Top Takeaways

• Ken's worldview: crowd investing is a powerful way to give people around the world access to high-growth opportunities and give companies a way to raise money while creating a deeper connection to their community.
• Startups are staying private longer, so platforms like Republic are the only way for the average person to get access to private companies.
• Ken's goal is to make it easy for people to begin investing for as little as $10. Republic achieves this by streamlining everything related to organization, legal, & compliance.
• Republic uses a Crowd SAFE, which essentially groups all investors together as one line item on the startup's capitalization (cap) table. This makes it easy to manage for the company raising money.

Listen on Apple Podcasts

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JRLWjzJavY

Intro

Ken Nguyen (also appeared on E856)

• Ken & his parents emigrated from Vietnam to California when he was in elementary school, which partially influences his mission to allow people from all over the globe to invest in great startups.
• Co-Founder & CEO of Republic (2016-Present)
  • Equity crowdfunding platform
  • "Republic empowers everyone to invest in the future they believe in by providing access to startups, real estate, crypto, and video game investments."
• Previously:
  • General Counsel at AngelList (2014-2016)
  • COO at Kanbar Enterprises
  • Other legal roles

Republic's Funding (more than $70m to date)

1. $2.1M Seed AngelList, Upventures & others (Dec 2017)
2. $12M Early Stage VC led by Binance Labs & NGC Ventures (Jun 2018)
3. $36M Series A at $137M Post led by Galaxy interactive (March 2021)

Republic Stats

• 1 million investors on the platform