Podcast appearances and mentions of jenny kassan

My guest this week is Jenny Kassan, Jenny is an attorney, coach, and ecosystem builder focused on capital access for underrepresented entrepreneurs. Jenny earned her J.D. from Yale Law School and a masters degree in City and Regional Planning from UC Berkeley. She is the author of Raise Capital on Your Own Terms: How to Fund Your Business without selling Your Soul. Jenny co-founded the Sustainable Economies Law Center, the Force for Good Fund, and Opportunity Main Street.   Socials and website Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennykassan/ Website: https://www.jennykassan.com    Follow Digital Niche Agency on Socials for Up To Date Marketing Expertise and Insights: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/digitalnicheagency Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/digitalnicheagency Instagram: DNA - Digital Niche Agency @digitalnicheagency  Twitter: https://twitter.com/DNAgency_CA YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@DigitalNicheAgency  

Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao said this week, "call me incompetent all day long." Is it too late for Thao to save her job? Alameda County Democrats created yet another embarrassing scene. We take a look at the recalls, and Fremont's unusual moves to replace its departing councilmember.

Alameda County Supervisor Keith Carson's big endorsement could be a gamechanger in a tight District 5 race this fall. We take a look a what the endorsement means and how the race between John Bauters and Nikki Fortunato Bas may evolve. Fremont needs a new councilmember, and an Oakland candidate is searching for way back onto the ballot. Plus, Steve gets a pep talk and East Bay Regional Parks District Board Director Olivia Sanwong podcast-bombs the show. 

I'm not a financial advisor; nothing I write in Superpowers for Good should be considered investment advice. You should seek appropriate counsel before making investment decisions.Remember, you can watch the Superpowers for Good show on e360tv. To watch the episode, download the #e360tv channel app to your streaming device–Roku, AppleTV or AmazonFireTV–or your mobile device. You can even watch it on the web or YouTube.When you purchase an item, launch a crowdfunding campaign or invest after clicking a link here, we may earn a commission. It's an easy way to support our work.Devin: Laura, what do you see as your superpower?Laura: I'm very friendly, I'm outgoing, and I like to get to know people.Devin: Zach, what do you see as your superpower?Zach: I will be the first to admit I don't have the charisma of Laura. I'm constantly thinking about food and flavors and combos and what's going to go good together.Laura Harris and Zach Meier and building a healthy vegan protein bar company in Colorado. This enables them to take advantage of Colorado's intrastate exemption from securities rules for IPOs to raise capital from the local crowd exclusively.The company has three flavors on the market:* Blueberry Coconut* Salted Chocolate Cherry* Peanut Butter BananaThe last one was a challenge for Zach, the chef who develops the bars. “A funny story with the peanut butter banana. I am deathly allergic to bananas,” he says. “So creating that recipe for the peanut butter banana bar was a bit of a task. It was a lot of whipping up some ingredients, putting them together, having people taste them, getting their honest feedback, and then just, like, doing it again.”Laura shares how she came up with the idea:Having worked in the service industry for most of my adult life, you never get a break. Protein bars became a staple of my diet. I always had one on my server apron if I was serving or on top of the register if I was bartending. Back in 2018 summer, I was bartending a lunch shift, took a bite of another competitor's bar and thought, man, I wish this thing was packed with spinach. I would love for it to not contain any artificial flavors and no refined or added sugar.I thought about it for a few minutes and did some searching on Google and Amazon, and there was nothing like it. So, six months later, I enlisted the help of Zach. Zach is passionate about making great products. “Creating these recipes was a lot of fun, just with the ideology of super minimal ingredients. Everything is clean, everything all-natural, you know, not using any chemicals or preservatives, or added sugars because I always like to say that real foods taste the best.”Investing in the company is an opportunity to have impact in several ways. The company founder is an LGBTQ woman, ticking two impact boxes for investors with goals to support diverse founders. The products are vegan, which could have climate and animal welfare benefits. The bars are healthy, potentially helping people to live longer, healthier lives. That's a lot of impact!The company is raising via CrowdSprout.co under state crowdfunding laws, limiting investors to that state.AI Episode Summary1. Devin Thorpe hosts Laura Harris and Zach Meier on the Superpowers for Good show to discuss their company, Greens Gone Wild.2. Laura started Greens Gone Wild to create snack bars packed with spinach and no added sugars or unnatural flavors.3. The company offers three products: Almond Butter with Blueberry and Coconut, Salted Chocolate Cherry, and Peanut Butter Banana bars.4. They are crowdfunding on Crowdsprout.co, a Colorado-exclusive platform where locals can invest and receive equity and bars and contribute to a charity.5. Laura's future plan involves living a van life to promote the product across Colorado; Zach will handle backend operations.6. Laura's superpower is her ability to genuinely connect with people and her passion for real food ingredients.7. Zach's superpower lies in his culinary skills, particularly in creating exciting flavor profiles with clean, natural ingredients.8. Both find using their skills to contribute to the well-being and diets of their customers and their communities rewarding.9. Laura encourages listeners to visit their website to purchase products and consider investing in the growth of the company.10. The co-founders' dedication to providing healthy and tasty snack options is underscored by their interaction with customers and commitment to quality ingredients.Want to invest but live outside Colorado, share this with friends in the state.How to Develop Interpersonal Skills As a SuperpowerLaura says that her ability to relate well with people is a critical part of her success in business. She honed her ability to care for and about people after her father had a stroke.The biggest time where I really was able to give a lot of myself to someone else was when I took care of my dad. He had a right-side ischemic stroke and was on the floor for three days before anybody found him. So, he was not doing great when our neighbor found him. So, I moved from Minneapolis back to my home state of Virginia to help him and just see him through this healing journey post-stroke. There were so many challenges that he faced. I always made sure I showed up for him every day and did anything that he needed me to do and help out in all the ways that were best for him, to give him love and support and make sure he had a good last five years of life.Laura says the first thing to do to strengthen interpersonal skills is to listen. “When you ask someone questions, be genuine. Pause. Let them finish. That'll be lesson number one.”“Show love,” she says of a second aspect of developing interpersonal skills. “If someone needs help, help them do it out of the goodness of your heart. And, uh, not just to try to gain something.”By following Laura's example and advice, you can strengthen your interpersonal skills. With practice, you can make them a superpower that enables you to do more good in the world.Remember, however, that research into success suggests that building on your own superpowers is more important than creating new ones or overcoming weaknesses. You do you!How to Develop Culinary Skills As a SuperpowerZach shares the story of how he uses his culinary superpower:I grew up kind of in the middle of nowhere, Wyoming. Not kind of, like in the middle of nowhere, Wyoming. It was a food desert up there. Being from just such a small kind of reclusive community, people aren't necessarily open to trying new foods. The idea of veganism up there, or like, health foods, is still a poked fun at subject. I've been able to, when I go home when I visit family, bring some food culture back to them, to maybe open their eyes a little bit more. Just because it says vegan, just because it says spinach, just because it says protein bar, doesn't necessarily mean that it's going to be gross.It's this ideology of, like, oh, spinach is gross. Spinach is a relatively flavorless ingredient. Adding the combination of its fruit, its vegetables–just because it's vegan, it's not bad. It's not scary.His advice to people is to “Just eat it” when you are presented with a new food to try!By following his example and advice, you can strengthen your culinary skills. With practice, you could make them a superpower that enables you to do more good in the world.Remember, however, that research into success suggests that building on your own superpowers is more important than creating new ones or overcoming weaknesses. You do you!Guest ProfileLaura Harris (she/her):Founder & CEO, Greens Gone WildAbout Greens Gone Wild: Welcome to Greens Gone Wild! The CPG industry's only non-GMO, vegan, spinach-packed protein bar loaded with a full serving of spinach. Our bars are gluten and soy-free. Plus, there's no added sugars, fillers, or preservatives. We believe in a genuinely healthy bar with ingredients we know, like, and trust. In our bars, you'll find nut or seed butter, dates, unsweetened, dehydrated fruit, pea protein, spinach, a touch of sunflower lecithin, and just a few more real-food ingredients. If you're a health-conscious, busy individual looking to get your greens on the go, we've got the perfect nutrient-dense, chewy, tasty, won't-get-stuck-in-your-teeth bar. At Greens Gone Wild, we're giving you protein, energy, and greens on the go!Website: greensgonewild.comCompany Facebook Page: facebook.com/eatgreensgonewildInstagram Handle: @eatgreensgonewildOther URL: crowdsprout.coBiographical Information: Meet Laura Harris, a passionate entrepreneur in her early forties originally from Virginia but now proudly rooted in the vibrant landscape of Colorado. Driven by her love for spinach, her dogs, and the mountainous scenery, Laura embarked on a transformative journey to fulfill her true calling. Her brainchild, Greens Gone Wild, was born from a simple wish for a protein bar packed with spinach. Determined to create a vegan protein bar with minimal ingredients and no added sugars, she has successfully combined her love for healthy living with her entrepreneurial spirit. Laura's personal growth, marked by a significant break from alcohol and five years of caring for her father, stands alongside the flourishing success of her business as her three proudest accomplishments. With unwavering determination, she continues to share her spinach obsession with the masses, turning Greens Gone Wild into a household name, one spinach-packed protein bar at a time.Personal Facebook Profile: facebook.com/harriselauraLinkedin: linkedin.com/in/laura-harris-i267424Instagram Handle: @the.laura.editionZach Meier (he/him):Co-founder and chief chef, Greens Gone WildBiographical Information: I am a former professional chef, ending my culinary career as an executive pastry chef. Making food clean, with the knowledge of flavors, helped create the Delicious flavors of Greens Gone Wild. Our bars stand out from the crowd for that reason. Personal Facebook Profile: Facebook.com/ztmeierInstagram Handle: @zmeier91 Upcoming SuperCrowd Event CalendarIf a location is not noted, the events below are virtual.* Impact Cherub Club Meeting hosted by The Super Crowd, Inc., a public benefit corporation, on February 20, 2024, at 1:00 PM Eastern. Each month, the Club meets to review new offerings for investment consideration and to conduct due diligence on previously screened deals. Everyone is welcome to join the free events.* SuperCrowdHour February with the CfPA Executive Committee: This free event on February 21, 2024, at 1:00 PM Eastern, features President Brian Christie, Vice President Jenny Kassan, Secretary Brian Belley and Chair Scott McIntyre. Learn how you can join and make a difference. Earn rewards!* SuperCrowdBaltimore, March 21, 2024: This in-person event at the B&O Rail Museum features some of Baltimore's prominent citizens and community leaders. Save 30 percent with the discount code “SuperCrowd.”* SuperCrowdHour, March 27, 2024 at 1:00 Eastern. Devin Thorpe will explain the three surprising reasons impact investors should seek to make money from impact investing.* Superpowers for Good - Kinect Capital Live Pitch, March 28 at 9 PM Eastern/6 PM Pacific: Four companies currently raising via crowdfunding will pitch their offerings live via the Superpowers for Good streaming television show on e360tv. Kinect Capital will host the pitch. Applications to pitch are open now through March 8! * SuperCrowd24, April 17-18: This two-day virtual event is our biggest event of the year. Don't miss it. Save 50 percent with the discount code “SuperCrowd.”* SuperCrowdChicago, June 12, 2024. Save the date! More information is coming soon!SuperCrowd Community Event Calendar* Successful Funding with Karl Dakin, Tuesdays at 10:00 AM ET * Neighborhood Economics, February 26-28 in San Antonio, Texas* Crowdfunding Professional Association Webinar Series - March 13, 2:00 PM ET* AMIBA's “Community Investment Funds,” March 14, 2:00 PM ET* Investment Crowdfunding Demystified, Crowdfund Better, March 26 at 2:00 PM ETIf you would like to submit an event for us to share with the 4,000+ members of the SuperCrowd, click here. Get full access to Superpowers for Good at www.superpowers4good.com/subscribe

I'm not a financial advisor; nothing I write in Superpowers for Good should be considered investment advice. You should seek appropriate counsel before making investment decisions.Remember, you can watch the Superpowers for Good show on e360tv. To watch the episode, download the #e360tv channel app to your streaming device–Roku, AppleTV or AmazonFireTV–or your mobile device. You can even watch it on the web or YouTube.When you purchase an item, launch a crowdfunding campaign or invest after clicking a link here, we may earn a commission. It's an easy way to support our work.Devin: What do you see as your superpower?Vicky: I believe my relentlessness or tenacity, determination, whatever you want to say that is, has been a real driver in my life–always.“The Humane League works to end the abuse of animals raised for food,” says the nonprofit's president, Vicky Bond. “We're working to end cages for laying hens worldwide through our work with the Open Wing Alliance.”Always an animal lover, Vicky trained as a veterinarian. She shares her experience:While training to be a vet, I witnessed factory farms for the first time. I got to see how these animals suffered day in and day out in these systems. As a veterinarian, you would go on a farm and treat the individual animal. You may give bulk antibiotics for the animals, but you weren't treating the fundamental issue: these systems are wrong. Animals should not be in them, and being in them causes them a lot of suffering. So, while doing my veterinary degree, I went and did a master's of environment, development and policy and learned about the impact of policy work of that institutional change that you can make and how much you can scale up impact.So, when I left that school–I did work as a vet for a while–but I also got involved in more activist-led things, in policy change and ended up being able to work what I do now, which is to create change for farm animals on a large scale, impacting hundreds of millions of animals versus what I could have done as a veterinarian, which would have probably been much smaller on the individual level of animals.The work is staggering. In the US alone, producers are raising about 1.5 billion chickens, including broiler and laying hens. About 9 billion are raised annually in this country alone–broiler chickens are slaughtered after just six weeks.Vicky describes what she's seen firsthand:I've been on these on these farms. You walk into a very large shed, and all you can hear is the clanging noises of the birds' beaks and feet on the metal because that's their entire life. They spend their life in this metal cage, four or five of them–not even enough space to spread their wings. They will be fed, given water, and that's all they get. They never get to see sunlight. They never get to spread their wings. They often end up pecking at each other through sheer boredom. They end up with broken bones. All in the name of cheap eggs.“When we talk about the world, we're talking about over 70 billion land animals raised and slaughtered every year for food,” Vicky says. It's not sustainable. The cruelty is not sustainable. The food system itself–we need to move to more plant-based options to remove some of the eggs, dairy, and meats from our diets so that we can have a sustainable food system.”She is emphatic that animal suffering needn't be a part of our food supply. “It is perfectly plausible for us to have farming systems that are higher welfare and that move away from these intensive practices that see animals stacked on top of each other, beak to beak,” she says.“We want a day when animals aren't abused for food,” Vicky continues. “We want to see that through incremental change, like ending cages, like ending farrowing crates, which is where mama pigs are put while they're pregnant–and they can't even turn around.”The Humane League is making progress. “We started this work over a decade ago now,” she says. “At the time in the US, 5 percent of birds were cage-free here for laying hens; we're now at 14 percent. So, we're seeing an impact of 130-plus million birds every year.”Throughout her career, she has used and strengthened her tenacity, making it a superpower.AI Episode Summary1. The Humane League, led by President Vicky Bond, aims to end the abuse of animals raised for food, predominantly by working with food companies to improve farm animal welfare in their supply chains.2. They also focus on policy and legislative changes, advocate for individual diet changes, and aim to end the use of battery cages for laying hens through collaborative global efforts with the Open Wing Alliance.3. The Humane League engages in peaceful protests to raise public awareness and hold companies accountable for farm animal welfare, especially in regard to ending the confinement of laying hens in cages.4. Vicky Bond described the poor conditions of caged hens, emphasizing the lack of space and natural behaviors, highlighting the broken bones and the lack of access to sunlight, which leads to suffering—all for the production of cheap eggs.5. Vicky argues for a sustainable food system that doesn't include farm animal cruelty, stating that higher welfare farming systems are possible and that we should shift towards plant-based options to maintain sustainability.6. Incremental changes advocated by The Humane League have led to significant welfare improvements, citing that the percentage of cage-free hens has increased from 5 to 14 percent in the US, thereby affecting the lives of over 130 million birds annually.7. Vicky Bond transitioned from veterinary practice to animal welfare advocacy after witnessing the suffering of animals on factory farms, realizing she could have a broader impact on animal welfare through policy change and activism rather than individual veterinary care.8. Actions that individuals can take to support the Humane League include volunteering, taking digital action through Fast Action Network, raising awareness on social media, donating, and making informed purchase decisions based on welfare-conscious product labeling.9. Vicky encourages a gradual approach to changing dietary habits towards plant-based options, acknowledging that swift changes can be difficult and recommending gradual steps like "Meatless Mondays" or substituting one meal a day with a plant-based alternative.10. Finally, Vicky shared her superpower of tenacity, recounting her refusal to back down against industry leaders, such as a rabbit farm donor, ultimately influencing him to consider cage-free options, highlighting the importance of staying persistent to achieve goals.Share to encourage others to take action.How to Develop Tenacity As a SuperpowerVicky shared a story that illustrates her tenacity:A number of years ago now, I was working on rabbit farming. So rabbit farming–we don't hear of it that much, but it's the second most farmed species in Europe. I was working across Europe. I was at a conference and trying to push to end cages for rabbits as well because they're predominantly in battery cages in Europe. We're at the conference, and I didn't know at the time, but he was the largest owner of all the systems, basically, in Austria, Germany and other places. After the conference, he came up to me and said, “Well, it's nice to meet you, but what would you know about rabbit farming? This is unrealistic, and I can show you why it's good to keep them in cages.”In that moment, I just didn't stand for it. I was very much like, “Well, the science is this. I disagree strongly on this. I've got systems. I've seen systems that work that are not in cages. It is doable. This is very much a profit-driven mentality.”He was pretty upset and left. Then, the next day, he came up to me and was like, “I was thinking about what you said. I do think we should potentially–this does sound like this might be the future for rabbit farming. I want to understand more. Here's my card. Can we have a conversation?”So, in those moments, I've come up against industry leaders. It's not shrinking down. But actually, standing tall, I think, has paid off.The tenacity paid off! Vicky offers some advice for strengthening yours:Think that mistakes are good. We're going to make mistakes, but learning from them is the important bit. So, if you have a clear goal, don't give up. You will get there. The path might be wandering and might not appear exactly how you hoped it would, but you will get there if you stay the course of time. So, stay strong, stay relentless. You can make it.By following Vicky's advice and example, you can strengthen your tenacity. With practice and patience, you can make it a superpower that enables you to do more good in the world.Remember, however, that research into success suggests that building on your own superpowers is more important than creating new ones or overcoming weaknesses. You do you!Guest ProfileVicky Bond (she/her):President, The Humane League, The Humane LeagueAbout The Humane League: The Humane League is a global nonprofit that exists to end the abuse of animals raised for food. We work to influence the world's largest food companies to improve the treatment of animals by adopting higher welfare practices for the animals raised for food in their supply chain, which includes a current focus on accelerating the food industry's momentum and legislation toward production of cage-free eggs. Website: www.thehumaneleague.orgX/Twitter Handle: @thehumaneleagueCompany Facebook Page: facebook.com/thehumaneleagueOther URL: FastActionNetwork.com; EndCages.com; InspireBrandsBetrayal.com; DupedbyDunkin.com; SonicsSecrets.comBiographical Information: Vicky Bond is a doctor of veterinary science, animal welfare scientist, and president of The Humane League, a global animal protection nonprofit that exists to end the abuse of animals raised for food. Bond trained as a veterinary surgeon and practiced as a veterinarian with the primary goal of helping animals. When she witnessed firsthand the horrors that take place on factory farms, she realized that if she really wanted to help animals, she had to work to end factory farming. From there, Bond worked internationally in research and food business departments for several animal protection organizations. She worked closely with food corporations, including restaurants, retailers, food service companies, producers, and suppliers, as well as in slaughterhouses, to better understand and improve their supply chains and business structures to improve the lives of animals raised for food. X/Twitter Handle: @vickybond_thlLinkedin: linkedin.com/in/vicky-bond-b9107936/Upcoming SuperCrowd Event CalendarIf a location is not noted, the events below are virtual.* Impact Cherub Club Meeting hosted by The Super Crowd, Inc., a public benefit corporation, on February 20, 2024, at 1:00 PM Eastern. Each month, the Club meets to review new offerings for investment consideration and to conduct due diligence on previously screened deals. Everyone is welcome to join the free events.* SuperCrowdHour February with the CfPA Executive Committee: This free event on February 21, 2024, at 1:00 PM Eastern, features President Brian Christie, Vice President Jenny Kassan, Secretary Brian Belley and Chair Scott McIntyre. Learn how you can join and make a difference. Earn rewards!* SuperCrowdBaltimore, March 21, 2024: This in-person event at the B&O Rail Museum features some of Baltimore's prominent citizens and community leaders. Save 30 percent with the discount code “SuperCrowd.”* Superpowers for Good - Kinect Capital Live Pitch, March 28 at 9 PM Eastern/6 PM Pacific: Four companies currently raising via crowdfunding will pitch their offerings live via the Superpowers for Good streaming television show on e360tv. Kinect Capital will host the pitch. Applications to pitch will open soon! Save the date! More information is coming soon! * SuperCrowd24, April 17-18: This two-day virtual event is our biggest event of the year. Don't miss it. Save 50 percent with the discount code “SuperCrowd.”* SuperCrowdChicago, June 12, 2024. Save the date! More information is coming soon!SuperCrowd Community Event Calendar* Successful Funding with Karl Dakin, Tuesdays at 10:00 AM ET * Leveraging Donor-Advised Funds for Climate Investing, Raise Green, Today at 11 AM ET* Strengthening Positive Peace to Create Hope in the World, February 24, Fredericksburg, VA* Neighborhood Economics, February 26-28 in San Antonio, Texas* Crowdfunding Professional Association Webinar Series - March 13, 2:00 PM ET* Investment Crowdfunding Demystified, Crowdfund Better, March 26 at 2:00 PM ETIf you would like to submit an event for us to share with the 4,000+ members of the SuperCrowd, click here. Get full access to Superpowers for Good at www.superpowers4good.com/subscribe

I'm not a financial advisor; nothing I write in Superpowers for Good should be considered investment advice. You should seek appropriate counsel before making investment decisions.Remember, you can watch the Superpowers for Good show on e360tv. To watch the episode, download the #e360tv channel app to your streaming device–Roku, AppleTV or AmazonFireTV–or your mobile device. You can even watch it on the web or YouTube.When you purchase an item, launch a crowdfunding campaign or invest after clicking a link here, we may earn a commission. It's an easy way to support our work.Devin: What do you see as your superpower?Karl: I sometimes say that I'm a puzzle solver. I have the ability to connect the dots.Karl Dakin, the capital coach, helps small businesses raise capital–or even figure out how to get where they're going without it. A big fan of regulated investment crowdfunding, he led an effort to pass enabling legislation in Colorado. Then, he helped to launch a crowdfunding portal to take advantage of the rules.Investment crowdfunding has topped $2 billion cumulatively since it started but still represents a small part of the economy. When issuers and investors finish the courtship, the space could explode to multiples of this scale. Karl thinks he's figured out how that could happen. Keep reading!Seeing the vital role small businesses play in the local economy, he works with a wide range of companies.I work with all kinds of companies and all kinds of industries. Some people think I'm confused because of the diversity of things I work with. Right now, I'm working on a dinosaur theme park. I'm working with an international lottery gaming company. I'm working with a company that's using topical CBD products to reduce pain and inflammation. I'm also helping with the local crowdfunding platform that is working to set up a farm-to-table group of supporters for any small business that's looking for microfinancing here within the state of Colorado.He's also helping an LGBTQ woman-owned manufacturer of vegan protein bars raise capital. Greens Gone Wild, led by Laura Harris, is raising capital via Crowd Sprout, a crowdfunding portal operating under the Colorado State exemption. The campaign is open only to Colorado investors.I love this one. It hits so many notes for me. It's a small business that is scalable. A woman leads it. A member of the LGBTQ community leads it. It is vegan. The layers of impact inspire me. This is a moment when I wish I lived in Colorado so I could invest.Karl uses that offering as an example of what he suggests all consumer products companies should do with their campaigns. He explains the example:With Greens Gone Wild, if you make a $100 investment, you're also going to get $50 of free product. They'll ship to your door product, just like if you had ordered it on their online website–$50 value. Then we also give a $100 discount on future purchases. So, you get 20% off the list price on buying these products.The company also agrees to donate $25 per investor to a local nonprofit.The investor gets $150 in rewards–plus the satisfaction of enabling $25 of charitable giving. The company presumably has a good margin on the products, so it doesn't cost $50 to offer the $50 perk. The discounts are valuable to the consumer but still allow the company to make a narrow profit. The investors become long-term, repeat customers.Then, the investor gets equity, too. For small investors, the rewards essentially remove the risk. The company gets repeat customers with a permanent connection–ownership–to the business. Problem solved!That, Karl believes, is the key that will unlock crowdfunding success for small businesses.He reached this conclusion using his superpower, I'll call problem-solving.AI Episode Summary1. Devin introduces Karl Dakin, founder and CEO of Dakin Capital, who shares Devin's passion for investment crowdfunding.2. Karl Dakin's company, Dakin Capital, is a consultancy firm that assists small businesses in obtaining the necessary capital for starting or growing their ventures.3. Karl positions himself as a "capital coach," aiding businesses in designing capital campaigns, preparing to receive capital, and, in some cases, managing the entire campaign on behalf of the company.4. Karl believes that small businesses are vital in bringing innovation to the market, contributing to global impact by improving the quality of life through their products and services.5. He works with a diverse range of companies across different industries, such as a dinosaur theme park, an international lottery gaming company, a CBD product company, and a crowdfunding platform focused on microfinancing in Colorado.6. One of Karl's current projects involves working with Greens Gone Wild, a company producing vegan protein food bars, to help them navigate crowdfunding to reach a broader base of investors.7. Karl emphasizes targeting campaigns not just at wealthy individuals but also at customers and future patrons, integrating immediate value for investors through product discounts and immediate gratification.8. For the Greens Gone Wild crowdfunding campaign, with a $100 investment, investors receive $50 of product, $100 of future purchase discounts, and a $25 product donation to a local charity, creating a package with a retail value of $275.9. Karl believes in the potential of equity crowdfunding to allow non-wealthy individuals to invest and build wealth while supporting small business growth and innovation.10. Karl encourages reaching out to him through LinkedIn, where he recently started a daily newsletter called Instant Funding, his website Dakin Capital, and other platforms like SuperCrowd, expressing his dedication to helping small businesses raise capital.Share this post to start a discussion on X, LinkedIn or Facebook about adding rewards to investment crowdfunding campaigns.How to Develop Problem-Solving As a Superpower“People would say is I see dots that no one else sees,” Karl says of his problem-solving superpower. Like solving a puzzle, he connects the dots between disparate data points to draw fresh conclusions to test new solutions.Following the passage of the JOBS Act in 2012, Karl began working on implementing crowdfunding in Colorado. So, he's been thinking about optimizing fundraising for a decade, along the way, helping companies do it. He loves that under the new rules, “investments are not limited to wealthy people.” But, he sees a need to think differently about bringing in small, novice investors. He framed the question as, “How do you get a non-wealthy person to be able to make an investment where they can benefit enough that it makes sense to them at their income level, where they're at in their life?”His conclusion is to incorporate substantial consumer rewards, reflecting a genuine innovation in crowdfunding. He developed that strategy using his ability to solve problems.Karl offers some tips for strengthening your ability to solve problems.First, he suggests shaking off the fear by embracing the idea that much of what you try will fail–on your way to ultimate success. Second, he offers that it is important not to lock your focus on what has been done in the past. Start with a “blank canvas,” focusing on what you want to accomplish rather than how you'll get there.That kind of thinking, he says, allows you to conclude that you may be able to borrow or rent something rather than raise capital to buy it. You get where you're going without some of the cost and stress.By following Karl's example and advice, you can strengthen your ability to solve problems. With practice, you could make it a superpower that enables you to do more good in the world.Remember, however, that research into success suggests that building on your own superpowers is more important than creating new ones or overcoming weaknesses. You do you!Guest ProfileKarl Dakin (he/him):Founder / Owner, Dakin Capital LLCAbout Dakin Capital LLC: A specialty consulting company that provides coaching to small businesses in the design, staging and conduct of capital campaigns.Website: www.dakincapital.comX/Twitter Handle: @KarlDakinBiographical Information: Mr. Dakin is a professional entrepreneur, a leader of business startup projects, consultant on small business capital formation and an educator on entrepreneurship. He owns and operates Dakin Capital LLC, where he provides services as a capital coach to small businesses leveling up or just getting started. He serves as a business leader in several small businesses.Mr. Dakin is currently an Adjunct Faculty with the University of Denver and a member of a faculty team that teaches the BioEntrepreneurship program at University of Colorado, Anschutz Campus.He shares his knowledge of raising capital through his Instant Funding newsletter, media posts and guest appearances.Mr. Dakin is a member of the Economic Development Council of Colorado, National Coalition for Community Capital, SuperCrowd, and the Society of Physician Entrepreneurs.He is a licensed attorney in the State of Colorado with 45 years of experience in commercializing innovation. He holds a Juris Doctor degree from the Washburn University School of Law and a Bachelor of Business Administration from Washburn University School of Business in Topeka, Kansas.X/Twitter Handle: @KarlDakinPersonal Facebook Profile: fb.com/karl.dakinLinkedin: linkedin.com/in/karldakin/Upcoming SuperCrowd Event CalendarIf a location is not noted, the events below are virtual.* Impact Cherub Club Meeting hosted by The Super Crowd, Inc., a public benefit corporation, on February 20, 2024, at 1:00 PM Eastern. Each month, the Club meets to review new offerings for investment consideration and to conduct due diligence on previously screened deals. Everyone is welcome to join the free events.* SuperCrowdHour February with the CfPA Executive Committee: This free event on February 21, 2024, at 1:00 PM Eastern, features President Brian Christie, Vice President Jenny Kassan, Secretary Brian Belley and Chair Scott McIntyre. Learn how you can join and make a difference. Earn rewards!* SuperCrowdBaltimore, March 21, 2024: This in-person event at the B&O Rail Museum features some of Baltimore's prominent citizens and community leaders. Save 30 percent with the discount code “SuperCrowd.”* Superpowers for Good - Kinect Capital Live Pitch, March 28 at 9 PM Eastern/6 PM Pacific: Four companies currently raising via crowdfunding will pitch their offerings live via the Superpowers for Good streaming television show on e360tv. Kinect Capital will host the pitch. Applications to pitch will open soon! Save the date! More information is coming soon! * SuperCrowd24, April 17-18: This two-day virtual event is our biggest event of the year. Don't miss it. Save 50 percent with the discount code “SuperCrowd.”* SuperCrowdChicago, June 12, 2024. Save the date! More information is coming soon!SuperCrowd Community Event CalendarIf a location is not noted, the events below are virtual.* Successful Funding with Karl Dakin, Tuesdays at 10:00 AM ET * Leveraging Donor-Advised Funds for Climate Investing, Raise Green, February 15 at 11 AM ET* Strengthening Positive Peace to Create Hope in the World, February 24, Fredericksburg, VA* Neighborhood Economics, February 26-28 in San Antonio, Texas* Crowdfunding Professional Association Webinar Series - March 13, 2:00 PM ET* Investment Crowdfunding Demystified, Crowdfund Better, March 26 at 2:00 PM ETIf you would like to submit an event for inclusion on our community calendar, click here. Get full access to Superpowers for Good at www.superpowers4good.com/subscribe

I'm not a financial advisor; nothing I write in Superpowers for Good should be considered investment advice. You should seek appropriate counsel before making investment decisions.Remember, you can watch the Superpowers for Good show on e360tv. To watch the episode, download the #e360tv channel app to your streaming device–Roku, AppleTV or AmazonFireTV–or your mobile device. You can even watch it on the web or YouTube.When you purchase an item, launch a crowdfunding campaign or invest after clicking a link here, we may earn a commission. It's an easy way to support our work.Devin: What is your superpower?Paul: My favorite superpower, my favorite personal talent or strength, is what Don Clifton and the Clifton Strengthsfinder would call ideation.Paul Allen, serial entrepreneur and founder of Ancestry.com, is building on his history managing massive databases to develop a proprietary ethical AI model he's deploying in several fields, beginning with Citizen Portal. The new company monitors public governmental meetings, from school boards to the Supreme Court. (Full disclosure: I'm a crowdfunding investor in Citizin Portal.)Soar is a parent company Paul founded to develop the proprietary AI engine that underlies Citizen Portal and other companies in the works. “Our vision for PURE AI is an acronym for personalized–you ought to be able to control the AI and design it according to your needs–uplifting–it ought to be wonderful to interact with and joyful to use–and then responsible and ethical,” Paul says. “A lot of companies talk about responsible AI and ethical AI, but we like the personalized and uplifting as well.”Paul shares the vision for Citizen Portal:The vision of Citizen Portal is to use AI to empower citizens to become informed and engaged about every issue they care about at the local, state, and federal level. If you think about the difficulty of being a citizen right now–do we trust our leaders? Do we know what's going on? Are we happy with the $34 trillion debt? I mean, there are lots of issues that make you feel like the country is not going in the right direction.Paul notes that part of the lack of trust is the rapid decline in local journalism over the past 20 years or so. Two or three decades ago, local papers had reporters at virtually every public meeting. That is no longer true. Citizen Portal can monitor all public meetings that are accessible digitally–which is a vast majority today.Citizen Portal is now conducting a crowdfunding raise under Regulation Crowdfunding via StartEngine.Paul shares his thoughts about crowdfunding:I literally love the American Jobs Act from 2012–finally, the SEC in 2016 launched the rules for crowdfunding. But I love the idea that average people can invest in a startup company that has a lot of promise, and obviously, billions of dollars have now been raised across the industry.Paul will deliver a keynote address in the opening session of SuperCrowd24 on April 17. To learn more about the offering, visit startengine.com/citizenportal.Paul has built Soar to take advantage of his superpower, ideation, enabling him to apply the core technology across a broad suite of applications.AI Episode Summary1. Paul Allen, the founder of Ancestry.com, is introduced as a "rock star entrepreneur" and is currently working on a new venture called Citizen Portal.2. Citizen Portal is an AI-driven platform designed to empower citizens to become informed and engaged on issues at the local, state, and federal levels, addressing the decline of traditional media coverage.3. The platform has imported and transcribed 600-700,000 hours of public meetings, making the content searchable and accessible to citizens.4. Paul's vision is to fill the void left by the diminishing newspaper industry by giving citizens firsthand access to government proceedings and facilitating a new generation of informed citizens.5. The ethical AI model used at Soar, called PURE AI, focuses on creating AI that is Personalized, Uplifting, Responsible, and Ethical.6. Paul plans to launch around 15 corporations in the next 2-3 years, including Faith Portal AI for religious content, Learning Portal, and Workplace AI Portal, aimed at improving human capability and decision-making.7. Family and Friend Portals are also in the pipeline to help enhance relationships, countering the rise in loneliness, stress, and isolation exacerbated by platforms like Facebook.8. Citizen Portal is currently running a crowdfunding campaign on StartEngine to further develop the platform and strengthen democracy.9. The platform aims to create a personal voter scorecard by indexing content from elected officials and opposition candidates, providing personalized, issue-based insights for voters.10. Paul attributes his success as an entrepreneur to his superpower of "ideation," the ability to come up with new ideas, which he pairs with executing strengths and building teams to bring ideas to reality.How to Develop Ideation As a SuperpowerPaul is a primary reason we call the show and the newsletter “Superpowers for Good.” An expert in personal strength development, Paul and I–friends for decades–met for lunch four or five years ago, and he explained how he appreciated the superpowers questions I asked guests. That ultimately led to writing the book, Superpowers for Good, and the show's rebranding.Paul shared his struggle with his ideation superpower in the early days of the World Wide Web: I had what I called dotcom syndrome. That is, for any word in the English language, I would just close my eyes and put a .com on it, and boom, a business model would pop into my head. Here's what the product or service could be. I bought a high-speed satellite dish in 1995 in Provo, Utah. I was probably the first person [there] to have high-speed internet. I would stay up till 2 or 3 in the morning studying thousands of other dot coms to find out their marketing strategy, their product strategy, what niches they were in, and how were they getting funded. I had a folio knowledge base with over 3,000 copy-and-paste things about what I discovered about internet companies.Paul advises changemakers: “Don't take advice from other people unless that advice lets you play to your strengths.”By following Paul's example, you can strengthen your ideation ability. With practice, you, too, could make it a superpower that would enable you to do more good in the world.Remember, however, that, as Paul suggests, research into success suggests that building on your own superpowers is more important than creating new ones or overcoming weaknesses. You do you!Guest ProfilePaul Allen (he/him):CEO & Board Member, Citizen PortalAbout Citizen Portal: Citizen Portal is a non-partisan, AI-powered platform with $426,200 in pre-seed funding and a seasoned leadership team aiming to revolutionize civic engagement, revive government transparency, and transform American democracy. Citizen Portal is on a mission to transform democracy with an AI-powered approach. We are reshaping civic engagement and education by providing Americans with up-to-date, accurate, newsworthy information straight from the source. Citizen Portal utilizes AI to index, transcribe, and summarize meetings and hearings at all levels of government. By providing access to video recordings of school boards, local, state, and federal meetings, Citizen Portal helps to empower citizens, journalists, and advocates to know what is being said by their elected officials and done in their government.Website: citizenportal.aiX/Twitter Handle: @CitizenPortalAiCompany Facebook Page: fb.com/profile.php?id=100093227401453Other URL: startengine.com/citizenportalBiographical Information: Paul Allen is a visionary tech entrepreneur and evangelist driven by a desire to help individuals live their best lives. Paul has founded eight companies. He calls himself a “platform entrepreneur” since his products are usually built on top of the latest tech platform or wave, such as CD-ROM, the World Wide Web, mp3 audio, or Facebook. For the past several years, Paul's focus has been using machine learning and artificial intelligence to help individuals and organizations reach their full potential.In 1990, Paul founded Infobases, whose mission was to digitize and publish the world's most important books on CD ROM with a full-text search engine. This endeavor led directly to Ancestry.com—Paul's best-known company—which sought to gather and publish the world's genealogy records, family trees, and memories on the internet to enable everyone to discover their heritage. Over 100 million people have learned about their family history at Ancestry.com.Paul's teams have a history of building viral products. MyFamily.com (1998) attracted millions of users and, for a time, was the fastest-growing online community on the web, as well as the top photo-sharing site in 2000 and 2001. Paul's We're Related app on Facebook (2007-2010) gained more than 120 million users in two and a half years. From 2012 to 2017, Paul worked with Gallup to promote the StrengthsFinder assessment (now called CliftonStrengths) from the Washington, DC headquarters. As the “Global Strengths Evangelist,” Paul helped increase online purchases of the assessment and supported a global community of strengths coaches. Today, more than 30 million people have taken the CliftonStrengths assessment. Paul's most recent creation is Soar.com, a company whose mission—once again—is to uplift humanity. Paul is a strong advocate for using AI in positive ways, specifically to enable individuals to become the best version of themselves. When excellent training is paired with AI-generated feedback on actual performance, leaders, managers, founders, and individual contributors can achieve excellence faster than ever before. Soar is an AI Studio that will form more than fifteen separate corporations to bring PURE AI (Personalized Uplifting Responsible Ethical AI) to many fields, including education, faith, government, health, finance, medicine, law, family history, and the workplace. Eventually, Soar will enable people to build and customize their own AI assistant (think of Jarvis from Iron Man or Janet from The Good Place) to help them learn, grow, make better decisions, and maximize their time on Earth. Paul's influence extends beyond entrepreneurship. He's a sought-after keynote speaker and workshop facilitator, teaching the importance of family stories and personal strengths in shaping one's identity. A lifelong learner, Paul has amassed a vast library of thousands of books. In fact, Paul's dedication to learning extends to his teaching roles in Internet Marketing and Entrepreneurship at Utah Valley University and Brigham Young University. He's received numerous accolades, including Ernst & Young Utah Entrepreneur of the Year in 2000 and MarketingSherpa National Entrepreneur of the Year in 2008. Paul is a fellow of the Utah Genealogical Association and was named a Cyber Pioneer in 2010 by the Cyber Law Section of the Utah State Bar. In 2016, he was the honored alumnus of the BYU Humanities College, having graduated in 1990 with a BA in Russian. Most recently, Paul has been featured on The Pulse of AI, The Briefing with Steve Scully, The Business of Learning, and The Adventures in Machine Learning podcasts.Paul and his wife, Christy, reside in Missouri. They have eight adult children and five grandchildren.X/Twitter Handle: @paulballenPersonal Facebook Profile: fb.com/paulallenLinkedin: linkedin.com/in/paulballen/Instagram Handle: @paulallendcUpcoming SuperCrowd Event CalendarIf a location is not noted, the events below are virtual.* Impact Cherub Club Meeting hosted by The Super Crowd, Inc., a public benefit corporation, on February 20, 2024, at 1:00 PM Eastern. Each month, the Club meets to review new offerings for investment consideration and to conduct due diligence on previously screened deals. Everyone is welcome to join the free events.* SuperCrowdHour February with the CfPA Executive Committee: This free event on February 21, 2024, at 1:00 PM Eastern, features President Brian Christie, Vice President Jenny Kassan, Secretary Brian Belley and Chair Scott McIntyre. Learn how you can join and make a difference. Earn rewards!* SuperCrowdBaltimore, March 21, 2024. This in-person event at the B&O Rail Museum features some of Baltimore's prominent citizens and community leaders. Save 30 percent with the discount code “SuperCrowd.”* SuperCrowd24, April 17-18: This two-day virtual event is our biggest event of the year. Don't miss it. Save 50 percent with the discount code “SuperCrowd.” Paul Allen will deliver a keynote address in the opening general session.* SuperCrowdChicago, June 12, 2024. Save the date! More information is coming soon!SuperCrowd Community Event CalendarIf a location is not noted, the events below are virtual.* Successful Funding with Karl Dakin, Tuesdays at 10:00 AM ET * Leveraging Donor-Advised Funds for Climate Investing, Raise Green, February 15 at 11 AM ET* Neighborhood Economics, February 26-28 in San Antonio, Texas* Crowdfunding Professional Association Webinar Series - March 13, 2:00 PM ET* Investment Crowdfunding Demystified, Crowdfund Better, March 26 at 2:00 PM ETIf you would like to submit an event for inclusion on our community calendar, click here. Get full access to Superpowers for Good at www.superpowers4good.com/subscribe

Remember, you can watch the Superpowers for Good show on e360tv. To watch the episode, download the #e360tv channel app to your streaming device–Roku, AppleTV or AmazonFireTV–or your mobile device. You can even watch it on the web or YouTube.When you purchase an item, launch a crowdfunding campaign or invest after clicking a link here, we may earn a commission. It's an easy way to support our work.Devin: Rosa Lee, what do you see as your superpower?Rosa Lee: Growing up in the church, I just kind of saw through a bunch of the crap, if you will, about what people thought church was about and saw I had a clear vision of that. What my faith needed to be about was figuring out what Jesus would do and doing it.Devin: What's your superpower, Leroy?Leroy: I've been a person who can look out and do something and bring people together to do something scary.Rosa Lee Harden and her husband and business partner, Kevin Doyle Jones, founded Neighborhood Economics as a community-focused version of the highly successful SoCap event series they created.“Back in 2008, my husband, Kevin Jones, and a bunch of us started this organization called SoCap,” Rosa Lee said. “We decided after about a decade that we wanted to go more downstream, if you will, and start working with economics in a way that could change neighborhoods for good.”The next Neighborhood Economics event is in San Antonio, Texas, on February 26 - 28, 2024. The event will feature about 70 speakers in 42 sessions over the three days.Leroy Barber, the executive director of Neighborhood Economics, joined us for this conversation. He says the enterprise brings together the world of impact investing and social entrepreneurship with his traditional focus on community development and church work. The connection to faith is more overt than implied, as it was at SoCap, recognizing faith leaders' and organizations' roles in repairing local economies. “We are mostly Christians in our organization, but we believe that faith writ large, not just Christianity, is the glue that holds the moral compass of the economy together,” Rosa Lee said. “It's important for people of faith to be in conversation with the economy.”A vital element of the event is bringing about a dozen foundations together to talk about patient capital's role in local community investing.Rosa Lee and Leroy both bring their superpowers to work. Rosa Lee's early conviction to do what Jesus would and Leroy's ability to get people together to complete scary community projects enable them to impact communities through their events.AI Episode Summary1. Devin Thorpe introduces Rosa Lee Harden, founder of Neighborhood Economics, and her colleague Leroy Barber as his guests on the "Superpowers for Good" show.2. Rosa Lee talks about starting SoCap in 2008, focusing on global impact investing, and later creating Neighborhood Economics with a more local approach to building economic justice in neighborhoods through ideas and community collaboration.3. Neighborhood Economics hosts events that bring together around 300 people to discuss actionable ways of making positive changes in local communities with input from national experts.4. Leroy Barber joined the initiative after being invited to SoCap, realizing the potential connections between social entrepreneurship, impact investing, and local community development.5. Rosa Lee highlights the purpose of Neighborhood Economics as a platform for facilitating discussions that SoCap couldn't cater to, such as impact investing for specific local contexts, and emphasizes the role of faith as a moral compass in economy-related conversations.6. Leroy explains the importance of the faith community as a mobilizer for local economic efforts, fostering a merge between the financial world and faith-directed community action.7. Rosa Lee shares details about an upcoming event in San Antonio, Texas, providing a platform for discussing various topics like reversing redlining, equitable homeownership, and employee-owned business models, alongside sessions about the role of faith in economic justice.8. Rosa Lee considers one of her superpowers to be her ability to see through superficial religious motivations and focus on living out her faith through actions that reflect a divine dream for the world, as well as her exceptional capability to organize large events without stress.9. Leroy identifies his superpower as the ability to bring people together to undertake challenging and transformative community work, fostering relationships and building unlikely alliances.10. Rosa Lee invites viewers to the Neighborhood Economics event and provides contact information for both her and Leroy—Rosa Lee at rosalee@neighborhoodeconomics.org and Leroy at leroy@neighborhoodeconomics.org—for anyone interested in connecting or learning more about their work.To help others learn about Neighborhood Economics, share this post.How to Develop Doing As Jesus Would As a SuperpowerSoCap is the living manifestation of the power of Rosa Lee's influence. Her faith led her to keep the balance at the events on impact, so the focus didn't shift entirely to making money.“The idea that was emerging in the early 2000s, that you could invest for profit in mission-based businesses, that businesses should have a mission and that they should be doing good, and that you could follow your money through that path has proved to be true,” she says. In those early days of SoCap, her influence helped to maintain the balance.By following Rosa Lee's example, you can increase your ability to apply principles of your faith in contexts outside of worship services. With practice, this could become a superpower that enables you to do more good in the world.How to Develop Completing Scary Community Projects As a SuperpowerLeroy explains his superpower:My superpower is to convince people on the margins in local neighborhoods who've been underneath it for so long and are not resourced that this is possible. [Impact investors and social entrepreneurs] exist, and you can come meet them. We're going to pull all of y'all together, right? And something powerful can and will keep happening. I love the idea of that because people don't believe that that's there. My superpower is convincing people it's there.By following Leroy's example, you can make bringing people together to tackle scary problems something that you can do, too. With practice, you can make it a superpower that enables you to do more good in the world.Remember, however, that research into success suggests that building on your own superpowers is more important than creating new ones or overcoming weaknesses. You do you!Guest ProfileAbout Neighborhood Economics: Neighborhood Economics convenes, recruits, and connects people repairing local economies. Our convenings gather local leaders, impact investors, catalytic foundations, minority entrepreneurs, and people of faith who want to build a more just economy.Website: https://neighborhoodeconomics.orgX/Twitter Handle: @neighboreconCompany Facebook Page: fb.com/neighborhoodeconomics/Other URL: https://neighborhoodeconomics.org/san-antonio/Rosa Lee Harden (she/her):Executive Producer, Neighborhood EconomicsBiographical Information: The Rev. Canon Rosa Lee Harden is a self-described serial entrepreneur. Her vocational life has included being publisher of weekly newspapers, trade journals, a business journal and CEO of a ‘Silicon Valley' start-up. She was ordained as an Episcopal Priest in 2000 and served as Vicar of Holy Innocents Episcopal Church in San Francisco for ten years. She also served as the Canon for Money and Meaning at All Soul's Episcopal Cathedral in Asheville, NC. In 2003, she developed ‘via media,' a video curriculum about basic theology for the Episcopal church, developed at a time when the church was under great stress. Purchased by more than 1000 churches, it brought healing and connection across the denomination. In 2008, she and her husband, Kevin Jones, launched the global SOCAP (Social Capital Markets) conference, the conference at the intersection of money and meaning. In its 11th year, SOCAP18 brought more than 3,000 people from more than 60 countries to San Francisco to accelerate the good economy. Now, Rosa Lee is leading F+F: Reimagining God's Economy, a conference to enable the varied and disconnected tribes of the Christian church to learn a language for making theological sense of money and its uses. She is also executive producer of Neighborhood Economics, a convening in Indianapolis that brought together leaders and practitioners in the field.Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/roharden/Leroy Barber (he/him):Executive Director, Neighborhood Economics Biographical Information: Leroy Barber has dedicated 30 years living and working towards what Dr. King called “the beloved community.”Leroy starts projects that shape society. In 1989, burdened by the plight of Philadelphia's homeless, he and his wife, Donna, founded Restoration Ministries to serve homeless families and children living on the streets. In 1994, he became Director of Internship Programs at Cornerstone Christian Academy. Leroy was licensed and ordained at Mt Zion Baptist Church where he served as Youth Director with Donna, and also served as Associate Minister of Evangelism.  In 1997, he joined FCS Urban Ministries in Atlanta, GA, working with the Atlanta Youth Project to serve as the founding Executive Director of Atlanta Youth Academies, a private elementary school providing quality Christian education for low-income families in the inner city.  Leroy also helped found DOOR Atlanta, Community Life Church, South Atlanta Marketplace, and Community Grounds Coffee shop in Atlanta, as well as Green My Hood and The Voices Project. Leroy is an innovator, entrepreneur and lover of the arts. Leroy has a Masters Degree in Divinity and D. Min.Leroy is currently Executive Director for Neighborhood Economics, former Director of Innovation for an Engaged Church serving the Greater NW area of the United Methodist Church. Leroy is the Co-Founder of the Voices Project and Adjunct professor at Multnomah University. Rev. Barber has served on the boards of The Simple Way, Missio Alliance, The Evangelical Environmental Network (EEN), and the Former Board Chair of the Christian Community Development Association (CCDA).He is the author of four books:• New Neighbor: An Invitation to Join Beloved Community (2008, Mission Year)• Everyday Missions: How Ordinary People Can Change the World (2012, Intervarsity Press)• Red, Brown, Yellow, Black and White: Who's More Precious In His Sight? with Velma Maia Thomas, 2014, Faith Words/Hachette Book Group)• Embrace: God's Radical Shalom For A Divided World (2016, Intervarsity Press)Leroy currently lives in Portland, Oregon and has been married to Donna for the past 35 years. Together they have six children.X/Twitter Handle: @leroybarberLinkedin: linkedin.com/in/leroy-barber-899041aInstagram Handle: @Leroybarber Upcoming SuperCrowd Event CalendarIf a location is not noted, the events below are virtual.* Impact Cherub Club Meeting hosted by The Super Crowd, Inc., a public benefit corporation, on February 20, 2024, at 1:00 PM Eastern. Each month, the Club meets to review new offerings for investment consideration and to conduct due diligence on previously screened deals. Everyone is welcome to join the free events.* SuperCrowdHour February with the CfPA Executive Committee: This free event on February 21, 2024, at 1:00 PM Eastern, features President Brian Christie, Vice President Jenny Kassan, Secretary Brian Belley and Chair Scott McIntyre. Learn how you can join and make a difference. Earn rewards!* SuperCrowdBaltimore, March 21, 2024 This in-person event at the B&O Rail Museum features some of Baltimore's prominent citizens and community leaders. Save 30 percent with the discount code “SuperCrowd.”* SuperCrowd24, April 17-18: This two-day virtual event is our biggest event of the year. Don't miss it. Save 50 percent with the discount code “SuperCrowd.”* SuperCrowdChicago, June 12, 2024. Save the date! More information is coming soon!SuperCrowd Community Event CalendarIf a location is not noted, the events below are virtual.* Crowdfunding & SBA Lending with Kathleen Minogue of Crowdfund Better, Today!* Neighborhood Economics, February 26-28 in San Antonio, Texas* Crowdfunding Professional Association Webinar Series - March 13, 2:00 PMIf you would like to submit an event for inclusion on our community calendar, click here.Superpowers for Good is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to Superpowers for Good at www.superpowers4good.com/subscribe

Remember, you can watch the Superpowers for Good show on e360tv. To watch the episode, download the #e360tv channel app to your streaming device–Roku, AppleTV or AmazonFireTV–or your mobile device. You can even watch it on the web or YouTube.When you purchase an item, launch a crowdfunding campaign or invest after clicking a link here, we may earn a commission. It's an easy way to support our work.Devin: What is your superpower?Dana: I asked some of my team yesterday on a call what they thought my superpower was. Since this is a family show, I'm going to self-edit here and say that they said, “If we had to describe Dana Spain's superpower, it's that she gets stuff done.”Dana Spain is a second-generation business leader and real estate developer who turned her attention to supporting veterans. She founded the nonprofit Veterans Villages to house unsheltered and impoverished veterans.She shared the founding story and the vision with us:Veterans Village came out of a very simple problem; the problem that I saw when I was running a small but very mighty homeless shelter for female veterans is that when they put in all the work and did all kinds of enrichment programs–mind, body, spirit started to make great positive steps in their lives–government agencies were putting them in abject squalor when they were applying for independent housing. I just couldn't believe the scattered sites and the drug activity and crime-ridden areas that our ladies were being put into, especially when there was an affordable housing crisis all across the country. But these are people who have fought for our freedoms, and they're being discarded as if they're second-class citizens–if citizens at all. So, I was very frustrated and finally had enough. I went to my dad, who was alive at the time, Bernard Spain. He was an army vet. And over cocktails–where we always did our best business meetings–I said, “Dad, I'm just so frustrated. We work hard, the ladies work hard, they're veterans. Yet we're throwing them away and then wondering why the cycle of homelessness and bad decisions continues.”He looked me square in the eye, Devin, and he said, “You build buildings for a living. Why don't we build a building that is respectful, safe, affordable housing for our veterans and show the government how it's done?”So Veterans Villages was born. The first Veterans Village is called the Bernard Spain campus as a legacy to my dad because he was the force behind the idea of let's not talk about it, let's be about it. Let's build brand new construction, just like my market-rate apartments, and make it solely for our veterans who are coming out of transitional housing or addiction recovery programs or trauma centers, and have it be a place where our veterans can live together in a community, hence the village concept.If they are having a bad day, if they feel like they're going to make bad decisions, they have 46 other apartments to go to to knock on the door and say, “I could use a cup of coffee or a shoulder or an ear,” or “Let's watch a ball game together.” It stabilizes a foundation for them to thrive so the cycle does not repeat itself.That lesson from her father, the sense of urgency to be about something rather than talking about something, became Dana's superpower.AI Episode Summary1. Devin introduces the show "Superpowers for Good" with the guest Dana Spain, founder of Veterans Village, which is aimed at supporting veterans through housing and community.2. Veterans Village was born out of Dana's experience running a homeless shelter for female veterans, where she saw a need for better housing solutions after transitional programs.3. Dana's father, an army veteran, proposed building a respectful, safe and affordable housing project for veterans, which led to the founding of the first Veterans Village, named the Bernard Spain campus.4. The project was funded privately through corporate and foundation donations, grants, and traditional financing without relying on government funding or tax credits.5. Key supporters of Veterans Villages included Saint-Gobain's Certainteed, Dow Tile, Amira Vets, Quatro Capital, and First Citizens Community Bank.6. Dana's professional background includes a career as a developer after working in various fields, such as translation for a French bank, retail with Hallmark stores, publishing, and commercial real estate.7. Transitioning to veteran-focused charity work, Dana identified a lack of safe housing for female veterans, particularly those suffering from military sexual trauma.8. Dana describes her leadership style as direct and results-oriented, with a propensity to surround herself with expert teams and adapt plans as needed.9. A past accomplishment highlighted by Dana was the successful fundraising campaign for the Philadelphia Police Foundation to reintroduce the mounted police, a project initially deemed too expensive.10. Dana invites listeners to visit VeteransVillages.org to learn how to get involved with the initiative, highlighting the variety of ways support is welcomed, including donations and volunteering.You can support veterans simply by sharing this post to increase awareness.How to Develop Getting Stuff Done As a SuperpowerDana describes her superpower this way:I see a problem. Instead of the problem being the obstacle, the problem becomes the challenge to find a solution. So, in all of my endeavors, whether on the for-profit or nonprofit side, I look at the problem, the issue, and how we resolve that issue. How am I going to roll up my sleeves and get my hands dirty to be the first one on the front lines to address the issue?She adds:I'm not much of a business plan kind of gal because I feel that it puts you in this box of, “Okay, well, here's my business plan that's going to happen in six months, 12 months, 18 months, three years. So, I have to stick to that because that's the plan. I'm more of a back-of-a-cocktail-napkin kind of gal that every six months, I have to say, “Okay, well, that didn't work. Let's scratch that off. Let's let's go over here. Let's go over there.” Especially, I would say, in our charity endeavors, it's very organic. You have to be able to reposition on the fly.She shared an anecdote that typifies the way she gets stuff done. While serving on the Philadelphia Police Foundation, the police commissioner, Charles Ramsey, asked for help bringing back the mounted police.One board member spoke up to suggest that the challenge was somewhere between silly and impossible, “We're never going to get that done.” Dana says the doers on the board simply said, “Watch us.” Creating a fundraising infrastructure that had never existed in the past and hosting events that had no precedent, they raised the money and brought back the mounted police. They still ride in Philadelphia.By following Dana's advice and example, you can make getting stuff done a personal strength. With practice, it could become your superpower, enabling you to do more good in the world.Remember, however, that research into success suggests that building on your own superpowers is more important than creating new ones or overcoming weaknesses. You do you!Guest ProfileDana Spain (she/her):President, Veterans VillagesAbout Veterans Villages: Veterans VIllages is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to providing safe and affordable housing for America's veterans facing conditions of abject poverty and, in many cases, housing insecurity. Our replicable modular construction model ensures that we can expand our reach and impact and create Veterans Villages nationwide. Website: veteransvillages.orgX/Twitter: @veterans_vCompany Facebook Page: fb.com/vbcgivingfoundationLinkedin: linkedin.com/company/veteransvillages/Instagram Handle: @veterans_villagesBiographical Information: Dana Spain is the founder and president of Veterans Villages. A serial entrepreneur and philanthropist, Veterans Villages is Spain's third nonprofit following the creation of HAVEN Women in 2016 and the Philadelphia Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) in 2005. Upcoming SuperCrowd Event CalendarIf a location is not noted, the events below are virtual.* SuperCrowdHour February with the CfPA Executive Committee: This free event on February 21, 2024, at 1:00 PM Eastern, features President Brian Christie, Vice President Jenny Kassan, Secretary Brian Belley and Chair Scott McIntyre. Learn how you can join and make a difference. Earn rewards!* SuperCrowdBaltimore, March 21, 2024. This in-person event at the B&O Rail Museum features some of Baltimore's prominent citizens and community leaders. Save 30 percent with the discount code “SuperCrowd.”* SuperCrowd24, April 17-18: This two-day virtual event is our biggest event of the year. Don't miss it. Save 50 percent with the discount code “SuperCrowd.”* SuperCrowdChicago, June 12, 2024. Save the date! More information is coming soon!SuperCrowd Community Event CalendarIf a location is not noted, the events below are virtual.* Crowdfunding & SBA Lending with Kathleen Minogue of Crowdfund Better, February 6* Neighborhood Economics, February 26-28 in San Antonio, TexasIf you would like to submit an event for inclusion on our community calendar, click here.Superpowers for Good is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to Superpowers for Good at www.superpowers4good.com/subscribe

Remember, you can watch the Superpowers for Good show on e360tv. To watch the episode, download the #e360tv channel app to your streaming device–Roku, AppleTV or AmazonFireTV–or your mobile device. You can even watch it on the web or YouTube.When you purchase an item, launch a crowdfunding campaign or invest after clicking a link here, we may earn a commission. It's an easy way to support our work.Devin: What do you see as your superpower?Richard: If you asked the people around me, my superpower is, at its core, my competitiveness.Prominent money manager Richard H. Lawrence's new book Carbon Done Correctly officially comes out today. The book features the history of his clean cookstove project, which started in Honduras in the late 1990s.Working with his daughter and a local team, they launched the project after volunteering for several years in the area following the devastating hurricane. While volunteering, they were perplexed by the number of people needing treatment for breathing problems. His daughter was the one who determined that the problem was cookstoves that vented smoke in the homes.Working with locals, they designed, built and installed 29 stoves. Struggling to fund further development of the project, Richard stumbled upon the growing voluntary carbon credit market. He learned that he could generate cash there to fund the project. Four years later, they successfully qualified for Gold Standard certification, enabling the sale of carbon credits.Today, Richard's Proyecto Mirador has sold 310,000 stoves in Honduras and Guatemala with help from carbon credits.Carbon credits have become controversial in recent years. Seen favorably as a potential solution to climate change early on, some climate activists have become skeptical.“There's blame on both sides, I think,” Richard says, reacting to the critics. “Over the last ten years, 12 years, a lot of new methodologies were developed, and those methodologies were not strong enough. That resulted in an overcrediting of emission savings. Quite rightly, those developers are subjected to criticism.”“On the other side of the coin, the critics tend to throw the baby out with the bath water,” he says. “So, they'll find a cookstove project that they believe has over credited, and then they'll pass that all cookstoves over credited.”The truth is that many good carbon projects both reduce carbon emissions and improve lives with better health and economic well-being.Richard credits his superpower, a competitive nature, with driving his impact.AI Episode Summary1. **Introduction**: Devin Thorpe introduces Richard Lawrence as the guest on the "Superpowers for Good" show. Richard is an author, philanthropist, fund manager, nonprofit founder, and the writer of the newly published book Carbon Done Correctly.2. **Carbon Done Correctly**: The book tells the story of Richard's life over the last 20 years, focusing on his efforts in environmental and social work, particularly highlighting a transformative experience during a medical mission in Honduras.3. **Family Trip to Honduras**: Richard's initial involvement in social work began as a concern for his children growing up in a hedonistic society, leading to a family trip to Honduras to participate in medical missions, which revealed health issues linked to inadequate cookstoves.4. **Discovery of Health Issues and Cookstove Solution**: During the Honduras mission, they observed a pattern of respiratory illnesses in women and children, which Richard's daughter linked to smoke from indoor cookstoves. This became the impetus for Richard's work in designing and implementing better cookstoves.5. **Funding Stove Projects**: Richard learned about the carbon market and its potential to raise funds through gold-standard-certified carbon credits. Realizing the power of this mechanism, he decided to use it to finance the building of improved cookstoves.6. **Challenges in Cookstove Implementation**: Acquiring gold standard certification and selling carbon credits took four years. To ensure the initiative's success, the project emphasized holistic improvements in stove design, education, supervision, and monitoring.7. **Cookstove Project Expansion**: The cookstove project expanded significantly, leading to the construction of over 310,000 stoves in Honduras and Guatemala, employing 250 people, and proving the efficacy of using carbon markets for funding.8. **Response to Carbon Credit Criticism**: Richard acknowledges criticism of carbon credits, admitting some issues relate to flaws in methodology and over-crediting. He emphasizes the ongoing work to improve standards and ensure carbon credits effectively contribute to fighting climate change.9. **Social Justice Aspect of Carbon Credits**: Devin mentions, and Richard agrees, that carbon credits represent a means to transfer capital from wealthier nations to places with less capital where climate mitigation strategies can be implemented more cost-effectively.10. **Superpower – Competitiveness**: When asked about his superpower, Richard cites his competitiveness and determination as critical to his success. He shares a story where this trait helped solve a significant problem in the cookstove initiative, leading to a simple but impactful innovation. Richard also advises us to keep moving forward, not dwelling on mistakes and emphasizes the importance of teamwork.If you believe that climate solutions that serve people deserve more attention, please share.How to Develop Competitiveness As a SuperpowerRichard shares a story to illustrate how his competitive nature enabled impact. Many cookstove projects struggle with adoption and utilization. Installing a stove the family doesn't use doesn't help.In the early days, when Richard visited the project in Honduras, he too often found problems like that. In the field with the project COO, Professor Elder Mendoza, the two were angry about the adoption problems.Elder identified the problem–a simple maintenance issue prevented the stoves from working correctly. The solution was a $1 wand they called a “cinco” that the residents could use to keep the stoves operating perfectly. Now, 300,000 stoves later, the solution has proved its worth.Richard suggests a philosophy to develop and strengthen your competitiveness. “Just don't give up.” “Keep looking forward,” he adds. “Don't look back; don't waste time on your mistakes. Just keep moving forward.”By following Richard's example and counsel, you can strengthen your competitiveness. With practice, you could make it a superpower that enables you to do more good in the world.Remember, however, that research into success suggests that building on your own superpowers is more important than creating new ones or overcoming weaknesses. You do you!Guest ProfileRichard H. Lawrence, Jr.  (he/him):Climate Activist and Author of Carbon Done Correctly: A Model for Climate Mitigation from the Global South to Wall Street Website: CarbonDoneCorrectly.comBiographical Information: Richard H. Lawrence, Jr., is the Founder and Executive Chairman of Overlook Investments Group, which he established in 1991. Overlook is an independent fund management company that invests in a concentrated portfolio of public equities throughout Asia, excluding Japan.Richard is a director and co-founder of several non-profit organizations with specific focus on climate change mitigation. In 2004, Richard and his wife, Dee, founded Proyecto Mirador Foundation, a non-profit that has built over 330,000 fuel-efficient stoves in rural communities across Honduras and Guatemala. In 2016, the Lawrences founded Cool Effect, a non-profit online platform that enables individuals and Fortune 500 companies to offset their carbon emissions through the purchase of carbon credits from high-integrity carbon reduction projects worldwide. In 2017, they established High Tide Foundation, a non-profit organization involved in climate change mitigation.Richard is Chairman of the non-profit Carbon Mapper, which deploys satellite technology to pinpoint and track point source emissions, particularly methane. In 2021, he helped establish Global Methane Hub with over $225 million in philanthropic funds to support methane advocacy and mitigation.Richard currently lives in San Francisco, California, with his wife and two adult children. His first published book, The Model: 37 Years Investing in Asian Equities, was released in 2021. Richard is also a member of the Board of Directors of The National Audubon Society.Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/richard-h-lawrence-jr-74480013Upcoming SuperCrowd Event CalendarIf a location is not noted, the events below are virtual.* SuperCrowdHour February with the CfPA Executive Committee: This free event on February 21, 2024, at 1:00 PM Eastern, features President Brian Christie, Vice President Jenny Kassan, Secretary Brian Belley and Chair Scott McIntyre. Learn how you can join and make a difference. Earn rewards!* SuperCrowdBaltimore, March 21, 2024. This in-person event at the B&O Rail Museum features some of Baltimore's prominent citizens and community leaders. Save 30 percent with the discount code “SuperCrowd.”* SuperCrowd24, April 17-18: This two-day virtual event is our biggest event of the year. Don't miss it. Save 50 percent with the discount code “SuperCrowd.”* SuperCrowdChicago, June 12, 2024. Save the date! More information is coming soon!SuperCrowd Community Event CalendarIf a location is not noted, the events below are virtual.* CfPA Webinar: A Conversation with Brendan Ballou, Author of Plunder, January 31* Crowdfunding & SBA Lending with Kathleen Minogue of Crowdfund Better, February 6* Neighborhood Economics, February 26-28 in San Antonio, TexasIf you would like to submit an event for inclusion on our community calendar, click here.Superpowers for Good is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to Superpowers for Good at www.superpowers4good.com/subscribe

Remember, you can watch the Superpowers for Good show on e360tv. To watch the episode, download the #e360tv channel app to your streaming device–Roku, AppleTV or AmazonFireTV–or your mobile device. You can even watch it on the web or YouTube.When you purchase an item, launch a crowdfunding campaign or invest after clicking a link here, we may earn a commission. It's an easy way to support our work.Devin: What do you see as your superpower?Dom: I think my superpower is empathy.Dom Kelly is the CEO and founder of New Disabled South, a nonprofit organization that supports disabled people and fights for their rights. Disabled by cerebral palsy, Dom leads from a position of personal experience, empowering him to be effective.While the organization doesn't have a policy to only hire people with disabilities, by making the workplace attractive to them, he's built a team comprising people with that lived experience and perspective.Dom shared some of the tactics used to create an appealing workplace. They include unlimited PTO. “We have it unlimited for a reason. If people need to take care of themselves, they take care of themselves.”“We have a very progressive parental leave policy,” he says. New Disabled South offers “a year of parental leave– that's six months fully paid, full time off, and six months part-time hours fully paid.”In addition, the organization offers a robust insurance package that includes life, vision, dental, and health. “Also, we're a remote organization; we support our employees, making sure they have a comfortable place to work,” Dom says.A final aspect of the hiring practice is a four-day, 32-hour work week that allows people time to rest and enjoy life as well as work.This broad, employee-friendly policy grew out of Dom's superpower: empathy.AI Episode Summary1. Dom Kelly is the founder, CEO, and president of New Disabled South, a nonprofit with an affiliated 501(c)(4), that focuses on advocacy and support for disabled individuals in the South.2. New Disabled South is unique in focusing on disability issues from a regional perspective in the South, addressing common challenges that disabled individuals face in the area.3. Some of the challenges specific to the South include barriers to voting access, non-expanded Medicaid, long waiting times for home care waivers, higher poverty rates, inaccessible transportation, and housing crises.4. Dom mentions that leaders lacking empathy can negatively impact both their leadership and their organization.5. New Disabled South's employment practices are designed to create an inclusive and supportive environment and include benefits like a four-day workweek and fully paid unlimited time off, among others.6. The organization's workplace policies prioritize empathy and support for employees' overall well-being and life experiences.7. Dom believes that his superpower is empathy, which has been shaped by personal experiences, such as the loss of his brother when they were children.8. He shares a story where displaying empathy during a difficult time at his job led to him doubling down on his commitment to help refugees, which reaffirmed his values and eventually brought him on the path to his current work.9. Dom advises that developing empathy starts with genuinely listening to others without interjecting, allowing for perspectives and experiences to be shared openly.10. Dom can be reached and supported through New Disabled South's website (newdisabledsouth.org), with direct donation links available, and he is also on LinkedIn and social media under the handle (at)the_tattooedjew. If you think employers can do better at including disabled people in hiring, please share.How to Develop Empathy As a SuperpowerDom began to appreciate empathy when his fraternal triplet brother passed away when they were six. It helped him to better understand the human connections between people.“I have seen a lack of empathy take down leaders and organizations,” Dom says. “It is something I just go back to often and remind myself to use my empathy as a strength.”Dom shared a story of a time when feeling and manifesting empathy was a challenge but also particularly important, and he could lean on this strength to help a friend.I was in a job that I was feeling frustrated with. It wasn't a good fit. The boss that I had didn't have a whole lot of empathy. He said some things to me–my wife and I were doing some work at the border at the time to help refugees, doing some organizing. At the time, he said something like, “I wish you cared as much about my business as you do about refugees at the border.” It was frustrating because I felt I was working hard. At the same time, it highlighted some misalignment for me.So, I share that because I was feeling frustrated, I was feeling afraid I was going to lose my job, or I was going to quit my job.At the time, we had a couple of friends who came to live with us as refugees from Honduras. When I got home that day, one of them had found out he had got a bad diagnosis and shared it with us. I got to put my stuff aside, be there for him and his partner, and be supportive and listen. It affirmed my commitment to that work. What wound up happening was I lost that job, and it wound up being the best thing that ever happened to me because I wouldn't be down this path that I'm on now. But my ability to put that aside and be there for someone who needed it put it into focus and put things into perspective and made me realign with my values and what was important to me. I showed up in that moment for someone who needed me.Dom offers a few tips for developing your empathy.“Take the cotton out of your ears and put it in your mouth,” he says. “Empathy is just sitting and listening to another person, not having to speak, not having to interject unless it's needed or asked for.”By following Dom's example and advice, you can strengthen your empathy. With practice, you could make it a superpower that enables you to do more good in the world.Remember, however, that research into success suggests that building on your own superpowers is more important than creating new ones or overcoming weaknesses. You do you!Guest ProfileDom Kelly (he/him):Co-Founder, President and CEO, New Disabled SouthAbout New Disabled South: New Disabled South is the first and only regional disability organization in the United States, fighting for liberation, justice, and rights for all disabled people in the South. We are a political home for all disabled people in 14 states across the US South. We are winning policy and narrative change for disabled people through organizing, advocacy, education, and research. New Disabled South exists to win rights, justice, liberation, and material improvements by and for disabled people across the US South. We are working to ensure there is a cost to ableism. We do this by exposing and holding accountable ableist actors in government, business, media, politics, and everywhere – to ensure we achieve transformative change for disabled people in our lifetimes. We also strive to be the go-to resource hub to understand disabled people in the US South – shedding light on where disability justice and rights stand and where they could and should be. Our mission is to improve the lives of disabled people and cultivate strong disability rights and disability justice frameworks in the South, working toward a vision of a South where all disabled people experience liberation and justice in our lifetimes.Website: newdisabledsouth.orgX/Twitter Handle: @DisabledSouthCompany Facebook Page: fb.com/NewDisabledSouth/Instagram Handle: @newdisabledsouthBiographical Information: Dom Kelly is the Co-Founder, President & CEO of New Disabled South, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, and New Disabled South Rising, its 501(c)(4) arm. He previously served as both the Georgia Fundraising Director and the Senior Advisor for Disability for Stacey Abrams' campaign for governor of Georgia. Prior to that, he was Senior Fundraising Manager and a Strategic Advisor for Disability at Fair Fight Action, the voting rights organization founded by Stacey Abrams, where he also created and led the organization's Disability Council, composed of prominent disability advocates and policy experts from across the country. Dom is one of a set of triplets born with Cerebral Palsy and has been a disability advocate since he was four years old. Starting when he was a young teenager, Dom and his brothers played around the world with their rock band, touring and collaborating with artists like Indigo Girls, Joan Baez, Toad the Wet Sprocket, The Bangles and more and releasing six records over 15+ years. He is retired from music, but with a decade of additional experience in digital and editorial strategy, nonprofit development, and community building, he has devoted his life to disability justice advocacy, progressive policy, and nonprofit leadership. He received a Master of Science in Nonprofit Leadership degree from the University of Pennsylvania's School of Social Policy and Practice, where he also received the Excellence in Social Impact award. Additionally, he holds a bachelor's degree in music production, a master's degree in journalism, an executive certificate in social impact strategy, and a graduate certificate in interdisciplinary disability studies. Dom was chosen as a 2024 Rockwood National Leading From the Inside Out Yearlong Fellow and as one of ten winners of The J.M. Kaplan Fund's 2023 Innovation Prize. He was a 2021 New Leaders Council fellow, serves as Chair for the board of The Kelsey, as Treasurer for the board of Disability Victory, as an advisory board member of ADA Watch, and as a member of the NationSwell Council. Dom also occasionally works as a consultant under The Tattooed Jew LLC, helping both political campaigns and nonprofit organizations with strategy. Dom currently lives in Atlanta, Georgia, with his wife, Catie, their daughter, Mahalia, and their dog, Vivi.X/Twitter Handle: @the_tattooedjewPersonal Facebook Profile: fb.com/dominic.kelly1Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/dominic-edward-kelly/Instagram Handle: @the_tattooedjewUpcoming SuperCrowd Event CalendarIf a location is not noted, the events below are virtual.* SuperCrowdHour February with the CfPA Executive Committee: This free event features President Brian Christ, Vice President Jenny Kassan, Secretary Brian Belley and Chair Scott McIntyre. Learn how you can join and make a difference. Earn rewards!* SuperCrowdBaltimore, March 21, 2024. This in-person event at the B&O Rail Museum features some of Baltimore's prominent citizens and community leaders. Save 30 percent with the discount code “SuperCrowd.”* SuperCrowd24, April 17-18: This two-day virtual event is our biggest event of the year. Don't miss it. Save 50 percent with the discount code “SuperCrowd.”* SuperCrowdChicago, June 12, 2024. Save the date! More information coming soon!SuperCrowd Community Event CalendarIf a location is not noted, the events below are virtual.* Local Investment 101 with Michael Shuman, January 27 - February 24, Lake Katrine, NY* CfPA Webinar: A Conversation with Brendan Ballou, Author of Plunder, January 31* Crowdfunding & SBA Lending with Kathleen Minogue of Crowdfund Better, February 6* Neighborhood Economics, February 26-28 in San Antonio, TexasIf you would like to submit an event for inclusion on our community calendar, click here.Superpowers for Good is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to Superpowers for Good at www.superpowers4good.com/subscribe

Jenny Kassan is the Founder of The Kassan Group, a company that empowers social entrepreneurs with coaching, funding strategy, and legal counsel. She has over 25 years of experience as an attorney and advisor for mission-driven enterprises, where she has helped her clients raise millions of dollars from values-aligned investors and raised over $2.5 million for her own businesses. She is also the author of “Raise Capital on Your Own Terms: How to Fund Your Business without Selling Your Soul”. Her accomplishments are many: Co-founded the Force for Good Fund, Founded Community Ventures, Co-founded Crowdfund Mainstreet, Co-founded Opportunity Main Street, Co-founded the Sustainable Economies Law Center Served on the Securities and Exchange Commission Advisory Committee on Small and Emerging Companies Submitted the petition to the SEC that led to the passage of the 2012 JOBS Act and was present at the White House for the signing. Named to the list of World Changing Women in Conscious Business by SOCAP Global. Serves as an elected member of the City Council of Freemont, California.

When you purchase an item after clicking a link from this post, we may earn a commission.Devin: What is your superpower?Esha: I think my superpower is tenacity.Over the years, Esha Chhabra and I have had a few opportunities to collaborate as journalists. When she shared a heads-up about her new book, Working to Restore, with me, I was thrilled to invite her to be a guest on the Superpowers for Good show to talk about it.In her book, she reports on her findings about what mid-size businesses are doing to become more restorative. Esha is an early entrant into the solutions journalism community, focusing on writing not only about problems but also about how people are working to solve them.Jenny Kassan will speak at SuperCrowd23. She's hosting a three-day virtual training session called “Raise Capital on Your Own Terms” for diverse founders and social entrepreneurs who hope to raise $500,000 or more for their businesses. If you're serious about your goals for impact, check it out! Use the discount code SuperCrowd20 to save 20 percent!AI Summary* Esha Chhabra discusses her new book Working to Restore on the Superpowers for Good show.* The book covers the regenerative approach many medium-sized companies take to drive environmental and social change across different industries.* Commitment to a long-term approach is necessary for inclusivity.* Examples of companies promoting women's roles in industries not typically known for inclusivity are cited.* A collaborative supply chain approach is encouraged.* Recommends supporting eco-friendly and community-oriented travel companies.* The book includes examples of companies and entrepreneurs committed to restoring the planet and advocating for communities.* The book aims to inspire readers to become involved in similar initiatives.* Businesses must prioritize sustainability and social justice and offer consumers value for money to be successful.Esha's Book: Working to Restore“Whether you are a young college student, whether you're somebody already working, or you're within a large corporate entity, you can use this book,” Esha says. “Pick it up, read one chapter, read one case study of a business, put it down, revisit it later. It'll get you thinking as to how your business or your role in that business could drive some kind of environmental and social change.”The book has nine chapters, each covering a different sector. “We look at food, fashion, travel, finance, the energy sector, supply chains,” she says.Esha is serious about the issues she covers, intending to have a real impact. “There's so much greenwashing going on, and it's now beyond just oil and gas or renewable energy space.”She explains her approach:As I've been doing this reporting for ten years, I've met some interesting entrepreneurs that I felt like they're so driven by their values and their mission that that is why they started the company. They didn't start the company for profit, or they didn't start the company for global scale or to have this dominant brand. It was to solve a problem. So I tried to identify people in the book that came from that place.Esha and her subjects are so focused on change that they even avoid the word sustainability to stay as far from faking or exaggerating the impact as possible. “We moved away from the word sustainability because one entrepreneur said to me, ‘What are we sustaining? Right? This broken system? Let's do something else. Let's bring about a change.'” Instead, she focuses on restoration. “The word that kept pinging me was ‘restoring' because we're restoring an imbalance; we've created an imbalance, and now we have to restore that balance,” she says. “With restorative comes this idea of regeneration, like giving life to something. When you look at regenerative agriculture, it's about feeding the soil, giving life to the soil.”Throughout Esha's career, she's used tenacity as her superpower to accomplish her work.How to Develop Tenacity As a SuperpowerEsha shares how she developed her tenacity. “I don't know if it's the product of being an immigrant, but I think you do just learn to just push through—and in a compassionate kind of way, not an aggressive kind of way,” she says. “But I think you do learn to just not take ‘no' that easily. I mean, it's not a roadblock always.”Journalists hear the word “no” a lot, both when finding sources and pitching articles. She says, “You just can't get knocked off by it.”She looks at her work in solutions journalism as an example of how she's used her tenacity to create more good in the world. The stories she's written have not only documented solutions but helped bring resources to bear. She says some of the subjects of her pieces have let her know years later that her coverage helped scale a business or attract capital from an investor.She offers two key points of advice for strengthening your tenacity.First, she says, “Have a strong sense of self.”You've got to be clear about some key questions. “What do you want? Who are you as a person?” She adds, “It's kind of cliche to say, but don't deviate from that.”Her second point is about seeing yourself in a complete context and not comparing yourself to artificial standards. She says:None of the companies in this book are perfect. They will tell you that, too. Once you realize that perfection doesn't exist, then I think some of that nervousness and anxiety around asking for things or pushing for ideas or starting a project—whatever it is—kind of goes to the wayside because you realize nobody really has the perfect answer or the perfect setup for anything.By following Esha's example and advice, you can strengthen your tenacity, perhaps making it a superpower that enables you to do more good in the world.Superpowers for Good is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Guest-Provided ProfileEsha Chhabra (she/her)About: Writer and author of the upcoming book, Working To Restore.Website: eshachhabra.comTwitter Handle: @esh2440Company Facebook Page: fb.com/ec2440Biographical Information: Esha Chhabra has been a writer and journalist focused on global development, environment, and business for over a decade. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, Economist, Guardian, Forbes, The Washington Post, Fast Company, Wired, and more. She goes beyond the greenwashing to determine if companies are pushing the needle. Her work has been supported by the UN Foundation and the Pulitzer Center in Washington, DC. Esha is a graduate of Georgetown University and the London School of Economics and Politics Science. She calls southern California home.Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/eshacInstagram Handle: @eshatravelsOther URL: penguinrandomhouse.com/authors/2274525/esha-chhabra/Esha will be speaking at the virtual conference SuperCrowd23, held on May 10-11. She'll be joining a discussion about social entrepreneurship. Don't miss it! Superpowers for Good readers get 50 percent off the price of admission! Get full access to Superpowers for Good at devinthorpe.substack.com/subscribe

“Do you understand what customers are looking for?…Do you know where you want to go? Can you tell a story? Are you the right person to lead this team and bring others on board?...The financial model is often the number side of your story. It is storytelling through numbers.” Ginger Rothrock on Electric Ladies Podcast Between the pandemic shifting our ideas of “work,” an increased focus on values, and the resulting “Great Realignment” of careers, more women are becoming entrepreneurs. Unfortunately, the road to raising capital for those businesses is fraught for women, since women founders only get about 2.3% of venture funding. But here's hope! In this episode of Electric Ladies podcast, venture investor, scientist and former entrepreneur Ginger Rothrock of HG Ventures shares secrets on how to be successful in your fundraising while female in conversation with host Joan Michelson. So, grab a pen and paper or tablet or laptop to take notes and click “play.” You'll hear: What you need to put in your pitch deck – and why What you need to understand about your business – and it may not be obvious. How to identify the assumptions you're making that may be holding you back. How to do credible yet ambitious financial modeling and forecasting. Plus, insightful career advice. And much more! “What would you do if you were fearless? What choices would you make? What actions would you take?... We outperform men, we get better grades. We learn that hard work, leads to results…(often we make) professional choices because of a perceived need or what am I supposed to do…(But) what if I could do anything I wanted?” Ginger Rothrock on Electric Ladies podcast Read Joan's Forbes articles here. You'll also want to listen to (some of these are under the name Green Connections Radio): Shelly Porges, Co-Founder and Managing Partner, Beyond the Billion and Billion Dollar Fund for Women Julie Lenzer, Chief Innovation Officer, University of Maryland and serial entrepreneur Jenny Kassan, fundraising consultant and entrepreneur Michele Wucker, thought leaders and author of “You Are What You Risk: The New Art & Science to Navigating an Uncertain World.” Subscribe to our newsletter to receive our podcasts, blog, events and special coaching offers.. Thanks for subscribing on Apple Podcasts or iHeartRadio and leaving us a review! Follow us on Twitter @joanmichelson   and @electricgalspod

Summary: In this episode of the Capital Insight Podcast, cohosts Jenny Kassan and Michelle Thimesch share a method to boost your confidence to ask for investment. Get In Touch: Website: https://www.jennykassan.com/ https://crowdfundmainstreet.com/ https://www.opportunitymainstreet.com/ https://www.theselc.org/ https://www.thenextegg.org/ Socials: Twitter: https://twitter.com/jennykassan LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennykassan/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thekassangroup/ Additional Resource: Angels of Main Street is a community of investors with no minimum wealth or income requirement to join. If you'd like to be part of a community of diverse investors who want to make a difference with their dollars, please join us in Angels of Main Street! Episode Credit: Intro and outro are voiced by Marina Verlaine. She can be contacted at reel.peach.vo@gmail.com Check out past episodes here!

Summary: In this episode of the Capital Insight Podcast, cohosts Jenny Kassan and Michelle Thimesch explore the second step of designing your strategy to raise capital on your terms: identifying the right investors for your business. Get In Touch: Website: https://www.jennykassan.com/ https://crowdfundmainstreet.com/ https://www.opportunitymainstreet.com/ https://www.theselc.org/ https://www.thenextegg.org/ Socials: Twitter: https://twitter.com/jennykassan LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennykassan/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thekassangroup/ Additional Resource: Angels of Main Street is a community of investors with no minimum wealth or income requirement to join. If you'd like to be part of a community of diverse investors who want to make a difference with their dollars, please join us in Angels of Main Street! Episode Credit: Intro and outro are voiced by Marina Verlaine. She can be contacted at reel.peach.vo@gmail.com Check out past episodes here!

What Is the Right Legal Investor Structure for Your Startup? (Recorded Live on Clubhouse September 30, 2022)    We were joined by Jenny Kassan, business attorney and author of Raise Capital on Your Own Terms: How to Fund Your Business Without Selling Your Soul. Jenny discussed the various types of offerings that can be leveraged by startups to raise and solicit investment ranging from Reg A, Reg A+ and Reg CF and more. She outlined tips  to help identify the best type for your business. Plus, find out the two crucial decisions made throughout the process.    Speakers: Colin C. Campbell, Michele Van Tilborg, Jeff Sass   Guest: Jenny Kassan   The information on Startup.Club is not a substitute for professional legal or financial services. Our content is solely intended for informational purposes– you should always conduct thorough research and speak with licensed experts when necessary.

Summary: In this episode of the Capital Insight Podcast, cohosts Jenny Kassan and Michelle Thimesch explore the first step of raising capital on your own terms: clarifying your goals and values. Get In Touch: Website: https://www.jennykassan.com/ https://crowdfundmainstreet.com/ https://www.opportunitymainstreet.com/ https://www.theselc.org/ https://www.thenextegg.org/ Socials: Twitter: https://twitter.com/jennykassan LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennykassan/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thekassangroup/ Additional Resource: Angels of Main Street is a community of investors with no minimum wealth or income requirement to join. If you'd like to be part of a community of diverse investors who want to make a difference with their dollars, please join us in Angels of Main Street! Episode Credit: Intro and outro are voiced by Marina Verlaine. She can be contacted at reel.peach.vo@gmail.com Check out past episodes here!

Summary: What would it take to achieve economic democracy? On this episode of the Capital Insight Podcast, hosts Jenny Kassan and Michelle Thimesch chat with Mica Fisher, the Managing Director of the National Coalition for Community Capital (NC3) about how to create a healthy economy for all. Get In Touch: Website: https://www.jennykassan.com/ https://crowdfundmainstreet.com/ https://www.opportunitymainstreet.com/ https://www.theselc.org/ https://www.thenextegg.org/ Socials: Twitter: https://twitter.com/jennykassan LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennykassan/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thekassangroup/ Additional Resource: Angels of Main Street is a community of investors with no minimum wealth or income requirement to join. If you'd like to be part of a community of diverse investors who want to make a difference with their dollars, please join us in Angels of Main Street! Episode Credit: Intro and outro are voiced by Marina Verlaine. She can be contacted at reel.peach.vo@gmail.com Check out past episodes here!

In this episode, Elizabeth Hill talks with entrepeneurs Amber Dancy and Jenny Kassan about owning our magic in business and life.  To learn more about Amber: https://hiddenpathsolutions.com/ To learn more about Jenny: https://www.jennykassan.com/

Summary: On this episode of the Capital Insight podcast, hosts Jenny Kassan and Michelle Thimesch explore foundations as funders and whether their investment term sheets align with their impact missions. Get In Touch: Website: https://www.jennykassan.com/ https://crowdfundmainstreet.com/ https://www.opportunitymainstreet.com/ https://www.theselc.org/ https://www.thenextegg.org/ Socials: Twitter: https://twitter.com/jennykassan LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennykassan/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thekassangroup/ Additional Resource: Angels of Main Street is a community of investors with no minimum wealth or income requirement to join. If you'd like to be part of a community of diverse investors who want to make a difference with their dollars, please join us in Angels of Main Street! Episode Credit: Intro and outro are voiced by Marina Verlaine. She can be contacted at reel.peach.vo@gmail.com Check out past episodes here!

Jenny Kassan is an attorney, investor, and capital-raising coach who teaches mission-driven entrepreneurs how to fundraise without selling their soul. Jenny believes entrepreneurs are heroes, and wants to help as many as possible turn their world-changing visions into reality. With over 25 years of experience in securities law, and a passion to shift investment dollars from Wall Street to Main Street, she has helped her clients raise millions of dollars from values-aligned investors. She is the author of Raise Capital on Your Own Terms: How to Fund Your Business without Selling Your Soul (Berrett-Koehler, October 2017).In this episode you'll learn:what led Jenny into her current roles as a Securities Lawyer & Capital Raising Coachwhy venture capital model isn't a fit for everyonehow to fund your business without selling your soulhow anyone can use their investment dollars to build a more equitable, just, and sustainable economy For more info: https://www.jennykassan.com/ ---- For more info on Our Gorongosa: ourgorongosa.com Connect with us on IG: http://instagram.com/ourgorongosa Use code PODCAST for 15% off your first order

Summary: On this episode of the Capital Insight Podcast, hosts Jenny Kassan and Michelle Thimesch are joined by social entrepreneur Pooja Mehta who shares her experience being a woman in the investment industry, what she's learned as an angel investor, and how she's supporting other social entrepreneurs. Get In Touch: Website: https://www.jennykassan.com/ https://crowdfundmainstreet.com/ https://www.opportunitymainstreet.com/ https://www.theselc.org/ https://www.thenextegg.org/ Socials: Twitter: https://twitter.com/jennykassan LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennykassan/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thekassangroup/ Additional Resource: Angels of Main Street is a community of investors with no minimum wealth or income requirement to join. If you'd like to be part of a community of diverse investors who want to make a difference with their dollars, please join us in Angels of Main Street! Episode Credit: Intro and outro are voiced by Marina Verlaine. She can be contacted at reel.peach.vo@gmail.com Check out past episodes here!

Devin: What is your superpower?Jenny: I think one of my biggest superpowers is seeing the potential that exists in people, just seeing the gifts they have to share with the world and helping them see it, too.Jenny Kassan, President of The Kassan Group, has devoted her impressive career to helping people accomplish more for the greater good of their communities and humanity. She is a partner in Crowdfund Mainstreet and Opportunity Mainstreet and helps lead Angels of Mainstreet. She’ll also be speaking at SuperCrowd22 in September.Explaining her work at The Kassan Group, Jenny says, “What we’ve grown into is a full-service law firm/consulting/coaching firm that supports entrepreneurs in their efforts to raise money for their business in a way that allows them to stay true to their mission, goals and values.”“Our clients are very diverse in terms of what they can realistically offer to investors, what it is about what they’re doing that’s going to be attractive to investors and what type of investors will be attracted to what they’re offering,” she says. “So we try to throw everything into the mix and have a lot of community support as well.”“We even have opportunities for them to present to potential investors,” Jenny adds.“Over the years, I’ve learned how many different pieces to the puzzle need to be in place for someone to successfully raise money,” she says. “it’s beautiful to watch our clients successfully raise money everywhere from a few hundred thousand to a few million and do it on their own terms.”Jenny doesn’t work with everyone who virtually walks through the front door. “Our main criteria when we’re deciding if it’s a good fit for us to work with someone is whether they are very passionately mission-driven in what they’re doing in their business.”Never miss an episode! SubscribeFounding Story of Crowdfund MainstreetJenny was a critical part of creating Crowdfund Mainstreet but admits, “I never would have wanted to do that myself.”The roots of Crowdfund Mainstreet, founded in 2017, go back to 2010. At the time, Jenny was working with Janelle Orsi at a nonprofit called Sustainable Economies Law Center. “One of the first things I did out of that nonprofit was to write a petition to the Securities and Exchange Commission to ask for a change in the law to make it easier for regular folks to invest in businesses that they love and care about,” Jenny says.Two years later, the JOBS Act passed both houses of Congress with bipartisan support and was signed into law by President Obama. The Securities and Exchange Commission, charged with implementing the new law giving ordinary investors the right to invest in private companies, acted methodically, launching Regulation Crowdfunding in 2016.Jenny was disappointed by the market’s reaction to crowdfunding. “I wasn’t seeing any of the platforms that started to come out be aligned with the whole reason I did that in the first place, which was to support Main Street style businesses.”About that time, she encountered Michelle Thimesch, another lawyer who sees the world through the same prism. Michelle wanted to launch a FINRA-regulated crowdfunding site focused on serving the market they’d both hoped would flourish under the new rules.Jenny became counsel to Crowdfund Mainstreet. “We hit it off so well that she invited me to be a co-founder.”Today, Crowdfund Mainstreet supports social entrepreneurs, especially women and BIPOC founders, to raise the money they need to succeed.The Story of Opportunity MainstreetJenny and Michelle never seem to be satisfied. Progress doesn’t seem to be fast enough for them. They’ve launched Opportunity Mainstreet to serve as another sort of catalyst for building a community around underserved entrepreneurs.They saw that while women and minorities are raising more money via crowdfunding as a percentage of the marketplace compared to venture capital, angel investments and traditional banking, they still don’t do as well as white men. They’re building Opportunity Mainstreet to fix that.“We decided to do it in Baltimore because the real estate prices were reasonable. And we love Baltimore,” Jenny says. “It’s like it’s such an amazing city. It’s a very entrepreneurial city.”She described their vision. “We were able to buy this gorgeous, historic building downtown. It has a beautiful space on the ground floor where we can host all kinds of events, have a commercial kitchen, have a retail space, a cafe.”They are creating a place where entrepreneurs, customers and investors can gather routinely to build relationships of trust that will facilitate growth and prosperity in the community.Opportunity Mainstreet also helps Jenny with her law practice. This is my fifth time raising money from investors. Part of the reason I love to raise money from investors is so that I learn all the things that happen when you're raising money, because it helps it lets me help my clients better. I can really be in their shoes.Having already acquired the building, Jenny and Michelle continue working to raise capital for the business to make the needed upgrades to realize their vision. “We found some people would rather invest in a debt instrument. Some people would rather get equity,” she says.A bit ironically, Jenny and Michelle are raising the money for Opportunity Mainstreet from accredited, that is, wealthy, investors only.“The debt pays a 7 percent interest rate; the equity has a projected return of 13 percent,” Jenny says. We’re finding people are more drawn to one than the other. Some people are doing half and half.”Notably, she says that the people who are investing in Opportunity Mainstreet are not folks who self-identify as investors. “They’re not professional investors, but they love the opportunity to invest in something like this.”“According to my calculations, 99.7 percent of the investors in our country are not professional investors,” Jenny says. “They’re just regular folks who maybe have never before invested outside of Wall Street. Those are the people we go to. We’ve already raised several hundred thousand dollars that way.”“We do have a six-step process that we go through to design a fundraising strategy, which I wrote about in my book Raise Capital on Your Own Terms,” she says. “basically, it’s all about figuring out what to offer. What is it that’s going to be a good offering for your goals and values but also will be attractive to your ideal investors?”“If you just stay persistent and keep reaching out, keep telling people about it, eventually you will start to find people who are interested,” she adds.Speaking at SuperCrowd22Jenny will be speaking at SuperCrowd22. She delivers her keynote on Thursday, September 15 at 5:00 PM Eastern/2:00 PM Pacific. She titled her speech, “What women and non-binary folks need to know about investment crowdfunding.”“I’m just so thrilled that you’re putting the effort in to create a big gathering for everyone to get together and talk about where we are, what the potential is and how to include more people in the success,” she said about the conference.Remember, Superpowers for Good readers can register for the conference at half price. Click here for details.In all her work, Jenny relies on her superpower, an ability to see people’s potential and help them see it too.How to Develop Seeing Potential As a SuperpowerEarly in her career, Jenny felt this superpower as a beneficiary of other people wielding it on her behalf. “It happened to me when I was very young and very insecure and didn’t believe that I had the ability to do that many things,” she says. “I had a boss, and it ended up I had three different bosses in a row that all, thank goodness, saw potential in me and helped me see it in myself.”Today, this skill shapes her practice. “When I meet an entrepreneur, I so often just see the vision of what they could do if they only had the resources they needed to make it happen,” she says.“I don’t necessarily believe they need some accelerator program or some quote-unquote smart investor on their board,” Jenny says. “They know what they need to do. They know how to build the thing that they’re dreaming of doing. They just need the money to make it happen.”Jenny offers two tips for developing this superpower.Find examples. Look for people who start from a small place and have, with support from a community, gone on to do amazing things.Find someone who sees your potential. Look through your experience for people who saw your potential before you did. Emulate them with respect to others you meet.By following Jenny’s example and advice, you can make seeing potential a superpower to do more good in the world. Get full access to Superpowers for Good at devinthorpe.substack.com/subscribe

Summary: In this episode of the Capital Insight podcast, hosts Jenny Kassan and Michelle Thimesch are joined by Steve Dubb, a senior editor of economic justice at Nonprofit Quarterly (NPQ), to explore what it takes to build an economy that works for people and the planet. Bio: Steve Dubb is a senior editor of economic justice at NPQ, where he writes and edits for Nonprofit Quarterly (including his Economy Remix column) and curates a monthly webinar series, Remaking the Economy. Throughout his career with cooperatives and nonprofits, Steve has authored, co-authored, and edited numerous reports; participated in and facilitated learning cohorts; designed community building strategies; and helped build the field of community wealth building. Steve is the lead author of Building Wealth: The Asset-Based Approach to Solving Social and Economic Problems and coauthor of The Road Half Traveled: University Engagement at a Crossroads. In 2016, Steve curated and authored Conversations on Community Wealth Building, a collection of interviews of community builders that Steve had conducted over the previous decade. Get In Touch: Website: https://www.jennykassan.com/ https://crowdfundmainstreet.com/ https://www.opportunitymainstreet.com/ https://www.theselc.org/ https://www.thenextegg.org/ Socials: Twitter: https://twitter.com/jennykassan LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennykassan/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thekassangroup/ Additional Resource: Angels of Main Street is a community of investors with no minimum wealth or income requirement to join. If you'd like to be part of a community of diverse investors who want to make a difference with their dollars, please join us in Angels of Main Street! Episode Credit: Intro and outro are voiced by Marina Verlaine. She can be contacted at reel.peach.vo@gmail.com Check out past episodes here!

An innovative, inclusive way to buy, sell, and invest in property  (Recorded Live on Clubhouse June 3, 2022)  This week, we were joined by Daniel Fiske, an expert in real estate tokenization, and Jenny Kassan, a corporate attorney and strategist, to learn more about these venture opportunities. We discussed the pros, cons, and risks, and what to know before getting started.  Speakers: Colin C. Campbell, Michele Van Tilborg, Jeff Sass Guests: Daniel Fiske, Jenny Kassan Sign up to our email and never miss an update on our special events, guest speakers, and more: https://startup.club/

Devin: What do you think of within that skill set as being your superpower?Michelle: I am a very practical problem solver. The analytical thinking from the legal training side is something that definitely helps evaluate things. I’m a practical problem solver. I believe there are solutions to all problems. So for me, it’s about communication, openness and problem-solving. I guess that’s multiple superpowers, but I see it under the umbrella of communication.You could be forgiven for thinking Michelle Thimesch is a bit scattered. She is working on several major projects right now, but they are all closely aligned in solving a single problem. She’s no more scattered than a laser-guided missile.She is the CEO of Crowdfund Mainstreet, which she founded with Jenny Kassan. She also organized an investor network called Angels of Mainstreet. Most recently, she raised a fund to create Opportunity Mainstreet in Baltimore. With Jenny, she hosts a podcast called Capital Insight.Her goal is to fix capitalism to better serve people.Launching Crowdfund MainstreetA decade ago, Michelle was practicing law in California. “Most of my clients were closely held businesses. A lot of the focus of my work was transitioning businesses from one generation to the next or selling them to key employees,” Michelle says.As a result, she began to focus on finance and capital, looking for more creative ways to help clients. When the 2012 JOBS Act passed, allowing ordinary investors to buy shares in startups and small businesses, she thought, “This is so game-changing.”It took four long years for the SEC to implement the law signed by President Obama. Michelle, like many others, anticipated that implementation would bring a fundamental shift in the capital markets toward greater inclusion and equity.When the SEC issued the effective rules in 2016, and the market opened, “I was mortified,” Michelle says. “It was all business as usual.”“A lot of the hype and the early commentary around the platforms that existed and that were out of the gates starting was focused on really helping people to invest alongside venture capital,” she says. “While there’s nothing wrong with that ecosystem for the individuals that it is a fit for, the vast majority are not a fit for that type of capital.”About this time, Michelle connected with like-minded lawyer Jenny Kassan. They began dreaming about what a more values-aligned crowdfunding site would look like. With Jenny’s encouragement and partnership, Michelle led the launch of Crowdfund Mainstreet in 2018.Michelle’s parents and grandparents were entrepreneurs. Raised in the middle class, she’s always seen entrepreneurship as “a path towards self-sufficiency, self-determination.” But the closer she looked, the more she saw that this was becoming less and less true—and crowdfunding was a way to fix it.There is growing evidence that it’s working. “Women and people of color are doing better on investment crowdfunding platforms than in any other finance ecosystem,” Michelle says. “About 70% of the time, a woman or a person of color will reach their minimum investment.”Still, women raise only a third, on average, of their male counterparts. There is still work to do.Never miss an episode. Subscribe.Building Angels of MainstreetAbout six months after launching Crowdfund Mainstreet, Michelle and Jenny began to appreciate that the role of a portal was that of an intermediary. To help their entrepreneurs raise money on the platform, they needed to cultivate a community of investors.“The lifetime membership for Angels of Main Street costs $100, so anybody can join for $100 and be a member for life,” Michelle says. “We ask that people commit to investing a minimum of $500 a year directly in a company.”“We have people who are very seasoned professional investors who are working toward divesting out of the public markets, in some cases 100% divested out of the public markets,” she says.Other members are newer to investing and may not think of themselves as investors. Together, they are learning how to effectively deploy capital in private markets with real impact as well as financial returns.“Because we are business and corporate and securities attorneys, we like the idea of helping people craft an offering that’s unique to them, and that makes sense for their business based on how they want to exit their investors,” Michelle says.The Angels of Mainstreet serves that purpose, allowing entrepreneurs to learn from a dialog with investors.Creating Opportunity Mainstreet“Opportunity Mainstreet is an economic development fund that currently has a project in downtown Baltimore,” Michelle says. “The idea behind the project is to bring together an entrepreneur hub and investor hub.”“When we used to do events for entrepreneurs, we would always have one evening at least where investors would join the entrepreneurs and try to create connections and conversation between the two groups and realized that that was just not enough, that there still was kind of an awkwardness, a shyness,” she says, explaining the need for the project.With that in mind, Michelle acquired an 8500-square-foot, four-story building. The ground floor will feature a commercial kitchen operated as a co-op. “There’s a big farm-to-table movement here,” Michelle says. “Even in Maryland, you can get 50 weeks of fresh produce a year.”At the same time, she is partnering with an organization in Baltimore called Wealth Builders, led by Stephanie Geller, who, Michelle says, “is very focused on activating retail investors, teaching people what it would be like to invest directly in their communities.”SuperCrowd22Michelle and Jenny will both be speaking at SuperCrowd22. Crowdfund Mainstreet is also serving as a co-host for the event.The event will be held virtually on September 15 and 16, 2022 and will feature dozens of speakers, including entrepreneurs, investors, portal leaders and ecosystem experts.“This is one of the most compelling events since this began about five years ago,” Michelle says. “I think the industry is old enough now that you’ve been able to work on identifying who are all the players, all the different nuances, all the different kinds of offerings and platforms.”“You won’t want to miss this showcase if you have any interest in the small business finance world,” she says.Michelle authorized me to share the Crowdfund Mainstreet discount code for the event. Using the code MAINSTREET, you can get tickets at 50 percent off the $199 regular price.We’ll record the program, so even if you can’t attend every hour of the event, you can catch up on it later. The total content will approach 100 hours of invaluable information.Most importantly, you’ll have opportunities to interact directly with Michelle and Jenny and others like them.In all her work, Michelle relies on her communication superpower.How to Develop Communication As a SuperpowerMichelle honed her communication superpower in the practice of law. She learned to see communication as a tool for solving problems and a vehicle for change.She is most proud of having used that superpower to create Crowdfund Mainstreet. Raising the money from a group of patient, values-aligned investors was essential for achieving the goal. Seeing that there is still work to do, she notes that she is grateful for the investors’ continued patience.Michelle coaches female entrepreneurs, helping them to realize their full potential. One of the key principles she teaches them is essential to understanding how to make communication a superpower.Her guidance will surprise you. “One of the things that is the most compelling is teaching people to do the opposite of what we’re inclined to do.”She explains why this is true. “When we run into challenges and problems, we tend to step back away from those challenges and problems.” Hiding from problems doesn’t make them go away.Michelle says:The power comes from standing in that place of discomfort. That's probably the single most important step. Any transformation takes work. But the very first thing that has to happen before you can transform is a commitment to change. So that commitment to change is probably the first step. If you can get there, you can get the rest of the way with the right tools.If you follow Michelle’s example and advice, you can make practical, solution-oriented communication a superpower that enables you to do more good in the world. Get full access to Superpowers for Good at devinthorpe.substack.com/subscribe

How can you fund your business as a new entrepreneur? There are resources available to you if you are willing to create a road map for your business upfront. If you don't have money to start the business of your dreams, there are financial resources available to help you fund your business. One of the most common objections to hiring a business coach is money. People often say things like "I need more clients first", "I can't afford it yet", "I have to talk to my husband", and the list goes on. But oftentimes, it isn't a lack of money it is a lack of being resourceful. When people are resourceful and come up with the money it shows great trust in themselves and the process, and that they are ready and willing to do what it takes to build the business and respond to their calling. The difference between men and women and how they tap into financial resources to fund their businesses No one needs to take extraordinary measures as there are options that may be a little uncomfortable, but not dramatic. Men, in general, are bigger risk-takers. They are willing to have a half-baked idea and jump right in. On the other hand, women like to be prepared upfront. Completely set and know for sure that the business is going to work. The question becomes, how much risk are you willing to take. A lot of the discomfort from the financial side is not having enough information. The information you need is the specific details of the products and services you will be offering. Conceptual details like how the product or service will be delivered, what the product or service looks like, what they feel like, how is the supplier, who is the target audience, etc. Likewise, you need to develop financial projections. It doesn't matter if this is service-based with little upfront investment or something more complex. Without the financial projections, your idea seems even scarier. It is important to know how much it will take to launch your business. Similarly, you need to know how long it will take to generate revenue. And, it is important to have an expectation of what the early months in your business will look like in terms of money going out versus money coming in. We don't know what we don't know when starting a business When you are starting a business, the best thing you can do is take advantage of the knowledge that consultants and coaches offer. They can help you plan ahead and ensure you have all of your plans in place. We don't know what we don't know. Having someone to guide you and help you build processes saves time and money throughout the course of your business. Diane shared a quote from a documentary, The Biggest Little Farm, "There's never enough time to do it right, but there's always enough time to do it over." In the end, if you don't do it right the first time, you are going to have to spend the money anyway. It makes more sense to pay it upfront and do things right instead of losing precious time in your business. Coming up with a plan to be prepared to pitch to investors to help fund your business Start with a road map or a business model canvas. Diana's road map is simplified from the model canvas. The road map addresses the conceptual items and the financial piece. If you have a framework, then you have an operating blueprint. Whether growth is fast or slow, you want to plan for it because you want to know what you are aiming for. Look at your plan every year and evaluate if you are where you want to be or doing what you want to be doing. Doing so will help you make a course correction if necessary. The overall road map will help you identify if you need financial assistance. If you have a plan in writing, you will come off as more prepared and professional and taken seriously by those you pitch for funding. Outside funding sources include your spouse, other family members, a business partner, savings accounts, stock, selling items, etc. Listen to episode 112 with Maureen Borzacchiello. Clarification on when women could sign for a business loan with a man co-signing: The Women's Business Ownership Act of 1988 allowed women to get a business loan without a male co-signer. Since 1972, the number of women-owned businesses has increased by 31 times. Also, please note that this interview was recorded before the interest rates started to escalate. Funding resources for business owners Traditional funding resources are bank loans or investors. However, now people are crowdfunding, identifying your target to raise money for your business. This is basically pitching your idea to the people that would have an interest in it. KJ Blattenbauer used Kickstarter to start her business, Pretty PepTalks. When you build the foundation first and invest upfront, even if borrowing money, you will be set up for success long-term. Jenny Kassan does something even more targeted to help you fund your business. She helps people use crowdfunding. Her book is Raise Capital on Your Own Terms: How to Fund Your Business without Selling Your Soul. The key is starting with a plan that is both conceptual and financial. About Diane Tarshis Diane helps people build businesses that are conducive to happiness. She helps anyone with a business idea and the desire to thrive and succeed, even if they are not, particularly business savvy. Diane guides people through everything from time/task management, financial projections, and investment, all the way to a launch strategy to get their service out to the public. She is especially interested in helping women, BIPOC, and middle-aged entrepreneurs who have great business ideas but are often overlooked or discouraged from starting a business. Diane's business is called Start-Up Distillery. Learn more about and connect with Diane: Website LinkedIn Twitter  Coupon code: Robyn, available through August 17th, 2022. If you are interested in building a strong foundation for long-term success and would like to learn about my Purpose to Results™ Method, download my free eBook today.

'The small moment of someone choosing to invest a hundred dollars, $500 in a local business, makes such a huge difference. It's a radical act. If we can have more of those small moments, I believe it'll make a huge difference.' On this weeks survival of the kindest podcast I am delighted to welcome Jenny Kassan. Jenny grew up in something of a radical household, familiarising her with a critique of capitalism. She studied psychology at UC Berkeley and then did an intern with Ralph Nader in Washington DC. This was a formative period for her working on Civil Rights and exposing the negative aspects of big corporations. She went on to law school and then worked for a non-profit community development corporation in Oakland called the Unity Council, where she served as staff attorney and managed community economic development projects, including a $100 million housing project and the formation and management of several social ventures designed to employ and create business ownership opportunities for low-income community residents. Jenny co-founded the Sustainable Economies Law Center, a non-profit that provides legal information to support sustainable economies. Jenny is also a fellow at Democracy Collaborative. Jenny's legal practice, Jenny Kassan Consulting, provides legal services, coaching, and consulting for mission-driven companies, investors, and intermediaries and includes educational programs for entrepreneurs Connect with Jenny on twitter

In this episode, Capital Insight co-hosts and securities attorneys Jenny Kassan and Michelle Thimesch discuss what community economic development is, how it can be done effectively, and the role of small business finance in a successful community economic development program. Key quotes: “The minute we put public dollars into promoting [venture capital models], that's taking money away from the 99.9% of businesses that are not VC-backable tech startups, that really need more resources just to survive, and that give so much back to the community: they create more jobs, they are more philanthropic, and they create that unique quality of life that keeps you from being a town where the only places to go are Wendy's or Walmart.” “I'm seeing an uptick in interest in doing things like locally branded funding platforms that work in the community to educate. We have to remember that for the past 80+ years, it's been really difficult for regular retail investors to participate in the small business and startup finance ecosystem…that's what crowdfunding does in a really beautiful way.” Socials: Twitter: https://twitter.com/jennykassan Insta: https://www.instagram.com/thekassangroup/ Website: jennykassan.com Additional Resource: Angels of Main Street is a community of investors with no minimum wealth or income requirement to join. If you'd like to be part of a community of diverse investors who want to make a difference with their dollars, please join us in Angels of Main Street! Voiceover Credit: Intro and outro are voiced by Marina Verlaine. She can be contacted at reel.peach.vo@gmail.com Check out past episodes here!

In this episode, Capital Insight co-hosts and securities attorneys Jenny Kassan and Michelle Thimesch sit down to have a chat about creating an ecosystem for small business by taking seriously the adage that change moves at the speed of trust. Key take-aways: “Lack of sufficient capital is the number one reason for business failure. Without adequate funding – and not just any funding but funding that allows them to grow their business without too much pressure – they're probably just not going to make it. The tools are there to raise large amounts of money for any small business . . . but after 6 years of national crowdfunding being legal . . . we're realizing there is so much more that is needed for entrepreneurs to get the funding they need.” “More than half of our country's adult population consists of investors. The majority of people in our country are investors, but they don't even think of themselves as investors. …That's the third pillar: empowering people who have investment money to use that money in a way that is more consistent with what they want to see in the world.” Get In Touch: Websites: https://www.jennykassan.com/ https://crowdfundmainstreet.com/ https://www.opportunitymainstreet.com/ Socials: Twitter: https://twitter.com/jennykassan LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennykassan/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thekassangroup/ Additional resources: Angels of Main Street is a community of investors with no minimum wealth or income requirement to join. If you'd like to be part of a community of diverse investors who want to make a difference with their dollars, please join us in Angels of Main Street! Episode Credit: Intro and outro are voiced by Marina Verlaine. She can be contacted at reel.peach.vo@gmail.com Check out past episodes here!

In this episode, Capital Insight co-hosts and securities attorneys Jenny Kassan and Michelle Thimesch talk with Michael Shuman, economist, attorney, author, and entrepreneur, and a leading visionary on community economics. Michael is one of our nation's leading thinkers, speakers, and writers on the movement to move money from Wall Street to Main Street. Key Takeaways: “What I see now are a number of unhealthy mutations in our capital system, where most of the money is going to Wall Street, even though Wall Street and the companies it represents are a relatively small fraction of our economy - and the vast majority of our economy, which is occupied by local businesses and institutions, gets little to none of our investment money. If we can fix that, I believe we can fix a whole bunch of other problems that we face.” “More than a million Americans of our 330 million population are actively involved in investment crowdfunding; that is significant, but it's still less than 1% of the population. To go further, we need a lot of education.” Bio: Michael Shuman works on community-based solutions rooted in local markets, small business and devolution and is the author of the acclaimed Going Local: Creating Self-Reliant Communities in a Global Age. Former Co-Director of the Institute of Policy Studies, Shuman founded the Center for Innovative Diplomacy, an 8,000-member nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting global peace, justice, development, and environmental protection through direct citizen and city participation in international affairs. Get in Touch: Website: michaelhshuman.com Twitter: twitter.com/smallmart Facebook: facebook.com/MichaelHShuman LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/mishuman Additional resources: Angels of Main Street is a community of investors with no minimum wealth or income requirement to join. If you'd like to be part of a community of diverse investors who want to make a difference with their dollars, please join us in Angels of Main Street! Voiceover Credit: Intro and outro are voiced by Marina Verlaine. She can be contacted at reel.peach.vo@gmail.com Check out past episodes here!

Summary: In this episode, Capital Insight co-hosts and securities attorneys Jenny Kassan and Michelle Thimesch talk with David Lynn of Mission-Driven Finance, an impact investing firm created to fill the gap between philanthropy and traditional investments in order to accelerate positive social change. Bio: David Lynn co-founded Mission Driven Finance in 2016 after spending 20 years working in the financial and philanthropic sectors and looking for a way to blend those two worlds. Prior to focusing on impact investing, David specialized in family office investment portfolios including both private investments and risk management through derivatives. Most recently, David has been the investment manager for the Price Group, a family office and charitable foundation environment, including directly running an actively managed equity derivatives portfolio and serving as a director with the Price Philanthropies Foundation. With a long dedication to community involvement, David has served in a leadership capacity for a variety of nonprofit and philanthropic initiatives, including San Diego Grantmakers, San Diego Impact Investors Network, Education Synergy Alliance, Mission Edge San Diego, San Diego Social Venture Partners, and San Diego Humane Society. Key quotes: “If you're a small business or social enterprise or nonprofit and you need 300 grand and you don't own hard assets and you're not on the venture capital path you're really out of luck . . . we said that is a perfect place to be moving capital.” “It should be easy to invest in your community – that is really the goal. Our big focus is to create more opportunities to let non-accredited investors be able to invest in the things they care about. It's still not easy.” Socials: FaceBook: https://www.facebook.com/MDFinanceSD/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/MDFinanceSD LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/mdfinancesd/ Insta: https://www.instagram.com/mdfinancesd/ Website: https://www.missiondrivenfinance.com/ Additional resources: Angels of Main Street is a community of investors with no minimum wealth or income requirement to join. If you'd like to be part of a community of diverse investors who want to make a difference with their dollars, please join us in Angels of Main Street! Voiceover Credit: Intro and outro are voiced by Marina Verlaine. She can be contacted at reel.peach.vo@gmail.com Check out past episodes here!

In this episode, Capital Insight co-hosts and securities attorneys Jenny Kassan and Michelle Thimesch talk with Kevin Bayuk of LIFT Economy, an impact consulting firm whose mission is to create, model, and share a racially just, regenerative, and locally self-reliant economy that works for the benefit of all life. Kevin shares about his journey from young tech start up founder in Silicon Valley to permaculture designer to social enterprise advisor and expert and what he learned along the way about how finance can be in service of the greater good. Key quotes: “The cultural and structural mandates around capital…reinforce these patterns of extraction, the expectations that finance should generate a certain amount of return depending on which asset class it is and anything that doesn't perform according to some culturally or structurally enforced market rate standard is therefore not going to receive funding. …I observe many projects that are intended to take care of humanity in ways that benefit nature and the rest of life, projects around food and water security, there are projects that exist that need resourcing. There is a tremendous amount of wealth, trillions of dollars of wealth globally…but the mismatch comes in the question of what is the potential of return in those projects.” “Where is it written in some law that that investor must expect liquidity in five-to-seven years? Where is it written in law that that investor has to expect 20% IRR? Culturally, that's what's normal to want or target, but that individual should have discretion to make different types of investment. But there's this norm around early-stage venture private equity that says we should expect something different. I think it would be healthy for us all to admit that our notion of risk, in terms of the problems of our time, is different from the way that we thought about it 30-40 years ago.” Bio: Kevin Bayuk's roots are in entrepreneurship, having spent nearly a decade starting and growing technology companies, and activating projects and organizations that regenerate healthy ecosystems and socially just and joyful environments. After immersing himself in all aspects of starting and growing companies, Kevin focused his attention on learning about and teaching eco-systemic design. Now Kevin is merging his experience in business with his experience in permaculture to help businesses care for people while enhancing the earth. Kevin also serves as the Senior Financial Fellow at Project Drawdown, developing the business case to address climate change through existing practices and technologies. He frequently teaches classes, workshops, does public speaking, facilitates meetings, plans events and provides one on one mentoring as a founding partner of the Urban Permaculture Institute San Francisco. Socials: FaceBook: https://www.facebook.com/LIFTEconomy/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/lifteconomy LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/lifteconomy/ Website: https://www.lifteconomy.com/

In this episode, Capital Insight co-hosts and securities attorneys Jenny Kassan and Michelle Thimesch talk with Jonathan Coleman of Untours, an outside-the-box travel company that prioritizes immersion in local communities rather than funneling tourist dollars into big hotels that do not benefit small businesses owned and operated by locals. Bio: Jonathan Coleman grew up in small-town middle America, in a family that didn't travel much. Now, he has lived in Latin America, Africa, and the Middle East while working in education and youth-focused initiatives. He received his MBA in International Economic Development and spent years at the helm of ASSETS, an organization that helps launch and grow social enterprises and diversely-owned businesses in Lancaster, PA. Their mission and values mirror those of the Untours Foundation, helping create jobs, boosting sustainability, and working toward economic inclusion. Coleman also runs Intentional Tours with my wife Kate, leading cultural immersion tours in the Dominican Republic, Kenya, and Cambodia. Key quotes: “We're using this democratized ownership model to make sure that the benefits of this work goes directly to…impoverished regions. This is the kind of thing that no one else is gonna fund, and we're willing to take that risk because we see that the impact, if it works, will be extreme.” “The need for capital, especially among smaller community-owned tourism operators that have the most downstream impact on their local communities are the ones that need capital right now…We see tourism as a huge lever for broader impact in the world. Travel accounts for 10% of global GDP, 10% of global jobs, and almost 10% of global emissions. We want to be part of the solution toward reimagining what that is.” Socials: FaceBook: https://www.facebook.com/untours Twitter: https://twitter.com/untours Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/untours/ Website: https://www.untours.com/ Additional resources: Angels of Main Street is a community of investors with no minimum wealth or income requirement to join. If you'd like to be part of a community of diverse investors who want to make a difference with their dollars, please join us in Angels of Main Street! Voiceover Credit: Intro and outro are voiced by Marina Verlaine. She can be contacted at reel.peach.vo@gmail.com Check out past episodes here!

In this episode, Capital Insight co-hosts and securities attorneys Jenny Kassan and Michelle Thimesch talk with Nicole Middleton Holloway, a hands-on, nurturing CFP (certified financial planner) who helps progressive investors live abundantly and make a positive impact with their wealth – in their families, in their communities, and in the world – through socially responsible investing. Bio: Prior to her work in finance, Nicole Middleton Holloway spent the first 10 years of her professional career working in the entertainment industry. She helped produce popular shows for FX Networks, and later served as a producer and communications director for actor and activist Danny Glover. As she took on more special projects related to social justice and female empowerment, she began to witness the power of money to accelerate positive social change. She also saw a greater need for more representation of women of color in professional advising roles within the socially responsible investment industry. Nicole took on her first role as an advisor in 2015, and after working briefly at a Wall Street firm, she quickly discovered that it was not the right place for her to build her career because the practices and culture there were not aligned with her personal values. In 2016, she co-founded Strategy Squad – an independent wealth management consulting business – with her co-founder, and father, Dennis N. Middleton, CPA. When Nicole is not advising clients, she stays involved in her local community by serving on an advisory board for East Bay Community Foundation, and is also a regular instructor with Uptima Business Bootcamp, a cooperative business based in Oakland that provides entrepreneurs from marginalized communities with greater access to education, mentorship and resources to create thriving businesses. Key quotes: “I know that representation matters in this industry and not having a firm dictate to you about which clients you work with - for me to be able to have the final say - has made such a difference in the type of clientele that we've been able to reach.” “It's good for business owners and entrepreneurs to know that [values-aligned] funding is out there and that kind of funding is receiving more support from individual and institutional investors. There are more opportunities for people to invest in funds that specifically target entrepreneurs who come from marginalized communities, people of color, and women.” “I operate within a capitalistic system and I have to honor the fact that I am a fiduciary, but I also try to think about risk…in a way that's trying to deconstruct that capitalistic frame of mind that's perpetuated by inequality.” Socials: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NaturalInvestments/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/naturalinvest/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/natural-investments/ Additional resources: Angels of Main Street is a community of investors with no minimum wealth or income requirement to join. If you'd like to be part of a community of diverse investors who want to make a difference with their dollars, please join us in Angels of Main Street!

Summary: In this episode, Capital Insight co-hosts and securities attorneys Jenny Kassan and Michelle Thimesch talk with Morgan Simon, co-founder of Candide Group, an investment firm working with families, foundations, athletes, and cultural influencers who want their money working for justice. Bio: Morgan Simon has two decades of experience making finance a tool for social justice. In that time she has influenced over $150B and is a regularly sought out expert on impact investing. Her book, Real Impact: The New Economics of Social Change has been featured everywhere from Harvard Business School to the United Nations. She is a regular voice in media and an active investor as Founding Partner of Candide Group, a Registered Investment Advisor. Key quotes: “How do we make sure that impact investment isn't just another form of wealthy people getting to decide what the world is going to look like? That means being really intentional about community engagement, design, governance, and ownership - and seeing how to use investment models to encourage that transfer of community resources and control.” “Money is the source of independence and power…For instance, when we talk about poverty, that's really more about autonomy and the ability to make great choices for yourself and your family and your community, versus any particular metric around how much money is in your bank account. When we address that more holistic view, it leads to very different investment approaches.” Links/socials: @morgansimon1 on Twitter and Instagram @moneyandjustice on Facebook Book: Purchase on Amazon Purchase from an indie Website: The Candide Group Additional resources: Angels of Main Street is a community of investors with no minimum wealth or income requirement to join. If you'd like to be part of a community of diverse investors who want to make a difference with their dollars, please join us in Angels of Main Street! Voiceover Credit: Intro and outro are voiced by Marina Verlaine. She can be contacted at reel.peach.vo@gmail.com Check out past episodes here!

In this episode, Capital Insight co-hosts and securities attorneys Jenny Kassan and Michelle Thimesch attend the Force For Good 2022 investor webinar hosted by LIFT Economy, an impact consulting firm whose mission is to model racially just and locally self-reliant economies that benefit communities rather than corporations. Today, they hear a presentation from the Guild, a socially minded real estate developer taking a systems approach to creating collaborative, inclusive, and sustainable communities with the aim of addressing the root causes of economic inequality. Bio: Avery Ebron loves opportunities to collaborate with under-appreciated communities to develop products and places that facilitate agency, equity, and symbiotic relationships. As Head of Community Products and Operations, Avery guides the design and delivery of The Guild's mission to build community wealth in BIPOC communities. Prior to The Guild, Avery worked at Clearinghouse CDFI, where he led the design and development of financial products for businesses and nonprofits serving disinvested neighborhoods. Avery is also co-founder of the Dismantle Collective and the Healing Justice Collective, creating and curating spaces for healing for people of color. In his spare time, Avery enjoys teaching kids how to play chess and occasionally losing to them. Key quotes: “Our focus is closing the racial wealth gap through real estate, entrepreneurship programs, and access to capital. After starting out with an accelerator co-living focus and working with neighborhood developers, we pivoted to understanding that ownership and community stewardship of real estate is the key to moving power into those communities, and so we moved into real estate.” “Our current flagship initiative is Ground Cover, and the mission is to seed and develop community-owned and -controlled real estate models that allow marginalized communities to collect assets in their neighborhood and develop power and self-determination.” Get in Touch: Website: www.theguild.community Flagship initiative: www.groundcover.us Links/socials: Community form: https://form.jotform.com/210667377881871 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/guildcommunity/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/guildatl Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theguildATL Additional Resources: Join us to discuss what you're hearing on the podcast! Angels of Main Street is a community of investors with no minimum wealth or income requirement to join. If you'd like to be part of a community of diverse investors who want to make a difference with their dollars, please join us in Angels of Main Street! Episode Credit: Intro and outro are voiced by Marina Verlaine. She can be contacted at reel.peach.vo@gmail.com

Summary: In this episode, Capital Insight co-hosts and securities attorneys Jenny Kassan and Michelle Thimesch talk with attorney Jason Wiener about his work with clients to design and implement values-aligned funding strategies . Bio: With more than a dozen years of experience as an attorney – including several years in Big Law litigation, and as a labor lawyer – Jason's range of expertise and experience brings an innovative approach to solving client issues. He has served on executive strategy, human resources, finance and other management level teams and on the board of nonprofits, cooperatives and corporations. Jason has published more than six scholarly law review articles on international, human rights and renewable energy topics and speaks regularly about worker-owned and cooperative business model, non-extractive finance, the future of work, the contemporary and teal practice of law, distributed solar policy and sharing economy legal issues. Jason is an adjunct professor in Colorado State University's Global Sustainability and Social Enterprise program, where he teaches an MBA course on business law and ethics. He is also a guest lecturer at the University of Colorado Law School's Entrepreneurial Law Clinic. Key quotes: “As I learned more about the adversarial nature of labor law, it grated on me that there wasn't a third path toward empowering working-class communities and lower-income people to gain economic power through income security and wealth creation.” “Venture capital is primarily focused on liquidity-based financing…that's how they make their return, but for co-ops and other community-oriented businesses, they're looking at providing investor liquidity through some other means.” “If perpetual growth is not a likely outcome, you're only setting yourself up for conflict later to leave that option on the table.” Links/socials: https://jrwiener.com/ Angels of Main Street: https://www.angelsofmainstreet.com/

Summary: In this episode, Capital Insight co-hosts and securities attorneys Jenny Kassan and Michelle Thimesch talk with Maggie Kulyk of Chicory Wealth, an investment advisory firm that helps people align their values with how they understand their financial stewardship. Maggie shares insights about the diversity of investors she works with and what they care about. Bio: Maggie Kulyk has worked in the financial industry since the early 2000s, but her main interest is in people – getting to know them, listening to them, and helping them balance their finances with the rest of their lives in a way that has meaning to them. She opened Maggie Kulyk and Associates in 2004, and in 2018 this business became Chicory Wealth, a fee-only financial life planning and sustainable wealth management firm. Maggie graduated summa cum laude with a BA in political philosophy from West Chester (PA) State University, then worked for six years in her family's business, Rogers Brothers Corp. in Albion, Pennsylvania. She went on to receive an MDiv from Candler School of Theology at Emory, and finished ABD from the Graduate School of Religion at Emory. She is a CRPC® (Chartered Retirement Planning CounselorSM), a Chartered SRI CounselorTM, and a member of the Financial Planning Association and the Life Planning Institute. She's also the author of Integrating Money and Meaning: Practices for a Heart-Centered Life and president of the board of the nonprofit Women Donors Network. Key quotes: “If we were gonna be about helping to transform how money moves in this culture...particularly in communities that have historically had what little wealth they had extracted from them…then we needed to look not at investing in women entrepreneurs in the classic VC model, but instead look harder at what the model is and how it supports communities.” “Money is increasingly meta…money is this amorphous thing in the publicly-traded investment world; it is very removed from most investors' experience of it. So for someone to be able to invest directly in someone's business and see that business thrive and give root to a community, it means a lot to people.” Links/socials: https://chicorywealth.com/ https://www.integratingmoneyandmeaning.com/ https://twitter.com/ChicoryWealth https://www.linkedin.com/in/chicorywealth/ info@chicorywealth.com Angels of Main Street: https://www.angelsofmainstreet.com/

Summary: In this episode, Capital Insight co-host and securities attorney Jenny Kassan talks with Matt Kreutz about his experiences growing his business and raising values-aligned funding that grows worker wealth and allows the business to focus on the mission to provide good jobs to people that are formerly incarcerated and formerly homeless. Bio: Matt Kreutz is the CEO and Founder of Firebrand Artisan Breads. Matt turned his lifelong passion for baking and working in the food service industry into Firebrand in 2007. Matt grew up in the kitchen, spending hours helping his mom make meals for the family. At 14 he got his first job in a bakery and has never worked outside the baking industry since. Matt has a passion to create a great workplace culture of inclusion, hard work and service. Matt believes that a company has the responsibility to its employees as well as the community it serves. Being raised in a house where his mother went to jail as a teenager and having experienced homelessness himself, Matt aims to make Firebrand a place where people can create a better life for themselves, their families and their community. Key quotes: “We set up a structure where, if the investors win, the employees win.” “Our goal is to make sure the workers get the benefit of all the hard work . . . we wanted to make sure the investors are aligned with that goal.” Links/socials: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matt-kreutz-15933118a/ https://wefunder.com/firebrand.artisan.breads matt@firebrandbread.com Angels of Main Street: https://www.angelsofmainstreet.com/

Summary: In this episode, Capital Insight co-hosts and securities attorneys Jenny Kassan and Michelle Thimesch talk with Katrina Spade of Recompose, a full-service funeral home specializing in human composting. Listen to catch Katrina's insight into the process of raising capital for a business that was still not legal when it started and how to stay true to your vision even when you need large amounts of capital to get your business off the ground. Bio: Katrina Spade is a designer and the inventor of a system that transforms the dead into soil (aka human composting). In 2017, Katrina founded Recompose with the goal of offering earth-centric, participatory, and meaningful death care. Recompose has led the successful legalization of human composting in Washington State, Oregon, and Colorado. In 2020, Recompose began offering the service of human composting to the public. Katrina and her team have been featured in Fast Company, NPR, the Atlantic, BBC, Harper's Magazine, and the New York Times. She is an Echoing Green Fellow, an Ashoka fellow, and a Harvard Kennedy School Visiting Social Innovator. Key quotes: “I knew that the world wanted this, and I knew that it was going to take a pretty good amount of capital.” “One of the reasons I did not want to create a for-profit was that I was afraid of losing the values that I had set up in my non-profit.” “I founded Recompose as a for-profit company that has in its bylaws environmental or social goals that sit alongside profit goals. It was a way to start signaling to investors that we weren't just about profit. Recompose is very much about an environmental and social goal: the environmental goal is creating new soil and saving carbon and reducing the pollution that happens with our [current] funeral practices - creating this beautiful ecological wealth-building practice instead. And the social goals have to do with accepting our mortality and thinking more deeply about how we're connected to the natural world as humans. That was the first thing we did to signal to investors that this is a different kind of company.” Links/socials/contact: Company website: https://recompose.life/ Company instagram: @recomposelife Entrepreneur instagram: @katrinaspade Company twitter: @recomposelife Email: info@recompose.life Angels of Main Street: https://www.angelsofmainstreet.com/

Summary: Dan Fireside is a key player in the world of creative financing strategy, but he does not come from a high finance or private equity background. After working as a program officer at Rights Action, a grassroots NGO based in Guatemala and Peru, Dan went on to work at Equal Exchange, the worker-coop, Fair Trade coffee company where he helped raise over $17 million in mission-aligned equity and debt. Now, he's sitting down with hosts Jenny Kassan and Michelle Thimesch to discuss how he applied the skills he learned as an activist to help co-ops and other mission-driven businesses raise values-aligned funding. Key quotes: “Ninety percent of fundraising is storytelling.” “My biggest takeaway was the power of cooperatives.” Bio: Daniel Fireside, founder of Uncommon Capital Solutions, is a fundraising consultant for co-ops and other mission-driven companies. He was the Capital Coordinator for Equal Exchange, one of the largest worker-owned cooperatives in the U.S. for over a decade. At Equal Exchange, Daniel raised over $15 million in investments and mission-aligned debt. He was elected to the board of Equal Exchange, as well as the Cooperative Fund of New England, and Namaste Solar. As the lead fundraiser for Downtown Crenshaw Rising, he has helped raise nearly $35 million for a Black community-led initiative to protect neighborhoods in South LA from gentrification and displacement by using community land trusts and supporting solidarity economy programs. Daniel has worked with non-profits, social enterprises, and community development organizations in the U.S., Guatemala, and elsewhere. He holds a Master's degree in City and Regional Planning from Cornell University and a BA from UC Santa Cruz. He also speaks regularly at universities and conferences, including: Harvard Law School, MIT, Tufts, Northeastern University, Slow Money, SOCAP, among others. Social media and/or contact info for inquiries: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniel-fireside-74710220/ Angels of Main Street: https://www.angelsofmainstreet.com/

“If you're solving a problem in the world, if your business addresses climate change, for example, guess what?...So, anyone who's passionate about climate change would be a great potential investor for you. So (investors) are really all over the place. Mostly, it just takes a mindset shift.” Jenny Kassan on Electric Ladies Podcast As the year comes to an end, you may be thinking you would like to raise money for your small business from investors, but you're feeling overwhelmed or put off by what you've heard about the process.  Well, listen to Jenny Kassan, CEO & Founder of her own firm, where she helps entrepreneurs – especially women and entrepreneurs in mission-focused businesses – find investors in “normal” people. How? Listen to Jenny explain these trends and findings in this fascinating interview with Electric Ladies podcast host Joan Michelson. You'll learn (and want to take notes) about: Why you might need a “mindset shift” to be able to see the investors in your circle or network. How mission-focused businesses, like those combating climate change in some way, are more attractive to more “normal” investors today than ever before. How covid affected the ability of more people who don't call themselves an “investor” to invest in small businesses. How to create a term sheet of what you're going to offer that is customized to you, your business, and your desire for a win-win-win agreement – that's good for the planet too. Plus, insightful career advice …. “Don't be afraid to go ahead and start your own business if it is something that you're passionate about, but do learn that skill of raising money. I think that's the biggest problem that happens when women do start their own businesses, that they started on a shoestring…A lot of businesses do need some upfront money to invest in things, to make sure it's a healthy, successful business before you can really start to be profitable. So… be realistic about what it takes and learn that skill of raising money for your business.“ Jenny Kassan on the Electric Ladies podcast Read Joan's related Forbes articles here too. You'll also want to listen to: Michele Wucker, thought leaders and author of “You Are What You Risk: The New Art & Science to Navigating an Uncertain World.” Shelly Porges, Billion Dollar Fund for Women & Beyond the Billion, on raising money for women entrepreneurs. Heather Long, Leading economics reporter at The Washington Post, on the pandemic economy's impact on women. Colleen Biggs, CEO/Founder of LeadUp for Women, and former top corporate executive. Kathleen McQuiggan, Artemis Advisors, on how women invest and successful ESG investing Angela Duckworth, Author of “Grit” on how passion and perseverance are more valuable than talent, whose TED Talk has been viewed over 21 million times. Subscribe to our newsletter to receive our podcasts, blog, events and special coaching offers.. Thanks for subscribing on Apple Podcasts or iHeartRadio and leaving us a review! Follow us on Twitter @joanmichelson    

In mid-October, Capital Insight co-host Jenny Kassan was asked to speak at the Berkeley Chamber of Commerce about the advantages of choosing community-based methods of fundraising rather than venture capital. In this episode, we revisit Jenny's Berkeley presentation as she breaks down how to raise funding from the right investors. Key quotes: “When people tell me I do non-traditional or alternative finance, I tell them no, venture capital is non-traditional and alternative. What I do is something that humans have done for a very long time.” Bio: The Berkeley Chamber of Commerce is a private, not-for-profit organization established in 1900 to support business in Berkeley, California. The Chamber is a mostly volunteer organization, and remains dedicated to hosting educational and networking events. Social media and/or contact info: Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBuKETZ_9jM Official website: https://www.berkeleychamber.com/ Angels of Main Street: https://www.angelsofmainstreet.com/

In this episode, Capital Insight co-host and securities attorney Jenny Kassan talks with Sean Campbell about his journey from Wall Street investor to regenerative finance expert. Sean Campbell is the founder of Capital for Communities, an advisory and consulting firm that works to broaden access to capital and create a just, equitable financial system that supports thriving communities and works for everyone. His engagements include advice on fund and financial product structuring, strategic advice on the financial markets, and advice on and management of individual project financings; his clients include social enterprises, government agencies, financial institutions, and non-profit organizations. He is a Technical Advisor to Common Future, a network of leaders (re) building an economy that includes everyone; he is also the facilitator of the Real Estate Circle of the Inclusive Capital Collective. Prior to founding Capital for Communities, Sean worked for 15 years in investment management, most recently as a managing director in the principal investing group at Macquarie. Sean has made and managed hundreds of millions of dollars of equity and credit investments, and has invested in debt and equity in the public and private markets. He holds degrees from the University of Chicago and Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar. Key quotes: “I considered going into one of the more conventional investment funds that had started to spring up at the time, but ultimately I decided what I was interested in was more structural change.” Links/socials: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sean-campbell-81aa705/ https://www.commonfuture.co/people/sean-campbell/ Angels of Main Street: https://www.angelsofmainstreet.com/

David Ferran, Founder & CEO of the Torrey Project, shares his background in venture capitalism and his motivation for pivoting to conscious stakeholder capitalism. Together with Jenny Kassan and Michelle Thimesch, David walks us through an understanding of stakeholder capitalism as a model for sustainable value creation.

In this episode, GO Box CEO Jocelyn Gaudi Quarrell shares her plans to eliminate waste for to-go food and drinks, her journey in fundraising, how her company's core value of sustainability impacts her management decisions, and her strategy to get investors on board. Though Jocelyn is no stranger to fundraising, she shares why she approached Jenny Kassan and her team to be guided and gain more insights into the best way forward.

In this episode, hosts Jenny and Michelle are joined by fellow securities lawyer Elizabeth Carter as they spill the tea on regulation crowdfunding platform missteps they have witnessed as well as the first major compliance action against a crowdfunding platform. They discuss why this is a serious issue for small businesses gaining access to funding, and how crowdfunding platforms could work more collaboratively with lawyers who represent small businesses so that everyone wins. #fundraising #investmentcrowdfunding #investment #raisingcapital #RegulationCrowdfunding #regcf #EquityCrowdfunding #capitalraising #jennykasan #capitalinsight #securitieslaw #startups ----- Jenny Kassan is a business attorney with decades of experience. She is also a certified transformational coach, social entrepreneur, and finance innovator. Her formula for mission-aligned capital raising has helped diverse entrepreneurs throughout the country raise millions of dollars on their own terms. Learn more about Jenny Kassan, here >>>> www.jennykassan.com

In this episode of Money Tales, our guest is Jenny Kassan. Jenny grew up with messages of rich people being evil, which created a chip on her shoulder about wealth. As Jenny created goals for her future, making money wasn't on the list. But then she shifted her focus and as her career evolved, she interacted more and more with wealthy people. This allowed Jenny to realize that wealth doesn't reflect a person's heart, what they're doing with the money reflects who they really are. Jenny has over 25 years of experience as an attorney and advisor for mission-driven enterprises. She has helped her clients raise millions of dollars from values-aligned investors and raised over $1.5 million for her own businesses. She is the author of “Raise Capital on Your Own Terms: How to Fund Your Business without Selling Your Soul” (Berrett-Koehler, October 2017). Jenny earned her J.D. from Yale Law School and a master's degree in City and Regional Planning from the University of California at Berkeley. She served on the Securities and Exchange Commission Advisory Committee on Small and Emerging Companies. She submitted the petition to the SEC that led to the passage of the 2012 JOBS Act and was present at the White House signing ceremony. Jenny is also a fellow at Democracy Collaborative and the co-founder of the Force for Good Fund and Opportunity Main Street, an Opportunity Zone investment fund. Jenny is the President of Community Ventures, a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting the economic and social development of communities. She also co-founded the Sustainable Economies Law Center, a nonprofit that provides legal information to support sustainable economies. Jenny is on the board of directors for CfPA (Crowdfunding Professional Association) and formerly served as a director of Berrett-Koehler Publishers. Learn more about Money Tale$ > Subscribe to the podcast Recent episodes See all episodes > Form CRS Form ADV Terms of Use Privacy Rights and Policies

In this episode of Money Tales, our guest is Jenny Kassan. Jenny grew up with messages of rich people being evil, which created a chip on her shoulder about wealth. As Jenny created goals for her future, making money wasn't on the list. But then she shifted her focus and as her career evolved, she interacted more and more with wealthy people. This allowed Jenny to realize that wealth doesn't reflect a person's heart, what they're doing with the money reflects who they really are. Jenny has over 25 years of experience as an attorney and advisor for mission-driven enterprises. She has helped her clients raise millions of dollars from values-aligned investors and raised over $1.5 million for her own businesses. She is the author of “Raise Capital on Your Own Terms: How to Fund Your Business without Selling Your Soul” (Berrett-Koehler, October 2017). Jenny earned her J.D. from Yale Law School and a master's degree in City and Regional Planning from the University of California at Berkeley. She served on the Securities and Exchange Commission Advisory Committee on Small and Emerging Companies. She submitted the petition to the SEC that led to the passage of the 2012 JOBS Act and was present at the White House signing ceremony. Jenny is also a fellow at Democracy Collaborative and the co-founder of the Force for Good Fund and Opportunity Main Street, an Opportunity Zone investment fund. Jenny is the President of Community Ventures, a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting the economic and social development of communities. She also co-founded the Sustainable Economies Law Center, a nonprofit that provides legal information to support sustainable economies. Jenny is on the board of directors for CfPA (Crowdfunding Professional Association) and formerly served as a director of Berrett-Koehler Publishers. See all episodes >

In this episode, hosts Jenny Kassan and Michelle Thimesch discuss the different skills and challenges they have seen entrepreneurs master during the fundraising process. Your hosts consider some of the mindset issues that could be holding you back from growth, including imposter syndrome, indecision, and over-attachment to one's comfort zone. They also share suggestions you can utilize in order to overcome these mindset challenges so that you can successfully raise capital for your business.

Jenny Kassan and Michelle Thimesch, securities lawyers and capital raising experts, will be interviewing fundraising veterans—both entrepreneurs and investors—and sharing success stories and cautionary tales of creative/outside-the-box capital raising. Jenny Kassan is the author of Raise Capital on Your Own Terms: How to Fund Your Business without Selling Your Soul and served on the SEC Advisory Committee on Small and Emerging Companies. Michelle Thimesch is the CEO of Crowfund Mainstreet, a regulated investment crowdfunding platform. Do you have questions for Jenny and Michelle to answer on the podcast? Call the PODCAST HOTLINE and leave us a message—866-J-KASSAN (552-7726) ext. 5. Disclosure: Nothing herein should be construed as legal or investment advice.

#plugintodevin Show Guest: Jenny Kassan Office Held: Fremont City Council Office Sought: None currently Issue: Getting sufficient friendly capital for small businesses that are doing good in the world. I have run several undercapitalized businesses and I hate living in a world where the most needed changemakers are struggling just to make ends meet. We need to make it easier for everyone to move their investment dollars into the businesses they love and care about - this requires legal reform but even more important massive education and support for small businesses and non-professional investors. Bio: Jenny has 25 years of experience as an attorney and advisor for mission-driven enterprises. She has helped her clients raise millions of dollars from values-aligned investors and raised over $1.5 million for her own businesses. She is the author of Raise Capital on Your Own Terms: How to Fund Your Business without Selling Your Soul (Berrett-Koehler, October 2017). Jenny earned her J.D. from Yale Law School and a masters degree in City and Regional Planning from the University of California at Berkeley. Website: www.jennykassan.com Twitter: @jennykassan Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jenny.kassan Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennykassan/ Instagram: @jennykassanconsulting Photo credit: Jennifer Graham Photography

If you’ve got a business idea, chances are, you’ll need money. And money can be a major source of anxiety. There are fears about getting money… and once you have it, fears about how you’ll spend it. Jenny spent two decades as an attorney and advisor for mission-driven businesses and her primary focus is on empowering women entrepreneurs to raise money on their own terms. In this episode, we’ll hear Jenny’s story and her best advice for raising money.

Jenny Kassan, Esq. is the Owner of Kassan Consulting and CoFounder of CrowdFund Main Street. Jenny is an attorney and capital raising coach based in the SF Bay Area. She specialize in helping mission-driven women entrepreneurs raise capital from like-minded investors. Website: http://jennykassan.com/

Never miss another interview! Join Devin here: http://bit.ly/joindevin. Read the full Forbes article and watch the interview here: http://bit.ly/2FkG0of. Michelle Thimesch, 55, CEO of Crowdfund Mainstreet and her business partner Jenny Kassan, both attorneys, have a track record of social entrepreneurship themselves. They are passionate about reducing the funding disparities between male and female-led companies and between white and minority-led companies in America. So, when Thimesch invited Kassan to join her in launching Crowdfund Mainstreet, a Regulation Crowdfunding platform governed by FINRA, it was an easy decision. Their mission is to help triple-bottom-line companies and small businesses, especially female-led and minority-led ones, to raise the money they need to be successful. Kassan, for her part, has a long history of working with female entrepreneurs to raise money from nontraditional sources, using whatever exemption from registration made the most sense. Sometimes she helped entrepreneurs raise money under infrequently used exemptions like Regulation D 504, allowing issuers to raise money state-by-state from ordinary investors. Regulation Crowdfunding or Reg CF at it is commonly known, was implemented in 2016 after being written into law in 2012 during the middle of the Obama administration. Thimesch, alongside her law practice, has been working as the executive director of East Bay Revitalization, an organization working to improve access to affordable housing and reducing unemployment. Read the full Forbes article and watch the interview here: http://bit.ly/2FkG0of. Be a hero! Join the elite group of supporters who ensure that stories like this can continue to be shared! Visit heroes4good.org to become a hero now.

Terri talks to Jenny Kassan about alternative funding mechanisms for female founders and small business owners and how she works with them to provide tailored fundraising strategies.  Who is Jenny Kassan?   Jenny Kassan has over two decades of experience as an attorney and advisor for mission-driven enterprises and is a certified coach.  She has helped her clients raise millions of dollars from values-aligned investors.  She is the author of Raise Capital on Your Own Terms: How to Fund Your Business without Selling Your Soul (Berrett-Koehler, October 2017).  She served on the SEC Advisory Committee on Small and Emerging Companies and submitted the petition to the SEC that led to the passage of the 2012 JOBS Act.  Before becoming a securities lawyer, Jenny worked for eleven years at a nonprofit community development corporation in Oakland, where she served as staff attorney and managed community economic development projects including the formation and management of several social ventures designed to employ and create business ownership opportunities for low-income community residents.  Jenny is a fellow at Democracy Collaborative and the co-founder of the Force for Good Fund, is the President of Community Ventures, and co-founded the Sustainable Economies Law Center.  She was a director of Berrett-Koehler Publishers and is a member of the Content Advisory Panel of Conscious Company Magazine and serves on the advisory boards of Lioness Magazine and Investibule.   Jenny earned her J.D. from Yale Law School and a master’s degree in City and Regional Planning from the University of California at Berkeley.    Show Highlights  Jenny talks about her journey into working with startups and businesses on tailored fundraising strategies and the importance of Title III of the JOBS Act.    Jenny talks about how her frustration with fundraising options and meeting Michelle Thimesch led to the recent launch of CrowdFund Main Street to take advantage of Title III of the JOBS Act.    Terri and Jenny talk about how crowdfunding can fit into a startup’s fundraising strategy and how the definition of success for a startup is not based on funding rounds.  Jenny is now focusing on the investor side and educating a lot of Americans on investing opportunities through her new organization called Angels of Main Street.    Terri talks about how important it is for some us to see the direct impact of their investments and/or time.      Jenny talks about how she works with her clients to structure their financing strategies in alignment with their goals, values, and short/long term strategies.  She also talks about the various options available to founders.   Jenny felt most like the pilot in her own life when she went out on her own with her own firm.  She now has the business of dreams.      Terri’s Key Takeaway  Taking the first step is important to opening up new opportunity paths.     References in the Podcast  CrowdFund Main Street: https://crowdfundmainstreet.com/  JOBS Act, Title III:  https://www.sec.gov/spotlight/jobs-act.shtml  Gabrielle Katsnelson: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gabrielle-katsnelson-6a73958/  SMBX: https://www.thesmbx.com/  National Venture Capital Association:    Changing Tides:  https://thinkresultsmarketing.com/books/changing-tides/    Contact  Jenny can be reached through her website http://www.jennykassan.com/  You can follow Terri on Twitter at @terrihansonmead or go to her website at www.terrihansonmead.com or on Medium:  https://medium.com/@terrihansonmead.   Feel free to email Terri at PilotingYourLife@gmail.com.  To continue the conversation, go to Twitter at @PilotingLife and use hashtag #PilotingYourLife. 

Who is Nancy Hayes?   Nancy Hayes is an active angel investor focused on women-led companies. She has invested in 22 companies and serves as advisor to entrepreneurs and as a management consultant and coach to executives in for-profit and nonprofit corporations. Nancy left the IBM Corporation, where she was a senior executive, to become CEO of the STARBRIGHT Foundation, an innovative nonprofit organization that used technology and media to help seriously ill children and subsequently was President and CEO of WISE Senior Services, a social services agency which served frail elderly and disabled adults. Nancy was named Dean of the College of Business at San Francisco State University in 2005 and after six years in that role, was CFO and Chief Administrative Officer of the university for 2 years. In 2013, Nancy cofounded MoolaHoop, a rewards-based crowdfunding site for women with small businesses. She was Managing Director of the Silicon Valley chapter of Golden Seeds, a national angel group that invests in women-led companies, for over 3 years. Nancy has an MBA with a concentration in Finance from the University of Chicago and resides in San Francisco.   Show Highlights Nancy shares her journey into angel investing after helping women with small businesses and seeing the funding challenges. Nancy talks about various financing options available including revenue-based financing and the statistics around the number of companies started each day. Angels join groups to minimize risk. Terri and Nancy talk about the ways in which women can (and should) become active angel investors. Spoiler: just jump in and do it. Nancy talks about her value in advising startups and her favorite investments. Nancy would wave a magic wand to get advice and mentorship to more female founders earlier.   Terri’s Key Takeaway As women, we think we need to take one more class or get one more degree but with angel investing, we just need to get started.   References in the Podcast WABA: Women Angels of the Bay Area Golden Seeds: https://goldenseeds.com/ RESI: http://www.resiconference.com/ JP Morgan: https://www.jpmorgan.com/global/healthcareconference Jenny Kassan: http://www.jennykassan.com/ CrowdFund Main Street: https://crowdfundmainstreet.com/ JOBS Act: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jumpstart_Our_Business_Startups_Act Lighter Capital: https://www.lightercapital.com/ Kim Folsom: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kimtfolsom/ Carol Sands class on angel investing: https://continuingstudies.stanford.edu/courses/professional-and-personal-development/angel-investing-for-the-serious-investor-an-introduction/20181_BUS-204 Venture Deals: https://www.venturedeals.com/ Angel the Book: https://www.angelthebook.com/ Wingpact: https://www.wingpact.com/ Wingee Sin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wingee/ Suzanne Andrews: https://www.linkedin.com/in/suzannemandrews/ Porfolia: https://www.portfolia.co/ Pipeline Angels: http://pipelineangels.com/ NextWave Ventures: https://nextwaveimpact.com/ Venture Deals online course: https://kfatechstars.novoed.com/#!/courses/kfa-venture-deals-fall18/flyer My90: https://www.textmy90.com/ Kona Shen: https://www.linkedin.com/in/konashen/ Tempo Automation: https://www.tempoautomation.com/ Cirrus Identity: https://www.cirrusidentity.com/ Dedra Chamberlin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dedrachamberlin/ Tyler Lynch PYL episode 2: http://www.terrihansonmead.com/podcast/pyl002/tyler-lynch   Contact Nancy can be reached by email at nancy@nkhgroup.com, via Twitter at @nancyhayes and through LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/nancyhayes2. You can follow Terri on Twitter at @terrihansonmead or go to her website at www.terrihansonmead.com or on Medium:  https://medium.com/@terrihansonmead.  Feel free to email Terri at PilotingYourLife@gmail.com. To continue the conversation, go to Twitter at @PilotingLife and use hashtag #PilotingYourLife.

“No matter which strategy you take, you still have to have a lot of one-to-one conversations with investors.”   Jenny Kassan has been an attorney for social enterprises for 22 years, and is a certified transformational coach, social entrepreneur, investor, and finance innovator. She specializes in helping mission-driven women entrepreneurs raise capital from like-minded investors. Her formula for mission-aligned capital raising has helped diverse entrepreneurs raise millions of dollars on their own terms. She is the founder and president of Community Ventures, a nonprofit dedicated to community economic and social development. Her new book, Raise Capital on Your Own Terms: How to Fund Your Business Without Selling Your Soul, is a guide to finding investors aligned with your business goals and personal values.   Listen And Learn: How entrepreneurs can find mission-driven investors. Why you need to make sure that the way you are raising money is legally compliant. Her six-step strategy for raising money for your business. The importance of knowing your non-negotiables. The value in defining your ideal investor at the outset. How to read the queues and know when you might be losing a potential investor.   TO FIND JENNY KASSAN ON LINKEDIN, CLICK HERE.   Products don’t sell themselves. It takes marketing to differentiate and establish a need. Call Avocet Communications TODAY at 303-678-7102.

Never miss another interview! Join Devin here: http://bit.ly/joindevin. Jenny Kassan, a Yale-trained lawyer in California has carved out a niche, working for more than a decade to help women and social entrepreneurs use every legal means to access entrepreneur-friendly, patient capital. Today, using Regulation CF, along with Regulation D sections 504 and 506(c) along with Regulation A+, she is helping for-profit and nonprofit social entrepreneurs access affordable sources of capital to fund a social mission. Check out my free webinar where I share the secrets of successful nonprofit crowdfunding at http://crowdfundingforsocialgood.org.

Jenny Kassan is an attorney and capital raising coach who has helped her clients raise hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars using creative strategies that allow them to stay true to their vision and mission.  She is the author of Raise Capital on Your Terms: How to Fund Your Business without Selling Your Soul. 1. What led you to get involved in helping raise money for social enterprises and small business? 2. What about Crowd Funding? 3.Talk about ending the “bootstrap trap”?  4.As a woman, who works mostly with women social entrepreneurs to raise capital, could you tell us about their particular challenges, and why you feel so passionate about helping them? 5.Many people think “Shark Tank” when they hear the word “investor”, you have a different view. When you speak of investors—what do you mean? 6.Do you have examples of businesses that have raised funding using creative strategies? 7.What are some of the misconceptions people have about raising capital and how do these lead to business owners making mistakes? New Interviews, and Inspirational videos will be posted every week on my Youtube Channel! Just go here: https://goo.gl/EA9x6D Connect with Bert Martinez on Facebook. Connect with Bert Martinez on Twitter.

For Beyond 50's "Business" talks, listen to an interview with Jenny Kassan. She is an investment expert. She'll talk about better options out there than raising venture capital for investment money in your business. Kassan offers a roadmap to raising funding for a business without selling out the dream. She reveals why its critical for entrepreneurs to design a strong capital raising plan that fits who they are, and provides all the steps for how to do it. Learn how to lay the groundwork for finding investorsthat are mission-driven investors and the best ways to approach them. Kassan will also discuss about how to stick to their non-negotiables and find funders who agree with them. Tune in to Beyond 50: America's Talk Show on the natural, holistic, green and sustainable lifestyle. Visit www.Beyond50Radio.com (http://www.Beyond50Radio.com) and sign up for our Exclusive Updates.

February 9, 2018 Quizzes Quizzes Josh Haynam, Raise Capital Jenny Kassan, Servant Leadership Marc Baxter

In this episode, I interview Jenny Kassan, author of Raise Capital On Your Own Terms: How to Fund Your Business Without Selling Your Soul.  Jenny is a business attorney with decades of experience. She is also a certified transformational coach, social entrepreneur, and finance innovator. Her formula for mission-aligned capital raising has helped diverse entrepreneurs throughout the country raise millions of dollars on their own terms. As always, we explore these topics on a daily basis - including a discussion of this episode - in the inclusive Awarepreneurs membership community. We'd love to have your voice in the dailogue!

Segment 1: Susan Fennema is the Chaos Eradicating Officer (CEO) of Beyond the Chaos, a consultancy helping small business owners gain control of their lives through better processes, organization, and structure of their business operations and projects. Segment 2: Jenny Kassan has been an attorney for social enterprises for 22 years, and is a certified transformational coach, social entrepreneur, investor and finance innovator. Her new book is Raise Capital on Your Own Terms: How to Fund Your Business Without Selling Your Soul.Segment 3: Aaron Levy is the Founder and CEO of Raise The Bar, a firm focused on helping companies address the problem of millennial turnover. Segment 4: Morgan Simon is the author of REAL IMPACT: THE NEW ECONOMICS OF SOCIAL CHANGE. She is a widely recognized leader in impact investment who builds bridges between finance and social justice. Segment 5: Barry Moltz shares how to get your business unstuck.Sponsored by Nextiva.

Sage Salvo of Words Liive, an education technology company that provides teachers lesson plans based on examples in pop culture, has a candid discussion with Jenny Kassan about different funding models outside the traditional Angel/VC structure – and gets some surprising answers!

Moderator: Ashara Ekundayo There will be no Prince on a white horse to save us. It is up to us to take agency and create local solutions that benefit our communities and ourselves.  Find out about three local initiatives that are bypassing business as usual and creating innovative initiatives to create economic equity…The Boston Ujima… The post It’s Up To Us: Investing In Local Solutions – Nia Evans, Jessica Norwood, Jenny Kassan appeared first on CoCap Revolution.

Jenny Kassan is an attourney and expert at helping women in business.  We discuss how entrepreneurs find themselves in the “bootstrap trap” and how they can escape it via creative funding strategies. This program is a production of KBMF 102.5 Butte America Radio and underwritten by Purse for the People

Social entrepreneur, finance innovator, and certified transformational coach, Jenny Kassan, joins us today to share her story. Jenny tells us the biggest mistakes she sees women entrepreneurs make and the best way to get funding for your business.

Do you feel frustrated every time you look at your budget and don’t see how you could possibly fund growth in your business?  There are 4 points of leverage in your business, and money is one of them.  Join Business Growth Coach Leslie Hassler & guest Jenny Kassan, from her office in Dallas, Texas as we share how to leverage other people’s money to grow your business. In this episode we will cover: The 4 Points of Leverage To Grow Your Business  The 6 components of Money Leverage Learn About the Types of Funding and Who they are good for Q&A Subscribe to the show on BLAB.IM https://blab.im/YourBizRules. More about Our Guest on the Double Your Business in 90 Days Show Get Your Free E-book: Fund and Fuel Your Dreams: How to Get a YES! from Investors  Jenny has two decades of experience as an attorney and advisor for mission-driven enterprises. She has helped her clients raise millions of dollars and raised several hundred thousand for her own business. Jenny serves her clients in the areas of business start-up, entity structuring to preserve mission, enterprise finance, securities regulation, investment crowdfunding, nonprofit law, and cooperatives. In 2010, Jenny co-founded Cutting Edge Capital, a consulting firm that helps social ventures raise community capital and pioneers tools for a more inclusive and values-driven economy.  Jenny served as Cutting Edge Capital’s CEO for five years. Jenny earned her J.D. from Yale Law School and a masters degree in City and Regional Planning from the University of California at Berkeley. Prior to beginning her work in securities and finance, Jenny worked for eleven years at a nonprofit community development corporation in Oakland, where she served as staff attorney and managed community economic development projects including the formation and management of several social ventures designed to employ and create business ownership opportunities for low-income community residents. Jenny is the President of Community Ventures, a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting the economic and social development of communities.  She also co-founded the Sustainable Economies Law Center, a nonprofit that provides legal information to support sustainable economies. Related Blog Posts: Business Building Article: What to do when you have no money and no time in your business? Podcast: How To Leverage Inside Your Business 

For the show notes (guest bio, summary, resources, etc), go to: www.lifteconomy.com/podcast

  I have an eye-opening conversation with fundraising strategist, consultant and attorney Jenny Kassan. With two decades of experience as both an entrepreneur and attorney, Jenny is now on a mission to help entrepreneurs discover new ways to raise capital for their companies. The best part? She works with founders to enable them to choose creative funding strategies that make them feel like they're not losing control of their ideas, or all they've built. Jenny is also offering an awesome free gift to my audience – an e-book outlining the basics of preparing for raising capital you're your business (the link is on the podcast notes page: livinguber.com/podcasts). Follow the Intrepid Entrepreneur podcast by joining our community on Twitter + Instagram (@GoLivingUber) and on Facebook. Visit the LivingUber website to join my weekly newsletter, which gives you access to members-only podcasts and content built just for motivated, adventurous entrepreneurs! Don't forget to rate, review and subscribe to the Intrepid Entrepreneur Podcast, and share it with a peer who you know will be inspired!  More about Jenny at www.jennykassan.com.   Go to this link to download Jenny's free e-book on creative funding strategies: http://www.jennykassan.com/gift.  

July 10, 2015 - Read the full GoodCrowdinfo article and watch the interview here: http://bit.ly/1HiQrl7. Subscribe to this podcast on iTunes by clicking here: http://bit.ly/ymotwitunes or on Stitcher by clicking here: http://bit.ly/ymotwstitcher. Jenny Kassan is one of the world’s leading experts on investment crowdfunding and she’s passionate about using it for good! Jenny says, “Be yourself when raising capital. Just like with dating, it’s better to show your authentic self than to pretend you’re something you’re not. Not only will you be more likely to attract investors you’re happy with, the process will be easier and more enjoyable.” She helps nonprofits and social entrepreneurs figure out how to raise money. She explains, “You know that raising money from investors could help you take your business (or entrepreneurial nonprofit) to the next level of success. But you’ve heard horror stories about what it’s like to raise money from professional investors, like Venture Capitalists and Angel Investors, and you’re worried that’s not a good fit for you. You would like to raise money from regular folks – your community, customers, and fans. But you’ve heard that it might be illegal to do that.” “Good news! There are legal ways to raise investment capital from the crowd. One of the names for this is doing a Direct Public Offering, but it is also sometimes called by other names like investment crowdfunding,” she continues.” “A DPO is legal way to offer an investment opportunity (equity or debt) using public advertising and opening the opportunity to anyone, whether a wealthy professional investor or not (in legal parlance, you can open your investment offering to both unaccredited and accredited investors),” she concludes. Please consider whether a friend or colleague might benefit from this piece and, if so, share it.

UPDATE: Mistakes and clarifications have been corrected, per Jenny Kassan. You planned the brewery of your dreams. You researched the market and you know it will be profitable. But you don’t have a million dollars under your pillow to start it. Now how to find investors for a brewery? Jenny Kassan, an attorney and consultant […] The post MicroBrewr 067: How to find investors for a brewery appeared first on MicroBrewr.

May 14, 2014 - Read the Forbes article and watch the interview here: http://onforb.es/1jETx8D. Subscribe to this podcast on iTunes by clicking here: http://bit.ly/ymotwitunes or on Stitcher by clicking here: http://bit.ly/ymotwstitcher. While tech entrepreneurship continues to be dominated by men (see Cheryl Snapp Conner’s piece), women appear to be playing a larger role in the crowdfunding ecosystem. Note that Sally Outlaw, included in this article, is one of my clients. There is a growing list of influential women leading the crowdfunding industry. Sara Hanks, CEO of CrowdCheck, Jilliene Helman, CEO of Realty Mogul, Jenny Kassan, CEO of Cutting Edge Capital, Lesley Mansford, CEO of Razoo, Sally Outlaw, CEO of Peerbackers, Danae Ringelmann, Co-founder of Indiegogo, Joy Schoffler, CEO of Leverage PR, and Joanna Schwartz, CEO of EarlyShares will all join me for a live discussion about the crowdfunding industry.

Two part series on crowdfunding. What it is, how it got started, inclusion into the Jobs (Jumpstart Our Business Startups) Act of 2012 and what that will mean. Is crowdfunding for everybody, some alternative financing methods, and local business examplesTRANSCRIPTSpeaker 1:Okay. Okay. [inaudible]. Speaker 2:I'm Lisa Kiefer and today I'm speaking with Jenny Cason and John [inaudible] from cutting edge capital in downtown Oakland. They're going to be talking about crowd [00:00:30] funding Speaker 3:here we are in the midst of an amazing nexus of possibility with the Internet, social networking and the maker movements, a hacker movements. We're going to talk today about something that's on a lot of people's minds. Ever since President Obama signed the jobs act and that's the jumpstart our business startups act in April and that is the transformative notion of crowd funding. John, I understand you spoke at a crowdfunding [00:01:00] conference just yesterday and Jenny, I understand that you actually wrote the original petition to the sec for a crowd funding exemption. What is crowdfunding and what led you to do this, Jenny? Well, crowd funding is when any group of people, whether it be a business or just a group of people who need to raise money to get something done, go out to the public and offer an opportunity for people to contribute money to get that thing done. Speaker 3:Unfortunately [00:01:30] under our current legal system, every time you do that, if you offer any kind of return on the investment opportunity. So if you say, Hey, give me $100 now and I'll give you $110 in a year after this whole thing is a success, you're actually breaking state and federal law. So right now there are crowdfunding websites, but on all of those websites, the only reason why those are legal is because you're only giving a donation. You're not getting anything in return except maybe something, a [00:02:00] very low value, like a tee shirt or something like that. So we've always felt that this was not fair, that people could not offer opportunities to the public to invest in cool projects that they were trying to do. We understand that the reason for these laws is to protect investors. But what if you're only offering a very small investment opportunity? Speaker 3:So we said, what if you were to go out and offer the opportunity to invest $100 in a project or a business, a [00:02:30] nonprofit that we co founded sustainable economies law center wrote a letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission to ask for an exemption to the general rule that you're not allowed to go out and ask for investment and said, hey, why not allow people to do this if you can only put in up to a hundred dollars per person? Because we figured, you know, if people lose $100, it's probably not going to be the end of the world. So what happened with that petition? The sec didn't really respond. Um, there were a lot of letters of support that sent [00:03:00] and the word started to spread about the idea and little by little more and more people got involved. There were websites started to kind of to promote the idea and the idea actually spread to Congress. Speaker 3:Some members of Congress started to hear about this letter. They asked Mary Shapiro, the head of the Securities and Exchange Commission. Why is it so scary to allow people to invest up to a hundred dollars in whatever investment they would like to invest in? She responded [00:03:30] in a letter back to this Congress member, um, well, you know, there could be a lot of fraud and we're really concerned and we've seen a lot of bad schemes happening, but Congress started to really question is, is it really necessary to protect people so much that they have no option where they can invest their money, even if they're investing a small amount? At the same time, some members of the White House staff also became aware of this idea and they also were very supportive of this idea that [00:04:00] if you're limiting the total amount that people can lose that why not create an exemption to these very owners rules that make it impossible for us to invest in the kinds of things we want to invest in. Speaker 3:So a little by little, the idea started growing and amazingly enough, the president announced his support for the idea and then a congress person introduced legislation to actually put this idea into effect. And Amazingly enough, on April 5th the president signed the bill into law. Can you describe what that was like? Well, it was very [00:04:30] exciting. There were quite a few people invited. All the people who had been involved in getting it adopted. There were also people there who would really benefit from the new law and the president made a really short but very compelling speech about how now for the first time in a very long time, Americans will be able to invest in things in their community that they want to see. The big thing that we were trying to change is that under current law, only people that are categorized as accredited investors are actually [00:05:00] allowed to invest in anything they want to. Speaker 3:What does that mean, accredited investor? So an accredited investor is something that is defined under federal law. There are a lot of categories of accredited investors, but basically you have to be at least a millionaire. You have to have at least a million dollars in net worth, not counting your home, or you have to have an annual income of at least $200,000 or 300,000 with your spouse. Or if you're a business or an entity of some kind, you have to have at least $5 million [00:05:30] in assets. So that's of course a tiny percentage. We estimate maybe about 1% of the population meets that definition. So under current law, if you do meet that definition, the business that wants to offer an investment to you has much fewer hoops that it has to jump through to be able to comply with the law. But the minute someone wants to offer an investment to someone who doesn't fit into that category, they to spend tens, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars [00:06:00] in legal fees, accounting fees, et Cetera, to be able to do all the legal work required to make it possible to actually offer the investment to unaccredited investors. So that's what we were trying to create, uh, an exemption for Speaker 4:and initially turned into a proposal by a allowing people to invest as much as $10,000 per investment up to a million dollars, up to $2 million. Big numbers were starting to float around a personally, I became uncomfortable about that [00:06:30] because once a lot more money gets introduced into the scheme, you really do need to start to worry a lot more about market abuse fraud and then naturally the notion of intermediaries was introduced initially, I think you weren't really thinking about the intermediary concept as much today with the legislation having been signed by the president and conferences such as the one I just attended. A lot of people [00:07:00] are thinking about the intermediary space right now and because of that, naturally the regulatory agencies are going to have to put a lot more time, a lot more effort and a really serious thought and stringent rules and requirements around how to ensure that the intermediaries are behaving, how the intermediaries can ensure that the companies and the investors are appropriate and behaving limits are being met, all sorts of things. Now have to [00:07:30] be thought about and developed because it grew from the initial idea of really just a little seed concept into something much more meaningful. Speaker 3:How long will it take the sec to review [00:08:00] this exemption and what he expects gonna Happen Out of that? Speaker 4:Well, it says in the, the law that was passed that even though it's effective immediately, the SCC has 270 days to do its rulemaking. What's going to be really interesting here are two things. One is the 270 days doesn't necessarily mean that that's the end date that the sec has to come up with something. If you look back at the 2008 financial crisis, [00:08:30] you'll see a number of, uh, requirements that were provided to the sec about rulemaking within specific certain period of time, including 270 days and some other day limitations that they blew through. And unfortunately for the STC and the rest of us, they, as they say themselves, they're drinking from a fire hose. They have so many things going on right now. So many pressures, so many demands from Congress, Dodd, frank, a financial crisis, all the other things that they naturally take [00:09:00] on and do and limitations and staff, you know, enforcement issues and problems from Madoff and re designing how they should think and do things. Speaker 4:This one is not on the top of their wish list to do because there's so many others on the top of their list, number one. Number two, they don't really like it. They never did. Um, as Jenny mentioned before and, and numerous other speeches from commissioners, we're pretty clear that we're not comfortable with [00:09:30] this. So when we see the final legislation or rulemaking that the sec comes out with, whether it's within 270 days or they blow through that and it's another date, even then it's going to be interesting because we don't even know what they're going to require. We don't know what kind of self-regulatory organizational rules and requirements have to be developed after that. And it's going to be really difficult to say, oh, okay, when this all is done and all the rules [00:10:00] are in place, now we can see the vision of the future for crowd funding. I don't think anybody can say that right now. Speaker 5:Well, there seems to be quite a gap between the regulatory world and people out there starting up these crowdfunding sites. I read about them every day in the paper. They're already doing this. Can you talk about that gap and what that's going to create? Speaker 4:You mentioned earlier that crowd funding was donation-based. Um, now we're into a world where it looks like not a donation and, [00:10:30] and it looks like not a project because now you see companies that may already be in existence that have a product they want to bring out and one such watchmaker just raised $7 million to go to China to have their watches built. And then these donations are actually not donations. They're preorders for the watches. Speaker 3:Yeah, we really are in a wild west world, even before this legislation passed, there is very little understanding out there of the laws that [00:11:00] govern what you can. And can't do when you're raising money. So even before this legislation was even a glimmer in the eye of the president, um, people were already doing things on the Internet that were illegal and they didn't realize it. And because the SEC is so overwhelmed, very few people got caught flat out investment offerings on the Internet that were illegal. And usually people would realize after a little while that they were illegal and take it down. The also, a lot of people don't understand what [00:11:30] the definition of a security is. Some people might have a vague idea that, oh, I'm not allowed to sell securities to the public without going through a lot of regulatory hoops. The definition of a security is incredibly broad. Speaker 3:It includes loans. It includes any offer to give someone money in the future if they give you money now. So it doesn't have to be a stock, it doesn't have to, you know, a membership in an LLC. It doesn't have to be an equity investment to make matters even more complicated. [00:12:00] Um, there the states have, even some of the states have an even broader definition of what a security is. In, in about 15 states, they defined security so broadly that it can even include the promise to provide anything at all a value in the future in those states, the pre-selling of a product that doesn't exist yet, where you're putting in your money and taking a risk by putting in your money that, you know, maybe, or maybe not this product is actually going to get made. That [00:12:30] is actually considered a security in 15 states. Speaker 3:This has been going on on Kickstarter for quite a while. And as far as I know, there hasn't been any crackdown from the regulators, but that certainly could happen at any time. And now that this new legislation has passed, I think there's even more confusion about what you can and can't do because a lot of people don't realize that the legislation really hasn't gone into effect yet because the rule making still needs to happen. So from what I understand, there are now more websites out there offering opportunities to fund various [00:13:00] projects. It sounds like these onerous rules regulations could end up costing megabucks for these people and you're back at square one again. Absolutely. I mean it doesn't really sound necessarily like an improvement. Where do we stand competitively with the rest of the world and crowd funding? Speaker 4:The United States regulatory program or scheme or however you want to think about it is an interesting one in that it was really the first primary uh, nationally regulated [00:13:30] or large governmentally regulated kind of a system for investments and naturally here, because we took off in the industrial revolution and nobody was close to where we were, the button would tree came about in New York. Philadelphia started a stock exchange way earlier than most everybody else thought about forming something of a structural regulatory position around selling of securities [00:14:00] except maybe Holland around the tulip market. We developed early on state by State even interesting strong regulatory structures to try to help people be safe when they were making investments. And naturally after the 29 crash and the federal government realized that things were getting a little bit out of control, we were really the leaders when it came to developing a very interesting framework that now you can refer [00:14:30] back to 33 and 34 act that still governs today a lot. Speaker 4:Almost all of what happens aside from some amendments that have been introduced since then. It is a very strong, very interesting but very old structure like our constitution in the United States in many ways. There's lot of analogy there. Lot of countries have learned from us. They've developed better, stronger, more interesting things off [00:15:00] of it. The things that I think other places or other countries learned and adopted and introduced new measures and new methods based upon newer technology based upon even the Internet. We're a bit strapped with some old rules that we have to keep trying to fit everything into. While we're heading progressive in one way and strong and robust, we're not real flexible and not necessarily as progressive [00:15:30] so we are behind in some ways we're heading some butt behind and some, there is another interesting thing that's happened with the SEC. Uh, very recently they just put out a new statement on their website and you can go and look at it. Speaker 4:sec.gov and it pretty much says we have a long time left to figure out what we're going to do with rulemaking and just as a reminder to everybody out there you can't be violating the current existing rules and regulations by [00:16:00] developing new platforms or intermediary concepts. Even those kinds of things are going to face increased scrutiny right now because not only the sec but other regulatory agencies are probably thinking we have to do something right now to try to stem this outbreak, this virus that's out there and we have, we may have to come down hard on a few people Speaker 2:[inaudible] Speaker 3:[00:16:30] Matt [inaudible] articles in rolling stone and others have come out strongly against the jobs act. He talks about is the wisdom of the crowd enough? Is Is this just opening up for the grandmas of the world to be abused? What do you think about that? We have to be really clear when we're talking about the jobs act. Are we talking about the part about [00:17:00] crowd funding or are we talking about some of the other parts? I think it's true that the first section does something that is quite questionable. It, it exempts from a lot of regulations, um, something called emerging growth companies. So I know a lot of the criticism of the jobs act has been focused on that, but there has has also been criticism of the actual crowd funding piece and I know that there is a lot of fear out there that it could lead to fraud. Speaker 3:The 99% of us who are not what we call accredited investors [00:17:30] have very few choices about what we can invest in. And many of us are just sick and tired of putting our money into Wall Street. We just feel like that money is not doing anything that we feel good about. It's leaving our community. It's going God's know God knows where and doing God knows what and we would like the option to invest in businesses in our communities or social ventures in our communities that we know are doing good. I think this was just an attempt to find a reasonable balance. There's never going to be a fraud free [00:18:00] situation. There's fraud under the current situation. There will be a way that you can and you can have more options about what you invest in and there will be a fairly large amount of regulations on these intermediaries that John keeps referring to. Speaker 3:They have to be registered with the SEC. They have to be members of FINRA, which is the regulatory body for the financial industry. There's all kinds of requirements about what they have to do to vet anyone who lists on their site. I think there will be a fair amount of protections [00:18:30] for people and I do think there is a lot of wisdom to the crowd. If you talk to Indiegogo for example, as far as they know, there has never been a case of someone succeeding in, in raising money for a fraudulent project. There has been an attempt to do that, but the crowd actually caught the person and figured out that what they were offering was not legitimate and they shut the whole thing down. So I think that now that we live in an age where the crowd, you know, can actually chime in on a lot [00:19:00] of things. I mean Ebay is a great example of that. I think the, you know, the ratings that you see on Ebay after you have a bunch of 'em you, they start to have some meanings. So I think that people chiming in on, hey, this is a really great business. Or Hey, I went to that business the other day and they treated me terribly. I don't think anyone should invest in them. I think these are the kinds of things that will be really helpful for people in making their decisions. Speaker 4:Six or seven years ago, Jenny and I started working on an idea around how could we develop [00:19:30] an alternative mechanism for non accredited investors, the 99% to be able to begin investing in local community companies through an alternative kind of an exchange. The um, work that we did on that developed into a a paper that I presented at a corporation 2020 which is a think tank that's based out of Boston designed to try to find appropriate new measures for what companies [00:20:00] should look like in 2020 and you know to have clear vision 2020 vision. When you think about what companies could look like and could be and, and the work that Jenny and I have been doing with regard to a local exchange was perfectly suited for what they were thinking about in terms of what they thought companies should look like and how companies should be run. Speaker 4:What we were working toward were two different things. One was how do you try [00:20:30] to ensure that the interaction between the offer and the investor can be something that is trustworthy, can be information, can be validated, appropriate transparency can happen and the development of a sense community. And our thinking was at the time that if we tried to minimize the geographic footprint in terms of where individuals and investors were meeting up with companies, we thought [00:21:00] that we might have a better idea or a better approach in terms of trying to limit the inherent part of human nature to scam or defraud or manipulate or abuse that process. The efficient transfer of savings to investing. What we were really thinking about was how do you ensure that you know what you're getting into, how, how can you be safe in terms of what you're investing in? Speaker 4:How can [00:21:30] you not get ripped off and how can you do this as one of the 99 percenters when the world seems to provide much more opportunity for those who are wealthy or sophisticated and giving definitions around sophisticated, that in my view are insulting to the rest of the 99% of the world or the United States where there are many sophisticated, very smart people who probably could do much better if they had an opportunity. Fast forward [00:22:00] to the time when Jenny began to work on that petition. It was really closely connected with what we have begun to do six or seven years ago. And what I think is gonna we're gonna see is that what turns into something successful is going to be when you can recreate community, recreate knowing about something, recreate a transparent approach, and possibly even recreate some of the things that [00:22:30] stock exchanges were all about in their early stages before they all moved toward electronic trading where no one knows each other and no one sees each other anymore. Speaker 4:There's always going to be an attempt at fraud. How do you limit fraud? How do you limit abuse? One way I've seen by my experience being a general counsel at and regulator at stock exchanges for more than 20 years now is when people know each other. That doesn't mean that they like each other or that they trust each other, but when they know each [00:23:00] other, there's an opportunity for them to know when somebody is acting badly and then there's an opportunity for them to make sure that that person gets yanked from the process. So that there's more trust built into the system. I think we're going to see that. I don't know how exactly yet, but I believe that when we see success in all of this, it's going to be because we have figured that out. Speaker 2:[inaudible] Speaker 4:[00:23:30] while we're waiting for the SEC to figure out this new capital crowd funding, how would Speaker 5:I as a, you know, you talk about local, I eat local, I spend my money locally. How do I invest local? In the meantime, what, I know you guys have, uh, you've started a consulting firm that does help people decide to set. Can you talk a little bit about what are some of the things that I could do? Speaker 3:[00:24:00] Unfortunately, if there aren't that many opportunities right now, but we are trying to help businesses find ways to be able to deal with the current regulatory structure to actually allow them to offer investments to their community. Interestingly, there really is already crowd funding going on. Just the way that John described it under the current legal regime there, it is possible to do something that we call a direct public offering under the new law. It'll be much easier to do this. But under the current [00:24:30] law it is possible. What you have to do is complete a very detailed, um, prospectus describing your business, describing what it is that you're offering and you file that perspective in your state. And if you're only doing it in your state, you don't have to worry about federal regulations. It's a little bit more complicated than that. But generally if you're, if you're focused within your state and you're only offering the investment to residents of your state, it's a bit easier cause you don't have to do a federal filing, [00:25:00] you just file with the state and then your state securities regulators will give you the, okay, hopefully to go ahead and offer the this, the securities, whatever they are, whether it's a loan, whether it's a presale of a product, whether it's a stock, you can get the okay to, to offer that to the public. Speaker 3:And we do have some clients that are currently doing that. It varies from state to state how easy it is. Unfortunately in California it's a little bit more difficult. They are stricter and also it takes them a longer [00:25:30] time to do the approvals. But we have clients in New York, um, in Washington who are currently offering securities in their communities. We have one client in the state of Washington in a small town called Port Townsend, which is, uh, it's like a general store and it's a startup but they're very well known in their community. It's a small town that's very involved and active and you know, community revitalization projects. They have already raised over I think over 500,000 to open this [00:26:00] community store and they've made the offering to the public in their community. If you have co-ops in your community and you become a member of the Co op, that is a way to invest in your local community. Unfortunately, there aren't many opportunities right now. Speaker 4:It's going to be interesting to see how the states react, how the federal government reacts, what happens when they're abuse or, or you know, other kinds of frauds begin to happen if they happen. And then if you run that [00:26:30] side by side against what Jenny just described in terms of the alternatives that exist today, I don't know that you could really easily say that one is going to be a better approach than the other right now. And in fact, we may find that the one that we're actually operating within right now could turn out to be something even lighter from a regulatory approach. That's the problem. We just don't know and it's going to take quite a bit of time. Speaker 3:Well thank you John Cavett and Jenny Cason, [00:27:00] cofounders of cutting edge capital in Oakland, California. And where can people go to find out more information about this if they had some questions, what would you suggest? Check out cutting edge capital.com we have a lot of information about the legal issues and the changes in the law and examples of communities all over the country that are raising money and keeping money local. Are there any authors that you would recommend people check into or Speaker 4:absolutely. Um, Marjorie Kelly and her seminal [00:27:30] work, the divine right of capital and a new book that's coming out this summer on generative ownership opportunities is fantastic. Speaker 3:Amy Cortinez loca vesting, and I read that book. It's awesome. Yeah. And Michael Schumann, local dollars, local sense. Those are great books. Good. Well, thank you for being on method to the madness. Appreciate you guys coming out. Sure. Thank you. Speaker 2:[inaudible]. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.