Cats, Trees, And SRCs: Remarks At The SEC’s 44th Annual Small Business Forum, SEC Commissioner Hester M. Peirce, Washington D.C., April 10, 2025

Good afternoon and thank you to the participants in the Commission’s 44th Annual Small Business Forum and to today’s panelists. This annual forum is a wonderful opportunity to bring together the perspectives of a broad range of market participants. Before I begin, I must remind everyone that my views are my own as a Commissioner and not necessarily those of the Securities and Exchange Commission or my fellow Commissioners.

Last night, the Senate confirmed Paul Atkins to be our next Chairman. I am looking forward to his return. He is smart, experienced, and keenly attuned to the Commission’s mission, including its objective of facilitating capital formation. His last stint here was as a Commissioner from 2002 to 2008. He will find that much has changed here, but at least one theme will feel very familiar to him. The agency still has a lot of work to do on making it easier for small companies to find funding and meet their regulatory burdens. In fact, looking back at a statement that incoming Chairman Atkins gave to a Small Business Forum twenty years ago, he talked of the burdens of Sarbanes-Oxley Section 404. As we heard at last year’s forum, that issue is still live for small companies. So Chairman Atkins will be able to pick up right where he left off.

Relatively recently, I was out in the park and I came upon a strange scene: A fireman on a ladder rescuing a cat from a tree—something people always talk about but I assumed never actually happened. I hope that this year’s Forum can help us turn the talk of reform for small companies into just as real a scene as the cat rescue I witnessed.

I have a number of questions:

1. We have a lot of tools in place for private companies to raise money to help take their business from one stage of growth to the next, but I wonder if those tools are currently being put to their best use. Market participants often tell me that fitting into our exemptive framework is sometimes no small task. What are the biggest hurdles to using our existing rules?
2. Is Regulation Crowdfunding a feasible path to raise funds? I have heard from issuers that the costs are prohibitive and from funding portals that the margins are slim. I have also heard that an issuer that has done a Regulation Crowdfunding offering may be less likely to receive subsequent investment from more established institutional investors. What changes could the Commission make to improve the usability of Regulation Crowdfunding?
3. Regulation A is also getting some fresh attention, in particular as it relates to digital assets.[1] As we consider whether Regulation A might have the potential to address crypto, what other changes could the Commission make to increase the utilization of Regulation A more broadly?
4. Last year one of the forum recommendations advocated for the expansion of the accredited investor definition.[2] I would rather eliminate the distinction altogether, but what additional measures of sophistication would be appropriate to deem someone to be an accredited investor?
5. Is the current test for determining filer status as practical as it could be? What modifications could the Commission make to simplify the process?