With the recent launch of the KoreConX all-in-one RegA+ platform, KoreConX is happy to feature the partners that contribute to its ecosystem.
From the first project he worked on while still in college, Andrew Corn has been involved in financial marketing. After his first analyst’s presentation, “and then second, and then fifth, I decided to drop out of college and focus on that full time. Soon after, I wrote my first IPO roadshow, built a company around that, and a few years later, also started working for money managers,” Andrew said. After selling that company, Andrew went to work for a publishing company specializing in investingas the chief marketing officer.
Then, for 9 years, Andrew left the marketing industry and created a multi-factor model used to analyze the stocks available on US exchanges to select them for separately managed accounts, and he and his team designed the index behind six ETFs, eventually selling that company to a bank, where he served as the chief investment officer. “When E5A was born, it was born as an investment house, and then I got sucked back into marketing in 2012 and switched E5A over into a marketing firm in 2013,” Andrew recounted. At E5A, they acquire investors through systematic, data-driven marketing.
For companies that are looking to raise capital, marketing plays an incredibly important role. For RegA+ offerings, a company’s first target is typically its existing network of customers. However, a marketing firm such as E5A can help companies to understand the behavior and demographics of current customers. Knowing how customers behave will allow companies to targetpeople that are demographically and behaviorally just like their current customers.
With RegA+ offerings, the majority of the money will be raised through marketing. “The beauty of that is that it’s passive,” Andrew says, “we can look at entirely new groups of prospects who are the most likely people who would be interested in investing in a company like yours. Sometimes we can find them through behavior or demographics, hopefully, it’s a combination of both.” Once potential investors have been found, marketing agencies can come up with the messaging platform that will raise money through these investors. Companies are often surprised that their existing network raises little money, but the investors they can gain through marketing helps them reach their goals.
Through the use of marketing, Andrew is excited about how companies benefit from acquiring investors at scale. “If you’re a restaurant chain, you want as many people to know about it as possible. If you have a direct-to-consumer product, you want many people to know about it. So a byproduct of raising capital is promoting the brand or the business.” Both investors and the companies get more engaged as information is put out regularly.
With RegA+ allowing investors of all wealth, income and experience levels to participate, the restriction allowing only accredited investors is lifted. Additionally, Andrew believes that increasing the limit from $50 to $75 million will greatly improve the regulation since oftentimes companies require more funding. With IPOs on both the New York Stock Exchange or the NASDAQ often over $100 million, he believes increasing the cap to as much as $200 million in a few years would be better for companies looking to utilize RegA+.
For its clients, E5A is a “turnkey marketing company, so we do everything from messaging platforms to data-targeting to media buying and optimization, message testing, web development, etc.” Andrew expects that E5A will be held to a standard of success being measured by the amount of money raised. While looking to maintain as much control of the outcome, E5A also understands that many of the companies they work with have their own marketing or IT departments, and try to share as much work with them as possible and include them in the process.
E5A looks to work with companies that have a high probability of success, which requires an ecosystem of legal, accounting, technology, broker/dealer, consulting, and marketing services. Andrew says, “We feel that Oscar and the KoreConX team are putting together a world-class network of service providers who are experts in each of their individual tasks. We are glad to participate.”