Subject: File No. S7-06-13
From: Peter Bodenheimer
Affiliation: CEO, BarNotes/ Partner in Launch Pad and FlatStack

August 19, 2013

The new rules will hurt startups and small technology enabled businesses. Moving quickly is incredibly important to a new venture and the penalties for reporting incorrectly of a one year ban from fundraising will without question end up being the demise of more than a few companies that might otherwise have made it. When a small group of founders is building a company necessity dictates that each founder serve multiple roles. I have no doubt that the new requirements will cause confusion for founders and in the event that mistakes are inevitably made, the company will be penalized to a degree that far outweighs the crime.

There has been a great wave of entrepreneurship in the US over the last 30 years that has helped bring us companies like Google, Microsoft, Apple that employ huge numbers of Americans. Equally important are the small companies tackling problems for existing industries in ways that create jobs regionally as they have here in New Orleans and the rest of Louisiana. In the 8 years since Hurricane Katrina made landfall on the Gulf Coast and the federal levee system failed submerging most of New Orleans, the recovery that has led to a stronger and more vibrant city has been, in large part, driven by a spike in entrepreneurship in the region. These changes will stifle the ongoing growth of that sector and have an immediate and long-term negative impact on the business community and tax base here and around the country.

To get a sense of the changes here, please look at some recent stories on this region:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/davidthier/2012/04/13/billionaire-investor-jim-coulter-on-why-new-orleans-is-one-of-the-best-cities-for-entrepeneurs/
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/04/the-big-comeback-is-new-orleans-americas-next-great-innovation-hub/274591/
http://www.cnn.com/2012/12/05/tech/innovation/new-orleans-startups/index.html?iref=allsearch

Please rethink these changes.

Respectfully,
Peter Bodenheimer