Short answer: It's never too late, as long as no claim has already been filed.

D&O policies are claims-made, meaning they respond to claims made during the policy period regardless of when the underlying decision happened. TigerMark can backdate the retroactive date to match your offering date (your Form D, 1-A, or 1-C filing), so even if you bind coverage mid-raise or after closing, you're protected for decisions made since day one.

The only scenario that creates a true gap: waiting until after a claim is already filed or circumstances have been formally reported. At that point, that specific claim is uninsurable.

Best practice: Bind before or at launch. But if that window passed, bind now. The protection still applies retroactively to the start of your offering.

Great question. For me, the first ten years of RegCF were about proving the model works. And it does. Over $3.2 billion raised. More than 8,700 issuers. We built an entirely new asset class from scratch. That debate is over.

So where's the opportunity now? Three places.

First — secondary markets. We created millions of investors holding positions they can't sell. That's not a market, that's a waiting room. The moment we get credible secondary trading infrastructure, everything changes. You get price discovery. You get portfolio management. You get institutions actually paying attention. I've been pushing this at the SEC level because it's the single biggest unlock for this entire ecosystem.

Second — and this is where my research is headed — is what I call the Investomer Effect. We're finding that customers who invest in the companies they buy from behave completely differently. They spend more. They stick around longer. They recruit other customers. The next generation of winners won't be companies that stumble into this — they'll design for it. That's a massive opportunity in tooling, strategy, and frankly in how we think about what a "raise" even means.

Third — data. We now have ten years of public, structured data on early-stage capital formation and nobody is doing anything with it. We've been tracking every single RegCF offering since 2016. We can tell you survival rates, follow-on patterns, institutional crossover — 85% of these companies are still operating, by the way, not the 90% failure rate people assume. That dataset is the foundation for real analytics in private markets. Think of it as building the Bloomberg terminal for this space.

The bottom line? The first decade proved everyday people could invest in startups. The next decade is about proving those investments build wealth — through liquidity, better data, and companies that treat their investors like the customers they already are.

The key lesson I've learned over the past decade in the industry is that your campaign needs a marketing budget. I believe that with rare exceptions, a successful campaign needs a marketing budget equivalent to at least 10% of the total raise. One-third to half of that will need to be spent relatively early in the campaign.

Given this requirement, it is important to price your offering in such a way that you factor this in upfront.

From the perspective of the regulated investment crowdfunding (Reg CF and Reg A) industry, the appointment of Paul S. Atkins as SEC Chairman raises both opportunities and questions.

🔎 Perspective from the Crowdfunding Industry:

1. Pro-Market, Pro-Business Philosophy Could Mean Support for Capital Formation. Chairman Atkins has long championed capital formation and reduced regulatory burden, particularly through cost-benefit analysis. This mindset aligns well with the goals of the crowdfunding sector, which seeks to democratize capital access for startups and small businesses. His background suggests he may be open to expanding access to capital for both issuers and investors through mechanisms like Reg CF and Reg A+.

2. Track Record of Favoring Innovation—Positive for Fintech and Digital Asset Integration

Atkins’ role in developing best practices for the digital asset sector suggests he’s not afraid to engage with new technologies.

This could bode well for:

- Tokenized securities
- Blockchain-based cap tables
- Smart contract-based compliance —all areas that the crowdfunding industry is beginning to explore.

3. Potential for Regulatory Rollbacks or Modernization

Atkins has previously pushed for greater consistency and simplification in regulation. That could open the door to:

- Raising Reg CF investment and offering limits
- Reducing duplicative state filing burdens
- Streamlining ongoing disclosure requirements
- Allowing more flexible use of SPVs and follow-on offerings

4. Investor Protection vs. Market Access

However, Atkins' emphasis on cost-benefit analysis and industry flexibility may worry some investor advocates who want stronger safeguards in crowdfunding. There is a delicate balance here. The crowdfunding industry—especially responsible funding portals and associations like CfPA—will need to proactively demonstrate that investor protection and market growth can co-exist.

5. A Chance for Dialogue

Given his extensive experience across SEC leadership roles and international regulatory forums, Atkins is likely to be receptive to policy engagement. This is a valuable opening for the crowdfunding industry to:

- Push for rule modernization
- Advocate for new exemptions or refinements
- Collaborate on digital compliance infrastructure
 
📣 Final Thought:

The appointment of Paul S. Atkins could signal a more business-friendly, innovation-minded SEC. The crowdfunding industry should engage early and often, presenting data, success stories, and constructive proposals to shape a regulatory environment that protects investors without stifling innovation. If navigated well, this could be a turning point for scaling regulated crowdfunding in the U.S. capital markets.

#regulatedinvestmentcrowdfunding

There is a federal exemption for Demo Days but it is useless because it doesn't preempt state law. To legally do a demo day where the public is invited, even if the event fits under the Demo Day exemption, it will still be illegal to do public solicitation under state law (unless the offering is being done under Reg CF or Rule 506(c) in which case there is federal preemption).