What is Equity Crowdfunding? The SEC finalized equity crowdfunding (Reg CF) regulations in May 2016. This innovative new law allows small businesses, entrepreneurs, and startups to raise capital through equity or debt sales to the “crowd” just as a public company could. Reg CF Basics: Any business can raise up to $1.07M over a 12-month...Read More

While other entertainment sectors like music and cable television have seen paradigmatic disruptions in the past 15 years, Hollywood has thus far proven immune. That’s about to change. Equity crowdfunding and blockchain distribution may be about to turn Tinseltown upside down. Currently the movie business operates in an esoteric netherworld, full of middlemen, secret contracts,...Read More

The SEC recently warned equity crowdfunding investors about a popular Reg CF security called a ‘SAFE’—Simple Agreement for Future Equity. The Commission is concerned investors purchasing SAFEs may be unaware of their risks and should be cautious of this “exotic” Silicon Valley security. Although SAFEs have drawbacks for early investors, if done with favorable terms...Read More

Few issues in Washington get prodigious bipartisan support, but the 2012 JOBS Act’s equity crowdfunding title was one. After a long delay, Reg CF finally went live in last May. But a year on some are asking, ‘Where is the Crowd?’ The crowdfunding total is approaching $40 million but it should be billions. A recalcitrant...Read More

Equity crowdfunding celebrated its first birthday last week. The innovative securities law democratizes business capitalization and allows anyone to potentially make a bundle on a young company. Although Congress must tweak the law to realize its potential the future looks bright. The naysayers fretted equity crowdfunding wouldn’t work. They said scandal and fraud would taint...Read More

Most Americans would probably rank liberty and equality as our most important political values. These competing principles appear in our founding documents and have defined American politics since the early twentieth century. But below the surface, other values clash, illuminated by two centuries of Supreme Court jurisprudence. A multi-million-dollar industry exists to convince (and force)...Read More

Equity crowdfunding’s first six months ended in December, the numbers are in and the outlook is promising. So far, the crowd has given entrepreneurs and business startups millions in funding, filling a crucial market gap.  As the kinks are worked out crowdfunding will continue to expand and become a viable option for thousands more new...Read More

Federal Election Commissioner (FEC) Ann Ravel’s rocky tenure ended this week on March 1. She resigned with a 25-page screed that painted the campaign finance agency as rife with dysfunction. But Ravel’s difficulties were hers, not the FEC’s. She misunderstood both her and the commission’s role. And when she couldn’t mold the FEC into a federal version...Read More

While Democrats everywhere mourned election-night, Ellen Weintraub’s despair was more personal. Donald Trump’s upset likely meant her 14-year career as a Federal Election Commissioner would involuntarily end. Experienced campaign lawyers jokingly refer to Weintraub as “Commissioner for Life.” Her term in office officially ended in April of 2007, but for nearly 10 years she has...Read More