How FlashFunders Streamlines the Investor Roadshow The beta site has helped eight startups so far. Here's how it works.

In late 2014, Eric Wolfe scored $1.2 million in equity capital for Swapt, the apartment rental platform he debuted earlier in the year. Despite raising money from investors in the U.S., Europe and Australia, he didn't have to fly to dozens of pitch meetings. Nor did he have to pay tens of thousands of dollars in legal overhead to close the round. Instead, the San Francisco-based entrepreneur used FlashFunders, a no-fee online equity investment platform that launched in October. "It streamlined the process," Wolfe says.

That's the idea, says Vincent Bradley, FlashFunders co-founder and CEO. He points out that raising seed capital can take six months and costs startups an average of $23,000 in legal fees alone. "That is a material amount of time and money that should be spent building your business," Bradley explains. "FlashFunders is reinventing the investor roadshow."

The Santa Monica-based platform provides 'treps with SEC-compliant investment documents and access to FDIC-insured escrow accounts, which it helps manage.