If US, let's pool research efforts on what is legal.
For instance, there is definitely some leeway in http://sec.gov/investor/pubs/invclub.htm
for investing clubs
But then again, there could also be a legal framework for information
and rating, that has nothing to do with the actual exchange, which
could be facilitated by the businesses themselves, until formal
frameworks are produced. I don't think there is any requirements for
registration or regulation on people discussing businesses, mentoring,
performing due dilligence, and rating businesses on multiple factors,
with the hope that this will lead towards individuals deciding to
invest in an enterprise.
I have argued in the past that we should not just explore loans, but
also *investment*. This is something that we are going to explore in
depth with http://localfoodsystems.org in the coming months.
The flip side of the coin is that, instead of investment, or loans,
when an enterprise is working within existing commons, like open
license content, open source software, and open license hardware/
product design, that people might pool resources around ventures as
*donations* instead of loans or investments. See http://openfarmtech.org/weblog
for an example. I think this can work best when an enterprise is
based on a commons. The enterprise does snot have to be organized as
not for profit formally. Mine is not, and I work extensively with the
development of open source software and open license content, and am
entering the realm of open source hardware/product design. If you can
find stakeholders who recognize that you are working towards
contributing to a common pool resource, they could be willing to pool
money, time or other resources with you towards creating commons-based
building blocks that can be re-used for both for-profit and not-for-
profit ventures in the future. Some enterprises (like mine) may be
compelled to continually contribute to a resource pool in order to
help sustain or accelerate the development of open licensed "stuff"
Consider building commons-based building blocks for independents and
social enterprises, or contributing towards their development.
On Nov 21, 10:17 am, MarcD <mdang...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I talked yesterday with an entrepreneur who opened up a real
> opportunity for Entrepreneur Commons:
> - her company has cash in the bank that exceeds the $250K that are
> protected by FDIC
> - she considered what to do with the money above that limit: create
> many bank accounts, or invest in something else
> - she finally decided to invest some of this extra money into other
> businesses that had issued promissory notes
>
> This is great news to me, as it is exactly what we are talking about
> with Entrepreneur Commons.
> She has taken a risk and invested in other businesses: peer to peer
> lending for businesses.
> Once the idea is out there, 2 notes are not a statistically relevant
> number and so a better way to do this would be to mutualize the
> investments through a Fund that would then spread investments into a
> larger number of deals. The side effect is the dilution of the due
> diligence, you have to rely on other people's judgment. But if every
> investor in the fund (in this case through their business) does its
> own due diligence chances are the quality of the deals will be good.
> And then if we apply the mutual guarantee fund concept, we can add a
> layer of protection.
>
> So if you are in contact with entrepreneurs whose businesses have
> extra cash today, we should explore how we can build on this
> opportunity.
> Feedback welcome :-)