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Wefunder (YC W13): Invest in Startups

wefunder.com

21–30 of 83 posts

Re: Wefunder (YC W13): Invest in Startups

#21
post #10
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Income for 2011-2013, net worth >< 1,000,000 and agreeing that you understand the risk of investing in startups, plus a signature

Looking more into the law change (congrats btw), it would be nice to tell people a) if they qualify, b) if they don't right now, that you will notify when they can also participate

I don't work for Wefunder, I just went through the application process and typed what I remembered filling out.

Re: Wefunder (YC W13): Invest in Startups

#22
post #11
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Income for 2011-2013, net worth >< 1,000,000 and agreeing that you understand the risk of investing in startups, plus a signature

I haven't tried it yet, but based on your statement: The requirement is `or`, not `and`: you are still considered an accredited investor if your net worth exceeds 1M and you have 0 income for the past two years. You are also still considered an accredited investor if you have 0 net worth yet have income exceeding 200K/300K The normal way a form is laid out is that it asks you how you are considered an accredited inve…

I used >< as, literally, "greater than or less than".

Re: Wefunder (YC W13): Invest in Startups

#23
Love the concept, not the name. "Wefunder" comes across as slightly generic with a hint of cheese - the last thing you want as a company specializing in financial investments.

Just my 2 cents; some friendly constructive criticism; something to note perhaps in the near future when you are ready to do another brand evaluation.

Re: Wefunder (YC W13): Invest in Startups

#25
post #16

"All the small investors (often So your company must create and manage a new investment vehicle for each startup to raise money on Wefunder? I assume so, otherwise the investors in one holding will incur the liability of the fund being sued by the investors/investment of another. According to your FAQ, you are not charging any fees yet and have raised about $500k to support your operations. On top of operating the pa…

"What happens if your company runs out of money to properly steward the funds you raise?" That's a very important question. They can't even accept money from non-accredited investments until early 2014 (SEC period after JOBS act goes into effect is supposed to end in early 2014). I think they have time to sort that out.

"they have time to sort that out"

Not really... There is a big difference between managing the process for one company and doing it for many. The latter will quickly cause costs to spiral out of control unless the team can get some experience with the regulations now.

In the world of dealing with regulations, one year may sound like a lot of time for one startup but if you have to handle the paperwork for dozens, it's a whole different ball game.

Re: Wefunder (YC W13): Invest in Startups

#26

"All the small investors (often So your company must create and manage a new investment vehicle for each startup to raise money on Wefunder? I assume so, otherwise the investors in one holding will incur the liability of the fund being sued by the investors/investment of another. According to your FAQ, you are not charging any fees yet and have raised about $500k to support your operations. On top of operating the pa…

That's right, small investors invest in a separate investment vehicle for each company that will requiere many of the actions that you describe. Second Market and Funders Club work the same way, and the costs do not amount to 10's of thousands of dollars per year. We have set aside enough funds deal with the future costs of each entity.

Re: Wefunder (YC W13): Invest in Startups

#27
I am not impressed.

You are issued stock or a convertible note after your initial investment and you can cannot convert that note till the company is either bought-out or goes public.

What if they don't do either and simply reinvest the "profits" back into the company thereby showing no profits?

What happens if the board of the directors of the company you invested in dilutes your shares by issuing more-and-more stock to themselves and others year-after-after till your percentage of the company is practically non-existent?

Re: Wefunder (YC W13): Invest in Startups

#28
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"What happens if your company runs out of money to properly steward the funds you raise?" That's a very important question. They can't even accept money from non-accredited investments until early 2014 (SEC period after JOBS act goes into effect is supposed to end in early 2014). I think they have time to sort that out.

"they have time to sort that out" Not really... There is a big difference between managing the process for one company and doing it for many. The latter will quickly cause costs to spiral out of control unless the team can get some experience with the regulations now. In the world of dealing with regulations, one year may sound like a lot of time for one startup but if you have to handle the paperwork for dozens, it'…

It takes a team of 2 people 6 months and 25K to set up a broker-dealer, do relevant background checks, pass relevant exams, pass audits, get personnel exemptions, SRO agreements, etc. (https://www.sec.gov/divisions/marketreg/bdguide.htm). That's a one-time process and WeFunder may have done it already.

Once that's done, setting up separate legal investment funds is a 1 month initial process (and its fairly simple to scale this up -- the individual investment funds would be set up in parallel). There's some quarterly paperwork and some yearly paperwork, but it's entirely within the abilities of one person to handle "dozens"

Re: Wefunder (YC W13): Invest in Startups

#29
post #20

Seed investing is not something for amateurs, in fact frankly I don't think investing in public companies is for amateurs. I would tell ordinary people to invest in index funds and don't invest in startups at all. You should not be investing in startups because you think it is going to change your life. You shouldn't be doing it unless you're rich enough that your life wouldn't be changed by making lots of money. - P…

Wow, that's funny. As I was reading that, I was thinking "what a thoughtful comment for HN." At least I'm consistent.

Twould be nice if you punctuated it properly though.

Re: Wefunder (YC W13): Invest in Startups

#30
post #20

Seed investing is not something for amateurs, in fact frankly I don't think investing in public companies is for amateurs. I would tell ordinary people to invest in index funds and don't invest in startups at all. You should not be investing in startups because you think it is going to change your life. You shouldn't be doing it unless you're rich enough that your life wouldn't be changed by making lots of money. - P…

This begs an interesting question: perhaps the way for the public to become seed investors is through diversification (i.e. index-style investing applied to small companies as well). Already, something analogous is possible through micro-cap index funds. That said, I agree that ultra-small companies are not a place to put all of your capital for the long haul, but they could provide correlation advantages with respect to the broader market in small doses.
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