|
|
|
|
|
|
|
CONNECT
|
|
Add to my Favorites
|
 Click to request that this project come to your town
|
Bring it to my town
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Crowdfunding sites like IndieGoGo offer VIP Perks but not shares—
because offering profit participation is illegal. Securities law lets
you gamble your retirement on investments conveyed through the
all-controlling financial system, but you can’t invest $50 in someone
you actually know personally, in order to help them start a small
business, write a book, make a film, build an iPhone app or develop a
new product that you believe has commercial potential.
The SEC can change this situation by introducing a regulatory exemption that caps individual investments at $100. I believe that doing this would change everything for crowdfunding, spark innovation, and help vitalize the economy from the bottom up.
The idea of an exemption based on very low cap on individual investment is not new; according to the SEC’s Anthony Barone, it has been discussed and brought to the SEC’s attention by academic economists. What has not yet been demonstrated is the extent of public interest in such an exemption.
This project offers a serious plan for essentially forcing the SEC to consider this possibility and respond to it publicly.
This issue is more complicated than can be explained on this short
project page, but you can read the prospectus for the history and background on this project.
READ THE PROSPECTUS
SUMMARY
- $1000 is a great deal, and the SELC is the perfect organization for this; highly regarded, and involved with these issues. See the prospectus for details).
- The SEC posts any Petitions for Rulemaking that it receives, along with all public comments. This area of the SEC website is surprisingly inactive.
- Once the SELC petition is posted, we mobilize crowd action to
submit comments. If the SEC receives a large number of comments in support of legalizing crowdfunding, they will need to hire someone to process them all. This is an example of the ever-newsworthy Old Institution, Blindsided, Is Forced To Confront New Phenomenon.
Note that we originally thought the petition would be written under the auspices of the Katovich Law Group , but subsequently decided to have the work done by the SELC (which is affiliated with Katovich). This makes your contributions tax-deductible!
|
|
|
| |
|
LOCATION
|
| |
|
San Francisco, California, United States
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
$1,321
|
|
raised of $1,099 goal
|
|
0
|
|
time left
|
|
|
FUNDING SUCCESSFUL!
|
|
| VIP PERKS |
|
$2 or more = Co-Conspirator
|
| You will be listed as a contributor on the Public Petition for
Rulemaking submitted to the SEC (its first footnote will read, "This
petition was funded in part by contributions from the following
individuals:"). If this document does indeed help to change the course
of finance and culture, as we hope it will, then this means your name
will be forever enshrined in a primary source text of historic
significance. What A Bargain! |
| 11 Claimed |
|
$5 or more = Revolutionary
|
| Above + a tasteful handwritten Thank You card from Paul (the Project
Creator), so it isn't all so virtual. |
| 16 Claimed |
|
$25 or more = Trophy Bearer
|
| Above + an elegant and meaningful
Brass Balls Kit from Paul's storefront on Maker's Market |
| 10 Claimed (Sold Out!) |
|
$50 or more = Close Personal Friend
|
| Above + if you're ever in San Francisco, come over to Paul's place for a
delicious home-cooked meal with his delightful family, or else let him
take you out one night to some of his favorite local haunts. |
| 3 Claimed |
|
$100 or more = Money Maverick
|
| Revolutionary perks above + one hour's consulting work from Paul
(writing, editing, LISP coding, repairs) or one hour's consulting
work from IndieGoGo founder Danae Ringelmann, CFA (crowdfunding,
securities analysis). |
| 4 Claimed (Sold Out!) |
|
|
| HOW THESE FUNDS WILL BE USED |
| $1000 will go to Katovich Law Group in Oakland, CA for drafting the
Petition, and $99 will go to IndieGoGo for the 9% marketplace fee,
common to all IndieGoGo projects, which keeps IndieGoGo alive. If we
reach our goal, however, we'll get a 5% cash bonus, which we will apply
towards future costs. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
Paul Spinrad posted an announcement
|
(2 months ago)
|
This campaign raised its funds and delivered its deliverable, so now it’s time to spread the word!
I’m moving the campaign’s home page off of IndieGoGo so that it’s clear that this cause is something that all of the world’s finer crowdfunding platforms should support, not just IndieGoGo. But meantime, I want to say that I had a great experience crowdfunding on IndieGoGo, and I would recommend them to anyone. Their terms are competitive, but more importantly, Danae really knows what works, asked the right questions, and helped guide this campaign to success.
I set up a new home page (via Blogger) for this campaign at http://crowdfundinglaw.com and also started a mailing list, which you can subscribe to in the upper right corner. If you want to stay in the loop on my efforts, please sign up for the mailing list! I will only send messages out when there’s real news to report (every couple of weeks or less, I’m guessing) and will wait 2 days before posting anything, so that subscribers find out what’s going on before everyone else.
I hope to see you in the new location, and once again, thank you for your support! |
|
| |
| |
|
|
Paul Spinrad posted an announcement
|
(2 months ago)
|
Oh, and most important: thank you again for your support! Here’s a better link for the petition: http://ow.ly/22ZtN |
|
| |
| |
|
|
Paul Spinrad posted an announcement
|
(2 months ago)
|
Our petition to the SEC was sent today!
It looks great. For now, you can download it (PDF) at http://www.panix.com/~pspinrad/SELC-SEC-Rulemaking-Petition.pdf but it should be up on the SEC’s website next week (their auto-responder said, “We generally post comments within 2 to 3 business days after we receive them electronically.”).
Check out your name in the footnote on page 1 (unless you selected the donate anonymously option), and read the whole thing— it’s so well researched and reasoned! Jenny Kassan, Kathleen Kenney, and Aroma Sharma at the SELC did fantastic work on this.
Emailing the petition to the SEC
|
| |
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
Paul Spinrad posted an announcement
|
(3 months ago)
|
Yesterday morning I met at The Hub in Berkeley
(a.k.a. Hub Berkeley) with Sustainable Economies Law Center (SELC) co-directors Jenny Kassan and Janelle Orsi, and SELC law student interns Aroma Sharma, Erin Byers, Chris Curran, and Kathleen Kenney. Aroma and Kathleen are doing most of the research and writing for our campaign’s petition to the SEC. We discussed various ways of making the proposal appealing to the SEC (or at least not offputting), and where and how it might fit in with their current regulations. They expect to have a first draft by next week!
Everyone’s enthusiastic and thinks we might be onto something big here. Jenny said that it seems like perfect timing, because in her circles, she’s been hearing a lot lately about Community Supported Entrepreneurship, and legal efforts being made to encourage it.
L-R: Aroma, Janelle, Chris, Jenny, Kathleen, Erin. Photo credit/not shown: Paul
|
| |
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
Paul Spinrad posted an announcement
|
(3 months ago)
|
The work on our public petition to the SEC will begin in earnest at Katovich Law next week, and here’s some fun unexpected news: Your donation to this campaign is tax-deductible!
Here’s why: the main work of drafting our petition will be done by law students who are doing their summer internships at Katovich, through the non-profit Sustainable Economies Law Center (SELC). Project team member Jenny Kassan, who’s the co-Director of SELC as well as the managing director of Katovich, will be supervising their work. She’s forwarding the $1000 from this campaign as a donation to SELC— and since SELC is a nonprofit, that makes the donations tax-deductible!
The Katovich interns start this coming Monday, and our petition to the SEC is the first thing they will be working on. I’m looking forward to meeting them and talking with them! |
|
|
|
|
|
$1,321
|
|
raised of $1,099 goal
|
|
0
|
|
time left
|
|
|
FUNDING SUCCESSFUL!
|
|
| VIP PERKS |
|
$2 or more = Co-Conspirator
|
| You will be listed as a contributor on the Public Petition for
Rulemaking submitted to the SEC (its first footnote will read, "This
petition was funded in part by contributions from the following
individuals:"). If this document does indeed help to change the course
of finance and culture, as we hope it will, then this means your name
will be forever enshrined in a primary source text of historic
significance. What A Bargain! |
| 11 Claimed |
|
$5 or more = Revolutionary
|
| Above + a tasteful handwritten Thank You card from Paul (the Project
Creator), so it isn't all so virtual. |
| 16 Claimed |
|
$25 or more = Trophy Bearer
|
| Above + an elegant and meaningful
Brass Balls Kit from Paul's storefront on Maker's Market |
| 10 Claimed (Sold Out!) |
|
$50 or more = Close Personal Friend
|
| Above + if you're ever in San Francisco, come over to Paul's place for a
delicious home-cooked meal with his delightful family, or else let him
take you out one night to some of his favorite local haunts. |
| 3 Claimed |
|
$100 or more = Money Maverick
|
| Revolutionary perks above + one hour's consulting work from Paul
(writing, editing, LISP coding, repairs) or one hour's consulting
work from IndieGoGo founder Danae Ringelmann, CFA (crowdfunding,
securities analysis). |
| 4 Claimed (Sold Out!) |
|
|
| HOW THESE FUNDS WILL BE USED |
| $1000 will go to Katovich Law Group in Oakland, CA for drafting the
Petition, and $99 will go to IndieGoGo for the 9% marketplace fee,
common to all IndieGoGo projects, which keeps IndieGoGo alive. If we
reach our goal, however, we'll get a 5% cash bonus, which we will apply
towards future costs. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
$1,321
|
|
raised of $1,099 goal
|
|
0
|
|
time left
|
|
|
FUNDING SUCCESSFUL!
|
|
| VIP PERKS |
|
$2 or more = Co-Conspirator
|
| You will be listed as a contributor on the Public Petition for
Rulemaking submitted to the SEC (its first footnote will read, "This
petition was funded in part by contributions from the following
individuals:"). If this document does indeed help to change the course
of finance and culture, as we hope it will, then this means your name
will be forever enshrined in a primary source text of historic
significance. What A Bargain! |
| 11 Claimed |
|
$5 or more = Revolutionary
|
| Above + a tasteful handwritten Thank You card from Paul (the Project
Creator), so it isn't all so virtual. |
| 16 Claimed |
|
$25 or more = Trophy Bearer
|
| Above + an elegant and meaningful
Brass Balls Kit from Paul's storefront on Maker's Market |
| 10 Claimed (Sold Out!) |
|
$50 or more = Close Personal Friend
|
| Above + if you're ever in San Francisco, come over to Paul's place for a
delicious home-cooked meal with his delightful family, or else let him
take you out one night to some of his favorite local haunts. |
| 3 Claimed |
|
$100 or more = Money Maverick
|
| Revolutionary perks above + one hour's consulting work from Paul
(writing, editing, LISP coding, repairs) or one hour's consulting
work from IndieGoGo founder Danae Ringelmann, CFA (crowdfunding,
securities analysis). |
| 4 Claimed (Sold Out!) |
|
|
| HOW THESE FUNDS WILL BE USED |
| $1000 will go to Katovich Law Group in Oakland, CA for drafting the
Petition, and $99 will go to IndieGoGo for the 9% marketplace fee,
common to all IndieGoGo projects, which keeps IndieGoGo alive. If we
reach our goal, however, we'll get a 5% cash bonus, which we will apply
towards future costs. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Emailing the petition to the SEC
|
|
|
|
| L-R: Aroma, Janelle, Chris, Jenny, Kathleen, Erin. Photo credit/not shown: Paul
|
|
|
|
| Sustainable Economies Law Center people
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
$1,321
|
|
raised of $1,099 goal
|
|
0
|
|
time left
|
|
|
FUNDING SUCCESSFUL!
|
|
| VIP PERKS |
|
$2 or more = Co-Conspirator
|
| You will be listed as a contributor on the Public Petition for
Rulemaking submitted to the SEC (its first footnote will read, "This
petition was funded in part by contributions from the following
individuals:"). If this document does indeed help to change the course
of finance and culture, as we hope it will, then this means your name
will be forever enshrined in a primary source text of historic
significance. What A Bargain! |
| 11 Claimed |
|
$5 or more = Revolutionary
|
| Above + a tasteful handwritten Thank You card from Paul (the Project
Creator), so it isn't all so virtual. |
| 16 Claimed |
|
$25 or more = Trophy Bearer
|
| Above + an elegant and meaningful
Brass Balls Kit from Paul's storefront on Maker's Market |
| 10 Claimed (Sold Out!) |
|
$50 or more = Close Personal Friend
|
| Above + if you're ever in San Francisco, come over to Paul's place for a
delicious home-cooked meal with his delightful family, or else let him
take you out one night to some of his favorite local haunts. |
| 3 Claimed |
|
$100 or more = Money Maverick
|
| Revolutionary perks above + one hour's consulting work from Paul
(writing, editing, LISP coding, repairs) or one hour's consulting
work from IndieGoGo founder Danae Ringelmann, CFA (crowdfunding,
securities analysis). |
| 4 Claimed (Sold Out!) |
|
|
| HOW THESE FUNDS WILL BE USED |
| $1000 will go to Katovich Law Group in Oakland, CA for drafting the
Petition, and $99 will go to IndieGoGo for the 9% marketplace fee,
common to all IndieGoGo projects, which keeps IndieGoGo alive. If we
reach our goal, however, we'll get a 5% cash bonus, which we will apply
towards future costs. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Thanks misterbarryman!
For more discussion of this campaign, pro and con, see this post and comment thread on Jeff Steele’s Film Closings.
Go team. Let us know if you need more help. This is a project that needs to happen.