October 31, 2014
Dear Ms. Murphy,
I am writing to you on behalf of the JOBS Act Title III, and the influential effect this will have on myself and other female entrepreneurs, many of whom have been able to launch their businesses due to the financial power crowd funding has granted them.
Statistics show that women led startups are not getting access to capital from VCs and Angel Investors. Only a very small percentage of the VC capital is going into women led businesses--only 3% of the companies invested in have Female CEOs!
JOBS ACT Title III solves this issue by allowing them to access their friends, family, users and fans to raise up to $1M. This solves access to capital for women led startups. Raising the first $1M is the hardest task for women led startups and Title III solves that issue.
I represent Girls Raising, a fast-growing female founder network that is positioned to become one of the most influential resource networks for female entrepreneurs. I deal with early stage female founded companies on a regular basis, and see the plight these women face trying to raise capital. I continue to see crowd funding as a go-to resource for many of these women, often the reason they are able to continue growing their businesses. Girls Raising now has a database of a few thousand women, all launching fast growing startups. They have joined the Girls Raising network because they are actively seeking capital, and see this as a rare exposure opportunity to get their startup out there. Many of these women end up going after crowd funding because of the difficulty they have raising money. We are talking about, at minimum, 500 women, each of whom is trying to grow a rapidly scaling startup, geared to each employ approximately 30 people over the next couple years. That is thousands of jobs.
Crowdfunding would have made a huge difference for me while I was building my own small company last year. Part of the reason I now support other women is because of the difficulty I faced scaling and raising for my own. I known crowd funding will make a huge difference in this arena.
Sincerely,
Dani Van de Sande
Co-Founder of Girls Raising
Founder of Claremont Munchies
State that you are a small company/startup looking for capita
- Describe what the company does
- Say you intend to initiate a crowdfunding campaign under the proposed Title III rules
- Describe how you plan to use proceeds
-Employ x number of people within 12 months