SEC's Virtual Small Business Forum

The Office of the Advocate for Small Business Capital Formation hosted the SEC’s 39th annual Government-Business Forum on Small Business Capital Formation virtually on June 18, 2020 pursuant to the Small Business Investment Incentive Act of 1980.

Members of the public and private sectors—including entrepreneurs, small business leaders, investors, market participants, and other thought leaders within the small business capital formation ecosystem—gathered virtually to craft suggestions to improve securities policy impacting how companies raise capital from investors.

A detailed agenda and list of speakers is available here. The Forum featured spotlight sessions on:

• Empowering Women Entrepreneurs – Insights from investors who support women-founded companies
• Rural and Thriving – Overcoming the unique challenges of building companies in rural communities
• Stories from Founders of Color – Building minority-owned companies and raising capital
• Building Tomorrow’s Public Companies – Exploring the pathway to IPO and the future of public offerings
• Small Cap Today – How smaller public companies handle challenges in today’s market climate

These 20 minute spotlights were interspersed with keynotes from Jovita Carranza (SBA Administrator), Pete Flint (Managing Partner, NFX and founder of Trulia and lastminute.com), Arlan Hamilton (Founder and Managing Partner, Backstage Capital), and Susan Tynan (Founder and CEO, Framebridge). Video archives of the keynote addresses and spotlight discussions are available in the Forum video gallery.

The sessions and keynotes were followed by collaborative policy discussions that provided thoughtful and substantive feedback, the first on “Exempt Offerings and Capital Formation Proposal” and the second on “The Path to IPO and Small Cap Companies.”