In 2014 when Oculus VR was sold to Facebook for $2 billion, some asked: What if the people who backed the virtual-reality startup two years earlier on the crowdfunding site Kickstarter had received shares instead of T-shirts or VR headsets?
The answer to the question is they might have seen their $100 turn into $14,000, says Richard Swart, chief strategy officer of NextGen Crowdfunding.
Until the past year or two, the Oculus approach to crowdfunding was the only one available to everyday investors who aren’t wealthy. Federal law prohibited Kickstarter and similar platforms from offering shares to backers, so startups doled out merchandise or other perks instead.
But the Securities and Exchange Commission recently finalized rules based on the 2012 Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act, creating an opportunity for so-called equity crowdfunding, which companies like Mr. Swart’s are eager to promote.
So in the future your investment will garner more than a tee-shirt.