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Indeed we operate in a highly regulated environment and Seedrunners is more complex than the traditional equity crowdfunding paradigm. Essentially, we take adv

Indeed we operate in a highly regulated environment and Seedrunners is more complex than the traditional equity crowdfunding paradigm. Essentially, we take advantage of the regulatory environment in the UK, which allows us to market this investment opportunity to 3 categories of investors: 1) Investors who pass our 7-question investment authorization questionnaire and elect to be treated as professional clients under FCA rules 2) High net worth individuals 3) Sophisticated investors The first category is the most important to us as it allows essentially anyone with a correct understanding of the risk they are exposing themselves to to invest on Seedrunners. To actually provide our service, we work with multiple investment services firm that confer us the authorizations required by the FCA to operate something like Seedrunners. Happy to answer our first question from the HN community :) Thank you!

hotpockets 10y ago
Can a US startup crowdfund from your platform? As I understand it, US companies can't crowdfund from non accredited investors.
- leodesrumaux 10y ago
  This assumption is correct under the traditional model of equity crowdfunding (where a company makes a public offer to potential investors). Seedrunners works differently. Every month, we aim to raise €1,000,000 to invest €40,000 in each of the top 25 most upvoted startups. At the end of the month, the most upvoted startups receive an investment offer, which they can accept or refuse. As such, startups applying on Seedrunners do not actually make any form of public fundraising offer and are not subject to any public fundraising regulation. As a result, startups from any country can apply to Seedrunners and “run” for funding (similarly to how any startup can run for the YC Fellowship program with “Apply HN”). As you might guess, Seedrunners is very much for prototype stage startups looking to raise some initial funding.Our long-term goal is to invest €100K in each of the top 100 startups every month.
  - hotpockets 10y ago
    Sounds cool! Honestly, you could probably do less than €40k, for startups to try and show some viability. YC used to do around $20k if I remember correctly, and I think the YC fellows program does around that (could be wrong).
    - leodesrumaux 10y ago
      Thanks for the feedback hotpockets :) We actually do start lower. In practice, Seedrunners works with multiple funding targets per month, the minimum being €100,000 and the maximum €1,000,000. With €100,000, we invest in the top 5 startups at €20,000 each. At €1,000,000, we invest in the top 25 at €40,000 each. The idea is that with every new funding target reached, our investors get more diversification and each of the top startups more money to succeed. We tried to show this principle in a more graphic/friendly manner on our investor page: http://www.seedrunners.com/invest/ http://www.seedrunners.com/invest/
  - hotpockets 10y ago
    Can I ask how long you've been up and running? And where do most of your investors come from? It's very interesting that you're open to non-accredited investors, I didn't think US startups had access to that type of fundraising. (I think HN's flame-war detector kicked in because I couldn't reply to your latest comment.)
    - leodesrumaux 10y ago
      Of course :) We launched our prototype in February. Right now www.seedrunners.com is only a website where aspiring investors can register their interest and startup applicants can apply to our first batch. We are in "soft release" mode (even though we are on Hacker News lol). We are currently collecting startup applications from students at my school, which is also where most of our current aspiring investors come from. On the other point, you are indeed right. With Seedrunners, startups from all over the world and not only US startups will be able to access capital from the investor categories I mentioned previously. Our current legal structure allows us to receive investment from any person that is a "resident in the EU, EEA, Switzerland or any other country where they may legally receive financial promotions of the nature provided by Seedrunners, and are legally entitled to invest in the type of investment offered".

hotpockets 10y ago

Can a US startup crowdfund from your platform? As I understand it, US companies can't crowdfund from non accredited investors.

leodesrumaux 10y ago
This assumption is correct under the traditional model of equity crowdfunding (where a company makes a public offer to potential investors). Seedrunners works differently. Every month, we aim to raise €1,000,000 to invest €40,000 in each of the top 25 most upvoted startups. At the end of the month, the most upvoted startups receive an investment offer, which they can accept or refuse. As such, startups applying on Seedrunners do not actually make any form of public fundraising offer and are not subject to any public fundraising regulation. As a result, startups from any country can apply to Seedrunners and “run” for funding (similarly to how any startup can run for the YC Fellowship program with “Apply HN”). As you might guess, Seedrunners is very much for prototype stage startups looking to raise some initial funding.Our long-term goal is to invest €100K in each of the top 100 startups every month.
- hotpockets 10y ago
  Sounds cool! Honestly, you could probably do less than €40k, for startups to try and show some viability. YC used to do around $20k if I remember correctly, and I think the YC fellows program does around that (could be wrong).
  - leodesrumaux 10y ago
    Thanks for the feedback hotpockets :) We actually do start lower. In practice, Seedrunners works with multiple funding targets per month, the minimum being €100,000 and the maximum €1,000,000. With €100,000, we invest in the top 5 startups at €20,000 each. At €1,000,000, we invest in the top 25 at €40,000 each. The idea is that with every new funding target reached, our investors get more diversification and each of the top startups more money to succeed. We tried to show this principle in a more graphic/friendly manner on our investor page: http://www.seedrunners.com/invest/ http://www.seedrunners.com/invest/
- hotpockets 10y ago
  Can I ask how long you've been up and running? And where do most of your investors come from? It's very interesting that you're open to non-accredited investors, I didn't think US startups had access to that type of fundraising. (I think HN's flame-war detector kicked in because I couldn't reply to your latest comment.)
  - leodesrumaux 10y ago
    Of course :) We launched our prototype in February. Right now www.seedrunners.com is only a website where aspiring investors can register their interest and startup applicants can apply to our first batch. We are in "soft release" mode (even though we are on Hacker News lol). We are currently collecting startup applications from students at my school, which is also where most of our current aspiring investors come from. On the other point, you are indeed right. With Seedrunners, startups from all over the world and not only US startups will be able to access capital from the investor categories I mentioned previously. Our current legal structure allows us to receive investment from any person that is a "resident in the EU, EEA, Switzerland or any other country where they may legally receive financial promotions of the nature provided by Seedrunners, and are legally entitled to invest in the type of investment offered".