January 6, 2020
To whom it may concern, You're moving in the right direction but more needs to be done. It is a fundamental human right, especially in America, that people ought to spend and invest their money how they see fit. Just because somebody has a certain income or net worth, does not mean they are sophisticated. Ask any VC behind closed doors and they will tell you of the "dumb money" they raised money from--doctors, attorneys, engineers, and other very smart professionals, who happen to have high net worth but low sophistication status. Take my father on the other hand. Owns a small manufacturing company, under the Accredited Investor threshold, but has a ton of common sense, years of watching the market go up and down, and can understand when something is going to be big in the startup world. But he doesn't get a shot. That's wrong. People should be able to invest into whatever they want. But even if you want some sort of measure of sophistication, this could be solved in a number of ways. Have a third-party, a nonprofit, create and administer a series of exams. The sophistication level can be an algorithm with weighted variables such as years of experience, net worth, education level, risk tolerance, historical knowledge, etc. Have different levels, Level 1 Investor is basic, Level 5 Investor is Brad Feld, etc. This can be solved, simply. I could have this put together in 3 weeks with industry professionals, venture capitalists, entrepreneurs, nonprofits--all the right people. There were good suggestions in the feedback, but many will create an infinite loop of problems for you moving forward. Weighing income per geographic distribution is messy, so is managing for inflation, spouses, trusts, etc. The simple answer is to open it up and STRONGLY suggest, recommend, and request for industry to create the proper frameworks. And remember, scumbags exist everywhere. If there's a VC scumbag that takes advantage of retail investors, he gets punished, just like somebody from Wall Street or Morgan Stanley would be punished. I'm here to help. I'm trying to build a VC Fund that is open to retail investors. The fund leverages a fund of funds approach to provide a broad, diversified, and risk-reduced opportunity for retail investors. Closed-End 40 Act fund, providing liquidity. You invest $10, that money goes into the fund, which invests the money into 10 other funds, which then invest into 40 startups each. As a result, the retail investor has diversification across 400 startups, much better than individual crowdfunding, deal sourcing, or vetting startups on existing platforms. Sincerely, Greg Hansen Managing Partner Hans & Company Cell | [redacted] IMPORTANT NOTICE This e-mail and any attachments are intended only for the individual or company to whom it is addressed and may contain information which is privileged, confidential and prohibited from disclosure or unauthorized use under applicable law. If you are not the intended recipient of this e-mail, you are hereby notified that any use, dissemination, or copying of this e-mail or the information contained in this e-mail is strictly prohibited by the sender. If you have received this transmission in error, please return the material received to the sender and delete all copies from your system.