A JV section doesn't need to mean an investment section. It can be clearly laid out in the rules asking for investment is not allowed.
You're not thinking about the legal implications of this. A JV, Joint Venture, is a business agreement between two companies or persons, which requires, if they are smart, contracts, entities to be created, etc. By having this section, you open up WF to the possibility of having someone, even if it's in the rules, cause people break the rules all the time, fucking it up. For example, as soon as you mention a specific investment to a foreign person regarding a USA business, entity, etc. You are breaking the law, IF you don't have a securities licensee involved. Did you know that? In fact, same goes with mentioning a specific investment with both parties being in the US. (If a business attorney can step in here and correct me, please go ahead, but this is rules being handed down from the latest immigration and Investor visa laws). There are tons of laws about this.
There is even a law, to the effect, that you cannot approach an individual about a specific investment, UNLESS you are a securities broker OR a controlling owner or executive of a company. If you are, then obviously lawyers are going to be involved if you are talking about moving or making serious money.
If the purpose is so two persons in their mom's basements are circle jerking each other calling themselves CEO and doing JV, yeah… go ahead. SEC is not really going to be concerned with that.
I'm simply thinking of a place where people can do things like "I need someone good at/has connections with X. I have X business opportunity. Lets chat."
If you tell someone you have a business opportunity without realizing the securities laws you are breaking, that's on you. But since you are jumping on WF in their JV section, WF can be subpoena-ed 7 years from now, from some stupid shit you said. I'm getting subpoenas for websites I designed in 2007, so yeah, that record "I have a X business opportunity", gets subpoenaed, and any records they want… again, big fucking headache.
OR someone can open a thread for trading BST's like people have paid to make in the BST section in the past since there was nowhere else for the thread. OR many people have asked for a thread/section dedicated for link exchanging, this would be a great section for those conversations.
The T in BST stands for trading.
OR we have had people wanting to put their abilities together for causes IE the tons of Ron Paul threads with people trying to work together.
I don't know what the implications of creating a Super PAC are, and the rules, but I guarantee you there are, and inviting political trouble is not good idea. Also if you are thinking of charities, still more legal implications, since you are exchanging serious money, AND has a tax benefit, Which that last part is key. So now you got the IRS involved in case something goes wrong.
OR maybe you have a startup idea, but you need a programmer.
Same scenario with the subpoenas and I would assume there is also legal problems with this place facilitating that conversation. Since there is a record of it on here, WF would be in a position to hand over the records in case something goes wrong. Also, if you are getting with a programmer/coder and are creating an entity with partnership, lawyers will be involved. If you are hiring them for employment, that's not a JV, there is monster.com for that.
This is me shooting of the top of my head of all the scenario that can go wrong. A lawyer should really step in here and explain better some of these points.
You really need to consider the legal ramifications of having a place where people are CONDONED to come together and form legal entities. You don't want that headache nor to be that place when anyone of the hundreds of government agencies from around the world come knocking on that door.
I had an investor portal… actually someone I knew had an investor portal, and their lawyers where being ver specific not to mention direct investments on the website. The scenario was that you had to first qualify the investor as being an investor with money then get a licensed broker involved to mention the entity, even if no actual money is being moved back and forth. It was an international thing, so there was a lot more government entities. Headaches… when you solve one 12 new ones pop up just that day.
In BST there is buyer and seller, there is moderating, and also control at the payment level. The legal ramification if someone rips off someone for $100 is pretty tiny versus a JV where a big money entity gets screwed and they have a hard-on for this place. The SEC would be scrutinizing all the records, logs, all sorts of shit. You're really not considering the legal ramifications of what a JV section, where legal entities are being created, can do if ONLY ONE thing goes wrong.
If you owned this place, would you want to deal with any of the headaches I mentioned? Seems counter-productive to really making money. I don't own this place, nor speak for WF's owners, I'm just pointing out the massive problems I can spot with this idea in 10 minutes. It sounds like a good idea from one perspective, and it's pretty popular, but from a legal point… a nightmare in the making.
