Kristin Myers: Now, there are roughly half as many public companies in this country as there were 30 years ago. But the companies didn’t stop getting built. They just stopped coming here, or they took a lot longer to arrive. Now, my guest has been arguing about that for 15 years. He testified before Congress on capital formation back in 2011, and that was the year before the JOBS Act passed. And then between 2017 and 2021, he filed five rulemaking petitions with the SEC. And he also founded this network: Vince Molinari of FINTECH.TV. The road from an idea to the opening bell starts right now.
Every week, we ask founders the same big question: How do you take an idea, build a company, find the capital to scale, and maybe one day make it to the public markets? But today, we’re turning that question on ourselves. Vince Molinari founded FINTECH.TV with a front-row seat to how capital markets are changing. And now FINTECH.TV, in collaboration with the New York Stock Exchange, has created Startup to Stock Exchange.
But this isn’t just about the IPO. It’s about everything that has to happen before it, from forming a company and raising that first check to growth capital, private market liquidity, and, for some companies, eventually ringing the bell. And the bigger idea is to build an ecosystem around that journey, bringing founders and CEOs together with investors, board members, lawyers, market makers, and capital markets leaders, the people who can help turn a startup into a scalable business. Because the road to public markets doesn’t start at the stock exchange. It starts years earlier, with an idea, capital, and the right network around it.
So what was missing from that ecosystem? And can FINTECH.TV help build the bridge between the next generation of entrepreneurs and the capital markets they need to grow? This time, we’re going behind Startup to Stock Exchange itself. FINTECH.TV founder and CEO Vince Molinari is next.
And joining us now, here at the desk, to pull back the curtain on our business and even this show is Vince Molinari, founder and CEO at FINTECH.TV. Vince, great to have you here with us. I don’t think I’ve ever really interviewed my boss like this before, so this is going to be fun.
Vince Molinari: I’m scared, being the boss. I’ve got the expert over here.
Kristin Myers: Now we’re both nervous. So let’s go back in time just a little bit, because we love to dive into the history of all the CEOs that we bring on. So I want to go back to 2011. You testified in front of Congress, in fact, in front of the House Financial Services Committee, and you were talking then about small business capital formation. Talk to us a little bit about that testimony and what you saw as being broken in the business landscape.
Vince Molinari: Yeah. Well, there were tons of things that we thought were broken. And it kind of evolved from Congressman Schweikert, when he was a freshman. And we were advocating, prior to meeting the congressman, hey, how do we create more pathways for what’s become the democratization of access to capital? The less-spoken-about part was the democratization of wealth creation, right? Bringing opportunities. So what do we have to do to have that?
So we had this paradigm shift and problem where private companies were staying private longer, right? Fewer exits. Part of that was that the pathway to being public was more costly. You had Sarbanes-Oxley and other things in the marketplace that slowed it down. So the IPO market was cut in half. What people were forgetting is that the private companies that were going public, those are the engines of growth of this country. Those were our job creators, adding to economic prosperity.
Well, if you’re breaking the cycle, where they’re not going public, that capital is not getting liquid and reinvested. We have jeopardy as a country and for our job creators. So we were trying to figure out pathways of, hey, what do we have to do? The average VC holding period doubled, so they weren’t redeploying. The size of our IPOs started to get bigger and bigger. People forget, back in the ’70s, Intel was a [unclear: “$1,015 million”] IPO, which is insane, right? Especially on a day like today, when Anthropic files for its IPO, possibly at $2 trillion. So what massive growth we’ve seen in what is a relatively short period of time.
Kristin Myers: So I want to ask, so that was back in 2011. You went and you gave that testimony. The JOBS Act was passed a year later, in 2012. We’re now 14 years, nearly 15 years, since the JOBS Act passed. Was it effective? What’s changed?
Vince Molinari: Oh, gosh. Yeah. And a big shout-out to the Crowdfunding Professional Association. I was the first co-chair of that, after the Rose Garden ceremony at the JOBS Act passing. And that really became the advocacy for these very things to talk about, right? The removal of the ban on general solicitation. Wow. What did that do? You could advertise a security for sale for the first time. Game changer, right? The ability to have equity crowdfunding. The changes in Reg A, to increase it from 5 to 50 million at that time.
So yeah, I think super effective. If you look at a lot of the statistics, you’re talking about $500 billion in capital raised since the JOBS Act for private companies. That’s monumental. The increase in IPOs, they’re targeting kind of a 25% increase as a result of the JOBS Act and the emerging growth company portion of it. So I think it’s been very effective.
Kristin Myers: So I do have to ask you, though, because this is something that we were talking about just the other day. We obviously did an interview and a conversation on Regulation A and the mini-IPOs, as folks call them. There are still a lot of companies that are taking longer and longer to go public, and there are about half as many public companies now as there were 30 years ago. So how does that work, considering that the JOBS Act was so successful? Why do you think some companies are still taking such a long time to go public? Is it because there’s so much profitability that exists in the private market landscape, and investor dollars, that they don’t need the capital markets?
Vince Molinari: Well, I think you nailed it, partially, right there. So if you look at a private company today versus just 20 years ago, even ten years ago, we’re seeing valuation expansion in private companies that’s much closer to what our public companies used to be. So now there’s the realization that you want to be a private company investor while it’s still private, because you’re getting some of that appreciation, or a lot of that appreciation. So a lot of times, we’re looking at our public markets as liquidity events, where companies don’t need to raise money because they’re flush with capital on the private side.
And then you also have the advent of alternative trading systems, right? Trading private securities, which never happened before. So there are now pathways to some liquidity while companies are private. So they may stay private longer, or permanently, because of that. So I think you’re seeing a pathway, almost the farm league, if you would, from private company tradability to some very successful IPOs. And as we talked about, the size of those IPOs is much, much bigger. So I think that’s reducing the possible choices as well.
Kristin Myers: I want to talk about something in your history that I did not know about, which is the time between...
Vince Molinari: No.
Kristin Myers: Fascinating. Between 2017 and 2021, you filed five rulemaking petitions with the SEC on crypto. A lot of folks have shied away from doing that. Why didn’t you? Why did you want to move forward with changing the rules around digital assets?
Vince Molinari: I think part of it is being an entrepreneur, which we interchange with being a masochist. So you kind of run into the fire sometimes when you shouldn’t. But for us, it was really, you know, being in capital markets and licensed as a regulated person for 40 years now. You see the advent of technology. So we could talk about anything from phone brokerage to hybrid to algorithmic to high-frequency, all being enhanced by technological innovation. So I looked at this as less about crypto than it was really about blockchain, the technology. So if you decouple those two, it was really a view that blockchain is the next evolution of capital markets that was going to have a meaningful change.
So we said, hey, if the SEC believes these are securities, great. We believe that as well. So how do we advocate for modernization of securities law? So we were very fortunate. We had great teams. You know, five petitions later, and I think it was something like 20 comment letters later to the CFTC, FINRA, and the SEC, putting a voice to what’s happening, as a market practitioner, and why this was important.
Kristin Myers: So what did the SEC do with those petitions? Tell us what happened next.
Vince Molinari: Well, so, flattered and humbled. You know, when we had Reg Crypto announced not too long ago, there were six petitions that were cited for rulemaking in there as kind of a framework. One was Coinbase, huge fan of our friends over there, and five were ones that we drafted. So it was really, I’d say, rewarding, several years later, or way too long later, in our opinion. But seeing them put to action so foundationally was...
Kristin Myers: So what you’re saying, very humbly, is that what we are seeing in the market today with cryptocurrency and with digital assets, a good chunk of it might be thanks to you?
Vince Molinari: Well, I don’t want to say we should get credit.
Kristin Myers: You might not want to toot your own horn, but I will toot it for you.
Vince Molinari: We’re happy to have contributed. You know, one of our petitions was called Regulation DA, for digital assets. And harkening back, many people say we created the term “digital asset,” to try to differentiate it from ICOs, initial coin offerings, back in the day. So yeah, you know, whatever portion of moving this space forward we’re happy to be part of.
Kristin Myers: Okay. Thank you. So let’s go from, right, about a decade ago to where we are now. The commission proposed Regulation Crypto Assets this year, and this is something that you’ve been arguing about for almost ten years now. Did they get it right, and what did they get wrong, if it wasn’t completely as you envisioned?
Vince Molinari: Look, you know, when you look at it, I think things can always be better, right? But it’s infinitely better in terms of the progress and the recognition, right, that we need some clarity around what can be done. And what’s really different today than ten years ago, when we started advocating, is we always talked about embracing these as securities. And this was clearly a security, this was a cryptocurrency, however it was going to be regulated. But because of the technology, there were going to be these new things that are birthed, that we don’t know where they’ll go. And I think that’s where we are now, being able to embrace tokenization across different product suites. And this beauty of collaboration between the CFTC and SEC is really getting this right.
Hey, would we have liked to see clarity, with the CLARITY Act, and having things done by Congress? Yes. It didn’t happen. But there’s so much power within the purview of the SEC and CFTC, as they’re doing now, to move things forward. So I think they’re doing a really fine job with it.
Kristin Myers: Now, FINTECH.TV’s Vince Molinari has been making the same argument for 15 years, so let’s take you through the paper trail. In September 2011, he testified before the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Capital Markets on small business capital formation. Then, the following year, Congress passed the JOBS Act, creating new routes for smaller companies to raise money.
And then, between 2017 and 2021, he made five rulemaking petitions to the Securities and Exchange Commission, or the SEC. There was 4-710, on digital assets and blockchain. Then there was 4-719, on initial coin offerings, or ICOs, as he mentioned just before the break. There was 4-736, on what happens after a trade. And then there was 4-743, on mining. And then, last but not least, 4-771, on NFTs. Now, the commission’s own database lists all five. And in 2026, the SEC proposed a tailored framework for crypto assets covering several of those same questions.
We’re back now with Vince Molinari, founder and CEO at FINTECH.TV. So, Vince, we just went through a little bit of the history there. So let’s talk a little bit about Startup to Stock Exchange. Why this show, right? Because you could just cover public companies like everyone else. Why did you want to have a daily program on the companies that haven’t yet rung the bell here?
Vince Molinari: Well, I love that question. I could go on for two hours on that one alone.
Kristin Myers: You have two minutes.
Vince Molinari: Keep the boss in check.. So, seriously, it goes back to so much that was important pre-JOBS Act: the tradability, where our engines of growth are coming from. So Troy McGuire, your other boss, is my co-founder. When we envisioned FINTECH.TV, it was all about creating education, awareness, demystifying subjects, and bringing things forward that weren’t necessarily spoken about everywhere else. And that’s really the model here for Startup to Stock Exchange, right? Actionable knowledge. You need information and knowledge in order to invest, to sell something, to learn more.
So we wanted to create the ecosystem. With Startup to Stock Exchange, we’re really envisaging becoming much more of an ecosystem about everything private companies. Why not just pre-IPO stories coming to the exchange? Because I think we have to educate on the trials and tribulations of startups, through seed, A, B, C, all the way through IPO, so that founders and companies have a voice to tell their stories, how they learned themselves, and so the audience gets something different that they’re not finding everywhere else. So we want to create that destination for private company information.
Kristin Myers: So this ecosystem that you’re talking about, do you think that the main thing that’s missing inside of it for private companies is that voice, that place to tell their story? And, you know, that’s what we’re providing here. Are there other things that you think are missing in that ecosystem as well that can also be discussed on this platform?
Vince Molinari: Well, I think, starting out as a capital markets licensed person for 40 years, with the advent of the ability to advertise securities, you gave them a mouthpiece, right? So when you think about social media, when you think about television, all kinds of streaming, right? That ability to put securities out there, whether it’s education about the product of that private company, leading into the conversion funnel that may go to an investment. That voice was very important.
But I also think it’s about the data and analytics, right? The old school used to have tear sheets on public companies, one to three pages. We envision bringing tear sheets back. Like, let’s have basic information on these companies that are coming on to be featured here. Let’s have a private company ticker, right? We have tickers all around us for public companies. Let’s try to envision that for private securities. So I think it is a lot more than the voice, but it starts with the voice, to bring the education and awareness. And then it’s the data sets and the things that you can do from there.
Kristin Myers: It also feels very in line with your history, which is democratization of access, right, and democratization of knowledge, again, on these companies that a lot of folks at home would never know about until they file, or unless you’re a big-time investor already. So I want to ask you, I have my ideas, but I’m curious to know from you, since you are the big boss, what you think makes a company right for this show. What are you looking for, not only as founder and CEO of FINTECH.TV, but also as a viewer?
Vince Molinari: Well, look, I’ll say it: there’s nothing more iconic in capital markets globally than the New York Stock Exchange. And Lynn Martin, Joe Benarroch, so much of the leadership had embraced us here as we started out with, you know, one hour a week, and grew into having a studio on the floor of the iconic New York Stock Exchange. That’s only summed up one way: it’s being a dreamer. So the New York Stock Exchange is the home of the dreamers, when we think about everything that happened from this exchange through the history of the United States, the growth.
So what do we want to see in founders and guests? We want to see dreamers. What’s different? What are you doing that you want to tell the world about? What is disruptive? What are you innovating around? Because in a lot of settings, people can tell you you’re crazy. But those crazy ideas, those crazy companies, the risks that entrepreneurs take, that’s what we want to hear about and follow the journey of. Because we all know 50% or more of startups are going to go out of business and not make it. Well, we like to talk about what you learn from the failures. How does that make you better? How does that improve the next version of yourself or your company? So that’s a little bit about what we foundationally want to embrace.
Kristin Myers: So speaking about the failures, and I almost hesitate to use that word, because I think having a dream and pursuing the dream is a success, even if the company doesn’t ultimately work out. But I’m curious to know, because you’ve talked to so many founders, sat across the table, working and dealing with capital markets and capital formation: Can you tell us what makes the difference between a founder who makes it, who gets to ring that bell, and one who doesn’t? Or someone who is actually able to take the helm of a successful company, and one who might fade off into obscurity?
Vince Molinari: You know, I have to say that there’s probably always a degree of luck associated with it. You can have the greatest idea in the world, but if you’re too early and you can’t make it there, you fade out. You know, all these things go on, and so there is a little bit of luck. But I think it comes down to what you can’t quantify. It’s that passion, right? Because you’re doing something largely irrational, right? Sometimes you’re leaving a career that’s pretty stable, with cash flow and a salary, to go chase this dream, right? So there’s always something extra that’s burning in that entrepreneur especially. You can be entrepreneurial in your thinking, but to be an entrepreneurial startup, that’s ground zero, starting. So I think it really has to do with commitment and passion.
Kristin Myers: I love that. So for the Gen Zers that might be watching, you need a little bit of delulu in order to make your dreams come true and make the business happen. So for someone who’s watching this show, the viewers, what is something that you really want them to walk away with, from the entire series, or even from an individual episode?
Vince Molinari: Okay. I think everybody can learn something from this show, right? So, as you know, it’s structured to have a variety of types of private companies at different stages. So it becomes relatable, to inspire somebody to do their own startup, to learn something from that, to take lessons away from other success stories as they’re going. Because, hey, everybody wants to get up on that podium, right? That’s the Super Bowl. That’s, you know, winning gold, right? The dream of dreams is to be ringing that bell. So how do we help incubate, right? And show off the home of the New York Stock Exchange to be your destination for when you really make it. So I think there is that level of delusion. But, you know, you need your supporters, right? And we’ve had such great love and support and been embraced in the home of dreamers, to say, yeah, it may be crazy, but you’re a dreamer. We’re going to give you a shot.
Kristin Myers: So we have one minute left, and I have to ask you, because you are also a dreamer. You are also an entrepreneur. We have FINTECH.TV. So I have to ask you the same question I ask every other founder and entrepreneur. Do you ever think about ringing that bell?
Vince Molinari: Oh my goodness.
Kristin Myers: And when do you think something like that might happen?
Vince Molinari: Well, we’ve had the great fortune, when we opened this studio on the floor of the exchange, of being given a bell ringing, which was just epic. So that was a big win. But to ring that bell in the setting of going public? Yeah, maybe it’s 2027. Who knows? You never know. But that goal, right, it drives you. And to sit here and hear that opening and closing bell every day, it reverbs. It gives you that energy. You know, when you see guests come here every day, this experience is something that you can’t put into words. It’s the energy. It’s the vibe. And it’s a little bit of, you know, fairy dust that motivates you every day.
Kristin Myers: I absolutely love that. Vince Molinari, founder and CEO at FINTECH.TV. Thank you so much.
Vince Molinari: Thank you so much.
