Prohibition’s End
A recent change in Minnesota law will allow companies within the state to sell stock directly to average citizens. The appropriately named mobcraft, was featured yesterday in the Journal Sentinel to discuss the implications of this story.
The article missed a chance to talk about how voting for the next flavor is already a part of this particular brewery’s business model unfortunately (which I take to mean that they aren’t in this for just a quick buck,) and instead focused largely on the old maxim of ‘buying locally.” Though that is an important idea, I think there are several more interesting issues in play.
The first, and most straight forward, is that there is finally a crowd funding mechanism for those who like a good adult beverage. Offering alcohol of any kind is currently against Kickstarter’s terms of service, and I think there is a market for that particular service, if the amount of breweries people try to fund without being able to actually give away booze is any indicator.
More importantly, we are seeing the prohibition of an entirely different sort fall by the wayside.
Currently, if you are an average citizen in the US with a net worth of less than a million dollars, you cannot engage in equity investing, which is to say that you can only trade cash for swag, and not for shares. In europe, there are numerous interesting crowdfunding sites where you can invest in a project or company for a share of the profits in their business venture.
Now at least one state in fifty will be afforded some of those opportunities. I’m a little jealous.
My crowdfunding dollars have waned in recent months, not because I no longer see projects I think are worth contributing to, but because I am literally drowning in rewards I have not yet had a chance to appreciate. Hazarding a little money on a long shot investment or two would really hit the spot for me, also – then I could finally go long Cthulhu (and steampunk retro vintage playing cards, obviously.)
Caffeineforge 
Hi guys, I just read your story about MobCraft. Mobcraft is from Wisconin, not Minnesota.
What an oversight. Thank you for the correction. I will update the post asap.