One way to do it would be as a straight loan service to startups. I know here in Canada you have to register as an accredited investor to loan money legally (as

One way to do it would be as a straight loan service to startups. I know here in Canada you have to register as an accredited investor to loan money legally (as far as I've always been told at least), which has quite ludicrous requirements for small P2P loans. Another way would probably be for the start up to offer to sell X-percent of their company to the investment fund for a certain price. This is then broken down into shares, and individuals can buy these shares for an equivalent fraction of the offered price. There is a third way, but I'm unsure if the start up would want it. A continual investment (IE I could put in $1,000 every month into the company for 3 years and end up with $36,000 invested) option, where people invest however much they want when they want. However, I'm unsure what this would mean for ownership of the company. I know many judges would view this as "the founders invested $50,000 into the company, but the investors put in $100,000, so the investors own 2/3 of the company", because this is how ownership is decided in most small businesses. I don't know enough about how stock options work in small business for the investments this way; I'd love to hear from someone much more knowledgeable than myself on all this, which is why I posted the suggestion.