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Equity Crowdfunding an Experiment Waiting to Happen
U.S. start-ups will soon be able to raise capital from the public through online crowdfunding portals such as Fundable.com. This new fundraising model could unlock trillions of dollars in venture capital, but it raises many practical and regulatory questions.

Once regulations are in place, this year or next, that change will provide an entirely new class of capital and open up trillions of dollars of new funding to small businesses in the U.S., says Eric Corl, president and co-founder of Columbus, Ohiobased Fundable.
The current crowdfunding model offers only trinkets as payback. For example, a $10 pledge to beverage maker Homemade Bliss on Fundable.com entitles the donor to a discount on a six-pack. Under the new model, Fundable and other portals will give nonaccredited investors the chance to buy equity after scrutinizing a start-ups business and financials. But those small-time venture capitalists shouldnt expect to get rich or even turn a profit. The odds are not good, warns Lewis Gersh, managing partner at Metamorphic Ventures, a New Yorkbased venture capital firm whose portfolio includes crowdfunding giant Indiegogo. People who dont do this regularly have to go into it thinking, Im going to lose it all.
Anyone hoping for outsize returns needs to understand that the crowdfunding change is a big social and business experiment, Gersh says. It raises many practical and regulatory questions. Among the latter: how to establish good investor relations practices that dont flood a start-up with paperwork. The more investors, the more complicated things get, Gersh notes: Its a nightmare for a public company; how are small start-ups going to manage it?
This and other regulatory concerns could be resolved by December 31, the SECs deadline to make its new crowdfunding rules public under the JOBS Act. But Gersh thinks mid- to late 2013 is a more likely time frame. Its as if were starting a whole new investment, regulatory and legal regime, including a market to house it, he explains. Were starting from scratch, and theres a lot to it.
Equity crowdfunding poses little threat to traditional venture capital for now, anyway. Most businesses raising venture capital do so from investors who bring expertise to the table, says Stephan Paternot, founder and general partner at New York venture capital shop Actarus Funds. Still, theres a place for the gazillions of smaller investors, he adds. They make fewer demands, and their dollars can give entrepreneurs leverage when negotiating with venture capital firms.
Equity offerings probably wont disrupt perks-for-dollars crowdfunding either. Scott Steinberg, author of The Crowdfunding Bible, believes there will be room for everybody. Thats partly because the success of creative project fundraiser Kickstarter and others has attracted more backers, money and media attention, and consequently more public interest in crowdfunding, Steinberg notes. Think of it as a house, he says. Its going to be a crowded space, but as the market expands and matures, everybody in the household is going to be able to play nicely together.
Steinberg predicts that the floor plan will become far more elaborate as new players appear. Therell be a million flavors, but each portal will focus on a particular community or industry, he says.
The equity model could give venture capitalists and angel investors the opportunity to gauge a start-ups market potential live on a crowdfunding platform. For now thats definitely the exception, not the rule, but thats changing, Actaruss Paternot says.