Dr. Richard Swart, UC Berkeley Alternative Finance: How to Take Advantage of New Financing for Your Business

Transcription

1 Dr. Richard Swart, UC Berkeley Alternative Finance: How to Take Advantage of New Financing for Your Business

2 Tweet

3 Who am I? Run UC Berkeley s Research efforts into Innovation in Entrepreneurial Finance Strategic advisor/consultant Independent researcher Sample projects: Job Creation and Economic Effects of Crowdfunding Geographical, gender and racial effects in funding patterns Strategic uses of crowdfunding and social finance for philanthropies and universities Manifesto on Crowdfunding Policy Market size estimates for Real Estate Crowdfunding Analytical model for impact of crowdfunding effectiveness Predictive model for crowdfunding s effects in a given country Quality indicators for determining investments in crowdfunding platforms

4 The Big Picture For startups: You can use crowdfunding as an alternative to complement to friends / family and seed funding It is a great way to prove capacity so Angels and VCs will pay attention For SMEs: P2P and P2B lending are cheaper and faster than SMALL bank loans Title II Crowdfunding is a good option to consider in lieu of your first Angel Round

5 The 100,000 Foot View Alternative Finance represents: A growing and viable international market for institutional investments, allocation of capital in debt instruments, and relatively low risk equity transactions into microenterprises A proven means of accelerating capital infusion into microenterprises resulting in job creation, increased revenues, and follow-on investment activity/loans

6 The 100,000 Foot View A new channel for product validation, market testing, and customer engagement for brands A mechanism to activate communities of interest and increase long-term brand/cause engagement Deal sourcing for Angel and VCs rise of hybrid models

7 What is DC up to? US Congress has essentially lost political will to fix JOBS Act until change of administration and/or Senate There will be changes to JOBS Act once administration changes Capital flowing into alternative finance markets in part due to challenges of SEC delays and regulations

8 Who Uses Crowdfunding? 95% had some college education 84% male Nearly 50/50 self-employed and working 35 years old Average firm size is 2 employees Largest reported firm size was 20 Women set lower goals, but are more successful than men at reaching those goals

9 What is Crowdfunding Monetization of EXISTING social media relationships Deepest form of social engagement Product validation Free or cheap PR An integrated marketing campaign A multichannel social campaign A form of employee and partner recruitment Really cool (at least for now) Not for the shy About they why, not the what passion, product and purpose

10 Viability Over 90% of groups raising more than $5,000 in successful CF projects turned into viable ongoing ventures Greater than 70% of ASSOB backed firms still in business after 5 years Evidence suggests CF associated with selection of more viable firms challenges 70% failure rate

11 Perks/Donation/Pre-Sales Models Indiegogo, Kickstarter, RocketHub are dominant brands Crowdtilt is dominant for micro-raises A model for early product testing Crowdfunding = market validation + focus group + funding Pitfalls: Planning, fulfillment, taxation, hard work

12 Equity Crowdfunding Title II Title II Crowdfunding: You raise money from Accredited Investors alternative to Reg D PPM Who is accredited? 200K OR 1M net worth Benefits? = speed, efficiency Risks? = dumb money, cost of raise approx. 15%

13 Title III Crowdfunding for average citizens Democratization of access to capital Not popular with democratic senate leadership Overly expensive Huge opportunity once fixed Rules not passed yet Will be hundreds of platform providers

14 Peer to Peer Lending P2P for individuals Prosper and Lending Club are dominant US platforms Used for online consumer finance Mostly refinance of existing consumer debt 90% + rejection rated Uncollateralized, unsecured personal loans Net to lenders roughly 7% P2B on P2P What? Meaning you use P2P sites for small business loans. Cap of 35K Must have good credit

15 P2B Firms exist that aggregate and loan money to SMBs Rates are high not hard money rates, but higher than banks Credit terms are tough Kabbage is good example New models are emerging for invoice factoring, equipment finance, sector specific models Why? Faster and cheaper than banks... More transparent than private lending

16 The Promise Alternative forms of finance will disrupt existing lending Efficiency and disintermediation of personal lending Democratization of access to early stage capital Combining of market validation and fund raising Hybrid Angel/crowdfunding platforms

17 The Peril State security regulators HATE HATE HATE HATE crowdfunding Be careful, they would love to make you an example (free orange clothing) Ongoing compliance costs Legal and regulatory risk Crowdfunding takes hard work and takes significant commitment from firms

18