this phenomenon that happens when entrepreneurship students graduate from college and prepare to launch their ventures.
They’ve got the education, business plans, mentors, campus awards, and sometimes even products built, but they have no money and they can’t seem to find anyone to fund their ventures.
Recent N.C. State University graduates Sean Steigerwald and Jon Spinney are tired of hearing this refrain. They’ve spent the last year preparing to launch an equity crowdfunding site that rallies investors around these young businesses, making it easy and less risky to fund startups’ seed rounds. Malartu, meaning exchange in Irish-Gaelic, will launch in February, with a platform for helping North Carolina startups raise $50,000 to $1,000,000. Accredited investors can put as little as $1,000 into a company.
If North Carolina passes its JOBS Act during the 2015 legislative session, the site will open to unaccredited investors too.
I learned about this new business on Friday—just before local angel investor Mark Easley wrote the first check to the startup. Easley declined to share the amount of his investment—a convertible note—but said it is enough to bring several others to the table alongside him. Malartu also will use its platform to complete a seed round early in 2015.
Read the full story at ExitEvent.
Note: ExitEvent is a news partner of WRAL TechWire.
