Retail Impact Investors Rejoice: Here's Where You Can Actually Invest !

Writing the AFI blog, and working on AFI in general has been strange these last many months because of the lack of frustration one would normally expect from that four letter word "w-o-r-k".

Writing the AFI blog, and working on AFI in general has been strange these last many months because of the lack of frustration one would normally expect from that four letter word "w-o-r-k". But one thing certainly has my goat (which should not be confused with my goatee, which those that know me know has recently gone the way of Sampson's hair...) is what I consider the arbitrary and liberty-infringing position of the Securities and Exchange Commission regarding "Accredited Investors".  Click that link for the SEC's definition; we can just think of it as "rich folks".

In general, the rule is that you have to be "accredited" to invest in private company "securities", where "security" certainly means private company stock equity, probably means royalty funding, and is generally not thought to mean simple lending.  Their thinking is that only rich folks are smart enough to know whether it is a good idea to invest in this or that company.  Ignore the fact that anyone, accredited or not, with half a million dollars rolling around in the console can go to the neighborhood exotic car dealer and buy a Lamborghini Avendtador (you be the judge as to whether that is a smart move), but the unaccredited person with $15k they'd like to put into the neighborhood vegetable farmer, can't.  That "can't" really kills me, when I meet well intentioned Austinites who want to participate in AFI as investors, but we can't let them.

Fortunately, there are exceptions:

• Fran Seegull outlines a variety of options in Conscious Company magazine's "Impact Investing for the Rest of Us"
• Unaccredited, or what we like to call "Retail", investors can buy a CD from PeopleFund
• Soon, our buddy Hall Martin at Texas Entrepreneur Networks will open his Retail Texas Crowdfunding Portal, where Texas residents will be able to invest in Texas companies, including in equity and royalty deals, up to $5,000 per person per year per company.
• And finally, I finally found a list of mutual funds that specialize in public companies trying to attend to our triple bottom line of people, planet, and profits.  

Do you know of other opportunities for Retail Impact Investors?  Leave a comment or email curt@austinfoodshedinvestors.org.