JOBS Act Clears Congress
Author: Kent Hoover
Publisher: Portfolio.com
Date: March 27, 2012
Legislation meant to make it easier for small companies to obtain capital from investors is headed to President Barack Obama for his signature.
The House today passed the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act by a 380-41 margin, accepting the changes made to the JOBS Act by the Senate last week.
The legislation will enable small businesses to use the Internet to raise up to $1 million in small investments from lots of people, a technique known as crowdfunding. It also will encourage more companies to go public by exempting them from some Securities and Exchange Commission regulations in the first five years after an initial public offering. Plus, companies will be able to offer up to $50 million in stock to the public without registering with the SEC, up from the previous threshold of $5 million. Read more here.
Crowdfunding Bill Jeopardized in Senate
Author: Kent Hoover
Publisher: Portfolio.com
Date: March 16, 2012
Legislation that would make it easier for small businesses to get capital is in danger of dying in the Senate after sailing through the House last week.
The Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act passed the House by a 390-23 vote. President Barack Obama endorsed it. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid agreed to bring it up quickly in the Senate.
So things seemed to be looking good for the JOBS Act, which would do the following:
- Allow small businesses to solicit small investments from lots of investors through Internet intermediaries, a technique known as crowdfunding;
- Enable companies looking to raise up to $50 million in stock to avoid registering the offering with the Securities and Exchange Commission (up from the previous limit of $5 million); and
- Exempt “emerging growth companies,” which the House defined as companies with up to $1 billion in annual revenue, from various regulatory requirements, including Sarbanes-Oxley Act accounting rules, during the first five years after going public.
House Overwhelmingly Passes JOBS Act
Author: Kent Bernhard, Jr.
Publisher: Portfolio.com
Date: March 8, 2012
Small businesses would have an easier time raising money and entrepreneurs would have a greater opportunity to solicit investments online through a roster of bills approved today in the House of Representatives.
In uncharacteristic bipartisan spirit, the House voted 390-23 to approve the legislative package. The only no votes came from Democrats even though President Barack Obama has voiced support for the specific parts of the Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act. Some Democrats, even those who voted for it, thought the measure needed to be broader.
The Senate has yet to act, but is expected to approve similar legislation. Read more here.
House Passes Crowdfunding Bill
Author: Kent Hoover
Publisher: Portfolio.com
Date: November 3, 2011
Entrepreneurs looking for capital may benefit from a rare case of bipartisanship that broke out on Capitol Hill this week.
The House passed two bills aimed at helping startups and early-stage businesses raise capital.
Today, with a 407-17 vote, the House passed the Entrepreneur Access to Capital Act, which makes it easier for businesses to raise capital through “crowdfunding.” This technique uses the Internet to solicit small equity investments from large numbers of people. The legislation allows businesses to use crowdfunding to sell unregistered securities as long as the total amount raised is $2 million or less. The bill also limits individual investments in crowd-funded securities to $10,000 or 10 percent of the investor’s annual income.
On Wednesday, the House voted 421-1 to reform the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Regulation A. This rule currently allows small companies to offer up to $5 million in stock to the public without registering it with the SEC. The Small Company Capital Formation Act raises that threshold to $50 million, which would allow more companies to raise capital without going through the lengthy and costly SEC registration process. Read more here.
Accelerators & Incubators: TechStars Blazes a Path for Others
Author: Kent Bernhard, Jr.
Publisher: Portfolio.com
Date: October 13, 2011
TechStars cofounder and CEO David Cohen told Portfolio.com that when he and fellow founders Brad Feld, Jared Polis, and David Brown started their accelerator for startups, they weren’t exactly looking to make it a national phenomenon.
“We started originally in Boulder as a way to support the entrepreneurial ecosystem there,” he said. “Really, we always thought of it as an experiment. We just started getting tremendous demand all over to expand it.”
But the program Cohen and his cofounders kicked off in 2006 has caught on nationally and TechStars has drawn funding from a network of 75 venture capital firms. It’s expanded to include programs in Boston, New York, and Seattle, as well as in its hometown in the Colorado Rocky Mountains.
And, Cohen said, the TechStars model has been picked up around the world by other accelerators and incubators, and the accelerator is being featured on Bloomberg Television. Read more here.
Startups Look to Solve Small-Biz Hiring Pain
Author: Kent Bernhard, Jr.
Publisher: Portfolio.com
Date: October 6, 2011
Startups are looking to ease a huge burden for small and midsize businesses, with two new companies launched in the past couple of months aimed at streamlining the hiring process.
Unrabble, a Fort Lauderdale, Florida, company founded by three veteran entrepreneurs, promises to cut down the process of sifting through résumés by using Web-based software. The company launched last month at the VentureBeat DEMO event, after beta testing since March.
“We really wanted solve a problem all of us had experienced,” said Chris Rickborn, chief operating officer and cofounder of Unrabble. He and his partners, Kevin Watson and Mark Slack, had previously led identity-verification software company Verid, which they sold to EMC in 2007. And, said Rickborn, one of the problems the trio shared was in the time spent reading résumés and trying to make sure they hired the right person.
Their software is meant to make that search less painful, by allowing potential employers to quickly sort applicant profiles submitted on the Web to find the best matches and to communicate with favored applicants via private chat. Read more here.
