North Carolina may get Investment Crowdfunding Soon

April 16, 2013 Uncategorized

As a side-effect of working in a crowdfunding startup, I get to connect with cool folks doing cool stuff.

Right now we have a small team working to bring Investment Crowdfunding to North Carolina — well ahead of the JOBS Act (Title III) and to be frank, more effectively in several ways than the Federal JOBS Act.

The best part? You can make a difference. State legislation moves more quickly than Federal; we have approximately 30 days to rally support for this new mechanism for small business and startup funding… tell everyone you know about this, and let’s flood the legislature’s office with calls and emails of support.

We want Investment Crowdfunding here in North Carolina — and you can help make it so. Here’s a handy page to find your legislator’s email address.

More info at the JOBS-NC blog now and to come: jobsnc.blogspot.com

#jobsNC

Memo from my teammate Mark Easley below.

 

New North Carolina Crowdfunding Legislation

A bill has just been introduced into the North Carolina state house legislature which will enable a new way to finance small business using investment crowdfunding. Start-up companies and small businesses play a critical role in creating new jobs and growing the economy. Crowdfunding, or raising money through small contributions from a large number of investors, allows smaller enterprises in North Carolina to have access to the capital they need to initiate new business ventures as well as to expand operations and hire additional staff.

Details about the North Carolina Jump-Start Our Business Start-ups Act (JOBS Act) can be found on theNorth Carolina JOBS Act of 2013 Blog. The bill is sponsored by Representatives Tom Murry, Tim D. Moffit, Phil Shepard, and Kelley E. Hastings. We will be providing news and updates via the blog, so we encourage everyone who is interested to sign up for email updates there.

Our first expert review is in, and the North Carolina approach to investment crowdfunding has been called “Brilliant!” and “worthy of support” by prominent national crowdfunding and legal expert William Carleton. His post about the bill is called “5 Ways a North Carolina Bill puts the Crowd back in Crowdfunding”

We would greatly appreciate your support for this bill. It would be very helpful if you could publish the link to the blog, send it out by email and tweets (#jobsnc), or create blog posts about it. We want to get the word out to the entire start-up and small business community in North Carolina as soon as possible as this legislation moves forward. Please send me any links to your posts about it.

If you have any questions or comments, you can email me at jobsnc@nc.rr.com , or contact Representative Murry’s office at murryla@ncleg.net. Thank you for your consideration and support.

Best regards,

Mark Easley Sr.
Morrisville NC

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Boulder Trip #3

August 10, 2012 SCR News, Startup Life

What a difference a week makes…On the bus right now riding to Denver airport after another exhausting and exhilarating Boulder trip.

I’m getting better at the travel itself — finding little tricks and habits to reduce stress and increase productivity on the road. I recently added tethering to my phone plan, so I be fully online anytime anyplace. It’s a beautiful thing when it works — but apparently this week AT&T’s data network crapped it’s shorts; I’ve basically been offline when outside of my little “offices”. Frustrating to have to lose productive time like that, especially when the whole purpose of these Boulder trips is to Get Shi% Done.

16 hour days every day this week — the team is getting it done! Had some great conversations with amazing investors and potential partners; putting the pieces into place to take our company to the next level. I love interacting with all these smart, experienced, and forward-thinking pros. They’re all building something, and going out of their way to help other entrepreneurs, the ecosystem, and Boulder/Colorado. Almost everyone I’m talking to thinks 5-10 years out and inspires me to try to do great things.

And things are definitely rolling along now with Funding Launchpad… first customer is live! More in the pipeline. Our 2012 strategy is working, our 2013-14 strategy is rock solid, and on the plane out here I came up with a great way to get tens of thousands more investors to engage with our platform. We’re also surrounding ourselves with a great network of vendor partners and potential Board members — already they’ve provided fantastic guidance on our strategies and tactics.

It’s been an uphill battle to get here… but I can’t imagine ever returning to cubicle life! The wife will want me to take the whole weekend off, of corse; how do I explain that relaxing doesn’t relax me? (At some point I’ll get the company to the stage where I’m not feeling constant existential dread, right?)

We helped put on a great crowdfunding conference in Boulder this week. I gave a 25 minute talk on platforms; was fairly well received even though I started working on it at 6am the day of the conference… never enough hours in the day. Was awesome to see my team kicking ass this week. Everyone is focused on driving forward every day, and there were several times where most would have said “eh, this can wait until tomorrow” but every time the team stepped up and said “let’s get this updated and sent out before we go” — only makes me more committed than ever to up my own game in some way every week.

I’ve gotten to enjoy doing talks and especially panels and Q&A sessions. Investor conversations too — now very comfortable, especially when I can turn it into a conversation instead of a “pitch”. Fundraising certainly is time consuming, though; will be a welcome day when I can put fundraising on hold and get back to growing the business.

On Wednesday night a reporter from Inc. magazine had dinner with me and two co-founders. He’s doing a deep dive into the whole CF industry; but it sounds likely that we’ll be mentioned extensively in a feature article in a few months. Oh, apparently I’m quoted in yesterday’s Denver Post too — Woo hoo!

Yesterday was demo day for TechStars Boulder; very bummed to have missed the event (conflicted with our CF conference) but at least I got to catch up with the two teams I know (MobiPlug and Ubooly) at the after party. Super stoked to see what they do next!

So: all I need to do is finish this fundraising round, assemble a board of directors, build out the team, establish dozens of deep partnerships including one fundamental tie-up, get 1,000,000 investors on the site, and establish Funding Launchpad as a reliable, robust, friendly, trustworthy, and effective platform for raising money and finding good investments.

All right — the first quarter break is over… Game on.

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Free tickets: Simply Crowdfunding event in Boulder

August 7, 2012 Boulder Startups, Events

Attention all fans of crowdfunding and last-minute making of plans…

 

This Wednesday and Thursday (yes, tomorrow; I need to up my blogging game!) in Boulder, Vim Events will be holding an exciting informational event on Crowdfunding.

Speakers include Sherwood Neiss who helped author the model crowdfunding exemption, Brian Meece the co-founder of RocketHub, and Richard Stewart the Executive VP of Grow America.

This is a paid event but I have some free tickets for friends and friends of friends… contact me if you’re interested in attending! Would love to see you there.

-steve

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Funding Launchpad on the big stage at i4c

July 14, 2012 Boulder Startups, Events, Startup Life

For all those that missed it, the i4c event in Denver last night was awesome.

The Ellie Caulkins Opera House was  packed with entrepreneurs and others in the startup community… lots of friends and folks I hope to become better friends with.

Very well-organized and dynamic event put on by Galvanize — and apparently they pulled the whole thing together in just 7 weeks. Wow.

Next time Galvanize puts on an event? Seriously, go.

Funding Launchpad was one of the 10 finalists (video), out of a field of 100 or 150… vying for a top prize of $50k, space in the Galvanize co-working incubator, and more.

Dave Milliken, co-founder of Funding Launchpad, took the stage before a thousand people or so and delivered a 5-minute TED-style presentation on what we’re building, and why it will make a difference…

Check out the view from stage — a bit intimidating, no?

And he crushed it. Serious A-level performance.

It’s awesome to work with people like this… building a company from nothing is a pain in the ass; but with the right team it is also a blast.

I feel like we have graduated to the next level recently.

We are going live with our first customers (as soon as they are ready) and are actively taking on more… We’ve built the platform, documentation, educational pieces for customers, presentations for the general public, and of course internal processes… Starting to get more press, both good and bad… and lots more of that to come over the next month as we start raising money for clients. (Wow it takes a lot to build a company from scratch.)

And now we’re one of 10 companies on stage in front of a thousand people — we’re here and we’re showing off our little company with the world. (I feel just like a proud parent — seriously.)

So what’s next? Just gotta keep the momentum up, and parlay our recent progress into a market-leading position.

Everything we’ve done so far, times 100.

We’re looking for the right partners (of all types) to be a part of this journey and help us take things to the next level.

Won’t you join us?

(By the way, if you haven’t done so yet — why not sign up for our beta to be notified when our first clients launch their campaigns!)

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Time to Go Big

May 22, 2012 Entrepreneurship, Pitching, Startup Life

Aight… we have reached that point.

Lots of things are now in place. We have a kick-ass team, we have actual paying customers in the queue, our platform is nearly ready to launch (as a MVP), and we’re becoming recognized as experts in the space.

We’re also forging relationships with tons of key players in this emerging market. Some of these are competitors, some are potential partners, and some just may become our best friends as we head out to conquer the world. (More on that soon.)

Having reached the exciting but incredibly stressful period of “about-to-launch”, and with our 2012 strategy offering us the opportunity to get out ahead of most of the pack and grab a huge leadership position in this emerging multi-billion-dollar market, the time has come to shift gears.

Specifically it’s time to go from third gear to eleventeenth gear.

We’ve just kicked off a plan that, when completed, will allow us to take things several orders of magnitude faster. I’d be more specific, but that would constitute “general solicitation” so let’s quit while we’re ahead.

I am excited about what we’ve done so far, and unable to sleep (pros and cons) with excitement about where we’re going over the next couple of months.

I’ve had to learn to have entirely different kinds of conversations with people that I would not normally interact with; I’ve somehow become very comfortable putting myself out there and letting the universe bring the right people and opportunities to me.

Also… turns out that everything in life is sales, and when you truly believe in your product you can sell just about anything.

Hoo rah.

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TSL Crowdfunding Conference

May 10, 2012 Uncategorized

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Great trip so far… mixing it up with the key players in the Crowdfunding space.

Yesterday was our first in person CfPA meeting; I’m now on the executive committee of CfPA and we’re making good progress already in supporting this emerging industry.

Exciting times!

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2 talks today…

May 3, 2012 SCR News, Startup Life

Quite a day! — Exhilarating and draining at the same time. I think I got a little taste of what life is like for a professional speaker… well, what it’s like being a professional speaker when you’re not really a natural-born speaker.

Had the privilege this morning of following David Cohen in the “Conversation over Lunch” series at PivotGuild. Great conversation about Crowdsourcing and Crowdfunding with about 35 creative folks. Had a great time riffing with Alyson Miller about the pros and cons, opportunities and limitations of Crowdsourcing. I love working with great people!

No slides, just a few notes and some really engaging conversation with the group. I believe they got something out of it, and I have to admit I enjoyed myself as well.

 

Then in the evening I was on the Startup Meetup ”First Wednesday Funding Talk!” schedule. Main purpose being to update some folks about the upcoming Crowdfunding exemption (via the JOBS act).

The event started with a fantastic walkthrough by Twoology, who I have no doubt you’ll be hearing about in the near future. Keeping relationships healthy? Way better than finding new relationships… seriously, though, great presentation and really engaging project.

Then I got up there and proceeded to drop some knowledge with a side order of what-the-hell-am-i-doing-up-here — actually that’s a bit harsh…, in all honesty it went very well. Just still a bit of a perfectionist I guess. I won’t be completely satisfied until I can picture Steve Jobs smiling down on me at the end of a presentation.

Anyway.

Point is that I love working with the community here, sharing knowledge, and doing whatever is in my power to make great things happen.

We’ve got some exciting stuff in the works, and look forward to helping lots of companies raise the money they need to do insanely awesome stuff.

I’m thankful to be part of an entrepreneurial community as awesome as the Boulder/Denver scene… Namaste.

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My Highlights of the Week

April 5, 2012 SCR News, Startup Life

Monday — Met with Wells Fargo and talked about how they can help us grow… then did some business at the Absinthe House in downtime Boulder (with 4 new dental fillings; there was some slurring).

Tuesday — Met with 2 different kickass local entrepreneurs; compared notes on our projects, and got some great ideas for moving some things along. Got grilled by a very smart potential client; they asked all the right questions — now we just need to up our game and deliver the goods.

Wednesday — Talked partnership opportunities with some guys that are starting their own incubator, then had beers with another kickass local entrepreneur who may be one of our first client companies.

Thursday — “Conversation over lunch” event with David Cohen over at PivotGuild, then was interviewed (online talk radio) by Larry Nelson over at http://w3w3.com/.

Gotta love entrepreneurship; gotta love this town.

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February Update email…

March 5, 2012 SCR News, Startup Life

I thought I’d share the email I just sent out to various folks that have asked to be kept in the loop on Vim Funding’s progress.

If you would like to be added to this monthly update please let me know! The more the merrier.

(Also: I promise to start updating this blog more frequently with all the fun and painful stuff that starting a company entails.)

——————————————————————————————–

Happy Monday, all!
I’m happy to report that Vim Funding made great progress in February.
Short version: We are on track to start serving our first paying clients in a few short weeks. (This puts us far ahead of any known direct competitors.) We are also setting up a national CrowdFunding Alliance, and continuing to successfully build awareness of our company and brand.
More details and a couple of requests below:

Team

We have grown by one!
Kyle Lamy has not even completed his big move to Boulder yet, but he has joined us full time to tackle our front-end programming needs (and more). Super-psyched to have him on the team.

ICF Legislation Update

After weeks with no visible action on capitol hill, recently Senator Reid announced that crowdfunding legislation is on the Senate’s short term agenda. We’ll update our blog with the outcome of tomorrow’s hearing on the subject. (No hint yet on the details of the bill.)

Yesterday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced the Senate would press forward with bills “to spur small-business growth”. Reid announced the Senate Banking Committee‘s next hearing on investment crowdfunding will be held on March 6.

While there are still obstacles to the passage of this bill, it now seems likely that we will see crowdfunding-enabling legislation in the next few months. After that, of course, the SEC will have at least 90 days to write rules based on the final bill.
As we were reminded by our contacts in D.C., if we don’t see a final bill by May 4 (the beginning of the Summer recess) the national crowdfunding exemption will probably not pass until early 2013; as things like this often get put on hold during campaign season.

Crowdfunding Platform & Clients

As noted last month, we are not waiting for the national crowdfunding exemption to begin our operations.
We are building our crowdfunding platform (Funding Launchpad — new logo at the top of this email!) to comply with existing state securities laws. We are currently targeting March 16th to be ready to host SCOR-based campaigns our initial Beta customers.
Clearly there is a lot to do between now and then; but even if we need to adjust that date by a couple of weeks we will be way ahead of potential competitors; while everyone else waits for Congress to pass the national exemption, we will be helping actual customers raise hundreds of thousands of dollars each. When the national law passes, we will simply modify the platform to support both state and national crowdfunding offerings.
We have an initial Beta client list of 3 companies ready to sign on, and are building our our sales pipeline.
Ask: If you know of a Colorado company that would be perfect for crowdfunding, please let us know!

Funding Wizard

While we don’t yet have any target dates for our Funding Wizard, our plans in this area have been extremely well received and the design of the tool is starting to take shape. The entrepreneurs and lenders/investors that we talk to agree that this tool will fill a very real need in the startup and small business community.

Outreach / PR

Survey – As part of our continuing outreach activities, we are conducting a quick survey on Investment Crowdfunding. Please take 3 minutes to answer the survey and pass along if you can!
CrowdFundingAlliance.org – We have reached out to the major national players in the Crowdfunding space, and will be working together to form an industry advocacy group. Vim Funding will be one of the founding members of the organization, which is chartered to
Online – We’re also still seeing great success with our social media outreach (through twitter, quora, linkedIn groups, and our own blog).
Offline – Had great conversations in February with folks from RVC, Open Angel Forum, CAMT, COIN, and several banks and alternative funding groups. We’re working hard to make Vim Funding a well-known piece of the funding puzzle here in Colorado.
Ask: We are looking for more opportunities to speak publicly on crowdfunding!
Please let me know if anyone has questions or suggestions!
-Steve
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Funding Launchpad picking up momentum

February 14, 2012 Entrepreneurship, Startup Life

Wow — my co-founder Dave is killing it with twitter and on the blog… he recently scored an interview with  Karen Kerrigan, President & CEO of the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council.

Here’s a snippet; the whole thing is interesting perspective on how things work down in D.C.

Access to capital has been a challenge for business owners and entrepreneurs since our founding 17 years ago. About a year ago one of our members came to me with a great idea around crowdfunding and how it could work. Then, at the Junior World Entrepreneurship Forum in Singapore, a group presented 10 recommendations and crowdfunding was one of them. I got really excited to hear young people talking about this – they don’t understand why regulations and rules and laws and government are getting in the way.

Clearly Karen gets it, and it’s great to have her on our side. Check out the rest here:

http://fundinglaunchpad.com/2012/02/kerrigan/

 

(And again, kudos to my man Dave Milliken!)

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