May 12, 2014
As someone who was ready to invest in an international startup company
that is using a crowdsourcing investment site to gather equity, I was
quite disappointed to learn that you have to be an "accredited
investor" to participate in any unlisted shares. That means I have no
ability to gain any equity in this company that I have a great
interest in supporting. Lowering the net worth requirements to
something that younger investors have a chance of meeting (eg.
$200,000) would benefit both sides of the investor/company equation.
If you are worried the uneducated masses will be bilked into poor
investment schemes, then an official accreditation process that would
allow seriously interested parties to invest, yet is simple and fast
enough that you do not need to be a career investor to diversify your
holdings. At this point, I am stuck losing this prime opportunity and
its limited window because of US laws favoring the already-wealthy and
institutional investors. Just because someone has $1 million wealth
acquired via some means, including inheritance, doesn't mean they are
more educated than others who have some available discretionary net
worth they would like to invest. Please reconsider these limits. Thank you.