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Full-Text Articles in Law
Crowdfunding Signals, Darian M. Ibrahim
Crowdfunding Without The Crowd, Darian M. Ibrahim
Crowdfunding Without The Crowd, Darian M. Ibrahim
Faculty Publications
The final crowdfunding rules took three years for the Securites and Exchange Commission to pass, but crowdfunding—the offering of securities over the Internet—is now a reality. But now that crowdfunding is legal, will it be successful? Will crowdfunding be a regular means by which new companies raise money, or will it be relegated to a wasteland of the worst startups and foolish investors? This Article argues that crowdfunding has a greater chance of success if regulators abandon the idea that the practice does (and should) employ “crowd-based wisdom.” Instead, I argue that crowdfunding needs intermediation by experts that mirrors the …
Who Needs Contracts? Generalized Exchange Within Investment Accelerators, Brad Bernthal
Who Needs Contracts? Generalized Exchange Within Investment Accelerators, Brad Bernthal
Publications
This Article investigates why an expert volunteers on behalf of startups that participate in a novel type of small venture capital (“VC”) fund known as a mentor-driven investment accelerator (“MDIA”). A MDIA organizes a pool of seasoned individuals – called “mentors” – to help new companies. An obvi- ous organizational strategy would be to contract with mentors. Mentors in- stead voluntarily assist. Legal studies of norm-based exchanges do not explain what this Article calls the “mentorship conundrum”—i.e., the puzzling moti- vation of a mentor to volunteer within otherwise for-profit environments. This Article is the first to bridge the insights of …