

House passes JOBS Act. What the new crowdfunding bill means for startups - Brajeshwar
http://venturebeat.com/2012/03/08/jobs-act-passes-crowdfunding-bill-startups/

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maaku
Uh... what? The house passed the bill today. The senate might vote on it as
soon as Tuesday. The two bills would then need to be reconciled before Obama
could ever sign it.

The photo from the top is a stock photo from Obama presenting "The _American_
Jobs Act" (a stimulus package) back in September of last year.

I sure hope it passes.. but it hasn't yet. What kind of reporting is this?

EDIT: It looks like the HN title has been updated, but not the venturebeat
article (yet).

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vnchr
Absolutely. The House and Senate are agreeing on the major terms of the law,
basically working from the same version. The House passed the Senate's
suggestions. The Senate will agree with their own wording, so this should
pass. Everybody's looking for a win here.

Now we can begin planning for the new rules of the game. The timing is still
up in the air, but the count down is on.

But yeah, sloppy journalism.

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maaku
Well, I don't know. As a commentator said in the news cycle, this is basically
the same crowd-funding bill that _already_ passed the house, but has been tied
up in the Senate where there are three competing proposals, each very
different from the house in details. Hopefully this momentum will cause one of
the otherwise stalled Senate bills to be put to a vote, but reconciliation of
the two versions might not be a simple process.

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Eliezer
Hah. I came here to post, "This makes far too much sense, are we sure Congress
really passed this?"

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bicknergseng
I wonder to what extent the law of unintended consequences will show its ugly
head here. While it is cool that literally everyone and their moms can start a
new business or make apps or something like that, I bet it contributes to the
boom/bust cycle. I guess I wouldn't have it any other way though...

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kokey
That's a very valid concern. The effect of this can create a boom cycle
especially since allows a mass of less experienced players into the market.
We've seen this with buying stocks and the property market. That said, I also
wouldn't have it any other way , it's really about reducing barriers to new
business and something that's needed. It would be nice to see this sort of
thing in the UK, but I think it is unlikely.

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bproper
Yup this article is wrong, only passed the house so far. That being said, I
think the bill is a real double edged sword. Deregulation is always going to
lead to bad actors, and I see a rise in fraud from startups that raise funds
from the crowd . As for the IPO, look at how the SEC treated Groupon. That is
the kind of oversight a IPO demands.

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smcguinness
So does this mean I no longer have to be an accredited investor to purchase
shares on companies?

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vnchr
It will if/when this passes. It's not passed yet, article is wrong. But it
should if you know the nuances (working on a blog post now).

Basically, you'll be able to invest up to 10% of your income or up to $10k,
whichever is less. Startups can raise up to $1mm that way or $2mm if they get
themselves audited.

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Drbble
Does this freedom extend to buying and selling shares on secondary markets, or
only for fundraising.

Imagine the fun of manipulating competition by heavy trading in secondary
market shares of tiny companies...

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smcguinness
I'm excited about the chance to get in on secondary markets as a way to get
started into the start up investing game. So I hope that it does.

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maaku
Okay, Obama hasn't signed this into law (yet). But with the momentum it has
and the current political situation, it looks like its on the fast track. Once
it _is_ signed into law, has anyone put together a kickstarter-for-startups
site? An AngelList for the masses? Anyone have a set of standardized legal
forms that can be used for crowd funding?

My startup is going to raise its first round in a few weeks to a month's
time.. we would love to be a test case for crowd funding, if this is law by
then.

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just_madhu
This is way overdue-- consider the fact that this existed in Bangladesh back
in the mid 1980s... for people who literally had no credit.

I think the tricky part will be about how deep the SEC wants to get entrenched
in this type of action-- how will they view individual investments differently
from stocks?

Worst case scenario, this JOBS bill might be a trojan horse to bring more
regulation to the startup world (starting with enabling funding, then phasing
in regulation in waves).

Either way, this is a sign of progress...

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dlmilli
As maaku stated, this is the exact same bill that also passed on its own in
November. Some Democrats criticized the JOBS Act as gamesmanship as it mostly
reintroduced legislation already passed in the House.

Next step is for the Senate to pass an investment crowdfunding bill. It is not
clear how quickly this will happen or how similar the bills might be. We had
this much momentum behind investment crowdfunding in November only to be
disappointed to date. But Senator Schumer's statement Tuesday was encouraging.

[http://fundinglaunchpad.com/2012/03/investment-
crowdfunding-...](http://fundinglaunchpad.com/2012/03/investment-crowdfunding-
news-2/#comments)

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phamilton
From the comments in the article, it seems the Act has not been passed and
that the article is incorrect.

Anyone know enough to confirm that the article is in fact incorrect?

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smcguinness
It passed the house and I believe it now goes to the Senate and on to Obama to
sign.

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vnchr
The most recent House version that came up for vote on Feb 26th is using
changes that came as feedback from the setup (basically). Of course the Senate
will agree with their own suggestions and Obama's got everthing to gain for
supporting a "JOBS Act" :)

Real crowdfunding, here we come!

