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The SEC announced that its Small Business Capital Formation Advisory Committee will meet next Thursday to address entrepreneurship hubs and recent trends in taking a company public. The SEC released this agenda for the meeting, which the public can watch live via webcast on the SEC’s website. In the announcement of the meeting, the SEC notes:

The Committee, which provides advice and recommendations to the Commission on rules, regulations, and policy matters relating to small businesses, will start the morning session by exploring best practices deployed across the country to foster start-up creation and growth. The Committee will hear from experts and discuss various factors that make entrepreneurial communities work effectively, and consider ways to continue supporting small business growth across the country.

In the afternoon session, the Committee will examine how economic conditions, recent changes in IPO activity, and other factors may impact companies going public. Experts in the field will share market data and insights with the Committee, and address how pathways to going public, including traditional IPOs, reverse mergers, SPACs, and direct listings, have been impacted.

I am glad that the Small Business Capital Formation Advisory Committee is delving into the topic of small business capital raising across the country. Take a look at these handy maps that the SEC provides highlighting where capital is being raised in the U.S. under different exemptions, and it is striking how concentrated capital raising tends to be in specific regions. As someone who has spent his entire life in the mid-Atlantic region of the U.S., I often try to consider how the perspectives on various issues that I speak and write about may differ in other areas of the country, and small business capital-raising is definitely an area where this consideration comes to mind. I think it is worthwhile for the SEC to highlight efforts to create entrepreneurship hubs across the country that can support startups in their efforts to raise capital and grow.

– Dave Lynn