purchase shares in an IPO and hold these shares for a minimum of two years; and educating issuers about how to succeed in the new capital markets environment. The Task Force stressed that these recommendations purport only to adjust the scale of current regulations, not change the focus on investor protection. In December 2011, legislation, titled the Reopening


American Capital Markets to Emerging Growth Companies Act of 2011, was introduced that incorporated many of the recommendations included in the Report, including a proposal to amend section 2(a) of the Securities Act and section 3(a) of the Exchange Act by creating a new category of issuer called an “emerging growth company” and exempting these emerging growth companies, at least initially, from certain requirements. This legislation formed the basis of much of Title I of the JOBS Act. The legislative efforts received a boost when, in January


2012, President Obama expressed support for a number of these initiatives. During his State of the Union address, the President emphasised the need to foster innovation and encourage start-ups and small businesses. On January 31 2012, the President released the Startup America Legislative Agenda to Congress, which reflected support for an increase in the offering threshold in Regulation A, a “national framework” for crowdfunding, and the adoption of an IPO on-ramp. Shortly thereafter, the individual legislative initiatives referenced above coalesced into a single legislative proposal, and so we finish where we started off, with the enactment of the JOBS Act. In the chapters that follow, we provide a summary of the main provisions of the JOBS Act and a discussion of their effect on capital formation.


12 JOBS Act Quick Start


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