Just Go Grind #318: Ryan Feit of SeedInvest, on the Digitization and Democratization of Investing, Building a Two-Sided Marketplace, and the Acquisition Process
Ryan Feit is the CEO and Co-Founder of SeedInvest, a leading equity crowdfunding platform that provides individual investors with access to vetted startup investment opportunities. To date they have over 600,000 investors on their platform, through which founders have raised over $350M. SeedInvest sold to Circle in 2019.
Prior to founding SeedInvest, Ryan worked at Wellspring Capital Management and Lehman Brothers in New York City where he invested in, financed, and managed dozens of private and public businesses. Ryan was instrumental in the passage of the 2012 JOBS Act, which changed 80-year-old U.S. securities laws to make it possible for entrepreneurs to raise capital over the Internet.
Since then, Ryan has served as a focal point of the budding Equity Crowdfunding industry, co-founding the Crowdfunding Professional Association and serving as a board member of the Crowdfund Intermediary Regulatory Advocates. He also worked closely with members of the SEC, FINRA, the White House, and the Treasury Department on the implementation of the JOBS Act. In addition, he frequently serves as a subject matter expert on startup investing and the JOBS Act for the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, CNBC, FoxBusiness, the Economist and the New York Times as well as a columnist for Fortune Magazine and Inc. Magazine.
Ryan received an MBA in Entrepreneurial Management from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and a BBA in Finance and Accounting from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Topics Covered by Ryan Feit in this Episode- SeedInvest in a nutshell
- How Ryan got into the digitization and democratization of investing
- Getting the Entrepreneur Access to Capital Act approved
- The challenges of building a two-sided marketplace
- Getting SeedInvest off the ground and why they started with onboarding investors
- How they scaled the platform
- Shifting from onboarding investors to focusing on onboarding great companies
- Risk mitigation and how they vet companies for SeedInvest
- Their semi-automated diligence process
- Following up with and supporting companies who don’t qualify for the platform
- Tracking investors
- Supercharging their business with more resources by selling to Circle
- Their decision-making process and Ryan’s advice around acquisition
- SeedInvest’s big ambitions and Ryan’s thoughts on the future of investing
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