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Why Twitter’s (TWTR) IPO Makes a Case for Crowdfinance

Twitter (TWTR) , another one of America’s social media darlings just went public creating an obscene amount of wealth. Unfortunately, none of it fell into the hands of the investing public
Dara Albright is a recognized authority, thought provoker and speaker on all topics related to crowdfinance. She has a distinguished 22-year career in IPO execution, investment banking, corporate communications, financial marketing as well as institutional and retail sales. Albright was one of the earliest voices covering the JOBS Act and advocating for greater democracy in the equity and credit markets. In 2011, she started the NowStreet blog and helped set the direction of the crowdfinance industry through ground-breaking and thought provoking articles. She produced the first major crowdfunding conference; co-founded LendIt, the largest and most recognized global p2p & online lending conference organization, and helped establish trade & leadership organizations for the industry. She has been featured in Forbes, ABA Banking Journal, Thestreet.com, Private Wealth Magazine and more. She is also a board member of SparkMarket, the nation’s first portal allowing unaccredited investors to legally crowdfund via intrastate exemption.
Dara Albright is a recognized authority, thought provoker and speaker on all topics related to crowdfinance. She has a distinguished 22-year career in IPO execution, investment banking, corporate communications, financial marketing as well as institutional and retail sales. Albright was one of the earliest voices covering the JOBS Act and advocating for greater democracy in the equity and credit markets. In 2011, she started the NowStreet blog and helped set the direction of the crowdfinance industry through ground-breaking and thought provoking articles. She produced the first major crowdfunding conference; co-founded LendIt, the largest and most recognized global p2p & online lending conference organization, and helped establish trade & leadership organizations for the industry. She has been featured in Forbes, ABA Banking Journal, Thestreet.com, Private Wealth Magazine and more. She is also a board member of SparkMarket, the nation’s first portal allowing unaccredited investors to legally crowdfund via intrastate exemption.

Twitter (TWTR) , another one of America’s social media darlings just went public creating an obscene amount of wealth. Unfortunately, none of it fell into the hands of the investing public who once again served as the exit strategy for the financially privileged.

Aside from Twitter employees, who did get rich? Well let’s see. Goldman Sachs’ most cherished institutional clients made an instant 73% return on their allocation. But this is chump change compared to the 207% that Saudi Prince Alwaheed realized and the whopping 100,000+% increase that the early venture capitalists yielded simply by possessing the liberty to purchase privately held shares.

While the minions, forbidden from investing in private companies, lined up to buy fully-valued shares, yet another IPO demonstrates unjust market structure and the urgent need for crowdfinance. For until unaccredited investors are granted the same investing freedoms as accredited ones, retail investors will remain liquidity servants for institutions, and the wealth disparity of a once democratic nation will continue to widen.

Dara Albright is the Founder of NowStreet Wire which is owned and operated by Crowdnetic, the leading provider of market data solutions for the burgeoning industry of crowdfinance. She is a thought provoker and frequent speaker on topics relating to market structure, private secondary transactions and crowdfinance.

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