WHAT KIND OF ADVERTISTING CAN A COMPANY PERFORM IN CONNECTION WITH A CROWDFUNDING OFFERING?
Let’s imagine now that your company has prepared its offering document and has duly filed the notice with the SEC and post of the offering document on an approved portal. You have hundreds or maybe even thousands of satisfied customers and you would like to tell your customers about her offering. Can you do it?
Only in a limited way. The SEC has severely limited the kind of advertising that you can do other than on the portal itself. The information is generally limited to the most basic information about the offering. You are permitted to state that you are making an offering but you cannot mention the “terms of the offering,” which include the kind of securities you are offering, the price, and the offering period.
If you want to describe the terms of the offering, you can, but it must be in “Tombstone” format: That is, it can only have very brief, bullet points which are limited to (and must include), the name of the portal and the link to the portal, the terms of the offering, and they manage your company address, phone number and your website, together with a brief description of your business and your email contact.
For example, you could have a Tombstone notice something like this on your website:
ABC Company is selling 1 million shares of its common stock at a price of $1.00 per share until June 30, 2017. All offers and sales are made exclusively through Best Crowdfunding Portal, at www.bestportalsite.com. ABC Company is located 100 North Main St., in Swellville, Your State. Our email address is_____ and our telephone number is ____. ABC company makes those marvelous widgets that you see for sale on our website.
If anyone including your customers ask you for more information, you have to direct them to the funding portal itself. You cannot give them any more information, whether on your website, in emails or over the telephone.
This is a very critical area. Before you provide any information, make sure you comply with the rule.
