SEC Delivers Report to Congress with Recommendations from the 40th Annual Small Business Forum

Today the Office of the Advocate for Small Business Capital Formation delivered a report to Congress on the Securities and Exchange Commission's 40th Annual Small Business Forum. The 2021 Forum took place virtually on May 24–27, 2021, with each session featuring panelists with in-depth knowledge of the issues facing small businesses across the country, spotlighting the following topics:

• Monday, May 24:       Finding Your First Dollars: Navigating Your Way to Raise Early Rounds
• Tuesday, May 25:       Doing Your Diligence: How Savvy Early-Stage Investors Build Diversified Portfolios
• Wednesday, May 26:  Diversifying Capital Allocators: Tools for Emerging and Smaller Funds and Their Managers
• Thursday, May 27:     Small Cap Insights: Perspectives on Smaller Public Companies

The report provides a summary of the Forum proceedings, including the recommendations developed by participants for changes needed to the capital raising framework and the Commission’s responses to the recommendations. The report seeks to incorporate the passion conveyed by the talented and thoughtful speakers and participants who spoke openly and candidly about their successes and challenges in capital formation, as well as ways to enable a more inclusive capital formation ecosystem. Video archives of the discussions, including remarks from all five Commissioners, are available online.

The Office of the Advocate for Small Business Capital Formation thanks the speakers, participants, advisory planning group members, and SEC staff members who made this year's Forum a success.

About the Forum: The SEC hosts the annual Government-Business Forum on Small Business Capital Formation pursuant to the Small Business Investment Incentive Act of 1980. The Forum is a unique event where members of the public and private sectors gather to craft suggestions for policy affecting emerging businesses and their investors, from startups to smaller public companies. Following the Forum, the Commission delivers a report to Congress that includes a summary of the proceedings and recommendations for changes to improve capital formation.