Entrepreneurs Mark Your Calendar for the First Annual Crowdfunding Bootcamp Event

Today is a very special day because we finally get to announce details surrounding the first annual Crowdfunding Bootcamp™ and CfPA Convention which will take place this October at the Ravella Resort and Spa in Lake Las Vegas. If you’re an entrepreneur looking to crowdfund for equity early next year then this event is for you!

Presented by CrowdfundingRoadmap and the Crowdfunding Professional Association (CfPA), it’s already being referred to as the most anticipated crowdfunding event of the year. This comes as no surprise considering the fact it’s the first & only event of it’s kind and it will be a conference that people will still be talking about for years to come!

Not only will there be a great lineup of guest speakers, there will also be a lot of hands on activities and workshops which will educate entrepreneurs on how to prepare for the due-diligence reporting and SEC compliance process as well as fine tune their equity crowdfunding campaigns. There will also be Funding Portal Pavilions where entrepreneurs will get the chance to collaborate one on one with the industry’s leading crowdfunding intermediary companies.

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The JOBS Act, Crowdfunding And Women – What’s Ahead And How To Get Involved

The recent news about the signing of the JOBS ACT bill created as much excitement as confusion through the entrepreneurial and investment community.

Dana Mauriello does a great job here putting into simple terms what the new legislation means and what perhaps this could mean for entrepreneurs.

The truth is, there is still much work to be done by the SEC and numerous organizations in order to figure out the details behind crowdfunding. The good news is – this is a great time to educate yourself and even get involved in the process as things are shaping up and crowdfunding platforms are springing up. A recent survey indicated upwards of 450 active crowdfunding platforms with estimates for over 530 by December 2012.

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Getting your Business Funded – Notes from Crowdfunding Made Simple Address

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 of money for aspiring entrepreneurs.  I began with  the questions an individual should ask himself before deciding to seek funding.

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Suggested Investor Protections for Equity Crowdfunding

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 investor protection mechanism. We advocate relying on transparency and fraud prevention mechanisms already in place for charities and reward-based markets as a starting point. This basic structure should then be augmented with additional protections such as: portal registry, background and securities enforcement history check, required investor education and due diligence requirements.

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More Questions on Crowdfunding Industry Research, With Carl Esposti

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 funding will play a much larger role in the funding strategies of the next wave of entrepreneurial companies that emerge in the U.S.  Wishing to share additional information on this vital topic, this week I asked Carl and Gerrit to comment on  “crowd think” and how it relates to crowd funding investments.

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New Group to Boost Online Crowdfunding for Digital Startups

Obama Signs JOBS Act

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 government organization to promote crowdfunding under the new federal JOBS Act.

Read more here.

The Future of Crowdfunding In Canada

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, I’m simply stating a fact.

At the moment there are a select few successful crowdfunding portals (also known as intermediaries) in Canada but the number is quite limited. Even the best Canadian crowdfunding sites that do currently exist are barely a blip on the radar when it comes to leading portals that dominate the industry. That number is slowly increasing but like our very own trusted national news source The Globe and Mail stated in a recent article Canada is far behind when it comes to the rapidly evolving world of crowdfunding.

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Don't Abandon Crowdfunding — Manage It

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 in his assertion that it’s dangerous to expect crowdfunding of equities to work the same way crowdfunded donations do. Furthermore, I understand all too keenly the complexities of determining a fair valuation for companies that are too early in their development to fit existing measurement standards and can’t meet the criteria for standard bank or SBA funding. I also agree that due diligence is an imperative — and is often overlooked by crowdfunders as impractical or overly complex. And finally, I concur that a crowd mentality can frequently encourage those who invest to be stupid.

Even so, I strongly maintain that crowdfunding is a valuable and critical element of the funding landscape that needs to be carefully considered — not rejected.

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Crowdfunding Gets Serious as Leaders Form Trade Group

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 industry trade group. The Crowdfunding Professional Association (CfPA) was announced today, declaring a mission of creating “a vibrant, credible and growing crowdfunding community.” The group will serve entrepreneurs, investors and business owners in order to help ensure that the practice of crowdfunding “continues to develop in a responsible, transparent and credible manner.”

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