imgresAt the Crowdfund Texas Conference, the organizers conducted a survey accessible by text message on a cell phone.
The organizers didn’t say how many of the 235 people attending the conference responded to the survey.
Crowdfunding is legal if the site simply solicits donations from people and not investments. But that will change soon thanks to a new law called Jumpstart Our Business Startups or JOBS Act, which Congress passed and President Obama signed into law last April. The industry is simply awaiting investment rules from the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission, which missed its Congressional mandated deadline to deliver those rules by the end of 2012. Industry speculators think it could be as early as April or as late as September before the new laws are enacted and equity-based crowdfunding can begin.
But at Tuesday’s Crowdfund Texas Conference, held at the Omni Hotel in downtown Austin in partnership with the Crowdfunding Professional Association and Startup Texas, almost everyone or 97 percent said they would be very likely or somewhat likely to invest in a Crowdfunded company of a trusted person in their network.
The crowd at the Crowdfund conference also thought the “digital media, games, IT and creative” sectors as the best suited to equity Crowdfunding.
“Additionally, the majority (66 percent) believes that equity- and debt-based Crowdfunding will forge ahead despite unfounded speculation about fraud and abuse.” according to the survey.
“One of our key objectives was simply to educate the audience about what equity Crowdfunding is and isn’t,” Chris Camillo, an angel investor and event organizer, said in a news statement. “The survey results make it clear that once people hear the facts about issues like safeguards in place for investors and how equity Crowdfunding is already working in other parts of the world, they are very receptive to and optimistic about what this revolution in the capital markets has to offer.”
The survey also found that 80 percent of the attendees didn’t believe the media, elected officials and the general public are well informed about crowdfunding to support entrepreneurs and innovators.