Projects Show. In this interview, Shawn talks about what the new federal crowdfunding rules mean for small Dallas business owners and investors. Click here to listen to the podcast.…
Fix Crowdfunding Act. We have been blogging about federal crowdfunding in this blog series this past month or so. As you know, Title III of the JOBS Act, also referred to as the “CROWDFUND Act (Capital Raising Online While Deterring Fraud and Unethical Non-Disclosure Act of 2012),” exempts up to $1 million crowdfunded securities from the federal registration requirement when…
SEC Small Entity Compliance Guide and Compliance and Disclosure Interpretations for Issuers. On May 13, 2016, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) released two guidance documents on crowdfunding for issuers: “Regulation Crowdfunding: A Small Entity Compliance Guide for Issuers” and “Regulation Crowdfunding: Compliance and Disclosure Interpretations (C&DIs).” [1] For details of the final rules, including requirements for issuers, please see…
FINRA’s Funding Portal Rules. The federal crowdfunding final rules require that each intermediary in a crowdfunding transaction be registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) either as a broker-dealer or a funding portal and be a member of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Inc. (“FINRA”), which is currently the only registered national securities association. For details of the final…
SEC: A Small Business Compliance Guide on Registration of Funding Portals. On February 29, 2016, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) issued “A Small Entity Compliance Guide: Registration of Funding Portals.” [1] The full text of the investor bulletin is available here. One of the requirements for crowdfunding under JOBS Act is that it be done through an intermediary; no…
SEC Investor Bulletin: Crowdfunding for Investors. Crowdfunding under federal law became legal on May 16, 2016, but efforts to prep potential investors and intermediaries have been in the works for much longer. On February 16, 2016, the Office of Investor Education and Advocacy of the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) issued “Investor Bulletin: Crowdfunding for Investors” [1] to educate investors about…