A Local Investing Opportunity Network, known as a (LION), is a loosely organized group of people who meet regularly with the goal of investing money in their local community. The group will generally consist of individuals who have money to invest and people who might be in a position where they would be seeking investors. The LION is designed to create opportunities for local businesses, individuals, and local investors to network and develop informal relationships. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has created some very specific laws about how one can ask for money. These laws limit any kind of public offerings of shares/interest in a company (i.e. securities), unless there are proper filings and the people investing are considered accredited investors. There is a general exemption that the SEC does not regulate where the investors are friends with the people they are investing in. The LION hosts informal gatherings with the idea that friendships would form and the SEC guidelines would not be violated when any investments occur. The LION also documents who attends the gatherings as a means of creating a paper trail proving that the individuals involved in an investment had the opportunity to form an informal relationship.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government. The SEC holds primary responsibility for enforcing the federal securities laws, proposing securities rules, and regulating the securities industry, the nation's stock and options exchanges, and other activities and organizations, including the electronic securities markets in the United States.
An accredited or sophisticated investor is an investor with a special status under financial regulation laws. The definition of an accredited investor, and the consequences of being classified as such, vary between countries. Generally, accredited investors include high-net-worth individuals, banks, financial institutions and other large corporations, who have access to complex and higher-risk investments such as venture capital, hedge funds and angel investments.
The LION does not facilitate any dealings, nor does it allow businesses to make pitches soliciting investments to the group. All investments that might occur as a result of the LION meetings would occur outside of a LION meeting and be wholly arranged by the individuals involved in that business dealing.
The first Local Investing Opportunity Network was formed in Port Townsend, Washington as part of the Transition Towns movement.
Port Townsend is a city on the Quimper Peninsula in Jefferson County, Washington, United States. The population was 9,113 at the 2010 United States Census and an estimated 9,551 in 2017. It is the county seat and only incorporated city of Jefferson County. In addition to its natural scenery at the northeast tip of the Olympic Peninsula, the city is known for the many Victorian buildings remaining from its late 19th-century heyday, numerous annual cultural events, and as a maritime center for independent boatbuilders and related industries and crafts. The Port Townsend Historic District is a U.S. National Historic Landmark District. It is also significantly drier than the surrounding region due to being in the Rainshadow of the Olympic Mountains, receiving only 19" of rain per year.
They have since been launched in many other areas including New York, New York, [1] Portland, Oregon, [2] Humboldt County, California, [3] Ithaca, New York, [4] Berkshire County, Massachusetts and Columbia County, New York, [5] and Lake County, California. [6]
Portland is the largest and most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon and the seat of Multnomah County. It is a major port in the Willamette Valley region of the Pacific Northwest, at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers. As of 2017, Portland had an estimated population of 647,805, making it the 26th most populated city in the United States, and the second-most populous in the Pacific Northwest. Approximately 2.4 million people live in the Portland metropolitan statistical area (MSA), making it the 25th most populous MSA in the United States. Its Combined Statistical Area (CSA) ranks 18th-largest with a population of around 3.2 million. Approximately 60% of Oregon's population resides within the Portland metropolitan area.
Humboldt County is a county in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2010 census, the population was 132,646. The county seat is Eureka.
Ithaca is a city in the Finger Lakes region of New York. It is the seat of Tompkins County, as well as the largest community in the Ithaca–Tompkins County metropolitan area. This area contains the municipalities of the Town of Ithaca, the village of Cayuga Heights, and other towns and villages in Tompkins County. The city of Ithaca is located on the southern shore of Cayuga Lake, in Central New York, about 45 miles (72 km) south-west of Syracuse. It is named for the Greek island of Ithaca.
