EVANSTON — Dr. Richard C. McGinity, president emeritus of the University of Wyoming, presented information on a new crowdfunding opportunity called Wyoming Invests Now (WIN) on July 25, in Evanston. McGinity was invited to Evanston by the Wyoming Business Council and the meeting was open to the public. It was held at the Beeman-Cashin building. Elaina Zempel, western regional director of the Wyoming Business Council introduced McGinity.

McGinity is serving as chief financial officer at McGinley Orthopaedic Innovations, LLC, in Casper, which is the first company to employ the new WIN process. McGinley Orthopaedics created the WIN process website and is currently operating it as a public service on behalf of the Wyoming Secretary of State’s Office, pending assumption of responsibility for the website by a state agency. The website can be found at www.CreateWyoming.com.

Launched in April 2018, WIN is a crowdfunding equity investment process available exclusively for Wyoming businesses and for citizens of Wyoming interested in investing in Wyoming businesses. The Create Wyoming website reflects several important changes made in federal securities laws by the Securities and Exchange Commission in Washington, D.C., that simplify and streamline the process by which small businesses solicit share capital from private investors.

“The thing that struck me about WIN is that it totally democratizes the capital-raising process for any company that wants to use it,” McGinity said. “Any company that has a really good idea doesn’t have to go begging from a traditional source for capital venture funds or equity capital.”

The Wyoming legislature created the WIN program and the Create Wyoming website to provide a template for businesses to follow in order to use the WIN process to procure equity investments from Wyoming citizens. A company that follows the WIN process will automatically be compliant with all federal and state laws and regulations. 

A long-range business plan and statements of risk submitted for review and approval by the Secretary of State’s office are required for a Wyoming company to post its information on the website. 

McGinity added that business plans are hard work and take time. The WIN program is best suited for companies that work with technology, medical devices, manufacturing and software programs. Those businesses that have products whose market and investment potential are definable and quantifiable are best suited to use the WIN process. 

Any Wyoming citizen interested in investing in a Wyoming business can visit www.createwyoming.com where the process for doing so is simply and clearly laid out. Accredited investors must meet the income requirements and then can invest up to $4 million, as approved by the Wyoming legislature. Non-accredited investors that do not meet the income requirements can only invest a maximum of $10,000.  Before investing, one must sign a document of risk acknowledgement.

McGinity ended his presentation by describing the state’s new Opportunity Zone program, which offers extraordinary tax benefits. Information about the Opportunity Zone investing can be found on the Wyoming Business Council’s link: http://www.wyomingbusiness.org/opportunityzones.