3 thoughts on “The U.S. House of Representatives’ Committee on Small Business examines crowdfunding…

  1. This hearing is interesting in light of the conversation we had today about expert centric thinking vs. user centric thinking. If Chairman David Schweikert is correct, the SEC has taken an expert centric approach to regulating Crowdfunding, treating it like derivatives markets, and trying to minimize the risk to the consumer. While my reading on the subject clearly is not exhaustive, I have not heard about rampant speculation and crowdfunding customers who have thought they were ripped off by Kickstarter or other sites.

    Maybe a user centric model would lead to the conclusion that regulation of this field is superfluous. Or maybe not…

  2. I find this interesting after reading Peter Drucker’s “Introduction: the Entrepreneurial Economy”. His argument that venture capitalists help entrepreneurs succeed by forcing management discipline on them is poignant. The fact reported here that equity-based crowdfunding increased quartery revenues by 351% (compared to 24% increases for debt-based crowdfunding) leads me to believe that equity-based crowdfunders are actively consulting management (like venture capitalists do). I speculate, but if this is the case then maybe debt-based crowdfunding is the beast that deserves closer regulatory scrutiny.