August 17, 2013
Hello. Thank you for allowing us to comment on your recent update to the JOBS Act fund raising rules. I am the founder of Agingo Inc. and I work a day job to support my family / business while also growing the company. I plan to raise a round of funding in the next 9 months and was looking forward to the new rules allowing me to more broadly communicate investment opportunities in my business to those who would not typically be able to invest early in a company which "could" grow into the next Twitter / Microsoft / FaceBook. I will explore all fund raising opportunities, but giving and having an opportunity to invest in early stage startups is important to me as it relates to equality.
I am concerned that if the rules are to complex that startups will not participate due to the cost and more importantly the time it takes to raise startup $$ publicly under the new rules. At the end of the day, I feel that startups will still be able to raise money and likely find and invent better ways to manage the ways to raise money privately - like they always have. However, if the rules are too complex and founders do not take advantage of the JOBS Act, the big loser is the less than qualified investor who would like to invest in early startups but does not have the opportunity. And more so, these risk takers will probably just buy more lottery tickets where there are no limits stopping them from wasting all their money on a chance to get lucky. So I challenge you with this idea. As your designing the rules for the JOBS Act Startup funding, consider all the ways that the government enables its citizens are able to waste their money on chances to get lucky and make the rules consistent.