131: Equity Crowdfunding in 2020, with StartEngine CEO Howard Marks

Invest Like a Boss

Sam Marks Johnny FD Derek Spartz

Business, Investing

4.8 • 518 Ratings

🗓️ 28 October 2019

⏱️ 55 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Howard Marks is the CEO of StartEngine, an Equity Crowdfunding platform that allows ordinary people to invest and help entrepreneurs achieve their dreams. He is an experienced entrepreneur with a history of building successful businesses. Before launching StartEngine, he co-founded Activision (Call of Duty) and was the Chairman of Activision Studios from 1991 until 1997. As a former Board Member and Executive Vice-President of video-game giant Activision, he and a partner took control in 1991 and turned the ailing company into the $37 billion market cap video game industry.

On this episode, Howard explains the impact of Equity Crowdfunding on the economy. He believes that this investment platform is the future of finance, especially for small businesses. He shares his journey in building StartEngine and the vision that led him to transition into crowdfunding - despite his success in his previous career. This is an insightful conversation that is perfect for both entrepreneurs and investors.

Where we are:

Johnny FD – Mexico
Sam Marks – North Carolina

Links:

Time Stamps:

06:04 – Transitioning to Equity Crowdfunding
07:54 – Understanding why other entrepreneurs could not raise money
12:22 – How to unlock a larger pool of investors?
15:55 – “For the first time in 80 years, the ordinary person can invest.” - Howard Marks
17:16 – Why he started Crowdfunding?
18:28 – His first campaign
21:39 – “My biggest justification for what we’re doing was to help entrepreneurs achieve their dreams” - Howard Marks
22:10 – The next challenge: Helping investors trade shares
25:12 – The gift that keeps giving
29:10 – His vision for the years to come
30:28 – “The private small companies are the backbone of the economy” - Howard Marks
31:50 – “Equity crowdfunding is the future of finance for small businesses” - Howard Marks
32:54 – The average capital raise
34:56 – Successful campaigns via StartEngine
35:39 – What they are looking for in an entrepreneur
37:20 – Pieces of advice for early-stage entrepreneurs

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey bosses. This week's sponsor is masterworks.io, the pioneer in blue chip art investing for everyone.
0:09.2	We'll tell you more about them during the break.
0:12.2	Welcome to the Invest Like a Boss podcast. I'm Sam Martz. And I'm Johnny FD. We're self-made entrepreneurs who invest our own money and use modern technology to invest like a boss.
0:20.4	Join us each week for exclusive interviews with our network of modern investors, business owners, and multimillionaires to discover new ways to invest our hard-earned cash.
0:30.6	Ola, amigos, and welcome to episode 131 of the Invest Like a Boss podcast.
0:37.0	I'm Johnny FD. I'm actually here in Plato, Carman, Mexico. Sam,
0:41.9	welcome to the show. You are in Charlotte. I'm in Charlotte. And, man, I can't wait to hear about your
0:47.1	adventures in the Yucatan Peninsula coming up on our quarterly updates. But what's your take so far?
0:53.0	How do you like it? I love it. I really love it. I love Mexican food. I like the people. I like the culture. I like the weather. I like the beaches. I love Mexican beer. It's cheap. It's nice. It's easy. I really like it here. And we're in the same time zone pretty much for once in our life. Yeah, that's right. Well, we're keeping up, keeping these
1:11.3	podcasts going. And this week, we have another excellent guest on in Howard Marks. Johnny,
1:17.1	you excited for this? I am very, very excited. So Howard Marks has had a crazy cool background.
1:24.9	He was an entrepreneur and actually the CEO of a huge company called
1:29.2	Activision. He co-founded that. And if you guys play Call of Duty, you'll know Activision very,
1:34.6	very well. So I actually got it wrong on the episode, but it's, I think I understated it.
1:39.9	They're actually a $42 billion with a B market cap. So pretty rare that we're able to get the opportunity to get someone on as high level
1:48.5	as Howard Marks that's had the ability to co-found a Fortune 500 company and then go back
1:54.3	into where he's passionate about startups.
1:58.4	Yeah, I think it's super cool that when someone, you know, makes enough money to be able to
2:03.2	just coast because he didn't have to work again.
2:05.2	He didn't have to start another company.
2:06.7	But you can tell he's just a passionate guy about building businesses.
2:10.4	And I think we're going to learn in this episode that really in this day and age that we live
	...

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