Kendrick Nguyen is the co-founder and CEO of Republic (legal entity OpenDeal Inc.), a private-investing platform built on Regulation Crowdfunding. A licensed California securities attorney (State Bar #270831, admitted 2010), he was previously General Counsel of AngelList — his own description is 'the first non-engineer hire they've ever made.' Before AngelList his résumé included Goodwin Procter, Chief US Counsel of the $40B+ Permal Group during the 2008 crisis, and a Stanford Law fellowship at the Rock Center for Corporate Governance.
What does Republic do?
Republic is a private-investing platform that lets non-accredited investors put money into startups under Regulation Crowdfunding (Title III). It launched in July 2016 with four startups after Reg CF went live in May 2016. The legal entity is OpenDeal Inc., a Delaware corporation, and Nguyen is named in SEC filings as CEO, director, and largest stockholder. The platform later expanded into tokenization, including the Republic Note and pre-IPO Mirror Tokens.
Why did Kendrick leave AngelList to build Republic?
Nguyen was AngelList's General Counsel. Rather than build Republic inside AngelList, the company was spun out in 2016 with Naval Ravikant's support, and AngelList retained equity in the spinout and was among Republic's seed investors in a $12M token round in July 2018. Per the record, the spin-out conversation occurred in 2015, with Naval making AngelList Republic's institutional co-founder.
Is Republic legit?
Republic operates as OpenDeal Inc., a Delaware corporation registered with the SEC, with documented federal filings including a CFPORTAL/A registration and a Form 1-A naming Nguyen as CEO and largest stockholder. It launched after Regulation Crowdfunding became legal in May 2016. Its regulatory standing is a matter of public record; what the corpus does not contain is a founder-published returns or track-record document, which is why 'has anyone made money' remains the platform's most-asked open question.
What is the Republic Note?
The Republic Note is Republic's tokenized revenue-sharing instrument — Nguyen tokenized his own platform's revenue stream. It was supported by a $12M token round in July 2018 in which AngelList participated. Nguyen has flatly stated 'the Republic Note token is and will be a security under US law,' with dividend mechanics tied to commission flows, carry splits, and a $2 million payout trigger.