{"data":{"type":"company_profile","id":83274,"entity_id":"wefunder:company:83274","attributes":{"canonical_url":"https://wefunder.com/calmfund","generated_at":"2026-06-09T06:40:18Z","updated_at":"2026-06-09T05:00:26Z","entity_ids":{"company":"wefunder:company:83274","slug":"wefunder:company_slug:calmfund"},"profile_visibility":{"owner_published":true,"public_search_results":true,"site_search_listed":true,"privacy_mode":"promote","invite_only":false},"provenance":{"source":"wefunder_public_company_profile","as_of":"2026-06-09T06:40:18Z","claims":{"total_amount_raised":{"source":"FrontCompanySummary#amount_raised","last_verified_at":"2026-06-09T05:00:26Z","as_of":"2026-06-09T06:40:18Z","confidence":"high"},"total_investors":{"source":"FrontCompanySummary#number_of_investors","last_verified_at":"2026-06-09T05:00:26Z","as_of":"2026-06-09T06:40:18Z","confidence":"high"},"active_raise_states":{"source":"Fundraise.visible(nil, nil)","last_verified_at":"2025-05-27T20:41:43Z","as_of":"2026-06-09T06:40:18Z","confidence":"high"},"latest_fundraise_state":{"source":"Fundraise.visible(nil, nil).order(funding_started_at)","last_verified_at":"2025-05-27T20:41:43Z","as_of":"2026-06-09T06:40:18Z","confidence":"medium"}}},"company":{"id":83274,"entity_id":"wefunder:company:83274","slug":"calmfund","name":"Calm Company Fund","tagline":"Investment Advisor + Mentor for Founders of Calm Companies","elevator_pitch":"Capital, community, and mentorship for entrepreneurs building calm companies","story":"Our MissionWe believe that entrepreneurship is an inherent societal good and powerful lever for progress and human achievement.The internet is the greatest leveler of access to entrepreneurship society has ever seen, enabling businesses in every possible niche at a global scale. There is far too much focus on creating 1,000x outcomes and not nearly enough on leveraging the internet to empower entrepreneurs to build profitable sustainable software and software-enabled businesses .Our mission is to maximize the number of successful internet entrepreneurs in the world through capital, mentorship, and community.The Short PitchWe believe that there is another way to build companies besides the venture capital rollercoaster. Calm Company Fund (formerly called \"Earnest Capital\")\u0026nbsp;began as \"funding for bootstrappers\" which we now call capital + community + mentorship for entrepreneurs building calm companies.\u0026nbsp;In just two years, since launching in 2019 we've invested ~$8m in 40+ companies and re-thought and re-built just about every building block that goes into an investment fund. We believe we are in the middle of an enormous wave of entrepreneurs building software and software-enabled companies and that \"Calm Funding\" can be the default way they start and grow.\u0026nbsp;This is a massive opportunity and we are raising capital to help us build the team and infrastructure we need to back 100s and 1,000s of companies a year in the near future. We are thrilled with the opportunity to bring unaccredited investors (many of them founders themselves) into the movement. Let's go!Key LinksOur long form thesis.Our portfolio to date and public memos on each investment.Core team and mentors (all mentors\u0026nbsp;are also investors in our funds).Fund 1 and Fund 2 valuation memo.Thesis OverviewThe long-form version of our thesis is published here, but these are the highlights.We are entering the Deployment Age of Software as the dominant opportunities in the software market move from winner-take-all open markets, to a steady process of applying the gains of software to every niche of the economy.This shift is creating strong demand for a new default source of capital\u0026nbsp;that isn’t the traditional venture capital model.\u0026nbsp; The VC treadmill\u0026nbsp;will become the exception not the default as more and more entrepreneurial opportunities are asset-light and tech-heavy, but not a fit for venture capital.The linchpin of what makes this transition possible is the Peace Dividend of the SaaS Wars that makes it faster, easier, cheaper than ever to build and launch a software of software-enabled business.Software is Eating Entrepreneurship and the New American Dream is to own a profitable, high margin, low overhead, remote-first, SaaS or software-enabled business. We are building the default form of capital, community, and mentorship for this tidal wave of entrepreneurs.First Principles Thinking + BuildingWe try to cultivate a first principles approach to problems we see in the market for funding early-stage companies. Too many of the best, or at least very common, practices in the industry haven’t been questioned or re-examined. If something doesn’t make sense for us or the founders we want to support, then we’ll build what we need to create better alignment.Remote-first: Calm Company Fund\u0026nbsp;has been a remote-first organization from day one, well before COVID. It’s nice to see many funds adapt to the remote reality, but it’s in our DNA.Shared Earnings Agreement: Traditional early-stage financing structures are not aligned with founders who want to build profitable companies and potentially never raise another round. So we created our own, in public, with collaboration from our community. Learn more about the SEAL.Pitching: The standard approach to pitching leaves a lot to be desired so we created our own product that allows founders to asynchronously build their pitch, with plenty of learning material from us along the way, and submit when they are ready. So we created our own application process.Skin in the game mentorship: Many mentorship programs fail as mentors are either unengaged or just there to up-sell companies on their services. From day one we required everyone in our mentor community, now over 160 entrepreneurs and operators, to be an investor in the fund. This has worked incredibly well. Read more about our approach to mentorship. Here's just a few founders who chose to mentor with us,\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;because they believe in backing calm companies. 👇🏽\u0026nbsp; You can see the full list here.Subscription Funds: Before rolling funds launched, we identified that the classic fund structure was misaligned with the priorities of our LP base, largely composed of individuals and entrepreneurs. We designed our own subscription fund model with fixed quarterly LP commitments and 1-year funds. In collaboration with our fund administrator, Aduro Advisors, we have built out our own highly automated and scaleable back office to manage our fund structure with a very lean staff. Read the deep dive.Carry-sharing for team + early LPs: Early LPs and team members rarely see the upside for launching a new investment company. We like to play long-term games where people who bet on us are appropriately rewarded. In 2020 we launched a carry-sharing program, carving out 20% of all carried interest\u0026nbsp;across Calm Company Fund-managed funds,\u0026nbsp;allocated across team members and early LPs. The benefits were 100% retroactive for former employees and Fund 1 LPs. Learn more about why we share carry and are so incredibly focused on aligned incentives.Investment StrategyThe crux of what we are betting on with Calm\u0026nbsp;Company Fund is that the conventional thinking on how to invest in early-stage companies is, if not wrong,\u0026nbsp;not the only way to do it successfully. The traditional model is based on \"power law\" outcomes where most of your investments fail, but a tiny few of them are mega-winners and generate all the returns. We think\u0026nbsp;this is one way to do it, but that it’s not a law of physics that every portfolio has to look this way, especially in the Deployment Age of Software.Our goal\u0026nbsp;is to generate returns that are competitive with top-tier early-stage venture firms with two notable differences:Less concentration of returns and thus less overall risk. Diversification is the only free lunch in investing and our strategy is to hit a wide variety of “single, doubles, and triples” with the types of companies we back versus having all our returns concentrated in “mostly strike-outs and one home run” (apologies to the non-US crowd for the baseball analogies).Faster timeline to liquidity. Early stage venture investing usually means locking up your capital for nearly a decade until a multi-billion-dollar exit or IPO. We target a much faster time to seeing realized returns in our portfolio. Our initial, somewhat conservative, model expected the bulk of returns to be in years 4-7 of a fund, but from our earlier funds we are seeing an even faster timeline with Shared Earnings and exits within 2 years.We underwrite our investments against a fairly conservative and boring model of the future opportunity for the companies we back. In the successful scenarios we’re modeling our target returns against: the company grows reasonably well through its own cashflows, becomes profitable enough to pay some Shared Earnings, and then we get some liquidity either through an exit or secondary at a very reasonable financial multiple. We don’t bake in strategic acquisitions at 50x revenue, hyper-growth inflection points, raising big growth follow-on rounds from a position of strength into our model. But of course, these things are all completely possible for the companies we back, they are just free asymmetric upside to our core thesis.A good analogy is that we should have a distribution of outcomes that looks more like middle-market growth private equity investing but with earlier stage check sizes and more potential upside. This is made possible by the Peace Dividend of the SaaS Wars which means companies are substantially more de-risked when seeking a ~$200k investment than they were 5-10 years ago.Here’s our unfair advantage in this current market: we are truly contrarian and backing companies that for the most part no other funds want to invest in. This means we are completely decoupled from the eye-popping valuations, driven by more and more VC funds fighting for access, of the latest YC batch. We make fair win-win investment offers at reasonable valuations.DealflowDealflow, or opportunities to invest in companies,\u0026nbsp;is the engine\u0026nbsp;of a fund.\u0026nbsp;The vast majority of our dealflow is inbound inquiries based on our written content on the site, social media, and word of mouth among like-minded entrepreneurs.We are beginning to see flywheels spinning where new investment opportunities are being referred by our existing portfolio, existing LPs, and finding us through our community and events at the Founder Summit.We leverage no-code automation and our application process to efficiently handle a high volume of inbound per General Partner.TractionFund 1Size: $3.1mFirst Check: Feb 2019Deployment Period: 18 monthsCompanies: 22TVPI: 1.88x (as of Dec 2020, 22 months since first investment)DPI: 0.35x (1 exit, 3 companies distributing Shared Earnings)IRR: 40%+Note: TVPI and IRR are calculated on an “as converted” basis using our internal (fairly conservative) valuation methodology which is outlined in more detail in this memo. TVPI is “Total Value to Paid In” which is [the current value of the all investments in the portfolio] + [all distributions to LPs from Shared Earnings and exits] / [the total initial fund amount].Summary: Our goal with Fund 1 was to start investing and testing the model as quickly as possible. We raised $3.1m in six months and went live. Over 18 months we paced about 1-2 investments per month with an average check size around $150k. We hold investments that are \u0026lt;12 months old at cost so only about half the fund is out of that period and that cohort is showing very strong returns. Our cohort of investments just from 2019 has a TVPI of 2.43x already and the rest of the fund is on track for strong returns.Fund 2Size: $5mFirst Check: Aug 2020Deployment Period: 12 months (still being deployed)Companies: 11 and countingTVPI: N/A (all investments are \u0026lt;12 months old which we hold at cost)Summary: For Fund 2 we switched to a subscription model for LPs. Read more about the thinking here but the upshot is that LPs now commit to a fixed quarterly amount that is allocated into a new fund structure every 12 months. The response to this has been fantastic bringing in a wide array of entrepreneurs into our LP/mentor network.No major change in strategy from Fund 1 to Fund 2 except that our average check size has been creeping up and is at about $200k for this fund. This is purely a function of more slightly later stage companies coming into our pipeline looking for a bit more capital.Investing Team + The Future of Calm Company FundCurrently Tyler Tringas is sole General Partner with investing authority. But the medium-term plan is to expand the investing team and unlock the bottleneck of a solo GP, to back more entrepreneurs per year.With Fund III we intend to begin a series of small experiments, where Tyler still retains final investment decisions, but “super-charged scouts” (yes we need a better name) bring fully vetted investment opportunities as an on-ramp to GP status in future funds. We have a solid, albeit somewhat informal, pipeline of interest, that we intend to formalize in the near future.Tyler will continue to personally deploy the vast majority of Fund III, and retain final investing decisions over the entire fund deployment, while gradually layering in small experiments with potential future GPs. Learn more.The company legal name has been changed to Calm Company Fund LLC, and our rebrand launched on June 22nd, 2021.Disclaimer: this is an illustrative example to demonstrate the Class CF economic share of carried interest, returns are not guaranteed.This Investment\u0026nbsp;OfferingThis offering is for what is commonly known as \"GP equity.\" Rather than investing in just one of our funds, investors in this Reg CF campaign will have ownership in the upside across all our current and future funds. The \"upside\" of a fund is known as carried interest or carry\u0026nbsp;where the owners (or GPs) of a fund keep 20% of the profits from a fund once investors get their initial capital back.\u0026nbsp;Currently this GP equity\u0026nbsp;has 20% going to the Calm Company Fund team and our earliest investors (see carry-sharing program\u0026nbsp;above) and the remaining 80% is owned by the Tyler Tringas, the\u0026nbsp;founder and General Partner. This offering will be for a 10% share of that equity in the Calm Company Fund management company.To be clear, this investment is in the Calm Company Fund LLC management company for a long-term interest in carry, NOT an investment in our upcoming Fund III.\u0026nbsp;Accredited investors who are looking to invest in our funds should sign up here.- 10% of carried interest on all current and future Calm Company Fund-managed funds via Class CF\u0026nbsp;units in Calm Company Fund LLC, which is the General Partner (GP) entity managing all \"Calm Funds.\"- $20m post-money valuation with a\u0026nbsp;$2m maximum\u0026nbsp;raise size. If we exceed $2m raise, then the percentage of carried interest will adjust accordingly at the close of the campaign.\u0026nbsp;","location":"New York, NY","website":"https://calmfund.com","total_amount_raised":1296658,"total_investors":744,"is_funded":false,"is_active":false,"quality_score":5,"related_urls":["https://wefunder.com/calmfund","https://calmfund.com"]},"media":{"share_image_url":"https://uploads.wefunder.com/uploads/company/header_media_photo/83274/xxl_cropped_Testimonials__2_.jpg","logo_url":"https://uploads.wefunder.com/uploads/company/logo/83274/large_cropped_CCF_Logo_2.png","header_media_url":"https://uploads.wefunder.com/uploads/company/header_media_photo/83274/standard_cropped_Testimonials__2_.jpg","cover_photo_url":"https://uploads.wefunder.com/uploads/company/header_media_photo/83274/standard_cropped_Testimonials__2_.jpg","profile_video_url":"https://wefunder.wistia.com/medias/niekj20pgc"},"links":{"company_url":"https://calmfund.com","twitter_url":"http://twitter.com/calmfund"},"highlights":[],"quick_facts":[{"index":1,"claim_id":"claim-fact-1","value":"⚡Team has invested in 40+ profit-focused software startups across two funds since 2019"},{"index":2,"claim_id":"claim-fact-2","value":"📈 167% total portfolio value increase since launching Fund I in 2019"},{"index":3,"claim_id":"claim-fact-3","value":"📝 Created novel, innovative, founder-aligned SEAL (shared earnings agreement) investment structure"},{"index":4,"claim_id":"claim-fact-4","value":"💸 Several portfolio co's sharing profits already + 2 exits (Makerpad to Zapier; EnjoyHQ to UserZoom)"},{"index":5,"claim_id":"claim-fact-5","value":"🚀 Launching $10M Subscription Fund III in July; on track to outperform original fund expectations"},{"index":6,"claim_id":"claim-fact-6","value":"🥾 Created Trailhead initiative to make access to funding more equitable for founders"},{"index":7,"claim_id":"claim-fact-7","value":"🎁 Opportunity to get a slice of carried interest from all funds managed by Calm Company Fund"}],"team":[{"id":1600106,"entity_id":"wefunder:company_role:1600106","user_entity_id":"wefunder:user:1391186","role":"founder","name":"Tyler Tringas","title":"General Partner and Founder","bio":"Creator of Shared Earnings Agreement (SEAL). Former B2B SaaS founder. Head of Energy Economics, Bloomberg LP.","avatar_url":"https://uploads.wefunder.com/uploads/company_role/custom_photo/1600106/square_cropped_tyler_bw.jpg?1623871974","profile_url":"https://wefunder.com/tylertringas","twitter_url":"http://twitter.com/tylertringas","related_urls":["https://wefunder.com/tylertringas"]},{"id":1598839,"entity_id":"wefunder:company_role:1598839","user_entity_id":"wefunder:user:1400710","role":"employee","name":"Najva Sol","title":"Head of Product \u0026 Marketing","bio":"Former Head of Community at Quartz Media, VP of Marketing at Spankchain, and Digital Director at A Practical Wedding. Creator of \"Branding for Bootstrappers\" workshop + Mastermind Sprint.","avatar_url":"https://uploads.wefunder.com/uploads/company_role/custom_photo/1598839/square_cropped_hRss-ram_400x400.jpg?1630103820","profile_url":"https://wefunder.com/najvasol","linkedin_url":"https://www.linkedin.com/in/najva-sol/","twitter_url":"https://twitter.com/Najvasol","related_urls":["https://wefunder.com/najvasol"]},{"id":1606504,"entity_id":"wefunder:company_role:1606504","user_entity_id":"wefunder:user:1401404","role":"employee","name":"Sibi Murugesan","title":"Chief of Staff \u0026 Head of Platform","bio":"Worked with 100s of founders through Calm Company Fund, Product Hunt, Startup Weekend by TechStars, gener8tor, Co-Lab, and Junior Achievement. Cofounder of @AppleBananaUX.","avatar_url":"https://uploads.wefunder.com/uploads/company_role/custom_photo/1606504/square_cropped_0qyb3ZMD_400x400.jpg?1624373136","profile_url":"https://wefunder.com/sibimurugesan","linkedin_url":"https://www.linkedin.com/in/sibism/","twitter_url":"https://twitter.com/sibix3","related_urls":["https://wefunder.com/sibimurugesan"]},{"id":1608785,"entity_id":"wefunder:company_role:1608785","user_entity_id":"wefunder:user:1403857","role":"employee","name":"Matt Goldstein","title":"Head of Finance \u0026 Operations","bio":"Reformed corporate finance \u0026amp; business operations executive. Former VP of Digital Business Ops @ National Geographic, Director of Marketing \u0026amp; Director of Finance @ Custom Ink. Proud Excel jockey.","avatar_url":"https://uploads.wefunder.com/uploads/company_role/custom_photo/1608785/square_cropped_matt.jpg?1626126972","profile_url":"https://wefunder.com/mattgoldstein2","linkedin_url":"https://www.linkedin.com/in/goldsteinmatthew/","twitter_url":"https://twitter.com/GoldsteinMatt_","related_urls":["https://wefunder.com/mattgoldstein2"]},{"id":1606529,"entity_id":"wefunder:company_role:1606529","role":"employee","name":"Michael Rouveure","title":"Head of No-Code Operations","bio":"CEO of Junglebee. Multiple time founder of travel SaaS companies.","avatar_url":"https://uploads.wefunder.com/uploads/company_role/custom_photo/1606529/square_cropped_Michael_CV_Picture.jpg?1617235283","linkedin_url":"https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-rouveure-13653355/","twitter_url":"https://twitter.com/MichaelRouveure","related_urls":[]},{"id":1606502,"entity_id":"wefunder:company_role:1606502","user_entity_id":"wefunder:user:1403487","role":"employee","name":"Gil Hernandez","title":"Dealflow Analyst","bio":"Formerly venture partner for Republic, scout for Indie.vc, and Clearbanc, financial analyst for Apple in the Software \u0026amp; Services group. Member of VC Familia + Gen Z VC.","avatar_url":"https://uploads.wefunder.com/uploads/company_role/custom_photo/1606502/square_cropped_Gil.jpg?1617237799","profile_url":"https://wefunder.com/gilhernandez","linkedin_url":"https://www.linkedin.com/in/gilxhernandez/","twitter_url":"https://twitter.com/gilxhernandez","related_urls":["https://wefunder.com/gilhernandez"]},{"id":1598842,"entity_id":"wefunder:company_role:1598842","user_entity_id":"wefunder:user:1403403","role":"employee","name":"Brooke Smith","title":"Community Manager","bio":"Director of Women Who Code Raleigh, and UX mentor at Thinkful. Former UX Designer at Capital One.","avatar_url":"https://uploads.wefunder.com/uploads/company_role/custom_photo/1598842/square_cropped_brookesmith.jpg?1617235070","profile_url":"https://wefunder.com/brookesmith2","linkedin_url":"https://www.linkedin.com/in/brooke-smith-she-her-51473061/","twitter_url":"https://twitter.com/thisis_brooke","related_urls":["https://wefunder.com/brookesmith2"]}],"featured_investors":[{"id":5522,"entity_id":"wefunder:company_investor_profile:5522","investor_profile_id":935169,"investor_profile_entity_id":"wefunder:investor_profile:935169","subject_entity_id":"wefunder:user:1404685","name":"Allison Esposito Medina","bio":"Founder @jointechladies, the largest community of women in tech. Angel investing too :)","avatar_url":"http://uploads.wefunder.com/uploads/user/avatar/1404685/medium_cropped_IMG_2324.jpg","profile_url":"https://wefunder.com/allisonespositomedina","investment_total":5000,"investment_info":"Invested $5,000 this round","is_lead_investor":true,"related_urls":["https://wefunder.com/allisonespositomedina"]}],"investor_memos":[],"tab_counts":{"posts":5,"ask_questions":44,"featured_investors":1,"faq_entries":5},"active_fundraises":[{"id":44144,"entity_id":"wefunder:fundraise:44144","state":"successful","offering_type":"4(a)(6)","funding_type":"note","structure":"custom","security_type":"custom","currency":"USD","testing_the_waters":false,"min_purchase":100,"max_purchase":9,"funding_target":900000.0,"funding_started_at":"2021-06-18T01:26:36Z","funding_closed_at":"2021-07-24T05:01:53Z","auto_close_at":"2021-07-24T03:59:59Z"},{"id":44312,"entity_id":"wefunder:fundraise:44312","state":"successful","offering_type":"4(a)(6)","funding_type":"note","structure":"ttw","security_type":"custom","currency":"USD","testing_the_waters":true,"min_purchase":100,"max_purchase":9,"funding_target":2000000.0,"funding_started_at":"2021-03-30T18:59:37Z"}],"latest_fundraise":{"id":44144,"entity_id":"wefunder:fundraise:44144","state":"successful","offering_type":"4(a)(6)","structure":"custom","testing_the_waters":false,"can_invest_now":false,"funding_started_at":"2021-06-18T01:26:36Z","funding_closed_at":"2021-07-24T05:01:53Z","terms":{"eb":null,"nb":null,"txt":null}},"recent_posts":[{"id":148817,"entity_id":"wefunder:feed_item:148817","type":"FeedItem::Update","visibility":"public","title":"Updates","preview":"Hi all - please note that we are sending updates directly through our email list. You should have received one recently on 12/6/23. If you invested in this round and are not receiving these updates, please email us at community@calmfund.com.Thanks,Tyler","published_at":"2023-12-07T21:06:04Z","author_name":"Tyler Tringas","url":"/feed/148817","canonical_url":"https://wefunder.com/feed/148817"},{"id":146043,"entity_id":"wefunder:feed_item:146043","type":"FeedItem::Update","visibility":"public","title":"$1.5 million raised— only 4 days left!","preview":"Since we announced our shift to \"Calm Company Fund\" a few weeks ago, everything's been such an exciting whirlwind!Here's a few of the highlights:Raised over $1.5 million from almost 850 supportersWe're blown away by the support of our community—and thrilled to be able to invite so many non-accredited investors on our journey. It's humbling to have such a fascinating (and accomplished!) global crew of investors.\u0026nbsp;\"Rising Star\" in Business Insider +\u0026nbsp;$10 million fund 3 announcedBusiness...","published_at":"2021-07-19T22:30:39Z","author_name":"Najva Sol","url":"/feed/146043","canonical_url":"https://wefunder.com/feed/146043"},{"id":146303,"entity_id":"wefunder:feed_item:146303","type":"FeedItem::Update","visibility":"public","title":"We are now the Calm Company Fund!","preview":"Note: it would be a huge help if you would take 30 seconds to quickly check if you need to confirm/complete your investment by going to wefunder.com/calmfund/invest.\u0026nbsp;In case you missed it, Earnest Capital is now the Calm Company Fund.This year we set out to find a new name and brand.Earnest Capital served us well for the first three years as an upstart fund, trying to prove out a novel approach to early stage investing. We had plenty of chuckles and puns about the incredibly\u0026nbsp;earnest...","published_at":"2021-06-29T16:31:01Z","author_name":"Tyler Tringas","url":"/feed/146303","canonical_url":"https://wefunder.com/feed/146303"},{"id":146040,"entity_id":"wefunder:feed_item:146040","type":"FeedItem::Update","visibility":"public","title":"It's The Final Phase 🚀 (action required)","preview":"Calm Company Fund (formerly Earnest Capital) Investors - The moment we've been waiting for has arrived. The paperwork has all been filed (finally 🙏) and our Reg CF crowdfunding campaign has now entered the final phase and will be closing soon. We're in awe of the incredible group of folks who have committed to supporting our mission to fund calm companies.\u0026nbsp;🚨 ACTION REQUIRED: per regulations, all investors need to login and re-confirm their investment. More details below.📢 We're also thri...","published_at":"2021-06-18T20:23:49Z","author_name":"Tyler Tringas","url":"/feed/146040","canonical_url":"https://wefunder.com/feed/146040"},{"id":144117,"entity_id":"wefunder:feed_item:144117","type":"FeedItem::Update","visibility":"public","title":"Over $1m \u0026amp; another portfolio exit!","preview":"Wefunder investors,I'm thrilled to share that in our first week of this campaign we blasted past the $1m mark ($1.25m at the time I'm sending this). You all are amazing. Thank you so much for your support 🙏It has also been a great week for the Earnest Capital portfolio. EnjoyHQ, our first investment out of Fund II, was acquired by UserZoom (read the announcement\u0026nbsp;from CEO Sofia Quintero).\u0026nbsp;In the meantime, we still have another $750k to go to hit our goal. Any boosts on social media\u0026n...","published_at":"2021-04-22T14:58:00Z","author_name":"Tyler Tringas","url":"/feed/144117","canonical_url":"https://wefunder.com/feed/144117"}],"q_and_a":[{"id":141805,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:141805","question":"Hey Tyler! We did a report on Earnest Capital's Reg CF campaign: https://sacra.com/research/earnest-capital-funding-bootstrappers/ Here were some of our conclusions: 1) Cumulative funds raised and DPI are the two main levers for Earnest to return capital to Reg CF investors, 2) To get a return, investors should believe that Earnest can scale up AUM by $25-50M per year and achieve 2-3x DPI, and 3) So far, Earnest's Fund 1 and especially the 2019 cohort has outperformed the median 2-year old fund on a TVPI basis. My question: given the amount of companies you'll need to invest in at $250-$500M AUM, how much of the investment process do you think will require bringing on additional GPs and how much do you think automation can help?","author_name":"Jan Erik Asplund","votes":12,"created_at":"2021-04-14T13:47:35Z","canonical_url":"https://wefunder.com/calmfund#question-141805","answers":[{"id":141815,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:141815","answer":"Yep! As you know I thought the report was super well done. The answer is it's a mix of both but scaling to more GPs is 100% part of the plan. Fund III for us will be a $10m/year pace with still just me as the only investing GP. If you look across different funds and do some envelope math, you see that very few funds exceed investing $10m per year per GP in 'first checks' (not follow-ons). So I think this is a reasonable per GP limit. We're definitely building an on-ramp for folks to become GPs at Earnest Capital (https://earnestcapital.com/become-an-investor/) and part of what this fundraise will do is fund the supercharged scouting program that we intend to be a proving ground for new GPs that eventually join us full-time. Lastly, you're right that automation and internal tools plays a big role here. We've invested a huge amount into some fairly cutting low-code tech that will allow each GP at the fund to operate at a high level of efficiency with best practices and workflows pre-baked.","author_name":"Tyler Tringas","votes":10,"created_at":"2021-04-14T14:10:37Z"}]},{"id":140033,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:140033","question":"Will Earnest crowdfund again? Would that dilute?","author_name":"Corey Haines","votes":5,"created_at":"2021-04-06T01:39:25Z","canonical_url":"https://wefunder.com/calmfund#question-140033","answers":[{"id":140338,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:140338","answer":"The interest here will be non-dilutable. So if we ever did another Reg CF campaign it would be a for a separate slice of carry and wouldn't dilute existing Class CF investors.","author_name":"Tyler Tringas","votes":17,"created_at":"2021-04-07T20:40:25Z"}]},{"id":139029,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:139029","question":"Hey Tyler, I've been following your journey for quite some time and I love what you're doing. I penciled myself in on your Twitter poll as an investor pending the terms. Can you say more about how you got the $20M post-valuation number? If I'm understanding this correctly, investors today would not break even until the business was 5x more valuable than it is today.","author_name":"Collin Ferry","votes":5,"created_at":"2021-03-31T15:55:37Z","canonical_url":"https://wefunder.com/calmfund#question-139029","answers":[{"id":139331,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:139331","answer":"Hey Collin, good/tough question! Candidly valuing funds like this is hard and there aren't a lot of comparable examples except Backstage Capital which recently did a CF campaign at a $50m valuation. One way to think about it is that, as long as we do a good job investing (at least as good as we have so far) then for every cumulative $50m we are able to raise and invest, that should eventually mean $2m to the Reg CF investors ($50m * 3x returns * 20% carry * 10% to Reg CF) which would be 1x each investor's investment. Can't make any promises of course, but that is reasonable back-of-the-envelope math. If we don't really grow and just raise/invest $10m per year for 10 years that would be $100m in total funds (so by the same math a 2x return for CF investors) and our goal is to grow much more than that. At the end of the day, this is a bet that we are going to build a major player in a massive market and scale up to be able to invest in 100s to 1,000s of investors a year which is absolutely my goal and this fundraise \u0026amp; support will make that even more likely. Our goal is to be investing \u0026gt;$50m *every year* and scale up to meet the demand of entrepreneurs everywhere.","author_name":"Tyler Tringas","votes":10,"created_at":"2021-04-01T16:23:10Z"}]},{"id":138739,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:138739","question":"How should we think about when distributions will potentially start? Is it as early as when Fund I has returned the remaining ~$2M to LPs, or will that money in some way be reinvested into Earnest? (and then Wefunder investors will receive 1/10 of the 20% of returns Earnest takes after that)","author_name":"Loften Deprez","votes":4,"created_at":"2021-03-30T20:04:28Z","canonical_url":"https://wefunder.com/calmfund#question-138739","answers":[{"id":138752,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:138752","answer":"Good question! Yes, distributions would start as soon as any of our funds has returned \u0026gt;1x capital back to the investors (LPs) in those funds. They will be distributed then, not reinvested. We haven't set an exact cadence for when distributions would be dispersed to investors yet but I would expect them to be either quarterly or annually.","author_name":"Tyler Tringas","votes":9,"created_at":"2021-03-30T20:37:29Z"}]},{"id":150503,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:150503","question":"So maybe it's time for a do-over? How about $1M goal and a $10M post-money valuation? You've got the traction already. Of course it's probably not that simple, but let us know what you're thinking.","author_name":"Daniel Wright","votes":3,"created_at":"2021-05-24T13:16:45Z","canonical_url":"https://wefunder.com/calmfund#question-150503","answers":[{"id":152108,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:152108","answer":"Thanks Daniel :) We are actually just stuck in a holding pattern waiting for some paperwork to clear so we can move the campaign to the final phase. Quite a number of large investment are pending approval in that phase and not reflected in our current totals, so we're sticking with the same goal for now. Appreciate the suggestion and stay tuned.","author_name":"Tyler Tringas","votes":1,"created_at":"2021-06-01T23:37:28Z"},{"id":154467,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:154467","answer":"As a quick update to Tyler's original answer to this, the campaign is now fully live! All investments can be funded and made official at this point.","author_name":"Matt Goldstein","votes":0,"created_at":"2021-06-22T22:22:58Z"}]},{"id":142155,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:142155","question":"What if you get bored of this model, and do not raise funds beyond Fund III or Fund IV. How many funds do you plan on doing?","author_name":"Hamad Dar","votes":2,"created_at":"2021-04-15T02:38:25Z","canonical_url":"https://wefunder.com/calmfund#question-142155","answers":[{"id":142254,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:142254","answer":"This is a really good question, and one that I have to ask myself every time I make an investment in a founder from our funds. At the end of the day, there's *always* some risk the founder loses interest because... Life Happens. So there's no perfect answer but here are two thoughts from me: 1/ I'm 35 years old and this is the best job I've ever had in my life. Getting to meet, learn from, and support entrepreneurs working on an endless stream of new ideas is amazing. I can absolutely see doing this for the next 30+ years across who knows how many funds in total. 2/ Per answers to other questions here, I'm absolutely committed to growing the team at Earnest including a strategy for bringing on more GPs into the fund. So over time, Earnest Capital should become less and less dependent on me individually and more about the overall mission.","author_name":"Tyler Tringas","votes":8,"created_at":"2021-04-15T16:09:35Z"}]},{"id":142075,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:142075","question":"If I made a reservation when this was still private does wefunder automatically put that down now that you're live? Or do I need to enter the investment again?","author_name":"Michael Citrano","votes":2,"created_at":"2021-04-14T22:27:06Z","canonical_url":"https://wefunder.com/calmfund#question-142075","answers":[{"id":142128,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:142128","answer":"You shouldn't need to enter the investment again. You can confirm that your reservation was made by going to your account (your picture in upper right on desktop) and clicking \"Portfolio\"","author_name":"Matt Goldstein","votes":3,"created_at":"2021-04-15T00:51:37Z"}]},{"id":142036,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:142036","question":"Wondering if I can invest through my LLC? Is it allowed as my business is now a SaaS, and these are investments in the same sector 😇","author_name":"Vincent Le Moign","votes":2,"created_at":"2021-04-14T20:35:35Z","canonical_url":"https://wefunder.com/calmfund#question-142036","answers":[{"id":142049,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:142049","answer":"i *think* so but this is a good question to double-check with Wefunder at help@wefunder.com","author_name":"Tyler Tringas","votes":4,"created_at":"2021-04-14T21:20:22Z"}]},{"id":141826,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:141826","question":"Hi Tyler, I really love all your efforts at earnest capital to \"Arm the rebels\" and your outlook about bootstrapping and clm tech company. I want to invest but I'm based in Europe is it possible?","author_name":"Josh Louis-Alexandre","votes":2,"created_at":"2021-04-14T14:32:52Z","canonical_url":"https://wefunder.com/calmfund#question-141826","answers":[{"id":141850,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:141850","answer":"Thank you! Yes, definitely you can invest from Europe. At this phase of the campaign you might not be able to *fund* the investment yet, but you'll have an option to do so before we close it.","author_name":"Tyler Tringas","votes":2,"created_at":"2021-04-14T14:58:37Z"}]},{"id":140032,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:140032","question":"Is \"buying into\" a percentage of carry *perpetual*?","author_name":"Corey Haines","votes":2,"created_at":"2021-04-06T01:39:17Z","canonical_url":"https://wefunder.com/calmfund#question-140032","answers":[{"id":140337,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:140337","answer":"Yes, the offering is a perpetual stake in the carried interest of all current and future funds.","author_name":"Tyler Tringas","votes":3,"created_at":"2021-04-07T20:39:35Z"}]},{"id":139030,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:139030","question":"Are you planning on bringing on additional GPs anytime soon?","author_name":"David Furlong","votes":2,"created_at":"2021-03-31T15:55:44Z","canonical_url":"https://wefunder.com/calmfund#question-139030","answers":[{"id":139034,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:139034","answer":"I definitely want to expand the number of GPs at Earnest Capital. Part of what we'll do with this investment is fund the referral compensation our scout program (which candidly we're still working on). Here's more detail on the plan https://earnestcapital.com/become-an-investor/","author_name":"Tyler Tringas","votes":6,"created_at":"2021-03-31T16:03:05Z"}]},{"id":138800,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:138800","question":"I really like what you guys are building and am trying to wrap my head around the #s. With $20M post and an effective 2% of carry, the fund would need to net $1B from carry to break even on distributions over time? Let me know if this is correct or if I'm screwing up the post-money valuation part. Thx!","author_name":"Ryan Buckholtz","votes":2,"created_at":"2021-03-30T22:38:50Z","canonical_url":"https://wefunder.com/calmfund#question-138800","answers":[{"id":138803,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:138803","answer":"Hi Ryan, fair question. 1) I think you're over by a decimal place here. $20m is the effective valuation of the firm, but it's $2m for 10% of the carry (which you've got correct as effectively 2% carry assuming we never increase our carry from 20%). So at $100m fund profits = $20m of carried interest (not $1B) = $2m back to the Reg CF investors who then break-even. 2) This is definitely a bet that over the long-term we are able to raise and effectively deploy much larger funds than our current fund-sizing. That's our goal for sure and what I mean when I talk about building the \"new default form of funding.\"","author_name":"Tyler Tringas","votes":7,"created_at":"2021-03-30T22:48:37Z"}]},{"id":206936,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:206936","question":"There has not been an update for almost a year. What is going on?","author_name":"Thomas Lindstrøm","votes":1,"created_at":"2022-05-31T19:17:12Z","canonical_url":"https://wefunder.com/calmfund#question-206936","answers":[]},{"id":195044,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:195044","question":"Hi Tyler and team. For tax planning purposes, can investors expect a K-1 this year for 2021?","author_name":"Drew Blessing","votes":1,"created_at":"2022-03-03T21:00:43Z","canonical_url":"https://wefunder.com/calmfund#question-195044","answers":[]},{"id":148074,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:148074","question":"I am from India and in US on a work permit ( H1B). Can I invest in this? I know I can invest in stocks but would this be any different?","author_name":"Vatsal Pande","votes":1,"created_at":"2021-05-09T06:07:03Z","canonical_url":"https://wefunder.com/calmfund#question-148074","answers":[{"id":148558,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:148558","answer":"Hi Vatsal, thanks for the question. This is definitely open to non-US investors. Our understanding from the Wefunder team is that once we enter the closing phase of the campaign (right now we're doing \"reservations\" until we have the regulatory documents filed) there will be more options for international investors to fund their investment. Looks like SWIFT and Transferwise are both supported: https://help.wefunder.com/154992-linked/international-investor-guide","author_name":"Matt Goldstein","votes":0,"created_at":"2021-05-12T16:52:57Z"}]},{"id":142073,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:142073","question":"How will this work for European citizens? Keep up the amazing work at Earnest","author_name":"Pedro Moura","votes":1,"created_at":"2021-04-14T22:21:41Z","canonical_url":"https://wefunder.com/calmfund#question-142073","answers":[{"id":142133,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:142133","answer":"Hi Pedro, this is a bit more of a question for the Wefunder team. This is definitely open to non-US investors. We believe once we enter the closing phase of the campaign (right now we're doing \"reservations\") there will be more options for international investors to fund their investment. Looks like SWIFT and Transferwise are supported: https://help.wefunder.com/154992-linked/international-investor-guide","author_name":"Matt Goldstein","votes":2,"created_at":"2021-04-15T01:02:51Z"}]},{"id":142062,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:142062","question":"Hi, just to double check - the carried interest allocated to unit holders on Schedule K-1 will consist of long-term capital gains, right? Or could it consist of qualified dividends or ordinary business income via the shared earnings agreements? If congress were to repeal the \"carried interest loophole\" in the tax code, would it affect Earnest Capital unit holders given the fact that (unlike the LP fund unit holders) their seed capital as the GP essentially would have never been at risk when realizing gains on portfolio investments?","author_name":"Lucas Selvidge","votes":1,"created_at":"2021-04-14T22:00:48Z","canonical_url":"https://wefunder.com/calmfund#question-142062","answers":[{"id":142134,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:142134","answer":"Hi, Lucas. As you noted, Investors (of these “Class CF” units) will be members of a Special Purpose Vehicle LLC formed specifically for this campaign, and will receive a Form K-1 for their proportional tax liability as returns are paid to Investors. Carried Interest income is typically taxed as capital gains, but we aren’t able to make any promises as to tax treatment, and recommend that investors speak with a tax advisor if they have questions or concerns. Please note that all relevant legal \u0026amp; regulatory documents (the SPV Operating Agreement, Class CF Units Subscription Agreement, and SEC Form C including audited financials of Earnest Capital LLC) will all be available for review prior to your commitment being funded and the campaign closing.","author_name":"Matt Goldstein","votes":5,"created_at":"2021-04-15T01:03:55Z"}]},{"id":140031,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:140031","question":"Can Earnest scale to the level of AUM needed to return capital to a Wefunder investor like me with the current investment terms (SEAL) or will it need to expand into other investment \"vehicles\"?","author_name":"Corey Haines","votes":1,"created_at":"2021-04-06T01:38:56Z","canonical_url":"https://wefunder.com/calmfund#question-140031","answers":[{"id":140336,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:140336","answer":"Good question, took a crack at it on Twitter: https://twitter.com/tylertringas/status/1379895965272965129?s=20","author_name":"Tyler Tringas","votes":3,"created_at":"2021-04-07T20:39:02Z"}]},{"id":139028,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:139028","question":"Hey! Can you walk through the exact carried interest calculations for the class CF units? I.e. does \"a 10% share of that equity\" mean 10% the entire pool of carried interest? (or 10% of the 80% that you personally own? or something else?) Walking through the math with a specific example (e.g. if Earnest had $100M in AUM and generated a 3x net return) would be super helpful. Thanks!","author_name":"Geri Kirilova","votes":1,"created_at":"2021-03-31T15:52:06Z","canonical_url":"https://wefunder.com/calmfund#question-139028","answers":[{"id":139031,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:139031","answer":"Yes! So we're working off a $20m valuation and $2m total raise for the 10% figure. If for some reason we raise less or more than $2m, we'll adjust the percentage accordingly. Eg If we uncap it and go to $2.5m total raise, 10% will go to 12.5%. That percentage is of the total carried interest (not a percentage of my ownership). So the most likely allocation of all the carry across all existing and future funds at the end of this is: 10% to Class CF investors, 20% Earnest Capital Team + Early LPs, remaining 70% Tyler (and likely splitting that 70% with future GPs in future funds as we grow).","author_name":"Tyler Tringas","votes":4,"created_at":"2021-03-31T15:56:28Z"}]},{"id":288826,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:288826","question":"Hello I hope this message finds you well. I am writing to extend a warm welcome to you as a valued investor in . Your decision to invest in our vision and goals means a great deal to us. Am committed to innovation, growth, and creating lasting value. With your support, we are excited to embark on this journey together, leveraging opportunities and overcoming challenges to achieve success. Your investment not only fuels our ambitions but also reinforces your confidence in our team and our mission. We are grateful for your trust and look forward to sharing our progress and achievements with you. Should you have any questions, suggestions, or simply want to connect, please do not hesitate to reach out. Your input is highly valued, and we are eager to hear from you. Once again, thank you for joining us on this exciting venture. Together, we will build a prosperous future. Warm regards, [ my name is Nivail murcus] [contact me on this Gmail\u0026gt; nivailmarcur@gmail.com]","author_name":"Nivial Marcus","votes":0,"created_at":"2024-07-25T16:47:15Z","canonical_url":"https://wefunder.com/calmfund#question-288826","answers":[]},{"id":270285,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:270285","question":"Any updates or 2022 Financials?","author_name":"Rainer Filthaut","votes":0,"created_at":"2023-11-29T19:53:05Z","canonical_url":"https://wefunder.com/calmfund#question-270285","answers":[]},{"id":268614,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:268614","question":"How is it going? Is the Fund still investing in startups ? Seems very calm lately","author_name":"David Amselem","votes":0,"created_at":"2023-11-10T04:31:50Z","canonical_url":"https://wefunder.com/calmfund#question-268614","answers":[]},{"id":257700,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:257700","question":"How do I liquidate my very small investment, get that money back and then close my accounts? I asked support and they said the return on any potential investment is seven years? I put $241 back in late 2021, so at this point seems like it's just better to close out and buy something else with that money. If there is no possible way to get the investment back, can I just donate it to some charity (please provide details on a reputable charity that just doesn't take money to pay executives) and then I can close my account? Thanks, Mark","author_name":"Mark Kaishar","votes":0,"created_at":"2023-08-09T17:32:59Z","canonical_url":"https://wefunder.com/calmfund#question-257700","answers":[]},{"id":248744,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:248744","question":"Hi there! Looking for an update since we haven't receive anything since Mar 2022. Thanks!","author_name":"Eric So","votes":0,"created_at":"2023-05-31T17:56:28Z","canonical_url":"https://wefunder.com/calmfund#question-248744","answers":[]},{"id":155749,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:155749","question":"This deal is a tad confusing by nature, because it seems we are investing in your VC firm in and of itself, and not the underlying funds, however, by proxy of shared carry, we essentially are also investing in your underlying investments by association yes? Is that fair to say? Does this make us silent GPs since LPs don't usually get carry? Are the majority of the investments you plan to make going to be SEAL deals, and is this Reg CF on WeFunder a SEAL deal? I understand you incepted this type of agreement, have the become standard in the industry? Much thanks! Love it so far.","author_name":"Brad Hines","votes":0,"created_at":"2021-07-01T19:10:13Z","canonical_url":"https://wefunder.com/calmfund#question-155749","answers":[{"id":155801,"entity_id":"wefunder:comment:155801","answer":"Hi Brad, thanks for your question. It's correct that you're investing in a portion of the General Partner equity (the \"VC firm in and of itself\")—up to 10% of Tyler's total carried interest—and not in the underlying funds. As a GP and manager of investment funds, the returns from carried interest are based on the investments. This Reg CF fundraise is not based on a SEAL, this is a direct investment in Class CF Units of the GP/management company (Calm Company Fund LLC). See the \"Details\" tab and our public filings for all of the details and legal agreements, etc.","author_name":"Matt Goldstein","votes":0,"created_at":"2021-07-01T21:38:31Z"}]}],"faq":[{"question":"How should we think about when distributions will potentially start? Is it as early as when Fund I has returned the remaining ~$2M to LPs, or will that money in some way be reinvested into Earnest? (and then Wefunder investors will receive 1/10 of the 20% of returns Earnest ta...","answer":"Good question! Yes, distributions would start as soon as any of our funds has returned \u0026gt;1x capital back to the investors (LPs) in those funds. They will be distributed then, not reinvested. We haven't set an exact cadence for when distributions would be dispersed to investors yet but I would expect them to be either quarterly or annually."},{"question":"I really like what you guys are building and am trying to wrap my head around the #s. With $20M post and an effective 2% of carry, the fund would need to net $1B from carry to break even on distributions over time? Let me know if this is correct or if I'm screwing up the post-...","answer":"Hi Ryan, fair question. 1) I think you're over by a decimal place here. $20m is the effective valuation of the firm, but it's $2m for 10% of the carry (which you've got correct as effectively 2% carry assuming we never increase our carry from 20%). So at $100m fund profits = $20m of carried interest (not $1B) = $2m back to the Reg CF investors who then break-even. 2) This is definitely a bet that over the long-term we are able to raise and effectively deploy much larger funds than our current..."},{"question":"Hey! Can you walk through the exact carried interest calculations for the class CF units? I.e. does \"a 10% share of that equity\" mean 10% the entire pool of carried interest? (or 10% of the 80% that you personally own? or something else?) Walking through the math with a specif...","answer":"Yes! So we're working off a $20m valuation and $2m total raise for the 10% figure. If for some reason we raise less or more than $2m, we'll adjust the percentage accordingly. Eg If we uncap it and go to $2.5m total raise, 10% will go to 12.5%. That percentage is of the total carried interest (not a percentage of my ownership). So the most likely allocation of all the carry across all existing and future funds at the end of this is: 10% to Class CF investors, 20% Earnest Capital Team + Early L..."},{"question":"Hey Tyler, I've been following your journey for quite some time and I love what you're doing. I penciled myself in on your Twitter poll as an investor pending the terms. Can you say more about how you got the $20M post-valuation number? If I'm understanding this correctly, inv...","answer":"Hey Collin, good/tough question! Candidly valuing funds like this is hard and there aren't a lot of comparable examples except Backstage Capital which recently did a CF campaign at a $50m valuation. One way to think about it is that, as long as we do a good job investing (at least as good as we have so far) then for every cumulative $50m we are able to raise and invest, that should eventually mean $2m to the Reg CF investors ($50m * 3x returns * 20% carry * 10% to Reg CF) which would be 1x ea..."},{"question":"Are you planning on bringing on additional GPs anytime soon?","answer":"I definitely want to expand the number of GPs at Earnest Capital. Part of what we'll do with this investment is fund the referral compensation our scout program (which candidly we're still working on). Here's more detail on the plan https://earnestcapital.com/become-an-investor/"}]}}}