Originally published at: A letter from our CEO, Michael Lewis - Mycroft
How we could raise $15M, but the SEC won’t let us
Note: This missive comes to you from the keyboard of Michael Lewis, CEO, rather than the normal marketing and communication team.
All of us at Mycroft are true believers in our mission to deliver privacy-respecting voice assistants and technology. But while privacy and openness are our foundational values, they are not the limit of our ambitions. In fact, I’ve come to think of Mycroft not as a technology company, but as a social-change company. To illustrate this, I’ve invited every member of our team to share their personal story over the coming weeks. There is an impressive diversity of hopes for what we’ll achieve.
How does that relate to the click-baity subject line? Well, 95% of you are not investors, so I infer that you are most likely here because of an interest in privacy or open source. Our mailing list goes to over 30,000 people. I read that as a substantial show of support for our values. If every one of you/them could contribute the minimum amount to our Regulation Crowdfunding campaign, we’d raise over $15M. However, while decentralized ownership of the company comports with our ideals for decentralized ownership of data (i.e. privacy) and decentralized ownership of technology (i.e. open source), the SEC limit for this type of funding is $5M per year. Nevertheless, here, as in grassroots democracy, a lot of small checks can be more powerful than a few big ones.
What we do builds on the work of countless others. From the generous contributions of the open source code we use, to selfless acts of standing up for one’s rights, I find inspiration in many places. As our funding campaign draws to a close, we share our stories in the hope that you will find something that inspires you to renew your support for Mycroft. Money may be a necessary evil, but together we can prove there is a viable alternative to surveillance capitalism and create technology where our values thrive.
Sincerely,
Michael Lewis
CEO, Mycroft AI Inc.