TheCorporateCounsel.net

July 20, 2022

Reg A+ Offerings: “Could I Interest You in Everything All of the Time?”

I know you folks don’t come here for entertainment recommendations, but I think Bo Burnham’s 2021 Netflix special “Bo Burnham: Inside” is the most remarkable work of popular art to emerge from our shared pandemic experience.  But how am I going to tie a Netflix comedy special into what this blog’s supposed to be about? Have a little faith in me – I pulled it off with Dragnet, didn’t I?  We’ll get there (sort of), I promise.

Anyway, I was looking at some Form 1-A filings a few days ago and quickly found myself deep in a rabbit hole of offering circulars for deals that ran the gamut from the unusual, to the odd, to the downright creepy. As I poked around, it occurred to me there may just be a capital markets equivalent to the infamous Internet “Rule 34” – only a “Capital Markets Rule 34A+” would say, “if it exists, there’s a Reg A+ offering of it – no exceptions.”

I’ve already blogged about the folks at Hygenic Dress League, but that barely scratches the surface of the bizarre & wonderful mix of deals currently flying under the Reg A+ banner.  Are you into collecting sneakers? Check. Want to hunt for treasure? Check.  Have you always wanted to own racehorses? Check. Fine art? Check? Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs? Check. Metaverse “real estate”? Check. Are you a little short on cash?  Not a problem – LunaDNA will sell you shares in exchange for your immortal soul your “self-reported genomic, phenotypic, medical, health and related data.” (I mean, what could go wrong?)

It was as I tried to make sense of this vast mosaic of investment opportunities that I thought of Bo Burnham’s show – and some lyrics from his song “Welcome to the Internet” in particular:

Could I interest you in everything?
All of the time?
A little bit of everything
All of the time
Apathy’s a tragedy
And boredom is a crime
Anything and everything
All of the time

That’s a pretty good description of the universe of Reg A+ offerings.  When you’re looking to kill some time, try a general EDGAR search for Form 1-A filings. Then make yourself comfortable, because you’ll probably be there for a while.

John Jenkins