Note that Naval, founder of Angel List, was heavily invested in passing the Jobs Act. He told the whole story on this interview: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2htl-O1oDcI
Note, you can chose to keep your fundraising private, which allows you do to verify accreditation the old way. However, it's now unclear if events like Demo Day, a post on Facebook or other pitch events would count as 'general solicitation'. You don't want to run afoul of the SEC.
Having murky guidelines is probably a good thing. The trend in fundraising really should be headed toward more public, less private. It's worthwhile to read up on the history of why we have this line between "private, accredited" investors and general fundraising and the Securities Act of 1933. After spending a good day - day and a half researching what the new law means for companies starting to think about looking for Angel and/or VC funding, I wrote up some findings: http://ink.hackeress.com/2013/09/what-title-ii-of-jobs-act-m...
Like most of the movements of the time (prohibition), the original intent of the law was noble, but ultimately was misguided.
The whole accreditation thing is an unnecessary barrier-to-entry. I can understand wanting to keep litigation risks of sore losers at bay (caveat investor), but I can't support red tape that gets in the way of potential investors, no matter their balance sheets.
Consider investments in most startups as defacto donations until there is substantial profit or the big exit check clears &| stock documents are finalized.
I interned at SM two summers ago. Getting a reliable accreditation service was a huge hurdle that they crossed, and it's very valuable. They have a really interesting product and they were even involved in shaping the JOBS act in the first place.
Having just done a round partially made up of Angels, I don't see this as having a major impact on fundraising which is still predominantly private. I'm skeptical that we are moving broadly towards public fundraising in Angel kinds of investments.
Text Summary: http://pandodaily.com/2012/11/16/pandomonthly-with-naval-rav...