Breaking Analysis: FundersClub Crowd Investing - Disruptive Enough To Compete?
Channel: SiliconANGLE theCUBE
Date: 2012-10-22

Genealogy is worth $1.6 billion AND FundersClub wants the crowd to join in on investing, but is it legal?  Joining us now with his breaking analysis on these stories is SiliconANGLE founder, John Furrier.

*# FundersClub has just raised a $6 million dollar seed round, the biggest in Y-Combinator history.  First of all, can you explain to us what FundersClub is and how it works.  How does this change the game of startup funding?  

*# What kind of success is FundersClub seeing so far?  Is there alot of interest from investors?  

*# Do we see this moving in a direction where any "John Smith" could participate in funding a start-up if they wanted?  

*# For every business idea that sounds too good to be true, there's usually a catch.  What's the catch here?  Why are there questions surrounding the legalities of this operation? 

*# What would happen to FundersClub if the Securities and Exchange Commission declares them as an illegal business?  

*# How is FundersClub's business model different from that of a company like Kickstarter? 

*# So is FundersClub a smart enough idea to be worth investing in despite the risk it could get shut down?  What's your take on this?  

*# How worried should the traditional venture capital firms be - would FundersClub be a viable replacement for them?


*# Another large deal in the works is that genealogy website Ancestry.com has agreed to be acquired by an investor group led by European private-equity firm Permira for about $1.6 billion, or $32 a share.  Why does Permira want Ancestry.com?  

*# Do you think genealogy is more than a niche market?  

*# Ancestry.com currently has over 2 million subscribers, most of them in the U.S., but other core markets in the U.K., Canada, and Australia.  How do you see them trying to expand their subscribers? 

*# In recent weeks Ancestry.com has continued its own deal-making aimed at building its database.  Tell us what they've done to try and make themselves stronger?  

*# Ancestry.com is scheduled to release third-quarter results on Wednesday after market hours. What can we expect to see from them?