Export $1.5B via US Crowd Funding 2012

PRLog (Press Release) - Sep. 12, 2012 - We had a sold out event in Stamford, CT and thanks to Douglas S. Ellenoff from Ellenoff, Grossman & Schole LLP for moderating at the The Soho Loft Funding Post event.  We will have the Wine Festival Crowd Funding event next in Sonoma on Friday for you and your friends.  We also have the Columbia University MBA class, including the Executive MBA class, and 100 entrepreneurs listening to David Drake, Douglas S. Ellenoff at Ellenoff Grossman & Schole and Vince Molinari at Gate Technologies discuss Crowd Funding Thursday 9/20.

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Supporting Crowd Funding: Driving $1.5 billion to the U.S. Market.

Using the recent crowd funding bill efficiently can bring much-needed foreign capital to the U.S. through crowd funding for equity. Founder of The Soho Loft Capital Creation Events series and Chairman of LDJ Capital investments,  David Drake, explains on Talkback.

Combining six pieces of legislation approved by the House of Representatives, the JOBS Act was signed into law on April 5, 2012 by President Obama.
Now, the world is waiting to see how exactly the law will be implemented. The SEC and FINRA (the only self-regulatory agency under the SEC 1933 and 1934 Act) have the responsibility to oversee this process. Interestingly, only three other countries currently allow crowd funding where securities/equity in a company is on offer: Hong Kong, U.K. and Holland. In the U.K., there are only two operational entities – CrowdCube and Seedrs.  In Holland, the count is one – Symbid.  Others in Holland, like ABN Amro, are entering the crowdfunding sector either purely for profit sharing or debt.

How will the U.S. respond? As we manage to implement an efficient low-cost crowdfunding process for equity law in the U.S., we could potentially see a deluge of foreign capital and entrepreneurial investments.  To date, a majority of the foreign start-ups we have met that are interested in crowd funding for equity are eager to expand quickly into the more fluid U.S. market.  

According to the U.S. Commerce Department, crowdfunding can contribute to the national economy through the export of products and services and the import of foreign capital. And the numbers are already significant: the U.S. crowd funding market stood at $750 million in 2011, which represents half of all capital spent on crowd funding globally last year.  For 2012, that figure is predicted to close at $1.4 billion.  

Our holding firm, LDJ Capital, invested in and founded The Soho Loft event company in 2001.  A decade later, we restructured and shifted the focus to capital formation and capital creation in the private company marketplace (PCM). Crowd funding became a natural fit.

The last 50 events held by The Soho Loft have allowed us to meet the top 300 crowd funding entrepreneurs in North America and interview each of them for insights. This led to the creation of the Crowd Fund Intermediary Regulatory Advocacy group(CFIRA), which has more than 50 members today. We are also founding board members of a trade association, the Crowd Funding Professional Association (myCFPA.org), membership of which is free.

For PR info contact Donna Smith at Donna@LDJCapital.com

ABOUT THE SOHO LOFT

The Soho Loft Capital Creation Events "TSL", subsidiary of LDJ Capital, is a world leader in conference speaking and paneling on crowd funding and the JOBS Act (Jump Start Opportunities for Business StartUps) Act signed into law by President Obama April 5, 2012. TSL provides education and leadership to startups, and Small and Medium-sized Enterprises in the areas of capital formation, crowd funding, angel networking, non-conventional funding, eb5 green card programs, microfinance, venture capital, private equity and hedge funds. In 2012 TSL is hosting 60 finance-focused events and expects to double the events to 120 in 2013. David Drake Founder and CEO of TSL co-founded the Crowdfund Intermediary Regulatory Advocates (CFIRA) and is a representative of the U.S. Commerce delegation to Brussels and Rome with European Ministers and legislators. Overall mission is to bring global awareness and develop infrastructure to facilitate countries’ capital formation, innovation and job creation. For more information, visit www.thesoholoft.com.