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This Site

How the site was written and prepared.

The substance of this site has been a longtime interest, mainly as an inventor, but also as a stockbroker and writer.

The objective is not to amass a thousand "forms" in one place; it is to review the simple ways commonly used for raising capital to do good. I admit that I have few experiences of this, so I hope that my knowledge will grow somewhat to meet the need here.

The impetus to make it my first web page after several other failed attempts was the conviction that it was a philanthropic deed that would reward me in the living proof of the Golden Rule, and that this would also help me to diligently complete it. It was completed fairly speedily, though with a few major insights that lead to key revisions.

The first draft took a few days. It was a lot of fun to complete, and as I wrote it, I was continually trying to streamline.

I began the web site before talking to friends about their web-writing experiences, especially computer consultant Douglas Welch (www.welchwrite.com), so it is possible that it will not be in its current form for very long. See How To Make Professional-Looking Web Sites .

I made a few small errors: learning about Regulation D late, and learning to start with a master folder to keep links together. I had some fun with backgrounds, and soon, the site was as you see it.

"...and how an SEC "No Action" letter was requested and the Department of Corporations of California and various small business counseling groups contacted for feedback."

I knew I wanted to contact regulators as soon as the site and my thoughts were completely together. I have fortunately had a number of experiences with "investors" that have helped lead me to think this world experience is more mental and spiritual than mortally substantial.

My first letter, to the SEC, requesting they review the site, and copy and mail back to me language they took issue with, and thanking them ahead of time forgot one thing -- the URL address.

I contacted the SEC ahead of other agencies. The California Department of Corporations didn't have an e-mail venue when I first contacted them, so I had to bend the ear of a duty officer, but he helped with some of the tough points, and sent along a batch of pamphlets. (Since he didn't want his opinions to be presented verbatim, and I offered that there would be a strong disclaimer presence, I decided to increase the presence of disclaimer marquees.) Getting a better grip of the advertizing prohibition meant looking away from the letter and toward the spirit of the law. I radically revised parts of the site.

I also got feedback from friends on the site at about this time. A professional web designer jokingly called attention to the number of links that had been misloaded. Another friend who had worked as a legal secretary raved about the site, and commented that friendlier wording for some of the difficult concepts was adviseable. Since this had been the thrust of the site since its inception, it was good to hear. More is better.

About this time -- metaphysically, I had trusted that the means to support this project would appear, and I didn't seek to rush anything -- I saw a newspaper story 11/06/99 about Broker-Dealers offering huge incentives for prospective clients, and realized the site could be given to a non-profit, and maintained and updated, and probably upgraded, by a Broker-Dealer for tax deductions at arm's length. This also gave me a win-win if I decided to try to sell the site, calculating one month's work at the industry standard of between $3,000 and $5,000, and which might be owed me by the non-profit or given as a tax-deduction (though I wasn't paying taxes at this time). If I couldn't sell it, at least I didn't have to watch it die, and I might even get a few contributions towards paying me back for the work. And it could not hurt to promote the ideas to as many Broker-Dealers and others as possible. If worse came to worst, it went on the resume.

This same night, I found out about "netshares," other companies and individuals with a variety of free company share programs. Hooray! An impressive number and variety, affirming the statement that capital raising information and education is becoming more accessible via the world wide web.

[Another idea occured to me for the most effective dissemination of this information on the web, but I'm keeping it tight to my vest for a while.]

As will happen when one does a good thing that one feels MUST be done, I have found that others ARE doing it, in one form or another -- "Idealab" is going public, "Yet2.com" has premiered, "Garage.com" I gave a banner soon after encountering. This has motivated me to want to make the site a non-profit corporation pretty strongly, hopefully not just because it is a way to be "competitive." About this time, the site was given to a small number of search engines, via 50megs.com.

Site contributions haven't appeared. I am finding many more things that can be added here. Grantsmanship details, such as for SBIR, VC company addresses, pitch scripts, etc.

I am very very happy to relate that a need was supplied in the discovery of a "finder" who described some of his experiences raising money for investors. His words proved invaluable in extricating me from misconceptions about helping businesses.

I even found a "no action" letter for another site, but it is not provided here, because it was written in the spirit of "ways to not lie;" in other words, it described 101 ways for a site like this not to do wrong -- don't write anything, don't reply to any e-mail, don't give any opinions, don't have money, don't accept money,... I admit I was initially looking for some kind of scrutiny, trying to "get it right," but many of these regulations speak to a very narrow set of circumstances. In the same way that the law against prostitution forbids requesting sex for money but offering money for friendship and mentioning sex seems to be a way of life for some -- the community of people determined to raise money in certain narrow ways and the people determined to regulate them comprise a small subsection of the business experience.

At this point, I discovered the web site was invisible to search engines, and luckily received a new domain name from 50megs.com, so I felt the time was right to resubmit it to search engines.

At this writing (1/30/00), I am once again re-submitting the site to search engines after hiring a $20 service to do it. As a cnsequence, I learned that one apparently must submit "by hand" to the leading engines, though I am not yet sure what that means.

During January, a Wednesday series in the LA TIMES about offering stock over the Internet appeared, and I soon after e-mailed the author with the suggestion to visit the site. I have to wonder if these pages prompted the strong words in his column against "going public without a lawyer." I then gave it some serious thought: is that what this site is about?

This site is about the love of knowing how things are done, whether practicing yoga or surgery. One can have that information.