Numerous types of private securities are being sold to investors via online investment platforms. Investment crowdfunding has opened up a new market for all investors – including non-accredited investors. While debt is less risky than equity, in general, the returns may be limited if a company has a good exit. But when it comes to equity, common shares may lose out to preferred shares if the company is acquired for a lower valuation than the funding round when the investor bought shares. Liquidation and dilution rights count – a lot.Carta has a good explanation of the two options. In an event where a company is sold for less than originally invested, the preferred may receive their entire investment back

It’s not all about the Benjamins, baby — particularly for executive compensation, but increasingly, all levels of employees at firms around the globe. At the start of the first dot com boom in the 1990s, equity emerged as one of the most compelling parts of new hire offer packages for employees at varying levels, according to Matt Simon at MyStockOptions.com. This was particularly true, and has remained true, at tech firms and startups — even as macroeconomic trends have caused a slowdown in total value of equity awards. But throughout all this time, the question for companies awarding equity has been how to ensure it is portioned out wisely, sagely, for the sake of the business’s success, and tracked to comply with all applicable laws in the places in which employees work? A secondary question that remains urgent to the employees themselves: how to track and access their equity awards and maturation cycles? Now a new startup, Slice, based in Tel Aviv, Israel and San Francisco, California, has emerged from stealth to help answer these questions. Armed with $7 million in seed funding, it seeks to offer an automated solution for global equity management geared toward both company finance departments and the employees they serve