As private companies grew and sought to raise funds in the capital markets, they faced significant challenges from the constraints administered by the SEC. If a company grew beyond a certain size, it would find itself subject to reporting requirements under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (Exchange Act) without having made the conscious decision to go public. With the recession causing businesses to tighten spending and causing many small businesses to fail, the JOBS Act was passed to address challenges that stifle business growth and help companies go public, raise capital privately and remain private longer. In particular, the JOBS Act creates new private placement exemptions permitting ÂcrowdfundingÂ.
The new crowdfunding rules enable companies to engage in limited fundraising from small investors over the Internet. While the JOBS Act imposes conditions on how much individual investors may invest and how the offering must be conducted, and requires some limited disclosure to the SEC, there are no restrictions or qualifications on who can invest in a crowdfunding investment. Small, growing companies can therefore look beyond their (or their financial adviserÂs) Rolodex of Âaccredited investors, marking a significant change to the former rules, which carried far greater conditions to any offering size.
Key takeaways and/or learning objectives of the webcast will address:
 A primer on crowdfunding's start
 The advantages of crowdfunding and the critics of the exemption
 The challenges to creating and implementing the crowdfunding rules and process
 Where we are today with crowdfunding
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