Earlyshares
EarlyShares, with offices in Miami, Florida and Chicago, Illinois, is an Equity Based Crowdfunding company.
EarlyShares is an online portal that operates in the crowdfunding industry, connecting businesses with investors willing to buy their STOCK, The company’s web site is designed to provide an online crowdfunding portal with different verticals for specific industries.
History
Co-founders Stephen Temes, Maurice Lopes, Heather Schwartz-Lopes and Renee Caputi founded EarlyShares in late 2011. Since the beginning of the Crowdfunding industry, EarlyShares has been heavily involved in lobbying in favor of the JOBS Act. Early in 2012, EarlyShares created a landing page for people to petition and support the signing of the JOBS Act. Thousands signed to show support.
Model
The company’s model is to package multiple investors into single-entity corporations to fund registering businesses, 60 percent of which are established companies with less than $5 million in revenue. About 50,000 investors and 2000+ companies seeking funding have registered with the EarlyShares since the company formed, in preparation for processing actual transactions once SEC guidelines have been finalized.
Milestones
In 2012, EarlyShares produced “a nationwide road tour, offering free workshops about exactly what crowdfunding is, how to do it and the ramifications of it”. This event visited major cities including Seattle, New York, Washington, Miami, Chicago, Boston, and San Francisco.
In September 2012, EarlyShares acquired HelpersUnite, a donation based crowdfunding portal dedicated to cause related projects, for an undisclosed sum.
That month EarlyShares became the "key sponsor" of the Small Business Challenge, a competition for businesses with fewer than 100 employees and entrepreneurs with startup ideas that are seeking to raise capital through crowdfunding. The competition is designed to "reward companies that show the most potential for job creation".
In December 2012, EarlyShares launched its University tab as a service to its members. It provides educational tools for both investors and entrepreneurs via videos, articles, whitepapers, infographics and testimonials from experts. Also in December 2012, EarlyShares announced a change in management. Heather Schwarz-Lopes, a former Wells Fargo executive and EarlyShares co-founder, has been appointed as CEO. Former CEO, Maurice Lopes, continues to be an advisor to EarlyShares.
Awards and Recognitions
EarlyShares has received the Crowdfunding Accreditation for Platform Standards (CAPS) from crowdsourcing.org
In August 2012, Worth Magazine named EarlyShares one of its Top 10 Crowdfunding Sites.
EarlyShares has received a 4.5 star rating by Crowdfunding-Website-Reviews Currently this is the highest rank received by an equity crowdfunding platform.
EarlyShares was also named as one of the Top 5 Equity Crowdfunding Websites to keep an eye on in 2013 by Crowdfunding-Website-Reviews.com.