The central tension in securities regulation is between protecting investors and enabling broad capital formation. Focusing on VC fund managers, we study key tools of investor protection in private markets: enforcing relationship-based fundraising and restricting eligible investors. A new policy permitting public advertising is disproportionately used by less well-networked, underrepresented fund managers and is less sensitive to local conditions. Yet it has limited take-up because track record matters at arm’s length while strong networks matter in relationship financing; underrepresented managers more often have neither. Arm’s length fundraising also imposes costs to accessing the “crowd” and verifying investors, inducing negative signaling.