The traditional capital raising process is cumbersome for both sides, Mr. Dellorso said. Investors take the time to investigate companies while companies want to make sure they are partnering with the proper investors, those who have good reputations with the right contacts and expertise.
Mr. Dellorso recalled Mr. Bryant speaking of his father and fellow angel investors going through the due diligence and finalization processes in an extremely slow fashion. Documents had to be printed, signed, faxed, signed, and faxed again. With Docusign for signature verification and PayPal for fund transfers, why was the investment process not as fast?
While it took a spell to convince Washington, the investment process is much faster, Mr. Dellorso said.
Document transmission, authorizing, and signatures are all conducted online.
Regular investors do not have to go through the exact same processes where they complete the same information every single time. Mr. Dellorso said WealthForge saves that information so they can populate the documents the next time the investor wishes to invest.
“What used to take weeks or even months now takes minutes,” Mr. Dellorso said. “It is incredibly efficient for investors to participate in deals.”
The automation process also has an opt-in component designed to weed out bad actors and includes an IP address verification system as an extra fraud prevention measure, Mr. Dellorso said.
Mr. Dellorso cautions that in 2015 technology and automation can only take the process so far and some manual verification is still necessary.
“There is no algorithm that says this deal is better than that deal, so you still have to look into it,” Mr. Dellorso said.
WealthForge also worked hard to ensure an optimal user experience on smartphones and tablets, Mr. Dellorso said.
“With many angel investors coming from older generations, we wanted to keep the user experience simple. You can complete the process on your mobile while on a train.”
Contributors
