July 14, 2014
Angel investing is the largest source of start-up funds for early stage companies in my state, Wisconsin.
I am a co-manager at Wisconsin Investment Partners, a Wisconsin-based angel group, as well as the founder of a boutique investment fund that also provides capital to early stage technology companies. The proposed changes to thresholds for accredited status would reduce the size of our group by more than 40%. The impact of this would be to reduce our net investments by roughly 30%, if historical investment amounts by members were to continue.
That is significant.
Those are my thoughts, below is the form letter content from SeedInvest, which I wholeheartedly endorse as well.
“I agree with the comment submitted by Kiran Lingam at SeedInvest on July 8, 2014 available at http://www.sec.gov/comments/s7-06-13/s70613-546.pdf that raising the accredited investor thresholds would be disastrous for startups, job creation and the U.S. economy. I believe the SEC should refrain from increasing these thresholds and should also adopt knowledge/experience based standards for an individual to become an accredited investor.”
Regards,
Michael Thorson