
Funders Club raises over $1M for startups online — including itself - aston
http://venturebeat.com/2012/08/16/funders-club-raises-over-1m-for-startups-online-including-itself/
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jenntoda
It's a joke that in this day and age the funding process that seeds silicon
valley startups is only legal offline and to the privileged rich. Democratized
access to small equity investments in germinating companies that may one day
be giants, is exactly what is necessary to help the non-rich get richer too.
The social and economical benefits of the need for this democratized access is
real. Even if the SEC ruling does not go in favor of it next week, the US
government should not and can not deny its citizens such benefits for much
longer. It's clear that Funders Club has got the right idea of what needs to
be in place to enable this change in history.

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confluence
You are so unbelievably wrong that it is quite simply incredible to behold.
I'm talking about where this is going to lead (specifically the JOBs act).

We deny people many rights for the simple reason that they abuse a lot of
them. Or conversely, they get abused by others who use those rights for
personal gain. This is such a bad idea and it kills me that I know that it's
going to happen anyway.

Unsophisticated investors should not be able to invest in start-ups - at all -
ever. They can barely handle regulated houses, bonds and equities - and you're
throwing things at them that even VCs can't handle - what is wrong with you?

This is bad - it will happen - and I will watch it burn for the same reason
that shoe shine boys shouldn't be recommending stocks - they just don't know
what the hell they are doing.

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jcampbell1
> We deny people many rights for the simple reason that they abuse a lot of
> them.

There is a vast amount of elitism embedded in your thought process. I don't
fully disagree with your view point, but that line of reasoning scares me. We
sell the poor lottery tickets hand over fist, but I get to buy a $2800 lottery
ticket with better odds.

~~~
confluence
You don't give inexperienced people guns. That's just stupid - they'll shoot
themselves in the foot.

Oh wait this is America - carry on.

Lottery tickets are heavily regulated industries with defined probabilities,
players and outcomes conditional on government oversight. These tickets
aren't.

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jcampbell1
I am missing your point about firearms. I am from the south where is it
tradition to give a person their first firearm on their 10th birthday. I don't
know anyone that has shot themselves in the foot... except for my neighbor who
shot his foot off while climbing down from a deer stand. He now has a
prosthetic foot. He gets around fine as far as I can tell.

As for the lottery being regulated, do you really believe that it is okay
given the terrible odds? If the lower class are suggested to bet on the
lottery, and I invest startups, how are the poor ever going to escape poverty?

~~~
confluence
> I am from the south where is it tradition to give a person their first
> firearm on their 10th birthday

How's that working out for yah?

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_violence_in_the_United_Stat...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_violence_in_the_United_States#Violent_crime_related_to_guns)

Yay dead people! You don't give unsophisticated people access to firearms -
they get dead. Same with most investment options - do not allow people to
trade derivatives, over lever their houses or borrow for stocks.

> believe that it is okay given the terrible odds?

No I don't - but its regulated and small stable losses in comparison to
unsophisticated losses that destroy lives in housing, equities and bonds. This
will expand those losses.

> how are the poor ever going to escape poverty?

Have you ever been poor?

Here is how you escape poverty - you don't. I'm not kidding.

There is no such thing as social mobility - it's false to argue that the poor
can in any way benefit from this.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socio-
economic_mobility_in_the_...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socio-
economic_mobility_in_the_United_States)

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jcampbell1
I used Funders Club to make a small investment and it worked flawlessly for
me. It has document signing and wire transfers built in. After reading legal
documents for a few hours, it took about 3 minutes to make a $2500 investment
in virool.com.

I am completely impressed by what the Funders Club has built. It is easy,
complete, and actually works. Kudos to the team.

I unfortunately missed the $250,000 cutoff, so I'll get to see how they handle
the overage or reimbursement.

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Major_Grooves
This is a bit like Seedrs (www.seedrs.com) in the UK, except with Seedrs more
or less anyone can make investments and the minimum investment is only £10 so
you can get real crowd-sourced funding.

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zt
How long before someones raises a "spray-and-pray" fund just to invest in
Funders Club startups?

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jchung
How does Founders Club compare to AngelList?

