I think a curated marketplace, something between Kickstarter and Angellist, where companies are vetted and structured into tiers based on experience, team, capital, etc. with the hottest/safest companies are in the top tier, and risky/scammy ventures are at the bottom tier. This won't eliminate risk for inexperienced investors, but investment is never without risk, and there's nothing that can be done about that.
Thing is, I don't see equity crowdfunding as a replacement for VC funding because much of the value that comes from established investors comes from their insight, experience and contacts. If ecf becomes popular enough, VC's will still be able to invest in and advise great companies, but hopefully a majority of the returns will be more distributed.
I don't disagree that the risk is significantly higher in startups/private ventures, and that a vast majority of the money invested will be lost, but hopefully ecf will allow a large enough number of people to invest a small enough amount in each company (a la kickstarter) that the losses aren't catastrophic, but enough aggregate capital is able to be accumulated for companies to do what they need to do.
It's not really true that much of the value of VC investment comes from things like insight.
What is more true is that professional VCs compete for deal flow, and among the things they use to try to compete is advice and their rolodex. But don't confuse the cart and the horse! What's important is the competition.
The problem is that retail investors do not --- cannot, really --- compete for deals. They'll invest in things that have a 1-Click "Buy" button. They won't fly to Palo Alto to take a coffee shop meeting with a promising investment prospect.
So there's an adverse selection problem. The VCs poach the good deals. Some might slip by and land on crowdfunding sites, but the statistical reality will be that the deals VCs have access to are advantaged. Worse: everyone knows this, and a huge part of raising money (long term) at a startup is signaling, and so there are reasons for good companies to avoid crowdfunding even if they can't stand VCs.
Thing is, I don't see equity crowdfunding as a replacement for VC funding because much of the value that comes from established investors comes from their insight, experience and contacts. If ecf becomes popular enough, VC's will still be able to invest in and advise great companies, but hopefully a majority of the returns will be more distributed.
I don't disagree that the risk is significantly higher in startups/private ventures, and that a vast majority of the money invested will be lost, but hopefully ecf will allow a large enough number of people to invest a small enough amount in each company (a la kickstarter) that the losses aren't catastrophic, but enough aggregate capital is able to be accumulated for companies to do what they need to do.