Wefunder: We're like Kickstarter for investing. Help us fund 20,000 more founders.

Why you may want to support us...

1	$140+ million in investments
2	$6M revenue run rate
3	2X year over year growth in revenue and investment volume
4	Largest funding portal by investment volume and investors
5	$4 billion of follow-on financing into startups first on Wefunder. 30%+ IRR in 2013-16 vintage years
6	Helped Congress pass JOBS Act in 2012; invited to watch President Obama sign into law.

Why investors us

we've raised $11,553,181 since our founding

I've worked closely with Nick Tommarello for five years. I’ve been an investor, a co-worker, a mentor, and a friend. Nick has a simple and powerful vision for Wefunder: To give regular businesses the same access to capital that high-tech startups enjoy. From the very beginning, Nick said he was going to build a company to help every deserving business that needs capital start or grow. I watched as he and his team went to Washington to help convince Congress to enact the Crowdfunding Bill. And I’ve watched as they’ve built a remarkably fast and simple system that turns a concept of crowd funding into a reality of new growth for businesses.

Bill Warner

Founder of Avid - Investor in Wefunder

Well, it's only money. Also, very enthused about this.

Jerry Levine

Business-Savvy General Counsel | Innovative Attorney & Legal Operations Executive | Organizational Leader & Strategist

I believe in your vision for supporting the entrepreneur and small business community access to capital. Your business model is solid in terms of revenues and accessibility.

Kaj Pedersen

Entrepreneur with a proven record of success in setting strategic directions and leading teams to reach challenging goals.

Our team

And Our Major Accomplishments

Nick Tommarello

CEO

Designer, engineer, MBA, holder of Series 65, alumni of Y Combinator and Techstars. Also enjoys rock climbing, bungy jumping, and climbing mountains.

Greg Belote

CTO

Master's from MIT. Alumni of Y Combinator and Techstars. Codes in VIM with 8 windows open. Built embedded robot operating system as a hobby.

Jonny Price

Director of Fundraising

Former head of Kiva US and member of the community advisory council of the Federal Reserve.

Suzanna Rush

Head of Operations

Kieran Ryan

Fundraising Team

Gadi Borovich

Head of Venture Partners

Benjamin Nguyen

Software Engineer

Margarita Quijano

Fundraising Team

Jake Suggs

Account Manager

Kati Conley

Operations Team

Justin Renfro

Fundraising Team

Arie Milner

Software Engineer

Emilio Mendoza

Software Engineer

Jiwon Moon

Community

Stefan Seltz-Axmacher

Founder-in-Residence

Colin Barceloux

Founder-in-Residence

Adolf Akuffo-Afful

Fundraising Team

Marisa Trapani

Storyteller

Brian Lowenstein

Michael York

Anyi Weng

Elena Weissmann

In the news

Downloads

Wefunder Stock Investment Agreement .doc

wefunder.com

San Francisco

technology y combinator pbc and b corps crowdfunding

The Story of Wefunder

We've spent seven years bending the world to our will. In 2012, we helped Congress pass the JOBS Act. On May 16th 2016, it finally happened. Wefunder has been the largest funding portal ever since.

Jan 2012

Lobbied Congress to legalize equity crowdfunding

We thought it wrong that it was illegal to invest in our friends. So we launched a petition to Congress to change the law. We were invited to DC by Senator Brown, Senator Bennet, Senator Merkeley, and Rep. McHenry, and helped teach them how startups raise money. We were mentioned in the Senate and the Congressional Record several times.

Wefunder a few hours after launch; January 2012

Senator Brown & Rep. McHenry at Wefunder Forum

After a full day of meetings with Congress

Apr 2012

Invited to watch president obama sign

Congress passed Regulation Crowdfunding as part of the JOBS Act, and we were invited to the Rose Garden to watch President Obama sign it into law. The only hitch: the SEC had to write 600+ pages of rules before it could take effect. Little did we know that would take 4 years.

Mike Norman and Senator Brown at the signing ceremony

Jan 2013

Y COMBINATOR

We packed our bags and headed to California to attend Y Combinator, the Harvard of startup accelerators. We drank a lot of red bull and coded all night long. We also became friends with some of the most talented startup founders in the world. It helped us understand how to work with high-quality startups with lots of other financing options.

Right after our YC interview

This is how we survived for 3 months

Apr 2013

Launched 'rich person crowdfunding'

It became evident the SEC was not going to roll out Regulation Crowdfunding anytime soon. So we decided to use current law to help wealthy accredited investors around the world invest in promising tech startups. On March 25th, we launched our first company: Zenefits. At a $9 million valuation. Last we checked, it was worth $4.5 billion.

The first startups we funded in 2013

Apr 2014

Talks with sec

The rich person crowdfunding gig was fun, but it's not what we wanted to do long-term. We never took our eye off the SEC and their rule-making on Regulation Crowdfunding. We offered nearly 20 pages of detailed comments on their proposed rules and flew to Washington DC to meet the SEC in person.

Just before our friendly chat

Our official SEC comment letter

Jul 2015

make beautiful software

Thanks to our new designer, Linlin, we upgraded the entire web site with a more usable and beautiful design. And thanks to Greg and our new software engineer Omar, we became a "full-stack startup". We wrote our own payment transfer, electronic contract signing, accounting, funding portal, income verification, and SEC filing software. We knew we had to drive down costs if crowdfunding was going to work.

Oct 2015

sec posts final rules for reg crowdfunding

The SEC released 685 pages of rules. Wefunder was mentioned 72 times. Overall the rules were good, but there are a couple of flaws that Congress needs to fix to protect investors. Senator Bennet wrote a letter to the SEC with our concerns, and Congressman McHenry introduced the Fix Crowdfunding Act.

Mar 2016

Amtrak across America

For three years, we focused on funding tech startups in Silicon Valley. With Regulation Crowdfunding coming, it was time to expand. Our vision was always to help fund a cross-section of the economy in "real America". So our entire company hopped on a train and met hundreds of business owners across America, 12 cities in 2 weeks, coast to coast.

From SF to Boston via Amtrak

May 16 2016

regulation CROWDFUNDING GOES LIVE!

On May 16th, the law changed: startups can raise up to $1 million per year from their friends and supporters, who can invest as little as $100 each. Companies can be funded as they were 80+ years ago: by their friends, neighbors, and local communities. Not some conglomerate bank headquartered on Wall Street that treats you like a FICO score.

Why small businesses need Wefunder

Tom Lix, CEO of Cleveland Whiskey

Sep 2018

Launched XX: a community of founders

With the XX, we've recuited a community of all-star founders (who have built startups worth over $4.2 Billion) to scout out, invest in, and help startups succeed. 42% of our pre-seed investments have later been accepted by Y Combinator. We expect this to be the primary way new companies are recruited to use Wefunder.

Sep 2020

Wefunder is the largest funding portal

Over the first couple years of Regulation Crowdfunding, Wefunder is the largest funding portal by number of investments, investment volume, and investor returns.

In 2019, reforms are expected to fix Regulation Crowdfunding, greatly expanding the market. JOBS Act 3.0 has passed the House 406-4. Additionally, the Commision of the SEC has directed the staff to independently revise the regulations in the near-term.

Stats & Traction

Annual charts

On May 2016, Regulation Crowdfunding rolled out. Our business changed from serving only the wealthy to allowing anyone to invest as little as $100. We spent much of 2018 on more automation and operational improvements to handle the dramatic increase in investments. In 2019, our growth re-accelerated.

Our market share is increasing

Over 2019, we've done about as much Reg CF funding volume as our three closest competitors. This is despite Wefunder having a team of 12. Many of our other competitors have over 40 people.

Source: Crowditz

Economics

On average, each company raises ~$300k. We earn 9% cash fee for each dollar of funding volume. So we earn, on average, ~$27,275 per company funded. Our direct costs to launch each company is under $500. Our cost of acquisition is under $200.

We've been profitable since March 2019. Our monthly expenses have been about $240,000 over 2019. At a 9% average fee, we need to exceed $2.5M in Reg CF investment volume per month to be profitable. We've easily done that over 2019.

$303,053

Avg. Funding per Company

7.5%

Cash Transaction Fee Paid by Company

1.5%

Avg. Cash Transaction Fee Paid by Investors

$27,275

Revenue per Company Funded

$500

Direct Costs per Company

$200

Acquisition Cost per Company

$359,445

Revenue, August 2019

$241,824

Avg. Monthly Expenses,
2019

$2.5M

Reg CF Investment Volume to breakeven at 9% fee

Our Growth Driver: Companies

We're a double-sided marketplace. But we focus on acquiring companies, not investors. Each company we launch brings their friends, customers, and supporters to Wefunder - 58% of their total. 22% of these investors then invest in other companies.

$303,053

Average funding per company funded since May 16th 2016

334

Average Investors per company funded since May 16th 2016

58%

194 of 334 investors are new to Wefunder, referred by the company

22%

22% of these 194 new investors make another investment in a different company on Wefunder

$99,370

These 42 new investors invest a combined $99,370 in other companies within a year

Lifetime Value per Company

The value per company funded is at least $29,920 in the first year. The lifetime value may be 5X higher if we include referrals, follow-on financings, future value of equity or carry, the LTV of each investor the company signs up, & other services we can cross-sell. Here are two examples.

Barrow's: $154,000+

Barrow's raised $301,688 in 2016.

Barrow's signed up 224 new investors to invest in their round. They have since invested $1,082,069 in other companies on Wefunder.

The founder referred two companies - Vaute and Avua - that raised $336,854 on Wefunder.

At our current fee, the value of adding Barrow's Intense to date would be $154,000.

LegionM: $1M+

Using Reg CF, LegionM raised $1M in 2016 and another $1M in 2018. LegionM also raised another $5M+ using Reg A+

LegionM signed up 19,119 new investors to invest in their rounds, who since invested over $3,440,017 in other companies on Wefunder.

Reg A+ is free until we decide to be a broker/dealer. Otherwise, LegionM's value would be over $1M.

Cost of Company Acquisition

Our average cost per company is ~$200, all of which was paid to our scout program. We did not have any other marketing, direct sales, or advertising expenses.

As a long-term strategy, we expect referrals from the XX to be the primary way we acquire companies to fund. The XX is a team of very experienced founders who personally invest in and mentor early-stage founders on our platform. The best of those will eventually use Wefunder to crowdfund from their users and customers.

2013-2016 Investor Returns

Results as of December 2018, assuming an investor chose to invest $25,000 in each company that was funded on Wefunder from 2013-2016.

30%

Unrealized net IRR²

Vs. 15% IRR for Top 25% of venture capital firms³

$3,000,000

Total if invested $25K in each startup on Wefunder

$13,030,500

Current unrealized value as of September 2020

4.3X

Return multiple

72%

Startups still active
(86 of 120)

38%

Startups who went on to raise a Series A over $3M

$4 Billion

Follow-on financing
after our investment

9 @ $100M

9 startups now valued at over $100 million

Company	Follow-on Funding after We Invested	Last Status	Return Multiple	Value of $25K Investment
Zenefits	$581,500,000 $582M	$500M Series C by Fidelity	281.68X	$7,042,000
Checkr	$309,000,000 $309M	$160M Series D by T. Rowe Price	34.31X	$857,750
Rappi	$1,391,800,000 $1.39B	$1B Series E by SoftBank	26.23X	$655,750
Ginkgo Bioworks	$719,000,000 $719M	$290M Series E by T. Rowe Price	13.76X	$344,000
Guesty	$59,400,000 $59.4M	$35M Series C by Viola Growth	12.82X	$320,500
Ironclad	$84,000,000 $84M	$50M Series C by Y Combinator	11.01X	$275,250
Scope AR	$11,700,000 $11.7M	$9.7M Series A by Romulus Capital	10.6X	$265,000
Equipmentshare	$58,600,000 $58.6M	$25M Venture Round
Unbabel	$91,000,000 $91M	$60M Series C by Point72 Ventures	5.76X	$144,000
Gravitational	$29,200,000 $29.2M	$25M Series A by Kleiner Perkins	5.6X	$140,000
Second Measure	$25,400,000 $25.4M	$20M Series A by Bessemer Venture Partners
Freight Farms	$11,405,407 $11.4M	Alive	3.98X	$99,500
ShipBob	$63,000,000 $63M	$40M Series C by Menlo Ventures	3.51X	$87,750
GrubMarket	$90,000,000 $90M	$28M Series C by Digital Garage, WI Harper Group	3.14X	$78,500
Casetext	$41,400,000 $41.4M	Alive	2.72X	$68,000
Mux	$31,800,000 $31.8M	$20M Series B by Evolution Media	2.72X	$68,000
Privy	$6,500,000 $6.5M	$4.3M Series A by Samuel Clemens	2.69X	$67,250
Flaviar	$1,600,000 $1.6M	Alive	2.08X	$52,000
Virtuix	$7,700,000 $7.7M	$7.7M Equity Crowdfunding	1.96X	$49,000
Next Caller	$5,000,000 $5M	$5M Series A by Crystal Towers	1.9X	$47,500
Eden	$38,700,000 $38.7M	$25M Series B by Reshape
Astranis	$13,500,000 $13.5M	$13.5M Series A by Andreessen Horowitz	1.86X	$46,500
Skymind	$17,500,000 $17.5M	$11.5M Series A by TransLink Capital
Paperspace	$23,000,000 $23M	$14.5M Series A by Battery Ventures, Intel Capital	1.63X	$40,750
Regalii	$0 $0.0	Alive	1.53X	$38,250
7 Cups of Tea	$0 $0.0	Alive	1.5X	$37,500
Mashgin	$11,000,000 $11M	$8.2M Series A by Matrix Partners	1.4X	$35,000
Aptible	$12,000,000 $12M	$12M Series A by Maverick Ventures
Cleanly	$5,000,000 $5M	$5M Series A by AddVenture	1.24X	$31,000
OwnLocal	$0 $0.0	OwnLocal buys back investors.	1.18X	$29,500
Flirtey	$16,000,000 $16M	$16M Series A by Menlo Ventures, Qualcomm Ventures	1.11X	$27,750
Eight (Formerly Luna)	$69,400,000 $69.4M	$40M Series C by Founders Fund
RealCrowd	$0 $0.0	Alive	1.07X	$26,750
ROSS Intelligence	$13,120,000 $13.1M	$8.7M Series A by Inovia Capital	1.06X	$26,500
Labdoor	$7,700,000 $7.7M	$3.4 Series A by Floodgate	1.05X	$26,250
Experiment	$0 $0.0	Alive	1.03X	$25,750
Goldbely	$30,000,000 $30M	$20M Series B by Enlightened Hospitality Investments
Jopwell	$10,920,000 $10.9M	$7.5M Series A by Cue Ball	1X	$25,000
ZenProspect	$9,200,000 $9.2M	Nexus Venture Partners	1X	$25,000
LivBlends	$8,620,000 $8.62M	$6.9M Venture Round
MTailor	$7,200,000 $7.2M	$5.2M Series A by Khosla Ventures	1X	$25,000
Gecko Robotics	$7,000,000 $7M	$7M Series A by Founders Fund	1X	$25,000
Senic	$6,300,000 $6.3M	$4M Seed Round by Birchmere Ventures, Target Partners, Gira	1X	$25,000
AlphaFlow	$6,300,000 $6.3M	$4.1M Seed Round by Point72 Ventures, Resolute Venture Partners	1X	$25,000
Zenysis	$5,800,000 $5.8M	$5.8M Series A
Shinesty	$5,165,000 $5.17M	$3.4M Venture Round	1X	$25,000
Plate iQ	$4,000,000 $4M	$4M Series A by Eileses Capital	1X	$25,000
Wevorce	$3,100,000 $3.1M	$3.1M Series A by Techstars Ventures	1X	$25,000
OncoSynergy	$3,000,000 $3M	$3M Series A by Connecticut Innovations
Smarking	$3,000,000 $3M	$3M Seed Round by Khosla Ventures	1X	$25,000
Final	$3,000,000 $3M	Acquired by Goldman Sachs	1X	$25,000
The Ticket Fairy	$2,500,000 $2.5M	$2.5M Seed Round	1X	$25,000
PAKIBLE	$2,250,000 $2.25M	$1.5M Seed Round	1X	$25,000
Meadow	$2,100,000 $2.1M	$2.1M Seed Round	1X	$25,000
Chai	$2,000,000 $2M	$2M Seed Round	1X	$25,000
Transcend Lighting	$2,000,000 $2M	$2M Venture Round by Rose Capital	1X	$25,000
VOIQ	$2,000,000 $2M	$2M Seed Round by 10x Capital Management, LEAP Global Partners	1X	$25,000
Lawn Love	$1,800,000 $1.8M	Alive	1X	$25,000
Instavest	$1,700,000 $1.7M	$1.7M Seed Round	1X	$25,000
Naytev	$1,300,000 $1.3M	Alive	1X	$25,000
Roomstorm	$1,300,000 $1.3M	$1.3M Seed Round by S2 Capital, Y Combinator	1X	$25,000
Terrafugia	$1,000,000 $1M	Acquired by Geely for Stock	1X	$25,000
Asseta	$1,000,000 $1M	$1M Seed Round by Flight Ventures	1X	$25,000
Chronos	$0 $0.0	Alive	1X	$25,000
Depict	$0 $0.0	Alive	1X	$25,000
Underground Cellar	$0 $0.0	Alive	1X	$25,000
Toymail	$0 $0.0	Alive	1X	$25,000
GBatteries	$0 $0.0	$1.2M grant by Canada	1X	$25,000
Italist	$0 $0.0	Alive	1X	$25,000
Akido Labs	$0 $0.0	Alive	1X	$25,000
Her	$0 $0.0	$1M Seed Round	1X	$25,000
Ravti	$0 $0.0	Alive	1X	$25,000
MotionSavvy	$0 $0.0	Alive	1X	$25,000
Give Me Tap!	$0 $0.0	Alive	1X	$25,000
Parknav	$0 $0.0	Alive	1X	$25,000
CapLinked	$0 $0.0	Alive	1X	$25,000
BitAccess	$0 $0.0	$1M Seed Round by Pantera Capital	1X	$25,000
Roost	$0 $0.0	Alive	1X	$25,000
Traction	$0 $0.0	Alive	1X	$25,000
Bonfire	$0 $0.0	Acquired by GTY Technology Holdings for $108M	1X	$25,000
Vertical	$0 $0.0	$1M Seed Round	1X	$25,000
Nextravel	$0 $0.0	Alive	1X	$25,000
One Month	$0 $0.0	Alive	1X	$25,000
TrendMD	$0 $0.0	Alive	1X	$25,000
Lynks	$0 $0.0	Alive	1X	$25,000
Unima	$0 $0.0	Alive	1X	$25,000
SimpleLegal	$0 $0.0	Acquired by Onit	2.88X	$72,000
StatusPage.io	$0 $0.0	Acquired by Atlassian for Cash	2.71X	$67,750
Interviewed	$0 $0.0	Acquired by Indeed for Cash	1X	$25,000
Two Tap	$0 $0.0	Acquired by Honey	1X	$25,000
Geekatoo	$0 $0.0	Acquired by HelloTech	1X	$25,000
Outbound	$0 $0.0	Acquired by Zendesk	0.84X	$21,000
Worklife	$0 $0.0	Acquired by Cisco Systems Inc.	0.83X	$20,750
Kash	$0 $0.0	Acquired by 10Pearls	0.73X	$18,250
Watchsend	$0 $0.0	Acquired	0.52X	$13,000
Olset	$0 $0.0	Acquired by Deem Inc.	0.1X	$2,500
Magnises	$2,000,000 $2M	Failed	0X	$0
Fixed	$615,000 $615K	Failed	0X	$0
Valet Anywhere	$0 $0.0	Failed	0X	$0
Camperoo	$0 $0.0	Failed	0X	$0
Emberlight	$0 $0.0	Failed	0X	$0
Whale Path	$0 $0.0	Failed	0X	$0
uBiome	$0 $0.0	Failed	0X	$0
Gone	$0 $0.0	Failed	0X	$0
SourceEasy	$0 $0.0	Failed	0X	$0
Swapbox	$0 $0.0	Failed	0X	$0
Doblet	$0 $0.0	Failed	0X	$0
Nomiku	$0 $0.0	Failed	0X	$0
Stayful	$0 $0.0	Failed	0X	$0
Dealflicks	$0 $0.0	Failed	0X	$0
Beep	$0 $0.0	Failed	0X	$0
LightSail Energy	$0 $0.0	Failed	0X	$0
CoolChip	$0 $0.0	Failed	0X	$0
Bikanta	$0 $0.0	Failed	0X	$0
Bluesmart	$0 $0.0	Failed	0X	$0
MadeSolid	$0 $0.0	Failed	0X	$0
Automate Ads	$0 $0.0	Failed	0X	$0
Vive	$0 $0.0	Failed	0X	$0
Tsumobi	$0 $0.0	Failed	0X	$0
Appcanary	$0 $0.0	Acquired by Github	0X	$0

1.Assuming all startups funded by Wefunder Advisors were in the portfolio of one fund with equal $25K investments, comparison data by Cambridge Associates.
2.Net IRR after fees and carry. Marked as of March 2019, to latest valuation paid by an investor. Unaudited. Unrealized. Learn about IRR
3.Source: Cambridge Associates. Note that unrealized IRR often goes down over time. The final realized return will likely be lower.
4.Past performance is not indicative of future returns. Read Other Disclosures

2016-2017 Regulation Crowdfunding

Company	Date Closed	Amount Raised on Wefunder	Last Status
Everipedia	Dec 2016	$129,878	$30M Series A by Digital Galaxy
Beta Bionics	Aug 2016	$1,000,000	Co-led by Perceptive Advisors and Soleus Capital.
Meow Wolf	Jul 2017	$1,069,939	$158.6M Venture Round
Industry Water Filtration, Inc.	Jul 2018	$56,926	Alive
Cleveland Whiskey	Oct 2016	$711,787	Annual sales increased in 2017 by 63%
Legion M	Aug 2016	$999,849	"Bad Samaritan" is opening 5/4!
Payroll4Free.com	Jan 2018	$113,471	Alive
MySwimPro	Sep 2017	$130,530	Official training partner of the Global Swim Series
Barrow's Intense	Dec 2016	$301,688	Partnership with Vermont-based Mad RiverDistillers
Tampon Tribe	Apr 2017	$119,119	876% net subscriber gain in 2017
Chicago Steak Company	Feb 2018	$82,780	Alive
Ganaz Inc.	Nov 2017	$89,420	Accepted to Techstars Seattle
Voyage Media	Jun 2017	$375,982	Alive
Grit Grocery	Feb 2018	$82,160	Alive
BioClonetics Immunotherapeutics	Sep 2017	$386,766	Alive
VooDoo Spirits	Sep 2016	$84,312	Alive
Daplie	Apr 2017	$500,000	Alive
Aro Lucha	Jul 2018	$129,216	Alive
Digitally Imported	Dec 2017	$396,113	Alive
WhiteClouds	Jul 2017	$1,070,000	Alive
Malibu Compost	Feb 2018	$101,835	Alive
Maison Marcel	Dec 2017	$48,025	Alive
MobileSpike	Mar 2017	$83,147	Alive
LiquidPiston	Apr 2017	$999,999	Entering UAV market with rotary engine for drones
ZipZap	Jul 2017	$134,933	Alive
VAUTE	Nov 2017	$341,406	Upcoming documentary about Vaute from Shopify
Impact Science Education	Mar 2018	$96,262	Alive
Kibin	Nov 2016	$27,602	Alive
Vera Roasting Company	Apr 2017	$128,065	Alive
GlobeChat	May 2018	$103,454	Alive
SlingFin	Dec 2016	$105,891	Alive
Amulet Protective Technologies	Jul 2018	$128,304	Alive
North by Northwest Brewing Company	Jun 2018	$398,752	Alive
Mobodexter	Dec 2016	$266,641	Alive
Red Bay Coffee Company	Oct 2016	$160,269	Led by Richelieu Dennis and David Drummond
Loveseat.com	May 2018	$179,702	Alive
Ohos	Nov 2016	$169,611	Alive
QMedic	Sep 2016	$100,000	Named one of the "best entrepreneurial companies in America" by Entrepreneur Magazine
Force for Good Fund	Nov 2016	$401,401	Alive
Edge	Dec 2016	$304,708	Alive
Ridgemont Outfitters	Oct 2017	$195,272	Alive
Rumor	Nov 2016	$84,670	Alive
Haint Blue Brewing Company	Dec 2016	$266,429	Alive
Discotech	Oct 2016	$126,688	$1.2M by Wavemaker Partners
Powur	May 2017	$1,036,889	Alive
Epec - James F.C. Hyde Sorgho Whiskey	Oct 2017	$222,354	Alive
Hopsters	Feb 2017	$1,069,997	Opened 2nd location in Seaport on Jan 4
Happy Tax	May 2017	$242,205	Alive
KALiiN	May 2018	$55,277	Alive
Oodles Corporation	Aug 2017	$107,000	Alive
Boardwalk Hospitality	Nov 2017	$500,000	Opened location on Venice Beach
My Trail	Sep 2016	$189,675	New retail location at The Outlets in Silverthorne
South Austin Brewery	Feb 2017	$210,680	Alive
PlantSnap	Sep 2017	$118,150	Regulation Crowdfunding Round.
Snapwire	May 2017	$181,752	Raised $800k seed by angels
The Speakeasy	Aug 2016	$459,551	Alive
Minds	Jun 2017	$1,036,095	Over 1 million users and over 105,000 monthly active users
Native American Natural Foods	Dec 2017	$123,852	Alive
Magic Instruments	Dec 2016	$175,348	Alive
VetPronto	Nov 2016	$362,718	Acquired by Vetted
Palmia	Jul 2017	$204,565	New distributor, now in Good Eggs & Mollie Stone
Bloomery	Jan 2017	$197,000	Successfully lobbied West Virginia to change the law
EVELO	Jan 2017	$729,723	Alive
fun-gi	Feb 2017	$233,222	Alive
Rentus.com	Aug 2017	$130,038	Alive
Motoroso	Apr 2017	$87,200	Alive
Recoup Fitness	Oct 2017	$238,824	On Season 2 premiere of "Entrepreneur Elevator Pitch"
N1CE	Jul 2016	$101,386	Alive
Orthogonal Thinker	May 2018	$251,482	Alive
MaestroConference	Dec 2016	$263,669	Priced Round.
Neurohacker Collective	Nov 2017	$808,454	Alive
Spotlight:Girls	Dec 2016	$62,500	Grant from RSF Social Finance
Urban Juncture	Nov 2017	$176,829	Bernard Lloyd earned 2018 Governor’s Difference Makers Award
Martingale	Jun 2018	$99,999	Alive
I-PASS Patient Safety Institute	Feb 2018	$149,055	Alive
BLAZnTECH	Dec 2017	$68,706	Alive
ZYPPAH	Jul 2018	$359,340	Alive
Bogobrush	Oct 2016	$57,500	Alive
CrowdMed	Apr 2017	$403,471	Alive
ComicBlitz	May 2017	$87,810	Alive
ShapeScale	Dec 2016	$190,889	Led by Alsop Louie Partners.
FAFCO	Aug 2017	$204,527	Alive
Eliot’s Adult Nut Butters	Nov 2017	$88,837	Alive
Van Cleave Dry Goods	Aug 2018	$58,595	Alive
Chareau	May 2017	$390,782	Won Double Gold Medal at the 2017 SF World Spirits Competition
That Christmas Movie	Oct 2017	$308,900	Alive
Hops and Grain	Aug 2016	$1,000,000	Alive
Vodi	Jun 2017	$90,391	Partnership with Viettel Group
Border X Brewing	Nov 2018	$187,564	Alive
Monkey Rum	Feb 2017	$425,058	Recruited former chief growth officer for Pabst as CEO
LPPFusion	May 2018	$963,250	Alive
SpaceFab	Mar 2018	$169,397	Alive
Veditz	Oct 2016	$54,620	Failed
TAXA Biotechnologies	Aug 2016	$309,807	Failed

Investor Q&A

Expand all

What does your company do?

"Kickstarter for investing" was legalized on May 16th, 2016: now, anyone can invest $100 in a startup. Since then, we have become the largest funding portal by investment volume and investor returns. We started this journey in 2012, when we helped pass the JOBS Act that made this all possible, and were invited by Congress to watch it signed into law.

Where will your company be in 5 years?

Our goal is to fund 20,000 more startups by 2029, while outperforming the S&P 500. Entrepreneurship has been dying over the 30 years, falling from 10.6% to 3.6% among those under 30. We must fix that: everyone deserves a shot at the American Dream. If we succeed, we will increase the GDP of the United States

Why did you choose this idea?

I started Wefunder because I wanted to invest in my friends - to help them dream bigger, be the best versions of themselves, and reach their ambition. Seven years later, we do that for the rest of America. So much raw talent is being wasted. The purpose of my life is to fix that, to help tens of thousands "take their shot".

How do you earn money?

We have two main revenue streams: transaction fees on investing volume and carried interest. For companies that raise with Regulation Crowdfunding, we earn on average 9% of investing volume. We charge the company 7.5% of their total fundraise. We also charge the investor 2% of their investment (min: $8, max: $100), which averages out to around 1.5%. We also have have venture capital funds that charge 2% management fees and 20% carried interest.

What is the value of your current carried interest stake?

We have carried interest stakes in most companies funded via Regulation D. Our IRR is over 40% from 2013 to 2016: https://wefunder.com/results However, we discounted our fees in the beginning. For instance, Zenefits was the first company we listed on Wefunder, and as such, we charged 0% carry. If we had invested $150k at 20% carry, the value of our carried interest would have been $1,260,000 18 months after we funded them.

How do you convince high-quality companies to work with you?

Our past portfolio speaks for itself on our previous success in Reg D. We must continue to attract high-quality companies for Regulation Crowdfunding. First, it's important to define "high quality". It does not mean that companies are like Zenefits, offering investors a 4000%+ return in two years. To us, high-quality means deserving businesses with legitimate founders who can grow profitable companies. A donut shop that offers a return to their investors qualifies. It also typically means businesses who also can raise with Regulation D from professional investors. That is, they have other financing options. Our biggest strength is that we've spent years immersed in the Y Combinator startup culture, so we intimately understand how founders who have leverage against investors (as their startups are highly sought-after) think. When we take this understanding to the "real world" outside of San Francisco, we expect to blow away the competition. Customer service: save founders timeAn obvious truism is that successful founders with other financing options don't want to waste a lot of time. So we do nearly all the grunt work for them. We schedule an hour interview, ask for some disclosures and assets, and then hand them a fully-fleshed out fundraising profile and "Form C" SEC filing for their review and approval. Our customer service is key. Companies with other options won't pay an obscene amountAnother obvious point is that high-quality companies don't need to pay to get funded. Our competitors - typically the ones with a broker/dealer finance background - who charge over 10% of the round will not get the best companies. We currently charge the company 7.5%. In our experience, companies can justify this cost in return for the marketing value of having their customers be investors. We will continue to drive down company costs as long as possible and take more of our compensation in the same form as our investors, so our goals and interests are aligned. (We also charge $0 for a "Form C" instead of the up to $5000 of some of our competitors). Companies care about "signaling"Finally, working with credible companies is a virtuous cycle. High-quality companies want to be funded alongside other high-quality companies. Think about the difference between Y Combinator and Techstars. Most credible startups apply to Y Combinator first, and only go to Techstars if YC rejects them. It's much more prestigious to be in YC. We understand follow-on financing Another great benefit of being immersed in Silicon Valley for years is that we intimately understand the issues around follow-on financing when the venture capitalists come aboard. So we pioneered new crowdfunding securities to ensure that companies don't shoot themselves in the foot if they are successful. Our competitors don't do this to the same extent.

Why are your fees lower than your competitors?

Our costs are lower than our competitors', and we want to pass on the savings so we can fund more higher-quality companies. We're a "full stack" software and nearly entirely vertically integrated. We outsource almost nothing. This was an intentional decision as we knew we had to drive down costs to make thousands of investors cost effective. We wanted to control the user experience. We spent four years writing software to automate nearly everything. For instance, we wrote our own electronic contract signing software, ACH payment transfer software, investor management software, accounting software, SEC filing software, and are now working on tax filing software. We've partnered with a bank for on-demand escrow accounts at nominal cost and CPAs to offer independent reviews to our clients at nearly 20% of the market rate. We've also worked with our lawyers at Wilson Sonsini on legal structures that limit some franchise taxes and other unnecessary costs. Finally, we operate as an exempt reporting investment advisor and funding portal, limiting compliance costs that broker/dealers are burdened with.

How are you different than AngelList?

AngelList was our primary competitor before May 16th, 2016, when Regulation Crowdfunding was implemented. After May 16th, we moved in a different direction. AngelList is a beautiful web site for accredited investors who know the "inside baseball" game in Silicon Valley. It's perfectly designed for professionals. It's also the "operating system" for startups, with a number of useful services. We are different in a few ways: 1) We let everyone invest, not just the wealthy. This allows startups to raise money from their most passionate fans, not just a few rich people. 2) We fund a dramatically more diverse swath of the economy, from breweries to tech startups. 3) We're focused foremost on spreading the Silicon Valley ethos to the rest of the country. We want to lift up others who don't have opportunity.

Who are your competitors?

Our direct competitors include StartEngine, SeedInvest, Republic. The results speak for themselves. We're larger than all of them combined by investment volume. Our biggest strength is that - as founders ourselves - we know what is takes to find and work with high-quality companies. Check out our investor returns: https://wefunder.com/results. We've already proven that we can attract high-growth, high-profile companies to crowdfund from accredited investors (i.e., Zenefits), and now we're doing it again for Regulation Crowdfunding (i.e., Beta Bionics). Another strength is that none of us are finance types. We ourselves are startup founders & startup investors creating this for others just like us. We deeply care about the product we are building. We see the world differently. Our product isn't about just taking a cut, it's about relationships, community, paying it forward, and helping startups succeed. Wall Street doesn't do that. As technologists and designers, we also have an edge on execution. We've created software that dramatically reduces costs and is simple and easy to use for founders and investors alike.

How big can you be?

If you ask this question, you don't understand our ambition. We're talking about turbo-charging the entire economy. We want to accelerate GDP growth by making us a nation of owners in the true engine of our economy: small businesses and startups. We want to explode the number of new businesses. Our ambition is not to be a VC. We're aiming to create a new type of stock market that can allocate more capital to all sorts of worthy businesses, be it a local community-supported coffee shop or the next Uber. We want to create and dominate the emerging private/public hybrid stock market for new businesses, where it's accepted that these are riskier, longer-term investments (i.e., not the NASDAQ). We believe the "wisdom of the crowd" is superior to the judgement of a few gatekeepers like bankers and venture capitalists. Markets beat top-down decision making. We also want to single-handedly increase the percentage of under 30 year olds that own stakes in private businesses from the current 3.6%, back over 10%, like it was in 1989. Entrepreneurship is dying in this country, outside of tech hubs like SF and NYC. We aim to revitalize capitalism for young people.

How will a new venture stock market work? Why is this needed?

Our long-term vision is to create a new type of stock market for risky and early-stage companies, for long-term investments subject to investment limitations. We believe that informed investors can allocate capital more efficiently across our society than a few bankers or venture capitalists. Markets beat gatekeepers. Unlike the NASDAQ, since it's expected by the public that these investments are far more risky (and as such are subject to investment limits), the burden of regulations are far, far less than that required by a company going public. Companies that refuse to go public until forced to do so (i.e., Uber) as a result of the burden of regulations imposed after Enron may consider a private/public hybrid stock market with a lighter regulatory regime. The features of this stock market should include: Acceptance of risk with every purchase. Investors should affirm that they may lose all their money and afford to bear this risk with every purchase. Investment limitations. Investors should not invest more than the 5%-10% limit of net worth or income imposed by Regulation A+ or Regulation Crowdfunding. Proxy voting power to one person with fiduciary responsibility. Minor shareholders should appoint one representative - who may be on the board of directors -to advocate for their interests. The company only needs to deal with one person with sophisticated knowledge of their business, and the voting power of small investors is aggregated to increase their leverage. No daily price ticker; limited resale. The short-term focus to manage quarterly earnings is often detrimental to long term vision. We envision a stock market where companies can opt to allow resale on a secondary market only once per quarter or year. The benefits to our society include: More capital goes to where it is needed most. Capital will be allocated more efficiently to a wider range of businesses. We expect an explosion of entrepreneurship. There are enough people in our society who want to support riskier ideas. We can start reversing the disparity of wealth. In the 1990's, it was a badge of honor for companies to go public, and they did it as soon as possible. Now they delay it as long as possible. This means ownership in the fastest growing companies are no longer available to people who are not rich. This is wrong.

What is your Cost of User Acquisition? How will you scale it out?

We expect word of mouth to always drive our growth, and for our CAC to remain nominal. We are not like a bank advertising to give out business loans. Wefunder is a social network, where people fund companies they love. Each founder drives their entire network to Wefunder to invest in them. These investors later refer us companies. More impactfully, each founder we fund tells their founder friends to use Wefunder. Network effects have continually driven us more companies than we can handle, without us trying. We have little experience running paid ad campaigns because we’ve never had too. Equity crowdfunding has the same network effect dynamics as product crowdfunding. There will be a major player (a Kickstarter), and perhaps a secondary player (an Indiegogo). Everyone else will go out of business because they can’t get good companies. In terms of deal flow, we are somewhat analogous to a VC, where signaling and prestige is a factor. Much like how YC gets first dibs and the other incubators get the leftovers, crowdfunded companies also want to list on the biggest and best portal, the one that is proven to not only deliver the most funds, but has the most prestige. Companies want to be funded alongside other good companies. This is a virtuous cycle. Our biggest challenge right now is how to accelerate scaling this out "on the ground" across the entire country. For us, the answer revolves around working with local communities. We’re building a platform where other investors and groups can endorse and curate companies... in the geographies or industries they care about. The long-term idea is that Wefunder becomes the monopoly, and these communities compete within our ecosystem based on their reputation.

What are the most important parts of your user experience?

We've made it dead easy to invest in a company - it takes 30 seconds to fully execute an investment and transfer the funds. Consider it a "one click Amazon-style checkout" for investing. We've also created some beautiful software that lets founders highly customize how they wish to present their company to investors... and helps them generate and file a "Form C" with the SEC at a fraction of the complexity and cost of our competitors. Next, we want to execute better on our long-term vision. The investment is meant to be the start of our product experience. We want to help people "feel behind the curtain" -- that they are making a difference in the world, that they can find ways to help their portfolio companies, be it by spreading the word about product launches, providing introductions to new hires or partners, or giving detailed product feedback.

Why is your team awesome? Why you?

We've been relentlessly pursuing our vision for seven years. We don't let anything stop us, starting before Congress even passed a law. We helped Congress write the sections of the JOBS Act that will enable all Americans to invest, were mentioned by name in the Congressional Letter of Intent, and were invited to watch President Obama sign it into law. When we first started, we did not appreciate what we were getting ourselves into. Now we do. We were already proven product designers and software engineers... with MBAs. But we also needed to learn securities laws inside out, obtain our Series 65 and Series 7 licenses, and learn what it takes for investors to attract high-quality startups. But, most importantly, after 7 years, we have results. With a team of 12, we've built the largest funding portal, with above 40% market share in Regulation Crowdfunding in 2019. In comparison, our closest competitors - despite being larger than almost all of them combined - have teams of 35-50 people.

Why did you pick this idea to spend your life on?

Initially, we built this for ourselves. We wanted to make investments in our friends (back before we were accredited). One of Nick's best friends is angel investor Bill Warner, who founded a public company and sold another for about the same amount. He's inspired all of us: Bill spends practically all of his time helping founders. We wanted to be like him and help and invest in our startup friends. But we didn't have $50k to invest in each company... we had more like $500. Plus, it was effectively illegal for us to do so. We thought that was stupid. We’ve always wanted to invest in founders we believed in. Not primarily for the financial returns, but to give back, to help, and to live vicariously through their experience. It made no sense to us that only the wealthy had the privilege to act on these emotions prior to the passage of the JOBS act. People are people; the dollar amounts are just smaller. As we built Wefunder, we also learned that we could help our country by revitalizing entrepreneurship. It became evident to us how many deserving businesses can't get the capital they need to start or grow; the banks got way more risk-adverse after 2008, and venture capitalists pour money into a small sliver of the economy. We believe we can help fix that. The people who care should be allowed to allocate capital to businesses that need it.

What's the most surprising thing you've learned?

We've spoken to thousands of investors on Wefunder. We were surprised to the extent that they were motivated by the same things as us. We don't want to lose money, but we're not investing in startups solely for the financial returns. We want to support things we believe in. We consider our startup investing to be socially good lottery tickets. We were surprised that even accredited investors with a finance background feel the same way. We were also surprised that unaccredited investors pick the same exact startups on Wefunder as accredited investors. There is no correlation between income and the startups chosen.

What is your biggest risk?

While we can build a profitable business under present law, our vision will not be fully reached unless Congress and the SEC further improve securities regulations. We've worked with the Deputy Majority Whip, Congressmen McHenry, to help draft the Fix Crowdfunding Act that would greatly increase the potential of Regulation Crowdfunding. We've also been in touch with the offices of Senator Bennet, Senator Merkeley, and Senator Daines to support it in the Senate. In 2019, Congress and the SEC are expected to reform equity crowdfunding to make it more appealing for startups and investors, greatly increasing our growth potential. The House of Representatives passed JOBS Act 3.0 406-4 (it's now in the Senate) which includes important amendments to Reg Crowdfunding. Concurrently, the SEC is revising the regulations in the near term. As the largest funding portal, Wefunder is best positioned to take advantage of these reforms.

How will regulatory reforms help you grow faster?

Our growth is dependent on the number of high-quality companies willing to use Regulation Crowdfunding. There are three reforms which will make Reg CF far more appealing to a greater number of companies. Specifically: 1) Single Purpose Vehicles (SPV's). Right now, a startup that uses Wefunder will end with hundreds of direct shareholders. The way this should work is to have investors invest in a simple-purpose fund, which then makes an investment into the startup, so the startup has one shareholder on their cap table. SPV's are legalized for Reg CF as part of Jobs Act 3.0, which passed the House of Representatives 404-4. 2) Reform the 12g limit. Right now, a company with more than 500 unaccredited investors and more than $25M in assets would be subject to burdensome requirements akin to going public. JOBS Act 3.0 also addresses this. 3) Legalize Testing the Waters. Right now, a company would have to do a lot compliance and accounting work before they are allowed to list on Wefunder and ask investors if they are even interested in investing. A company should be able to fill out a profile in a day and start collecting commitments from investors. We expect the S.E.C to issue this reform as part of their three-year Reg CF look back in 2019.

Wefunder is conducting a Regulation D offering via Wefunder Advisors LLC. CRD Number: #167803.

Why you may want to support us...

Why investors us

we've raised $11,553,181 since our founding

Our team

And Our Major Accomplishments

In the news

Downloads

The Story of Wefunder

Lobbied Congress to legalize equity crowdfunding

Invited to watch president obama sign

Y COMBINATOR

Launched 'rich person crowdfunding'

Talks with sec

make beautiful software

sec posts final rules for reg crowdfunding

Amtrak across America

regulation CROWDFUNDING GOES LIVE!

Launched XX: a community of founders

Wefunder is the largest funding portal

Results: May 2016 to May 2017

Stats & Traction

Annual charts

Q1 2019 is Our Best Quarter Ever

Our market share is increasing

Economics

Our Growth Driver: Companies

Lifetime Value per Company

Cost of Company Acquisition

2013-2016 Investor Returns

2016-2017 Regulation Crowdfunding

Investor Q&A

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