Today, exactly 5 years ago, thousands of US Citizens asked the Senate to push forward and pass the JOBS Act of 2012 into law. The letter, embedded below was signed by a diverse group of stakeholders, including:
- 534 investors
- 18 incubators
- 2,726 Entrepreneurs and small business owners
- 1,582 Startup community supporters
The JOBS Act was an incredible bi-partisan act of legislation the likes of which have not been since 2012. Signatories of the letter addressed to Senator Harry Reid, Majority Leader and Senator Mitch McConnell, included some pretty prominent names like:
- Steve Case – co-founder of AOL
- Biz Stone – founder of Twitter
- Max Levchin – founder of PayPal
- Naval Ravikant – founder of AngelList
- Andy Weissman – Partner at Union Square Ventures
- Mitch Kapor – founder of Lotus
- and hundreds more.
There are many familiar names on the list.
The letter was crucial in pushing the Senate forward as the House had quickly approved the JOBS Act bill. The signatories stated;
We ask the Senate to act swiftly, without amendments that may weaken key provisions. Kauffman Foundation studies show that all net new job growth in the past decade has come from companies that are less than 5 years old. This act will encourage the creation and growth of these young companies by providing them with new sources of capital. These measures will also ease some of the regulations that slow the growth of these young companies and impede them from creating new jobs in the U.S.
While the JOBS Act created three different crowdfunding exemptions (Title II, Title III & Title IV) to leverage the power of internet to raise capital online, there still remains more to be accomplished. Title III of the Act, or Reg CF, enables small issuers to raise up to $1 million online using either a Broker-Dealer or a new type of intermediary. But the exemption is hobbled by too many restrictions and a funding cap that is way too low. Congressman Patrick McHenry and others in Congress want to fix what is wrong but still, there are some politicians who just don’t quite get it. What should be another bipartisan push to improve the entrepreneurial ecosystem has suffered from a lack of interest or worse, benign neglect. The US has the most creative group of entrepreneurs anywhere in the world. These risk takers build the businesses that create jobs, drive economic growth and produce prosperity for the country. More needs to be done. Nuff said.
A special thanks and H/T to KJ @KJspolitics for bringing this to our attention.
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