Author: John Notorgiacomo

Kickstarter and Indiegogo not only popularized crowdfunding but also put it on the map for the common crowd member. While the industry certainly owes some of its growth to their success, the domination of the donation-based crowdfund is coming to an end. Juniper Research, a UK based mobile, online and digital marketing research company, has made a couple of predictions. By 2020, we will see equity crowdfunding become the new king, globally, in terms of fintech advancement, though debt crowdfunding will have the greatest share of crowdfunds in non-tech related fields (which seems to hold true for real estate as…

Everybody knows Colorado is the most if not one of the most progressive states in the USA; see legalizing marijuana. But have you heard the latest in Colorado progression, the Colorado Crowdfunding Act? This act allows us to forget about whether or not we’re an “accredited investor,” go ahead and crowdfund away! This is exciting; anyone can now invest up to $5,000 in crowdfunding. For those of you who are unfamiliar with why this is exciting, you first have to remember that, in most places , you have to be an accredited investor to participate in crowdfunding.  Not very exciting,…

Less than a week ago, the nation experienced another mass shooting, this time in San Bernardino. While that has been all over the news nationwide, what you may not have noticed was the fact that one of the shooters likely took out a massive loan from one of the P2P industry leaders, Prosper.  Peter Renton of Lend Academy has been conducting interviews and has brought up important questions he keeps hearing during them: Is P2P lending going to become the new way for terrorists to get funding? Prosper must have really low standards to allow a loan like this to…

Last week we talked about Facebook and how its been expanding into the P2P and Crowdfunding market. This week: similar topic, different country altogether. If you look at the alternative finance industry on a global scale, it’s easy to say that, while the USA and England have largely been the innovation hotspots of the world, China has one of if not the largest market in several of the branches that make up “altfin”. Now, if you look at some of the trends going on in the Chinese business place at the moment, you will notice how several Chinese P2P platforms…

Earlier this year, Facebook added a peer-to-peer aspect to the platform, allowing you to connect your bank account to Facebook and directly send money to other users via messenger. That’s pretty big in regards to lending; cutting out other platforms while not even taking something like a 3% cut, like the others do. Alright, so Facebook is moving in on the peer-to-peer front; they’re projected to grow into a $100 billion service. However, that’s old news; that happened back in July. What we’re here to talk about today is Facebook’s first big step into the crowdfunding industry. They announced just…

Have you heard about the upcoming CFPA (The Crowdfunding Professional Association) Crowdfunding Summit? Richard Swart, a leading crowdfunding expert and REIFA friend, tweeted this morning, “This is a must attend event for anyone who serious about keeping up with developments in Crowdfunding and JOBS Act” and he couldn’t be any more right. The event will be held in Washington, D.C. on December 2nd and the motif will be Outlook and Opportunities for 2016, after all the progress we have made this past year or so in the Crowdfunding Industry. Expected participants will include SEC officials and state regulators, legislative officials,…

Two weeks ago, the dream was realized, our wish came true: the SEC finally came through with Title III. Hooray! That, and the glaringly obvious flaw regarding the issue of unaccredited investors (reifa.org/MustFixT3 ), has been the major talk for the past couple of weeks, allowing the proposed changes to Rule 147 to slip by more or less unnoticed. Which brings us to today’s topic: Rule 147. As it stands now, Rule 147 provides exemption from federal registration for any intrastate crowdfunding (well, securities offered, technically, but in the frame of this article, crowdfunding will suffice). This is how it has…

With all the hullabaloo surrounding Crowdfunding this past week, I’m sure some of you may have heard that the decision to pass the new adjustments to Title III was not unanimous. Commissioner Michael S. Piwowar was the one vote against Title III. Now, you may be wondering how, after over 3 years of making adjustments, someone can still feel that it could still use some work; I’ve got news for you, that’s just politics. But in all seriousness, the Commissioner brings up a several good points to support his dissenting vote. The lower value, net worth or annual income, will…

For those of you not on the Crowdfunding up and up, today is a big day. Today, the SEC will be voting to finalize the proposed rules for Title III of the JOBS (Jumpstart Our Business Startups) Act. In short, today is the day where the Crowdfunding industry’s dreams in America will hopefully be realized. Here are the top 3 proposed updates: Companies can raise up to $1 million dollars over the course of one year Non-accredited investors can invest up to $2,000 dollars or 5% of their net worth This is massive! Previously, Crowdfunding was not very open to…