It's common, but there actually is no exemption for friends and family. Those offerings should technically be done under the 506 exemption which require investors to be accredited.
It was also illegal, before the JOBS Act, to engage in "general solicitation," which is what raising money via a publicly-viewable crowdfunding page would amount to.
I lost a smartphone in Brooklyn and the NYPD bent over backward to get it back and then asked me to fudge the date that I filed the report, which I told them I was uncomfortable doing. It was very weird. They must be able to book it as some great achievement at the station.
There are more examples of expensive classes in this followup story on Betabeat: "In fact, there’s plenty of demand for pricey Ruby classes. A ten-session intro class at NYU is $1,295. Ruby classes can run upwards of $2,000 for a three-day course. New Yorkers can get five days of Ruby and Rails training at the for-profit training center Marakana for $2,150. Codeacademy offers 12-week courses for $6,000."
It also tweets and updates to Facebook -- 'I'm using Lenddo!' -- on your behalf when you register without asking first. When I asked them why, they said that was a cultural difference -- that people in the Philippines 'appreciate' that feature.
You underestimate the ability of a large media company to squash innovation and morale. They might get outside investment so they can iterate harder/better/faster but Advance wants to hold onto this goldmine.
Greater independence will mean reddit can go to a new board, which includes reddit OG Alexix Ohanian, who had been serving as an “advisor,” as well as representatives from Conde and Advance, with proposals instead of jockeying within Conde’s budget. Reddit doesn’t plan to seek outside funding at this time, Mr. Martin said, but it’s not out of the question. “It’s a lot more more of a startup,” he said. “It’s able to happen faster with less overhead.”
“It’s this whole cargo cult thing, where people imitate the things you see on the surface. Foursquare does badges and they did them really well. And then all of a sudden everyone was like, ‘I want to add badges to my startup!’”