crowdfunding in British Columbia

[Luke Gabriel]

I've been looking into crowdfunding here in BC, and I'm just starting up the process of starting up a campaign with www.considerfunding.com

They seem like a good bunch of dudes starting something new. This is brand new to Canadians, so I'm not surprised lol! I'd be their first real estate campaign, and as far as I can tell, the first in western Canada. 

Here's what I think is relevant at this point, I'm just going to skip right over what crowdfunding is.

-250$ application fee, non refundable. This gets them to consider your project. I approached them stating my intent to raise capital, keep it in my back pocket until needed for a deal. They're all for it. 

-2500$ to get your campaign started. This gets you all the legal paperwork needed to get started, and finished. They have some support for what makes a good campaign, but they can't promote your campaign. They can promote their site, your industry, the system as a whole, but for legal reasons, they can't come right out and say that you're the real deal and you've got a good investment on the table. Logical. 

30 Days to get everything lined up. This can be shortened a touch. 

90 Days to campaign

30 Days to process everything, get it all squared away with the securties folk and get you your hard earned money. 

1500$ - Max investment by one individual per campaign.

8% - Their take of your fundraising. Yep. Eight. That's seperate from whatever you're offering your investors as a return. So, for me, that means that to borrow through them, I'm paying 19% for money. yeesh. :( 

250K campaign maximum. You can run two campaigns back to back, for a total of two per calendar year. 

They're operating in BC, Quebec, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Manitoba and... one more. Sorry!

A little fuzzy on what happens if you don't hit your target, and also as to what happens if you set your target lower than max, and exceed it. 

Again, fuzzy on the details, but they also have a mechanism set up for investors that have bigger pockets than 1500$. This alone may be worth the 2500$. My lawyer will most likely be charging that just to configure things, and she doesn't come with potential investors. 

The rules that changed were  BC securities something or other 45-535. It's fraught with a luxurious abundance of polysylabic nomenclature, but if it floats your boat, here's the changes. https://www.bcsc.bc.ca/Securities_Law/Policies/Pol...

I'm not sure if I'm going to proceed, I just can't get my head around the 8%. I suspect I will, just not this week. Can't lie, that 2500$ upfront hits the wallet harder than I'm comfortable with as a noob investor. 

Hope this helps!