Greetings from Dubai Crowdfunding Colleagues!
 
What an amazing year 2012 has been.  A year ago we were fighting the good fight in the US Senate to legalize Crowdfunding, now we have a tremendously bi-partisan Crowdfunding Law thanks to President Obama, the House and Senate, a vibrant industry forming and a book about Crowdfund Investing!  Here’s our year-end summary:

Late breaking news:

• Both Jason and Sherwood are presenting at the Global Entrepreneurship Summit and the GIST-CDRF in Dubai, U.A.E. this week.  They will be discussing how to utilize the Crowdfund Investing Framework which was the basis for the Crowdfunding section of the JOBS Act and modifying it for their cultural and regulatory needs in ways that will enable countries to build a robust early stage finance and entrepreneurial ecosystem that promotes jobs, innovation and economic stability.
• The CCA team was awarded a groundbreaking project by the World Bank, “Crowdfunding: Unlocking early-stage financing innovative developing country entrepreneurs.”   This engagement will create original research into the current state of crowdfunding in both the developed and

•  developing world as well as models for the future of the industry globally.
• Sherwood and Jason are co-founders of the new University of California, Berkeley Program on Innovation in Entrepreneurial and Social Finance Program. This Program will be the global “center of gravity” for rigorous academic research on early stage finance with an early focus on crowdfunding and crowdfund investing.
• Jason was appointed as Entrepreneur-In-Residence for Berkeley’s Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology.
• A new piece research by UC Berkeley, CCA & Thunderbird looks at the size of the crowdfund investing market over five years, based on an original algorithm and sensitivity analysis.  You can request a copy of this white paper that will be providing an academic analysis on what expert-VC Fred Wilson calls a $300 billion market.
• On October 16, Sherwood and Jason were asked to present at the Richard Newton Distinguished Innovator Lecture Series for the Haas School of Business and the College of Engineering at UC Berkeley.  They told their story of how they helped to make one of the largest changes in securities laws in over 70 years as well as providing guidance for students in how to become effective change agents in their careers and businesses.
• On November 3, Jason delivered a TED talk at TEDx San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.  His topic was being unreasonable in order to make rational change.
• On November 8th, Sherwood and Jason spoke at the UC Berkeley Global Venture Labs, an association of academic accelerators and incubators at over 40 of the top universities in the world on 5 continents.  The topics included strategies to utilize crowdfunding that increase effectiveness in outcomes and ability to successfully exit the accelerator.  
• On November 15th, Jason spoke at the White House.  The event celebrated Global Entrepreneurship Week.
• On November 30th, Sherwood spoke at the US Treasury.  The event was to determine how the government can use currently stored data to deliver value to citizens and businesses.  Sherwood was named the Chairperson of the committee to create a mechanism to easily verify accredited investors.
• We are excited to announce 3 new strategic advisory relationships:

1. Ellenoff Grossman & Schole – With over 20 years of private and public capital market experience, EGS is the industry-leading securities law firm that has the most robust crowdfunding practice of any firm in the U.S.  Doug Ellenoff has been a skilled advocate for the industry and an amazing advisor.
2. EarlyIQ – We are all concerned about crediting a credible and viable crowdfund investing marketplace.  EarlyIQ is going to help the industry by providing additional intelligence about issuers to support effective investment decisions.
3. WorkDistrict – Their motto is “work, grow, crowdfund.”  This Washington, DC-based accelerator is the future of incubators that pull innovative companies together, provide them the infrastructure and mentorship to grow and adds on the power of crowdfunding to give them the capital to succeed.  CCA will be delivering strategic advice on how this accelerator can effectively harness crowdfund investing to enable their companies to transition to self-sufficiency.

• We are very excited to welcome our newest team members: Ilona Major, Director of Operations and Robert Mitchell, Director of  Business Development and Strategic Partnerships.

Crowdfund Investing for Dummies abridged e-book is now available (nook or kindle) and makes a great holiday gift! You can pre-order the full 360-page book to be released in March 2013 here! 

Here is where you can see us over the next few weeks:
December 11-12, 2012 – Dubai:
We will be speaking about Crowdfunding at the third annual Global Entrepreneurship Summit hosted by the U.A.E. government, the U.S. State Department’s Global Entrepreneurship Program in coordination with the White House and several U.S. agencies, and in partnership with Entrepreneurial Ventures of Arabia (EVA).

January 8, 2013 –Austin, Taxas:
We will be keynoting Startup Texas and speaking about crowdfunding  along with other industry leaders.

February 6, 2013 –San Francisco:
Sherwood and Jason will be presenting with investment adviser Bob Hunter at the Western Association of Chamber Executives. There, several chamber of commerce presidents will be attending the event where CCA will explain the roles of chambers in the crowdfunding process and how crowdfunding in general can stimulate the local economy.

February 17 – March 7, Asia Tour
Sherwood and Jason will be traveling to Asia to present on Crowdfund Investing in Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Sydney.  Send an email if you are in the region and you wish for us to stop by.

March 8-12, 2013 – Austin, TX:
We will be leading the panel “Global Fight to Democratize Access to Capital” at this year’s annual South by Southwest Conference in Austin, TX.

THANK YOU!
Last week marks the eight-month anniversary of the signing of the Crowdfund Investing bill into law. We wanted to take a moment to thank you for your support and hard work in creating the crowdfund investing industry.

During the past eight months we have had the opportunity to work with many of you in forming this brand new industry from a simple piece of legislation. We have come together from around the world, leveraging our unique talents, assets and hard work into this groundswell of unified strategic action to define what the crowdfund investing industry will look like and to ensure that the implementation of the JOBS Act goes smoothly.

Together, we are creating “Web 3.0” where the social Web meets capital formation to solve the funding void for our nation’s job creators, Main Street small businesses and startups. The movement is now global!

For more information regarding CCA and our services, please contact Robert Mitchell at robert@theccagroup.com

WHAT DO WE DO?
Many of you have asked us, ‘what do you do?  Who are your partners and who do you advise.’  Here’s the answer:

Crowdfund Capital Advisors
We incorporated Crowdfund Capital Advisors and work with Crowdfunding industry professionals and government agencies.  We advise businesses and individuals globally and our clients include:

• Small and large investors and organizations seeking to understand and invest in this new asset class.
• Governments seeking to implement Crowdfund Investing to spur entrepreneurship, innovation and job.
• Crowdfunding platforms and professionals looking to launch and grow profitable crowdfunding businesses within the regulatory framework.
• We spoke at major Crowdfunding events in Washington, New York, San Francisco, Washington, Las Vegas and Chicago. Internationally, we traveled to Colombia, Canada, Mexico, Italy, Turkey and Sweden… and now, Dubai.
• We met and forged relationships with entrepreneurs, angel investors, financial advisors, funds, local chambers, startup community leaders, and journalists, banking experts, lobbyists, development banks and government officials to collaborate and expedite the creation of the Crowdfund Investing industry.
• The Crowdfund Capital Advisors team is growing and seasoned industry experts are joining the team to provide you with high value, concierge style advisory and consulting services to maximize your Crowdfunding endeavors success.

Crowdfund Industry Advocates

We are Council Members for The Crowdfunding Accreditation for Platform Standards (CAPS) program.  It is an initiative by Crowdsourcing.org to promote the adoption of best practices for the operation of crowdfunding platforms globally.Crowdfunding Professionals Association (CfPA) – We are founding board members of this 800+ member global trade association focused on educating entrepreneurs & investors, representing intermediaries, and providing a networking environment.

Crowdfund Intermediary Regulatory Advocates – We are founding board members of this advocacy group led by an amazing team (Candace Klein – Somolend, Vince Molinari – Gate Impact, DJ Paul and Freeman White – Launcht).