Get $10 worth of Bitcoin with the Coinbase Referral Program

New users to Coinbase can get $10 dollars of free bitcoin after they purchase or sell $100 dollars worth of cryptocurrency (bitcoin, ethereum or litecoin).

If your familiar cryptocurrency, then you are very familiar with the the popular exchange, Coinbase.

For those that are not familiar with the exchange, Coinbase is a digital asset exchange that lets you buy and sell major cryptocurrencies on the market using various fiat currencies. It also serves as a Bitcoin, Ethereum and Litecoin wallet, where digital currencies can be securely stored.

The exchange is the largest cryptocurrency exchange with over 13M users and operational in over 32 countries and supports USD, EUR, and GBP fiat currencies.

At the moment, Coinbase, through the Coinbase referral program, is giving new users $10 of free Bitcoin just for signing up to the platform, once you've bought or sold $100 or more of cryptocurrency. The best part, you can earn more by referring your friends and family to open an account with Coinbase and taking the same actions.


How it works

If you already have a Coinbase account, you can skip directly own to Step 1. If you don't have a Coinbase account yet, you will need to first sign up for a account. 

Start by clicking on link --------- Coinbase Sign Up

(Full disclosure, this link belongs to Lab172 and if you choose to use this link to sign up, we’ll get $10 worth of Free Bitcoin/BTC too!)


Referring your Friends & Family

Step 1. Start by visiting the referrals page. From this page you can copy your referral link and send it in a text message or send an invite email to a friend. However, we highly recommend using a laptop or desktop to complete the sign-up process.

Step 2. Once your friends has received the referral link, they can click the referral link and sign up for a Coinbase account.

Step 3. They will then complete their account and initiate a buy or sell in one of Coinbase supported countries.

Step 4. Once your friend initiates a buy or sell of $100 USD or more (or 100 USD equivalent of your domestic currency) within 180 days of opening his or her account, you both will receive $10 worth of Free Bitcoin (BTC) when the order completes.

Keep in mind that some orders can take up to 4 business days to complete.

You should also note that you are free to share your link with others, There is no limit to the number of friends you can refer. One great aspect of the referral program is that when someone clicks your link, you will get credit if they sign up any time in the next 90 days from that computer, even if they close the browser and come back later.

The Coinbase Referral Program is a awesome program that they are running and can be a great way for you to get started investing in the cryptocurrency world if you haven't started or it can be another way of getting free coins in your portfolio. Either way, there's $10 worth of Free Bitcoin (BTC) that's waiting for you to claim!

If you use our link to sign up, let us know which coins interests you the most!

Coinbase Referral Link  – $10 Bitcoin Bonus

Get a Free Stock worth up to $1000 with Webull Free Stock Promotion

These days, when you hear the word Free, most will assume that it comes with a catch attached to it. And in the era where the words Freebies and Freemium are tiers synonymous to just about every type of service and product available to you, you can best believe that the value of Freemium services and products are not made the same.

Although it doesn't happen everyday, it is rare to know that you can receive a service and a product 100% Completely FREE, and thanks to Webull, by simply singing up for their platform, you can receive a Free Stock in a company as part of their Free Stock Promotion.

Not familiar with Webull? It’s a commission-free investing app that lets you buy and sell stocks for free!

Now, I know most are thinking exactly what I was thinking when you hear something like this– freebies always come with a hidden cost, so exactly what is it? 

Well in this case, you do not have to give up any of your cash, trade your precious time or share any of your personal information either, just sign up for the platform and open your free brokerage account, and once your account is approved, you can claim your free stock!

This is what's so awesome about Webull’s free stock promotion– it's 100% Free. Just sign up for a free Webull account and claim your FREE SHARE of stock. It’s that simple.


One of the great things about the Free stock promotion is that once you open your Webull account, you’ll get your own referral link that you can share with friends and family and when they sign up, you’ll both get a free stock when they sign up!

How To Claim Your Free Share

1. To be eligible for your free share, you must be new to Webull. (If you’ve already opened a brokerage account with Webull, you won’t be able to qualify for the new account free share, however, you will be able to still get free shares by referring friends and family.)

2. You need to sign up using a special referral link like the one below.

(Full disclosure, this link belongs to Lab172 and if you choose to use this link to sign up, we’ll get a free share too!)

Get Your Free Stock Now!

When you click the link above, you will be taken to the sign-up screen where you will have the option to provide either your phone number or email address to sign up. Depending on which method you choose, Webull will send you a verification code via text or email. Once you enter the verification code, you are half way there!

Now, similar to many other apps like stock trading platforms, Webull is an app-only platform, so to move forward you will be required to download the app which is available for iOS and Android devices.

Once you’ve downloaded the Webull app, it’s time to register for a brokerage account.

To open your free brokerage account, you must be 18 years old and you'll need to provide some of the standard, but basic information like your name, address, and date of birth , including your SSN and your State ID or Drivers License number. The entire process takes less than 5 minutes and once you've filled our all required information, submit your application. 

Approval of your application, for most, usually takes less than 1 hour, but depending on when your application was submitted (like over the weekends) or the information that was submitted, it can take 2-3 business days.

Once your application is approved, you will get a notification from the app letting you know that your account is approved. After that, all that is left to do was claim my free share!

To do this, you will open the Webull app, click on the Menu tab, then click on My Free Stock!

That's it!

From here, it usually takes about 5 trading days for the stock to show in your account, then you are free to sell it and withdraw the cash, buy stock in a different company or you can just let it sit and grow. Its all up to you!

What kind of Shares are you getting for the Free Stock Promotion?

The free shares that's rewarded to you are valued anywhere between $3 and $1,000, depending on market activity, but the average share rewarded is valued around $5. Webull randomly select stocks with a minimum market capitalization of $10 billion and is listed on either the NYSE-listed or NASDAQ-listed markets.

As stated in Promotion Rules-

"Stock allocation is random and determined by an algorithm. As such, odds of allocation of specific stocks can vary at any given point in time according to the composition and levels of the program inventory. At its discretion, management reserves the right to adjust program parameters. The current program inventory is composed of widely held, recognized brand names and consumer & service-related industries."

To get an idea of the value of stock you may receive, here is a breakdown of the approximate odds of receiving shares within certain ranges:

Stock in the $4/share - $6/share range- approximately 1:1
Stock in the $10/share -$20/share range – approximately 1:24 
Stock in the $50/share -$100/share range – approximately 1:200
Stock in the $150/share -$250/share range – approximately 1:333
Stock in or above the $1,000/share range – approximately 1:1,000

Referring Friends and Family

As mentioned earlier, Webull also gives you free stock for referring friends and family members and the referral program allows you to earn up to $1,000 in free shares. Once your friend opens an account using your referral link, you’ll receive a notification. Then simply log into your Webull account, go to the Menu option tab, then go the My Free Stock option to claim your free share.

The Webull Free Stock Promotion is a awesome program that they are running and can be a great way for you to get started in the investing world if you haven't started or it can be another addition to your portfolio. Either way, its a no strings attached free share that's waiting for you to claim! 

If you use our link to sign up, let us know. We will love to know which random stock you were awarded!
  

Equity Crowdfunding Regulations: Title III of the JOBS Act | Lab172

This article provides the information that was announced for the regulations surrounding the Title III of the JOBS Act, which went into effect on May 16, 2016. 

With the popularity of crowdfunding, especially in context with equity crowdfunding and its use to raise funds for a variety of fledgling startups companies, companies looking to expand and products, Title III is intended to provide these businesses with the opportunity to raise the capital they need to grow and develop and also providing regulation for the general public, allowing them to invest in crowdfunding offerings while ensuring they are protected.

Equity Crowdfunding is an evolving method of raising funding through online crowdfunding portal/platforms, but it has generally not been used to offer and sell shares and other securities to the general public for some time now. One main reason for this is because in order to invest in these types of investments, you would need to be an accredited invest. 

In short, a person in the U.S. is accredited if she meets either of these two criteria:

• $200k in income for each of the past 2 years (or $300k with a spouse), with the expectation of similar earnings this year
  

• $1m in net assets (assets minus debts)

The JOBS Act included an exemption to permit securities-based crowdfunding and established the foundation for a regulatory structure for these transactions, allowing the general public the opportunity to invest in these types of offerings.

With the new regulations, it also established regulations for a new entity – a funding portal which are the online platforms used to facilitate the offer and sale of securities without having to register with the SEC as brokers.  
Below are the highlights of the Title III of the JOBS Act Regulation Crowdfunding

What Are the Rules?

Title III of the JOBS Act established crowdfunding provisions that allow early-stage businesses to offer and sell securities. The SEC subsequently adopted Regulation Crowdfunding to implement the crowdfunding provisions of the JOBS Act. The role of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) is to oversee the registration of crowdfunding portals and to ensure that they comply with the federal securities laws and FINRA rules. Broker-dealers and funding portals that are registered with the SEC and are FINRA members are permitted to offer and sell securities on behalf of issuers to the investing public using crowdfunding.

Investors are subject to investment limits that we describe below. Investors should be aware that crowdfunding investments carry significant risk: you can lose some or all of your investment.

Who Can Invest

Title III allows both accredited and non-accredited investors to participate in a startup’s capital raise, but there are limits to how much can be invested during any 12-month period in these kinds of securities. The inflation-adjusted investment limits depend on your net worth and annual income

• If either your annual income or your net worth is less than $107,000, then during any 12-month period, you can invest up to the greater of either $2,200 or five percent of the lesser of your annual income or net worth. 

• If both your annual income and your net worth are equal to or more than $107,000 then, during any 12-month period, you can invest up to 10 percent of your annual income or net worth, whichever is less, but not to exceed $107,000. 

• During the 12-month period, the aggregate amount of securities sold to an investor through all crowdfunding offerings may not exceed $100,000.

Who Can Raise Funds

Startups can raise up to $1 million in a 12-month period. The startup must disclose information about the company, such as the names of the company’s officers and directors, how the proceeds will be used, the target offering amount, the deadline, and certain financial information. The type and depth of the financial information the company is required to provide varies depending on the amount of the target offering and whether or not the company has raised money under Title III before:

• If the startup is raising $100,000 or less, it must provide investors with financial statements and certain specific line items from income tax returns, both of which must be certified by the principal executive officer of the company.

• If the startup is raising $100,000.01 to $500,000 it must have the financial statements reviewed by an independent public accountant. The accountant’s review report must be certified by the principal executive officer of the company and provided to investors.

• If the startup is raising $500,000.01 to $1 million for the first time, the financial statements must be reviewed by an independent public accountant, and any resulting review report must be provided to investors. Companies raising under Title III for a subsequent time must have the financial statements audited by an independent public accountant, and the accountant’s audit report must be provided to investors.

Each regulation crowdfunding offering must be exclusively conducted through one online platform that provides investors with resources and education to ensure that investors are able to make informed decisions. The intermediary operating the platform must be a broker-dealer or a funding portal that is registered with the SEC and FINRA.

For more information about Title III of the JOBS Act, check out some of the official articles published by FINRA and SEC. 

Crowdfunding and the JOBS Act: What Investors Should Know

SEC Adopts Rules to Permit Crowdfunding

Regulation Crowdfunding: A Small Entity Compliance Guide for Issuers

FINRA: Funding Portals We Regulate

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Bellhop Raised $250k on Republic | EquityCrowdfundingDeals

Bellhop connects the major ride hailing apps, giving you the ability to pick the best ride at the best price!

Bellhop, the all in one ride hailing app that began raising capital on the equity crowdfunding platform Republic on September 25th, 2017, has now ended their 2nd and final campaign. The startup successfully raised around $250k on the crowdfunding platform, coming in at just around 499% of its' initial goal. Well Done!

Bellhop allows you to compare multiple ride-hailing services in one place and order a ride. The New York based startup was founded in 2014 by CEO/Founder Payam Safa and while it is still in beta, the app is schedule to be launched in Q4 2017.

What is unique about Bellhop is that it allows you to compare prices and order your pickup  between many of the top ride hailing apps that falls under Ride-Pooling, Ride Sharing and Taxi Hailing categories. These include popular companies such as Uber, Lyft, Juno, Waze Carpool, Scoop, Curb Arro, Fare, MyTaxi, FlyWheel and even companies in non US Markets such as DiDi, Ola and Grab.

How Does Bellhop Work?

Bellhop has been designed to be as easy to use as possible, and works the same familiar way the individual apps work. Simply:

• Open the Bellhop app,

• Enter your destination,

• Pick from the options multiple apps provide, based on your preference (pricing, wait time, car type, etc.)

• Tap to order a car! All within Bellhop. It’s that easy.

• You get the convenience of quickly hailing a car, plus the power to compare options across all providers.

Company Highlights

• The first all-in-one ride-hailing app, allowing users to pick and choose the best value

• Disrupting the traditional ride-hailing app marketplace – bringing transparency, competition and choice to the user

• Integrates with major service providers globally including Uber and Lyft, with more on the way

• Marketing to 30 million passengers at JFK through partnership with Port Authority of NY & NJ. Expanding to Newark and La Guardia airports next

• Targeting $11+ billion on-demand ride-hailing market

• In public beta testing with official launch Q4 2017

Deal Terms

Funding goal

$50K – $428K

Investment size

min $100, max $107K

Deadline

October 20, 2017

Type of security

Crowd Safe

Discount

20%

Valuation cap

$5,000,000

Profile on Republic Bellhop

Website http://getbellhop.io/

Bellhop on Facebook

Bellhop on Twitter

Bellhop on Instagram

Roomi Raises Funds on Republic | EquityCrowdfundingDeals

Roomi makes it safe & easy to search for flexible, affordable shared housing

Roomi, the roomate search platform has started raising funds on the equity crowdfunding platform, Republic. Roomi makes it easy for you to find sublet, room and roommates. The Roomi App connects those looking for an affordable room to rent and those wanting to earn extra cash each month by renting out an extra room in their house.

Roomi Inc, founded in 2013 by founder and CEO Ajay Yadav has already a large backing of well know investors like Paul Levine, Entrepreneur In Residence at Accel and Greylock, former President/COO at Trulia/Zillow Group, Jeff Dishner, Senior Managing Director at Starwood Capital Group, Scott and Cyan Banister, Founders of IronPort, Topsy and Board Members of PayPal and Postmates just to name a few. 

The New York based startup also has investments from VC Firms such as Great Oaks Venture Capital, Rosecliff Ventures, DCM Ventures, Atami Capital and more.

How does Roomi work?

Roomi is a peer-to-peer marketplace, for people looking for a room, renting out a room or looking to sublet a room. You’re required to create a profile in order to list your room or message people who list their room. Roomi is completely free to use. 

• If you're listing your room - Signup, list your room and chat with potential roommates.

• If you're looking for a room - Signup, search for your city, browse open rooms and message anyone with a room that has the right budget and location for you.

Company Highlights

• Roomi makes it safer and easier to search for shared housing

• 1 million app installations and over 230,000 apartments listed on Roomi as of September 2017

• Roomi acquired room.me in 2016 and The Room Ring in 2017

• There are 32 million people living with roommates with about 90 million moves per year

• Grew by 14x in 2016 and successfully raised over $16M from several noted VCs and AngelList syndicates

• Roomi has more than 3x more listings for 1+ month sublets in NYC than Airbnb

• Led by an immigrant repeat founder named among 2017 Forbes’ “30 under 30”

Deal Terms

Funding goal

$50K – $1.07M

Investment size

min $50, max $107K

Deadline

February 28, 2018

Type of security

Crowd Safe

Discount

20%

Valuation cap

$55,000,000

Profile on Republic - Roomi

Website - https://roomiapp.com/

Roomi on Facebook

Roomi on Twitter

Roomi on Instagram

 

 

Investing on the Robinhood App - Lab172

Robinhood lets you invest in stocks commission free!

Robinhood, is a popular mobile-first stock brokerage for iPhone, Apple Watch, and Android that allows customers to buy and sell stocks on U.S. exchanges with $0 commissions. 

The investing app, founded in 2013, has since made waves in the investing industry by simplifying the way you invest your money and bringing along with it, a crowd of young and new investors. What Robinhood has done was they revolutionized the industry by wiping out the high costs of investing on the stock market. 

Before, in order to buy stocks, you would need to go online to a stock brokerage firm or to the firms app, and purchase stocks- usually for a fee of $4-$10 per trade depending on the brokerage firm you use. What Robinhood did was got rid of those fees, opening the door for investors to make unlimited stock purchases without being charged those hefty fees for each investment.

For someone with little money to invest with, this allows them to put 100% of their investment dollars to work buy buying more stocks.

Lets take a deeper look at why this app is so unique.  

Features

• Commission Free Trading on the app

• Access market data and quotes in real-time

• No account minimums

• Build a personalized stock watchlist with historical market data and detailed charts

• Place market, limit, stop loss, stop limit, and good till canceled orders

• Track your portfolio through our Notification Center widget

Robinhood is also available on the Apple Watch with features that includes 

• Check your portfolio’s overall performance

• View at your watchlist and view detailed information

• Buy and sell stocks directly from your Apple Watch

How It Works

Signing up on the platform takes less than 5 minutes. To get a Robinhood account, you’ll need to download and sign-up through the app. After you’ve signed up, you’ll need to connect Robinhood to a bank account in which you’ll fund your new Robinhood brokerage account with. 

Once you make the first transfer it will take up three days for your money to appear in the app ready to trade stocks. In some cases, it will become available immediately. Trading in the app is pretty much easy and can get addictive once you've got started. With this in mind, we recommend that you research the companies that you are investing in very thoroughly before purchasing.


Researching Stocks on the App

One area we feel that has some room for improvement is the ability to research the stocks you are purchasing on the app. If you are researching different stocks, you will be able to see common features on similar platforms including their most recent headline news, company stats, a snapshot of their quarterly earnings for the entire year and a short bio of the company. Now when we said there is some room for improvement, it is because we love this app very much. 

We feel that if they add some small additional features to the app like being able to look at the entire history of the stock performance, a discovery feature that allows you to better find companies within the app and most importantly, allow you to automatically reinvest your dividends, or DRIPs (dividend reinvestment plans). 

This alone would send Robinhood into a whole different league than its' current competition. Until then, we would recommend to have a mix of researching tools available when you are using the app.

Cost and Fees

It is absolutely free to trade stocks on the Robinhood platform. However, there is some fees associated with selling your stock, a fee charged by the US Securities & Exchange Commission and FINRA on all sell orders. 

This fee is charged to all sell orders, regardless of the brokerage you choose. Other fees may include Return Check/Wire Fee, so if there isn't any money in the bank to cover your transaction on the app, you will be charged $30.

Check out the full Commissions & Fee Schedule below!

Security on the Platform

Robinhood is a very secure platform and according to their support portal on their website,

"Robinhood uses bank-level security measures to protect your personal information. Your password, social security number, and other sensitive data are encrypted. Our mobile and web applications communicate securely using SSL and 256-bit encryption.

We do not store your online banking credentials and never will. Your banking credentials are used once to authenticate and verify the account you provide belongs to you."

It is also worth mentioning that Robinhood Financial is a member of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) and the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC), which protects securities customers of its members up to $500,000 (including $250,000 for claims for cash).

One great security feature on the app is the Touch ID or custom pin code you can set to securely access your account. This feature also gets you into your account much faster than having to type in your entire email address and password.

Dividends

One great thing about this app is that you can also buy dividend stocks on the market and if a dividend is paid out, you will receive your payment directly in your account. Any scheduled dividends will appear in the top portion of the screen under “Pending”, and will list out each issuing security along with the scheduled date and amount.

Also, any recent dividends will be listed below alongside the pay date and amount. Dividends older than one month will be below that under the “Older” section.

To complete these transactions, Robinhood is partnered with the clearing firm - Apex Clearing, which actually process your dividends automatically. The cash dividends are credited as cash to your account by default, but not automatically re-invested in the dividend-issuing stock.

Dividend Reinvestment (DRIP)

At this time Robinhood does not support dividend reinvestment but according to their website, it is a feature that is in popular demand for the platform and they seem to be working on introducing it very soon.

This is what we were referring to when we said that there is room for improvement. Many investors love the idea of a DRIP plan and this feature would certainly be great for Robinhood, and potentially bring new users on board.

Conclusion

The Robinhood app is a very impressive platform to trade stocks commission free. The top standout features on the platform is the ability to trade stocks for free and the fact that there is no account minimums. 

The overall user experience is great and is very user friendly, allowing you to easily purchase and manage your stock all from one app. One possible reason Robinhood is so popular among younger and new investors is not only because you can trade stocks for free, but the apps' ease of use. It is a straight to the point investing platform and does away with all of the unnecessary frills and confusion that surrounded the investing market for years.  

Overall, Robinhood is a must have app if your are looking for a simple and free way of trading on the stock market directly from your phone. 

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Invest in Startups with the Equity Crowdfunding Site, Republic

 

Invest in Startups with the Equity Crowdfunding Site, Republic - Lab172

Republic, an equity crowdfunding platform, allows individuals of any income level to invest in early stage startup companies. 

Recently, I received a email unlike other emails I receive on a daily basis.

If your like me, you've probably have the dreams of investing in a startup company in its' early stages but because most of us are not accredited investors, we are very limited when it comes to investing.

The closest most of us has gotten to invest in companies is by using the stock markets. Anyone can invest in stocks, mutual funds, bonds, etc. The thing is, by the time a company is on the stock market, they are far from being a startup and only the early stage investors reap the major profits. Unless you were able to catch the stock either at a very low price or when it first hits the stock market, you won't see much capital gains as those who got in early. 

Well, thanks to a new investing platform, non accredited investors can now invest in startup companies using a new equity crowdfunding website called Republic, with as little as $10.

According to Investopedia, a non accredited investor is an investor who does not meet the net worth requirements for an accredited investor under the Securities & Exchange Commission's Regulation D. A non-accredited individual investor is one who has a net worth of less than $1 million (including spouse) and who earned less than $200,000 annually ($300,000 with spouse) in the last two years.

Basically anyone without investing experience, regardless of their income level, can invest in startup companies with less money than it normally takes to even be considered a equity stakeholder in a startup.

What Is Republic

Republic is a new crowdfunding platform that lets non-accredited investors invest in impactful startups through the crowdfunding method. Instead of the typical donation-based crowdfunding where you will receive a gift for your donation, investors can actually receive returns on their investments if a company goes public or is acquired.

Republic is a spinoff from AngelList. For those that are not familiar, AngelList is a platform for startups to raise money online, recruit employees, and apply for funding. It is also a platform where accredited investors can fund startup companies that they believe in. 

Republic does exactly the same, except anyone 18 years or older regardless of their investing experience and income level, can now invest in startup companies. Republic was released earlier this year and has a growing group of investors and companies signing to utilize the platform.

How Does It Work

The platform is very easy to understand and use, given that there's many other crowdfunding sites out there that are somewhat similar to Republic. To start investing, an individual would sign up and create a profile to use the platform. This is met with a short questionnaire to verify your information and to also inform you of the risks of investing in early stage companies. 

Once you are in, you can easily browse through the platform and search for companies raising funds, check to see how much they are raising, how much they have raised so far, their investor pitch, and other details you will need to know before investing in the company. If you find a company you like and believe in, you can start investing in that company with as little as $10.

Just like any crowdfunding site, after you've decided to invest and your account is debited, funds are held in escrow until the offering deadline. If the company reaches their goal amount, your investment will be finalized. If the company doesn't reach their goal your investment will be refunded.

What Happens to My Investment and How Do I Get Paid

Unlike donation-based crowdfunding, when you commit money to a company on Republic you receive a security in return for the amount you invested. You earn a return on your investment if the company you invested in is acquired or becomes a publicly traded company (a process called an IPO) at a higher price than you paid. Click Here for more information on How Republic works.

The equity crowdfunding platform falls under the new Securities and Exchange Commission equity crowdfunding regulations, or Title III of the JOBS (Jumpstart Our Businesses Startups) Act, which took effect in May. The new rules permits companies to offer and sell securities through crowdfunding and also allows average members of the public to invest in early-stage companies for the first time.

There are limitations, however. If an investor has an annual salary of less than $100,000, they're only permitted to invest up to $2,000, or five percent of their net worth (whichever is greater). Meanwhile, startups are limited to a maximum of $1 million in investor capital per year. Read more about the SEC new regulations here.

Before you start investing in startup companies, you may want to understand some of the key risks involved.

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