Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit login
Ask HN Startup Idea
1 point by lambdom on March 17, 2010 | hide | past | favorite | 7 comments
A website where you can browse between startup seeking money and have the possibility to fund them yourself. For instance, startup X might need 50 000$ . You could give them from 1$ to 50 000$ if you think the startup would be a success. Of course, there would be a way to give back the money if the startup is really a success. It might be a part of the company (such as 50 000$ = 5%), or a simple: 1$ now will worth (1$ + x) in 1 year.

Does is already exist?




Look up the term accredited investors and why you would only want them investing. Here I'll help you out:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accredited_investor

http://thestartuplawyer.com/convertible-notes/life-is-too-sh...


Is there a possibility of creating a pool of non-accredited investors that solve the problems pointed out by the second article?


Wouldn't this quickly run afoul of the SEC? Is this money to be considered equity, a loan, or what? There are many laws to trip over here, especially Federal. I know if I gave such a startup, say, $1,000 and it became huge, I wouldn't want only $1,000 repaid! I'd see myself as an investor for equity and that would invoke the laws governing stocks right there.


Yeah, it's a shame. The guys over at http://scalewell.com looked into this and it was pretty much impossible to do it legally. So, they're just giving away the money instead.


It would be cristal clear before you pay the $1,000 what will happend with that money if the company is succesful and how much you would get.


I think it is a neat idea and I have not seen such an app yet.The idea can be called micro-investing or micro-entrepreneur.

What would be the business model of the company facilitating this transaction (the startup)? Commission on transaction or commission on profits or both?


this exists in the form of kickstarter.com, I think as others have mentioned the legalities of investing make the actual investment quite hard, kickstarter is closer to a charity but with the opportunity for startups to give really good incentives to put money forward




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: