Below
is an article by the Arkansas Business Journal entitled "EquityNet Expects Jobs Act Explosion." The article lists
EquityNet as the
original crowdfunding site.
EquityNet Expects Jobs Act Explosion
By: Rob Keys
May 7, 2012
Judd Hollas was into crowdfunding before crowdfunding was cool.
Before it even had a name, in fact.
Hollas
is the founder and CEO of Fayetteville's EquityNet LLC, a company that
serves as an online matchmaking marketplace for entrepreneurs and
investors. When Hollas obtained one of the company's patents back in
2005, in fact, it was for a system he deemed an "electronic enterprise
capital marketplace."
"It doesn't say crowdfunding because the
term didn't exist back then, but this is crowdfunding in its entirety,"
Hollas said of EquityNet's fully automated software system. "Everything
that needs to happen to make crowdfunding happen is embodied in this
patent.
"So we can't claim to have come up with the term
‘crowdfunding,' but we can claim to have actually foreseen it,
envisioned it, developed it."
Crowdfunding - the raising of
small amounts of capital from a large pool of individual investors,
primarily by using the Internet and social media - has enjoyed its share
of buzz lately. Most of it stems from President Obama's signing of the
Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act on April 5.
Part of the JOBS
Act legalizes crowdfunding for privately owned businesses - a boost to
startups, in particular - in exchange for equity stakes. Previously,
under decades-old legislation, businesses could crowdfund in exchange
for equity, but only with accredited investors with more than $1 million
in assets.
Hollas
said the new legislation opens doors for nonprofessional investors, and
will increase the total number of potential investors from about 2
million to 50 million. He said the total value of potential investors'
portfolios will go from about $1 trillion to about $5 trillion.
"It's
the most significant change affecting small business in the United
States," Hollas said. "Basically, it democratizes the No. 1 factor for
business success - funding."
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