Business attorney Jenny Kassan, cofounder of Crowdfund Mainstreet, hopes crowdfunding trends continue to show regulation progression in 2020.
Title III, of the Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act, celebrated its third anniversary last year, and while the act has helped, Kassan said it’s still not perfect. Kassan served on the SEC Advisory Committee on Small and Emerging Companies. She also led the charge in submitting the petition to the SEC that led to the passage of the 2012 JOBS Act.
“[Title III] does make it much easier to raise money from the crowd in the form of investment, but we are realizing, as people that practice in the space, that there’s a lot of things about the regulations that could be improved,” Kassan said.
She is advocating for a user-friendly compliance process for companies looking to meet regulation crowdfunding requirements. “The disclosures are really extensive that they ask for businesses that are using that tool, so if you’re really going to do it right you need a lawyer, you need a lot of support,” Kassan said.
8 Crowdfunding Trends From Fundera
- $17.2 billion is generated yearly through crowdfunding in North America.
- Funds raised through crowdfunding grew 33.7% last year.
- There were 6,455,080 worldwide crowdfunding campaigns last year.
- Successful crowdfunding campaigns have raised $28,656 on average.
- The average amount raised by all crowdfunding campaigns last year was $824.
- 22.4% is the average success rate of crowdfunding campaigns.
- Overall crowdfunding projects have an average of 47 backers.
- Fully funded crowdfunding projects have an average of 300 backers.
Crowdfunding For Women Founders
Kassan said according to data, women are performing pretty well with regulation crowdfunding. “The democratization of investment is a great thing for women because when we are limited to asking more institutional, professional investors we don’t do so well.”
It is no secret men outraise women in venture capital. Although venture capital may not always work out for women, Kassan said the only area where women actually seem to be doing better than average is with crowdfunding and she feels women will continue to find more success there than pursuing the venture capital route.
“[The VC space] is so far from what women really need, and for what really fits for a lot of women entrepreneurs,” Kassan said. “Crowdfunding can work for any startup or any business, regardless of the stage, as long as there is a really clear business model and there is a compelling story about why this business is an important thing that needs to exist in the world — some need that it’s filling.”
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