Crowdcheck Blog

Innovation Needs Infrastructure Economic infrastructure is key to the success of ride-sharing apps and crowdfunding efforts. http://bit.ly/1Rxu1iV

In a rather innocuous requirement, the SEC requires that a company offering securities under Regulation Crowdfunding “describe [its] financial condition…” However, the short directive masks a rather tall order for companies. The discussion of the financial condition of the company will be one of the most analyzed parts of the Form C, both by prospective investors and by regulators. It is here that we are likely to see companies omitting material information in an effort to present an optimistic picture of the company, whether or not the intent was pernicious. The SEC does provide some guidance to companies making this disclosure. However, that guidance is…

Since the SEC’s adoption of its Regulation A+ rules, creating two tiers of Reg A offerings and two sets of procedures to follow, CrowdCheck has worked with a few companies seeking to qualify offering under Reg A. These companies have found themselves to be guinea pigs for state regulators. In the case of Tier 1, it was working through the coordinated review process. In the case of Tier 2, it has been working with states to figure out what notice needs to be filed and when. Fortunately, NASAA understands the challenges associated with the disparate filing requirements for Tier 2 offerings. On January 27, 2016, NASAA announced a request for comment regarding its…

Hey, remember when Oprah gave away all those cars and all the lucky recipients got a car with accompanying tax bill? We could have something like that in crowdfunding too. For companies seeking crowdfunding, it's natural that they will seek to market their offering to the people who love their product or service. And a company's crowd is going to be super-happy not just to get the shares, but also more of the company's product or service. A company producing zombie movies can give away tickets to the next premiere. A candy company can give away calorific goodies. And that's great, but in this regulated world we have to consider the tax and accounting…

Oh, companies seeking crowdfunding under Regulation CF, it's going to be so tempting to do this. There'll be a time when you have all the information required by Rule 201 loaded on SuperPortal's site. All except the financial statements, which the accountant has not finished reviewing. She says her review isn't going to result in any material changes. And it's May 16, and you really want to be the first to go live on SuperPortal. What if you filed the Form C without the accountant's review? No-one would notice (the SEC doesn't officially review Form C filings), would they? And you could update the financials when you got them finished. Don't do that. For a…

One seemingly critical difference between conducting a Regulation A offering under Tier 1 or Tier 2 at the federal level is the requirement to provide audited financial statements. The SEC does not require audited financial statements for Tier 1 offering, whereas audited financial statements are required for Tier 2. However, this difference is merely a red herring. Nearly every Tier 1 offering will require audited financial statements, because it is likely that at least one state in which the issuer intends to offer its securities requires audited financial statements. In our review of the statutory and administrative rulings of state securities regulators, 27…

View our comment letter: https://www.sec.gov/comments/s7-22-15/s72215-9.pdf View the proposals: http://www.sec.gov/rules/proposed/2015/33-9973.pdf  

Regulation A is a public offering of securities. Even though it is not a full blown IPO, it still takes a substantial amount of time to prepare and to have a successful offering. At CrowdCheck, we have been approached by a handful of companies that are excited about Regulation A and want to start selling to investors in a month. That’s great we say. We then ask, have you engaged an accountant? No. Do you know what you want to offer investors? No. Have you converted from an LLC to a C Corporation? No. You get the idea. A typical timeline for a Regulation A offering requires about two months of lead time. During that time, your accountants and lawyers can work…

Written by CrowdCheck CEO Sara Hanks and published in Bloomberg BNA Securities Regulation & Law Report. http://bit.ly/1TAjN3d

OK, that has GOT to be the most boring title for one of the most exciting developments in the securities markets, right? I've mentioned before that the SEC is taking a "free market disclosure" approach to Regulation A. In contrast to what happens in the context of an IPO, where you can only make very limited communications outside the prospectus, in Regulation A you can make "testing the waters" communications up to the time the SEC qualifies your offering. Additionally, you can market to prospective investors after qualification, and we are seeing a lot of this type of activity right now. As we know, "securities are sold and not bought" and traditionally the "…