We’ve seen Twitter used for a lot of different purposes, ranging from marriage proposals to play-by-play’s of child births. Today, we have what appears to be another first: a Web startup soliciting serious investment using the microblogging tool. Jason Goldberg, CEO of the recently launched social news site Socialmedian , tweeted that his company was “raising some more angel investment now. $25-100k/investor, up to $500k.”
While surely it’s not the first time someone has asked for money via Twitter (see: Twitter spam), Socialmedian is not your typical scenario: it’s a real company that has already raised money from some high profile investors including The Washington Post and former FCC Chairman Reed Hundt.
I asked Goldberg why the appeal on Twitter (especially given his apparent ability to raise money through more traditional means) and he said “Several of our users have asked in the past if there was a way they could invest. So, decided to let my followers know on twitter that there might be an opportunity to invest.”
And, apparently there is some interest. On Friendfeed, where there is a lively discussion emerging about the Tweet, Goldberg claims to have found 3 legitimate investors within 30 minutes of posting the message.
Of course, the same rules would apply to any new investors found via Twitter. Goldberg told me via email: “we care if the investor is an accredited investor or not. We have strict requirements for investment. All of our current investors and all investors in this round would be required to be qualified investors … All potential investors would have to pass the standard suitability test for such an early-stage investment.”
Regardless of whether it works (or is even legal ... TechCrunch says it "disregards 60 years of securities regulations"), it’s an interesting experiment in transparency and potentially lets early Socialmedian enthusiasts (with a bankroll) get a piece of the pie should the site be a big success.