It was a good year for Main Street entrepreneurs. A new Kauffman Foundation index of small business entrepreneurial activity showed a large increase in 2015, marking the first big gains since the onset of the financial crisis six years ago. The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation has long been a champion of entrepreneurship, especially the kind […]
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Closing The Racial Wealth Gap Through Business Ownership
A recent report published by FIELD at The Aspen Institute and Asset Funders Network explored how philanthropic funders can help narrow the racial wealth gap in the U.S. through programs that support business ownership. Joyce Klein, director of FIELD and co-author of the report, offers some thoughts on the topic in this guest post. Much […]
The Worker-Owned Sharing Economy Aims to Disrupt the Disruptors
Tech-based startups are drawing on cloud computing, algorithms and mobile phones to create a new on-demand service economy, conjuring help with the press of a button. There’s Uber for transportation, Handy for home cleaning, and Task Rabbit for everything from running errands to assembling furniture. In the process, they are changing the nature of work […]
Debating The New Economy And Whether Capitalism Can be Saved
There’s a lot of talk about the new economy – including on this media site. But what does the term really mean? And what should this new economy we are creating look like? Sometimes it’s useful to poke our heads up and ponder the big questions. Megan Stanek reports on one such discussion from New […]
In Hawaii, a Utility Cooperative Leads The Way in Renewable Energy
As Hawaii considers the ramifications of a contentious $4.3 billion sale of its major electric utility to Florida-based power giant NextEra, Kaua’i Island Utility Cooperative (KIUC) stands out as an alternative model of utility ownership. KIUC is one of around 900 electric cooperatives serving some 42 million electric consumers in 47 states. Like all cooperatives, […]
‘Tis The Season to ‘Shop Small and ‘Buy Local.’ What About Investing That Way?
In the next few days, a wave of shopping ‘holidays’ hits one after another—Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, Cyber Monday, all in preparation for, well, the holidays. But a more conscious consumerism seems to be emerging. Last month, outdoor sports retailer REI vowed to close all of its 143 stores on Black Friday, prompting other […]
An MBA Program Aims to Train a New Generation of Co-op Leaders
Co-ops are on the rise. There are 30,000 cooperative businesses in the U.S., which generate over $500 billion in total revenue, pay out $25 billion in wages and benefits and employ nearly 1 million people. The International Cooperative Alliance has declared this the Decade of the Cooperative and has invited the world to make co-ops […]
The New Crowdfunding Rules: What They Mean For Investors
Sherwood (Woodie) Neiss is a principal at Crowdfund Capital Advisors and a leader of the securities-based crowdfunding movement. In the second of a three-part series, he looks at what investors need to know about the newly approved Regulation Crowdfunding rules (aka Title III), which are expected to go into effect next spring. The new crowdfunding […]
The New Crowdfunding Rules: What They Mean For Entreprenuers
The SEC hath delivered the rules, and they are good! They are also voluminous: the final Regulation Crowdfunding rules adopted by the S.E.C. last week spanned 685 pages. We asked Sherwood (Woodie) Neiss, a principal at Crowdfund Capital Advisors and a leader of the securities-based crowdfunding movement, to help us sort through the rules and […]
It’s Official! SEC Greenlights Main Street Crowdfunding
Let the great experiment in financial democratization begin! The SEC on Friday adopted final rules for Regulation Crowdfunding (aka Title III)—the last and most sweeping piece of the JOBS Act legislation, which was signed into law three-and-a-half years ago. With the move, the SEC opened up investment crowdfunding to the general public for the first […]
A New Fund Helps Beginning Farmers Secure Land of Their Own
Like most young farmers today, Tim Biello learned to farm through working other people’s land. It was at one of those farms, Essex Farm, a sustainable operation in New York powered by solar panels and draft horses, that he fell in love with farming with horses. “I feel much more connected to farming land with […]
With 35,000 Investors, This Scrappy Craft Brewer is Just Getting Started
What is it about a locally brewed, hop-infused beer that makes people so eager to part with their money? Microbrewers have been crushing it in crowdfunding—both on rewards-based sites such as Kickstarter and Indiegogo as well as investment crowdfunding platforms like Localstake and CraftFund. Now, a colorful Scottish brewer called Brewdog has hit a new […]
Rewards, Intrastate, Equity And Angels. This Startup Has Tried it All.
Crowdfunding is still relatively new, and many entrepreneurs are hesitant to take the plunge—if they are aware of it at all. Not Bohemian Guitars. The Atlanta-based company, which makes a quirky line of guitars and other instruments made from oilcans, has tried just about every form of crowdfunding out there—from rewards-based to intrastate to equity. […]
A New Form of Fiscal Sponsorship May Help Social Enterprises Raise Funds
Social enterprises are trying out all sorts of approaches to funding and structuring their ventures. But as for-profits, they are often cut off from grant opportunities (although that is changing). A new form of fiscal sponsorship promises to help fill the gap. A fiscal sponsor is a nonprofit organization that leverages its legal and tax-exempt […]
An Impact Investor’s Journey From Appalachia to Silicon Valley and Back
These days, you can often find Kevin Doyle Jones out walking with his dog, Izzy, on the sprawling 16-acre farm in western North Carolina that he now calls home. It’s a long way from the money and tech epicenter of San Francisco, where Jones runs a social impact fund, oversees the Impact Hubs he helped […]
Is Investment Crowdfunding Finally Coming to Main Street?
The crowdfunding world has been abuzz with rumors that the rules for the crowdfunding provision of the JOBS Act—which would open up investment crowdfunding to all investors—will be finalized this fall. That timing was seemingly confirmed on Wednesday when S.E.C. Chair Mary Jo White told an advisory committee that final rules were coming “in the […]
Old-School Crowdfunding: Meet the Direct Public Offering
Equity crowdfunding and Regulation A+ grab the headlines. So it may be news to some that investment crowdfunding was around long before the JOBS Act was a gleam in Patrick McHenry’s eye. It just went by a different name: the Direct Public Offering, or DPO. And in spite of the new crowdfunding options ushered in […]
Thinking About Raising Capital From Your Community? Ask These Questions First.
Community-based investment can be a great way to raise money and build support for your venture. And there are new options for entrepreneurs choosing this capital-raising path, such as investment crowdfunding. With the right team in place, community-based investment can be relatively user-friendly and easy to understand, but it still involves asking people to take real […]
Crowdfunding Boosts Community Share Offerings For Local Pubs And Football Clubs
Earlier this month, a media publication called Positive News concluded a 30-day crowdfunding campaign on Crowdfunder.co.uk, the largest rewards-based platform in the U.K. But the 1,500 or so readers, journalists and supporters that together committed £263,422 to the project got something more than rewards: they got ownership. Positive News is the first business to raise […]
Congressional Inaction Threatens a Vital Source of Small Business Funding: SBA Loans
Brayden McCarthy is head of policy and advocacy at Fundera and was formerly senior economic policy advisor in the Obama White House and SBA. Patrick Kelley is a vice president at Live Oak Bank and was previously deputy chief of staff at SBA. In this opinion piece, they lay out the argument for raising the lending limit for SBA […]
Public Offerings of Private Securities Are Gaining Momentum, Says a New Report
Wealthy investors continue to pour money into crowdfunded securities, with capital commitments for Title II offerings rising nearly 18 percent in the second quarter of 2015. The number of deals grew more slowly though, at just under 5 percent, as companies assessed a shifting regulatory landscape. Investors are gobbling up technology, services and real estate […]
Public Offerings of Private Securities Are Gaining Momentum, Says a New Report
Wealthy investors continue to pour money into crowdfunded securities, with capital commitments for Title II offerings rising nearly 18 percent in the second quarter of 2015. The number of deals grew more slowly though, at just under 5 percent, as companies assessed a shifting regulatory landscape. Investors are gobbling up technology, services and real estate […]
New England States Pursue a Regional Approach to Crowdfunding
On July 1, as thoughts everywhere turned to the coming Independence Day holiday, securities regulators from New England’s six states gathered in Boston with a difference set of freedoms on their minds: how to streamline crowdfunding across their states and carve out a sensible approach to capital-raising in the region. The meeting was part of […]
Can Impact Investing Pay Off For Investors? A New Study Says Yes.
Good news for impact investors: you don’t have to sacrifice financial returns for social good. Not only do impact investment funds have very respectable returns, they are in spitting distance of comparable conventional funds. And in some cases, impact investment funds have outperformed their conventional peers. Those are the findings of the first Impact Investing Benchmark, […]
On Puddle, Social Networks and Trust Can Unlock Loans
When Rose Ann Haft wanted to create an online diabetes prevention program a year ago, she didn’t need much. Still, without access to a line of credit or a bank loan, she struggled to come up with even the modest amount of cash it required. Then she heard about Puddle, a social lending site that […]
Insights on The New Regulation A+ From Fundrise, a Reg A Pioneer
In 2011, Ben and Dan Miller had an audacious idea: why not let local residents, rather than outsiders, invest in commercial real estate in their neighborhoods? But that seemingly simple idea was not easy to pull off. It was months before the JOBS Act would be passed, much less proposed, and their inquiries led to […]
Canada Moves Ahead With Investment Crowdfunding
The crowdfunding ice melted in the Great White North last month when a group of six Canadian provinces adopted a common set of rules for equity and debt crowdfunding. The rules, released on May 14 and effective immediately, allow non-public companies in participating provinces to raise up to CAD $250,000 per offering, with two offerings […]
A Social Lender Pursues a Radical Experiment in Financial Transparency and Participation
On a rainy evening in March, sixteen people gathered in a tucked away conference room in Brooklyn. Before the evening was through, they would decide among themselves a key rate of interest that would affect borrowers and investors across the country. But this was no illicit cartel. There wasn’t a cigar-chomping banker in sight. The […]
From Wall Street to Main Street: A Conversation with Local Investor Marco Vangelisti
Marco Vangelisti left his job as an investment fund manager in 2009, after an eye-opening discovery about the kinds of companies the fund, and its mission-driven clients, were investing in. The first thing he did was to liquidate his Wall Street portfolio and reinvest it in local and sustainable investments. The second thing was to […]
Resilient Investing: A New Book Takes a Broad View of What it Means to Invest
Global instability. Climate change. Market swings. Investors need to look beyond sustainable investing to resilient investing, argue the authors of a new book. In The Resilient Investor: A Plan for Your Life, Not Just Your Money, Michael Kramer, Hal Brill, and Christopher Peck (pictured from left to right, above), the Managing Partners of financial advisory firm […]
Venture Exchanges Could Bring Liquidity to Small Firms And Boost The Economy
Three years after the JOBS Act was passed, making it easier for small ventures to raise capital, Congress is tackling the issue of secondary trading. The House Financial Services Committee last week floated a draft bill that would allow the creation of “venture exchanges” tailored to the needs of small companies. In many ways, the […]