SEC logoIn its most recent meeting on September 23, 2015, the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Advisory Committee on Small and Emerging Companies recommended specific reforms that would significantly liberalize the rules governing private offering intermediaries and make it easier for companies to use them. If adopted, these reforms could greatly enhance the capacity of startups and

SEC 2August 6, 2015 was a productive day for the Staff of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Division of Corporation Finance on the issue of the prohibition on general solicitation in the context of online private offerings under Rule 506(b). My last blog post, entitled “It’s Complicated”: Establishing “Preexisting Relationships” with Prospective Investors, analyzed the

In my last post, I blogged about online funding platforms. In that post, I described the typical model of indirect investing through a special purpose vehicle (“SPV”) with the platform sponsor taking a carried interest in the SPV’s profits from the portfolio company and no ourcrowdtransaction fee, as a means of avoiding broker-dealer regulation.

Lately I’ve been approached by current and prospective clients about ourcrowdonline funding platforms, either by folks interested in forming and operating them or those interested in raising capital through them. There seems to be a lot of confusion surrounding how they work and what the legal issues are, so here’s my attempt to bring some

The Regulation A amendments adopted by the Securities Exchange Commission on March 25 are Federal Registerbeing published tomorrow, April 20, in the Federal Register.  That means the final rules and form amendments will officially become effective on June 19, 2015 (by rule, 60 days after such publication).

The new Regulation A, referred to widely as

SEC Chairman Mary Jo White gave her state of the Commission speech on Friday at the “SEC Speaks 2014” conference in Washington, D.C.  But if you were distracted for a moment by the sight of hoodie-clad Mark Cuban live-tweeting at the conference, you may have missed this one paragraph in the speech:

“In 2014

The new SEC rules lifting the ban on general solicitation and general advertising in certain private offerings go into effect today, September 23, 2013.  Beginning today, issuers in Rule 506 offerings may generally solicit investors and advertise their offerings provided they take reasonable measures to ensure that each purchaser is an accredited investor.  The new

Last month, the SEC released its Final Report on the 2012 SEC Government-Business Forum on Small Business Capital Formation, the SEC’s annual forum to address perceived unnecessary impediments to small business capital formation. Participants typically include small business executives, VCs, government officials, trade association representatives, lawyers, accountants, academics and small business advocates.  The Report contains