June 17, 2012
As an owner of a small business in the Electric Vehicle space, I'm very excited that there will be enhanced ability for the small business community to access funding directly from the public. As you no doubt know, the current situation is dire for small business funding through conventional banks which are loathe to release the funds they hold. It is virtually impossible for many entrepreneurs to obtain adequate or even any funding.
This democratic funding movement could be huge for America at a time of great need.
My concerns are as follows:
That many layers will develop between the funders and the funded, making the process less efficient and more expensive for the potential job creators.
The jobs we should look to create are not more attorneys or CPA's.
I am concerned that small dollar investments will be overly-regulated.
Please make it easy for the public to provide "risky" individual investments of low value, say $100-$500 or less, as long as they are made aware through disclosures that there may be substantial risk involved. I can support ramping regulation levels proportionally for larger individual dollar amount contributions. I'm asking for common sense.
For small dollar amounts, funders could simply click a box on a funding website to acknowledge their understanding of risk no need for attorneys fees whatsoever.
I would like to see:
Mandated fee limits for processors and go-betweens
Place the funders and the funded as close together as possible for the most Democratic outcome.
Best of luck we wait to see what you come up with.