Restricting anyone’s ability to invest does mean protecting certain people from losing money. But it also cuts most of the population off from the benefits. This is not the answer. We must provide education, information and the opportunity to learn by doing, for everyone.

And, Jackley shares her beliefs that unaccredited investors may be more “invested” (no pun intended) in the business because of their smaller resources and bigger potential for major loss or gain.

I’d bet that as unaccredited and accredited folks interact a bit more, at first just as co-investors in a startup but eventually perhaps as advisors or board members for those companies, we will learn that the best contributors to these ventures are those with more to lose. When everyone has the same information and the same opportunities to contribute, people who have never been able to play in this game before will have a new and unique perspective that might—God forbid—teach the 1% (or, there I go again, the 3%) a thing or two. Perhaps we’ll see that those without a huge cushion of financial resources to fall back on might make even more prudent, more careful, more efficient, more meaningful choices with limited resources than those for whom a few hundred or even a few thousand dollars is a drop in the bucket.

In her talks, Jackley presents powerful new business lessons, reframing best practices in atypical, thought-provoking ways. To book Jessica Jackley as a speaker for your event, contact The Lavin Agency.