
Following the recent WTC Roundtable in Denver, Crowd Valley was invited to advise a broad international gathering of brilliant minds in the picturesque town of Boulder, Colorado. The aim of the conference was to navigate the new market and set the research agenda for the Kauffman Foundation.
In addition to Crowd Valley being present, participants in the event included representatives of the federal government, technology and academia, including the SEC, Federal Reserve, the Senate, CircleUp; and the Universities of Pennsylvania, Berkeley, Colorado, Tennessee, Central Florida, Michigan, Illinois, and McGill Jerusalem, to name a few. The event was brought together under the guidance of the Kauffman Foundation.
The full day event weighed the pros and cons of crowdfunding in two debates. Markus argued for the need of connectedness in the securities lifecycle, standardization of the back office and continuity across the various stakeholders in the market. He focused on leveraging insight from the peer to peer and crowdfunding marketplaces Crowd Valley supports to bridge the knowledge gap in the market at its nascent stage, to catalyze the market's growth and support the emergence of a sustainable and viable market.
Valto from the Grow VC Group was part of another panel on the crowdfunding ecosystem, leveraging his close proximity to growing several local and connected ecosystems, and seeing them flourish particularly outside the US in the European context. Main debated topics revolved around the need for a cost-efficient and transparent unified framework to share information, for consistent best practices and for startups to navigate seamlessly the entire local and global ecosystem.
Crowdfunding certainly gives promise for a prosperous future, with the right balance of safeguards and investor protections in place. Crowd Valley is placed to catalyze the market and assist in navigating the shift as the Internet has a transformational impact on various stages of the capital markets. With Title II of the JOBS Act now enacted and en route into effect, the promise is here. It's our collective responsibility to ensure it grows up into a viable and sustainable market.
The full day event weighed the pros and cons of crowdfunding in two debates. Markus argued for the need of connectedness in the securities lifecycle, standardization of the back office and continuity across the various stakeholders in the market. He focused on leveraging insight from the peer to peer and crowdfunding marketplaces Crowd Valley supports to bridge the knowledge gap in the market at its nascent stage, to catalyze the market's growth and support the emergence of a sustainable and viable market.
Valto from the Grow VC Group was part of another panel on the crowdfunding ecosystem, leveraging his close proximity to growing several local and connected ecosystems, and seeing them flourish particularly outside the US in the European context. Main debated topics revolved around the need for a cost-efficient and transparent unified framework to share information, for consistent best practices and for startups to navigate seamlessly the entire local and global ecosystem.
Crowdfunding certainly gives promise for a prosperous future, with the right balance of safeguards and investor protections in place. Crowd Valley is placed to catalyze the market and assist in navigating the shift as the Internet has a transformational impact on various stages of the capital markets. With Title II of the JOBS Act now enacted and en route into effect, the promise is here. It's our collective responsibility to ensure it grows up into a viable and sustainable market.

About the author - Paul Higgins
Serial entrepreneur with an operational background in finance and technology companies. Paul was previously responsible for the development of the Crowd Valley product suite as part of the Grow VC Group.
Paul is a regular speaker on new financial models and crowdfunding and has been involved in working with Crowd Valley’s pioneering customers across the financial services sector, as well as advising global institutions such as the World Bank and national regulators such as Italy’s CONSOB.
Paul has over a decade’s experience working in various operational, sales, marketing, and product roles within technology companies, including two B2B startups that have achieved eight-figure exits following 100% year-on-year growth. He started his career in product development and testing roles at IBM’s Hursley Research Lab in the UK before going on to eBay, UBS, and Barclays.
Paul holds an M.A. (Hons) in Computer Science and Philosophy from Churchill College, Cambridge University. He has lived and worked in Texas in the US and Portugal, and speaks fluent Portuguese
Serial entrepreneur with an operational background in finance and technology companies. Paul was previously responsible for the development of the Crowd Valley product suite as part of the Grow VC Group.
Paul is a regular speaker on new financial models and crowdfunding and has been involved in working with Crowd Valley’s pioneering customers across the financial services sector, as well as advising global institutions such as the World Bank and national regulators such as Italy’s CONSOB.
Paul has over a decade’s experience working in various operational, sales, marketing, and product roles within technology companies, including two B2B startups that have achieved eight-figure exits following 100% year-on-year growth. He started his career in product development and testing roles at IBM’s Hursley Research Lab in the UK before going on to eBay, UBS, and Barclays.
Paul holds an M.A. (Hons) in Computer Science and Philosophy from Churchill College, Cambridge University. He has lived and worked in Texas in the US and Portugal, and speaks fluent Portuguese