Today, President Obama will sign the JOBS Act, which establishes a new securities registration exemption for crowdfunding. This means that, early next year (or so), Kickstarter-like “funding portals” will allow people raising money for projects to offer “perks” based on possible future revenue from those projects. In other words, investments. This is an experiment that I’m excited about, and expect will lead to lots of great innovation and meaningful jobs (and will also attract hucksters). TechShop CEO Mark Hatch calls the JOBS Act one of the “most important pieces of legislation in decades” and expects it to help software companies and hardware startups most of all.
As one of the crowd that championed the crowdfunding exemption component of the JOBS Act, I’ll be attending the signing ceremony in the Rose Garden this afternoon. I feel honored to be a guest there, am looking forward to it, and will take photos if I can and post them here!
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