August 17, 2013
Sir/Madame,
It is an honor to be able to establish communications on behalf of the startup community with the SEC in regards to various proposed amendments pertaining to new filing rules for raising startup capital.
As an entrepreneur for most of my professional life, I have personally dealt with ideas that have genuine growth potential that were privately funded, as well as witnessing those that are merely fly-by-nights which have also used private funding. If this amendment proposal is in fact designed to thwart and prevent potentially fraudualent companies to develop, and to minimize risks for the investment community, I have no choice but to support the new rulings 110% as we've encountered more and more international individual(s) and comapnies surfacing from all corners using the silicon valley startup culture to access information from home grown startups, whom may become targeted for competitive analysis and intellectual property theft. It is critical that the SEC's final ruling is essentially to focus on helping to protect entrepreneurs and invetors that are contributing to the growth of our country as well as the job market, first and foremost.
Indeed this proposal will require insight from the community as a whole to determine where the line must be drawn, but please take into consideration that most of the startups at infancy do not recruit or are even aware of certified brokers, not to mention having the means to draft PPM's. Furthermore, it is understood that there will be penalties incurred for non-compliance with a certain degree of severity. Please take into consideration a third strike rule or other forms of citations with more lenient degrees of penalties, oppose to pulling the plug immediately on companies for a red flag.
On behalf of our company and the entire startup ecosystem, we are hopeful that this new proposal will energize the current dynamics of today's entrepreneurial paradigm, as well as to help filter out quality businesses that can positively transform growth for the present and the future as it once did when telephones, automobiles, railroads and planes were the means to our booming nation.
Sincerely,
D.H.