As I get questions from readers from my Ask The Chief Dragon Slayer Campaign, I will take some of the questions that I think might have a broad audience and post them here on the blog.
This one is filed under “Dragons - Fundraising: What Are Accredited Investors And Why Should I Only Raise Money From Them For My StartUp Company?”
Question:
I’m getting ready to raise $2 million for my startup real estate company. I’ve finished my business plan but a friend of mine said I should only talk to accredited investors. I’m not exactly sure what an accredited investor is and I don’t understand why I can’t talk to anybody I want to about investing in my company? Please make this one of your questions for your teleseminar.
Thanks,
Mark
Answer:
Thank you for submitting your question at www.StartUpCompanyQuestions.com. There are several critically important implications and potential dragons I gathered from your question. Since I want to keep you from battling some very vicious dragons as a result of your upcoming actions, I am answering it now so you don’t have to wait until the next teleseminar.
The term, accredited investors, has to do with securities laws - both federal and state - and making sure you comply with the very onerous restrictions that go with the fundraising for your start up company. I’ll give you both the short and long answer to what an accredited investor is in a minute. But the first thing you need to know is that if you raising capital from angel (AKA private) investors, you will almost certainly need more than just a business plan. You need what’s known as a Reg D Private Placement Memorandum - PPM - in order to comply with federal and state securities laws. (more…)