As far as we know, Gimlet Media is the first company in Brooklyn to take advantage of the JOBS Act to let the general public know they are raising money.

In fact, the podcast company announced a fundraising round Tuesday morning. It was looking to raise $200,000 in minimum investments of $1,000, according to a post on Medium. The investment was a convertible note, with a $10 million valuation cap and a 20 percent discount rate. Gimlet’s cofounders, Alex Blumberg and Matt Lieber, wrote in their post, “Think of this like Kickstarter, except that instead of getting a t-shirt you’ll get shares in Gimlet Media Inc. You will be an owner of the company.”

We read the post about three hours after it came out, and the round was already closed. See it here on the Alphaworks website.

Nick Chirls, then with Betaworks, hinted at the launch of Alphaworks at a Technical.ly founders’ event in February. The company was founded to help companies take advantage of the increased openness created by the JOBS Act.

Gimlet’s round took advantage of the new ability to make a general solicitation, Alphaworks’ Nick Barr explained via email, but it was still limited to accredited investors. “Title III of the JOBS Act is what impacts accreditation, and still hasn’t passed, so for now only accredited investors can participate,” he wrote.

For more on this round, listen to episode 7 of Gimlet’s flagship, the StartUp Podcast.


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