Understanding the US Crowdfunding Bill….

February 23, 2012 News Desk 0 Comments

Orginally posted on CanuckSEO.com

A major part of our time here is as you may already know, spent on web development and technology concepts that go above and beyond our normal SEO practice, and for us the single driving passion we’ve had lately, is crowdfunding and Canada, and yes we’ve written on this recently too. The two items are very easy to say and think on – but in fact, yes….the two items together are still illegal here in our own province here in canuck-land.

That said, I am of course, hoping that the “powers that be” i.e. our Provincial Members of Parliament just might be watching closely at the current bill entitled HR-2930 “Entrepeneurs Access to Capital Act” in the US House of Congress as it works it’s way through the various stages in becoming a federal law in the US. Their House of Representatives passed that Act, with a v0te record of 407 – 17 (a real solid backing there eh!) and the bill now sits with the House Senate for further study and then vote….but will it “pass” the Senate?

One David Alan Grier, a Professor over at the Center for International Science and Technology Policy at George Washington University, offers up his own thoughts on same, via a great video that shows you the background for the “needs” for this Bill as well as his own thoughts on where it will end up…and while I think he’s mostly correct, there are still some obstacles in the way of same. This is WELL WORTH the click to spend 5 minutes or so, on learning about how the US views crowdfunding and where it will most likely “end up” in their own technology future.

That said, so what might be what you’re thinking, eh? Well, the point to me (and many many others here in Canada) is that as the US moves ahead with HR 2930, we here in the great white north appear to be stuck on doing little to combat this initiative from our US neighbours. Obama is behind this too….which means even more to me that this will pass and become law. For the US….and not for us!

Think about it.

You are a founder and you believe in the power of crowdfunding and have a startup that needs some early seed capital….so where do you go?

You go to any of the upcoming surge in US based crowdfunding sites that will spring up to take advantage of HR 2930 and offer up equity investment opportunities. You go where the money is. You go to any of those sites to get valuable seed capital to invest in your startup…and you could care less that the folks who do fund you live in Alabama or Wyoming or Massachussets or anywhere south of th 49th Parallel.

You look for success. Right? Right!

So…what is the current state of our Canadian views on opening up the crowdfunding model for our Canuck startups….here’s a bulleted list of same –

So what do you think? Should we Canucks look south to watch closely on the US model and see what they “do” and then think about the same up here in our own country? And if so, what do you think the crowdfunding model “should” look like to both provide early seed capital for startups yet still protect investors too!

Oh, and a special “tip-O-the-hat” to the folks over at the CATA Alliance…for taking such a leadership role in trying to get our Canuck legislators to pay attention and envision change! #Kudos CATA Alliance!