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Ron Miller, CEO of StartEngine,who was in Episode 40 of The Top and Chad Newell, CEO and founder of Snapwire. Listen as Ron and Chad explain how the new rule of SEC in equity crowdfunding helped their companies.\xa0

Famous Five:

• Favorite Book? \u2013 Ron: The E-Myth\xa0

• What CEO do you follow? \u2013\xa0 Chad: Sean Malarkey
• Favorite online tool? \u2014 Ron:\xa0 Internal Email / Chad: Google Sheet
• Do you get 8 hours of sleep?\u2014 Ron: No
• If you could let your 20-year old self know one thing, what would it be? \u2013 \u201cIt\u2019s all about confidence.\u201d \u2013 Ron Miller

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Time Stamped Show Notes:

• 01:40 \u2013 Nathan introduces Ron and Chad to the show
• 02:30 \u2013 StartEngine is the nation\u2019s leading platform that allows entrepreneurs to directly connect with potential investors to raise capital
• 02:45 \u2013 The new law opened up the possibility for everyone to become an investor
• • 03:11 \u2013 It allows companies to advertise broadly
• 03:24 \u2013 StartEngine was launched in June 2015
• 03:30 \u2013 Total amount invested is $20 million
• • 03:42 \u2013 60,000 unique users have joined their community
• 04:00 \u2013 StartEngine charged 5% of the total capital from the proceeds raised
• 04:20 \u2013 Entrepreneur can raise up to $50 million a year in the online public offering and StartEngine charges $50 per investor
• 05:10 \u2013 \u201cWe are currently focusing on the US market and there\u2019s no SaaS in there\u201d
• 05:30 \u2013 What made Chad decide to use StartEngine
• 06:40 \u2013 Why StartEngine is ground-breaking
• 07:00 \u2013 The congress\u2019 limitation on investing in a company
• 07:31 \u2013 \u201cReal wealth is made by being an early investor\u201d
• 07:54 \u2013 The new law is a radical shift
• 08:51 \u2013 Nathan believes that the best investors are customers
• 09:10 \u2013 Snapwire has 300,000 photographers in the platform
• • 09:22 \u2013 Buyer ratio is much smaller than the photographers
• 09:45 \u2013 Snapwire has pay-as-you-go and a SaaS model
• 10:08 \u2013 Snapwire\u2019s revenue is 50% from pay-as-you-go and 50% from SaaS
• 10:20 \u2013 9,000 images have been bought in Snapwire since their launch
• • 10:30 \u2013 Snapwire was founded in 2014
• 10:34 \u2013 Snapwire has raised $2.8 million
• 11:15 \u2013 Snapwire raising in StartEngine opened up a lot of opportunities
• 11:45 \u2013 Can you use StartEngine after a price round?
• 11:52 \u2013 The main advantage is that companies can set their terms
• • 12:03 \u2013 Some companies have to essentially create a second priced or non-priced round
• 12:58 \u2013 The good thing about equity crowdfunding is you have to disclose everything
• • 13:08 \u2013 Disclosure statement is clear
• 13:41 \u2013 Lawsuits and CAP table
• • 14:10 \u2013 There\u2019s a disclosure and subscription agreement that investors sign
  • 14:30 \u2013 \u201cI think there\u2019s an immersion of risk\u201d
• 16:14 \u2013 There are limits to investments and to returns
• 16:28 \u2013 During crowdfunding, there\u2019s also a limit on the amount of investment that a company will accept
• 17:00 \u2013 \u201cAs far as information rights, you can be very clear in the disclosure\u201d
• 18:00 \u2013 It is not allowed to give out public information even if it is unintentional
• 18:15 \u2013 Upon investing, you will get a shareholder report that is in compliance with security exchange commission requirements
• 18:40 \u2013 \u201cCompetition can\u2019t reverse engineer your strategy in execution\u201d
• 19:06 \u2013 StartEngine has 12,000 \u2013 14,000 investors
• 19:20 \u2013 Total of 15-18 companies have raised in StartEngine
• 19:30 \u2013 14 team size in StartEngine
• 19:36 \u2013 StartEngine raised capital through seed round and Series A
• • 19:47 \u2013 Total of $7.7 million raised
  • 19:54\xa0 - Ron didn\u2019t use their platform to raise
• 20:25 \u2013 Average value of an investment is $1400
• 20:40 \u2013 StartEngine\u2019s biggest competitors are Seed Invest, Next Seed, WeFunder and Flash Funder
• 21:11 \u2013 What should people look for in the marketplace?
• • 21:23 \u2013 If certain companies are establishing themselves in a specific niche area
  • 21:43 \u2013 Success rate of the companies
  • 21:57 \u2013 Support the companies can provide to entrepreneurs
• 22:13 \u2013 Connect with Ron through his email
• 22:34 \u2013 Contact Chad at Chad@Snapwi.re
• 24:53 \u2013 The Famous Five

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3 Key Points:

• Real wealth is made by being an early investor.
• The good thing about equity crowdfunding is the disclosure.
• Be confident in yourself.

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Resources Mentioned:

• Toptal\xa0\u2013 Nathan found his development team using Toptal\xa0 for his new business Send Later. He was able to keep 100% equity and didn\u2019t have to hire a co-founder due to the quality of Toptal\xa0 developers.
• Host Gator\xa0\u2013 The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible.
• Freshbooks\xa0\u2013 The site Nathan uses to manage his invoices and accounts.
• Leadpages\xa0 \u2013 The drag and drop tool Nathan uses to quickly create his webinar landing pages which convert at 35%+
• Audible\xa0\u2013 Nathan uses Audible when he\u2019s driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5-hour drive) to listen to audio books.
• Assistant.to \u2013 The site Nathan uses to book meetings with one email.
• Acuity Scheduling \u2013 Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments
• Drip \u2013 Nathan uses Drip\u2019s email automation platform and visual campaign builder to build his sales funnel.
• Ron@StartEngine.com \u2013 Ron\u2019s email address
• Chad@Snapwi.re \u2013 Chad\u2019s email address
• Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives