Podcasts about seedinvest

Does your business need capital? If you are a startup entrepreneur who needs equity FAST, it's time to tap into equity crowdfunding to raised capital for your startup venture.  Whether you are launching your own campaign, or just want to know more about equity crowdfunding, host Salvador Briggman will show you how to empower your company with financial backers who want to see your business succeed.  Everyone has heard of WeFunder, right? It is the largest equity crowdfunding platform on the market…but is it the best choice for you? Delve into this episode of Crowdfunding Demystified to explore the lesser-known equity platforms, such as: StartEngine, which is the second largest equity crowdfunding platform SeedInvest with their large investment minimums Microventures to further fund your established business …and more! Don't make the leap into equity crowdfunding on your own. Let Sal guide you towards the perfect platform to start your campaign on a solid foundation. Resources and Tools Mentioned on the Show Book a coaching call Subscribe for Weekly Crowdfunding Tips Fulfillrite: Kickstarter and crowdfunding reward fulfillment services. They come highly recommended! Download their free shipping and fulfillment checklist. Free Equity Crowdfunding Course Equity Crowdfunding Explained

Are you ready to dive into a thought-provoking discussion? In today's episode of the Charles Kelly Money Tips Podcast, we're delving deep into a topic that affects us all: "The Banks Own The World." Strap in as we uncover the layers behind this statement and explore its implications on our financial landscape.   In an era where financial institutions wield immense power, understanding the dynamics at play is crucial. From mortgages to investments, the influence of banks permeates every aspect of our economic lives. But what does it truly mean for the banks to "own" the world?   First and foremost, it's essential to recognize the sheer scale of the banking industry's reach. With assets totalling in the trillions, major banks possess unparalleled control over global capital flows. Through intricate financial mechanisms, they shape economies, dictate interest rates, and influence government policies.   Moreover, the notion of ownership extends beyond mere monetary control. Banks hold sway over individuals and businesses alike, determining access to credit, loans, and financial services. This concentration of power raises questions about economic equality and the distribution of wealth. By gaining insights into how the banking system operates, individuals can navigate financial landscapes more effectively. From optimizing savings to making informed investment decisions, knowledge becomes a tool for reclaiming financial autonomy.   In the midst of recognizing the extensive influence of banks, it's crucial to explore alternative avenues for raising capital and conducting business without solely relying on traditional banking institutions. One effective strategy is to leverage the power of crowdfunding platforms. Whether through rewards-based crowdfunding on platforms like Kickstarter or equity crowdfunding on sites such as SeedInvest, entrepreneurs can access capital directly from a broad base of supporters, bypassing the need for traditional bank loans. Additionally, exploring peer-to-peer lending networks provides another avenue for securing financing.   Platforms like LendingClub and Prosper facilitate direct lending between individuals, offering competitive interest rates and flexible terms. Fostering strategic partnerships and seeking venture capital investment can fuel business growth without resorting to bank loans. By diversifying funding sources and tapping into innovative financing models, entrepreneurs can chart a path towards success while reducing dependency on traditional banking institutions.   Tune in to the Charles Kelly Money Tips Podcast on Spotify, iTunes and YouTube and unravel the mysteries behind the assertion that "The Banks Own The World." Together, let's embark on a journey towards financial enlightenment and empowerment. Because when we understand the system, we hold the keys to our financial destiny.   Ever wonder why you never seem to have enough money? We are living in challenging economic times. I want to show you how can you: ·        Not only survive, but thrive in a recession or depression? ·        Get control of your finances and spending? ·        Save and invest for your future? ·        Learn about money and finance? To help you, I am running a free training webinar.  3 Steps To Success Money Management! I want to take you to the next level, help you get control of your money, learn how to invest and become financially free. Join me online on my free live money management training Wednesday at 7.00PM. Places are limited, so register now below to avoid disappointment. https://bit.ly/3QPp8IH #finance #moneytraining #moneymanagement #wealth #money #marketing #sales #debt #leverage #property #investment    

Are you ready to dive into a thought-provoking discussion? In today's episode of the Charles Kelly Money Tips Podcast, we're delving deep into a topic that affects us all: "The Banks Own The World." Strap in as we uncover the layers behind this statement and explore its implications on our financial landscape.   In an era where financial institutions wield immense power, understanding the dynamics at play is crucial. From mortgages to investments, the influence of banks permeates every aspect of our economic lives. But what does it truly mean for the banks to "own" the world?   First and foremost, it's essential to recognize the sheer scale of the banking industry's reach. With assets totalling in the trillions, major banks possess unparalleled control over global capital flows. Through intricate financial mechanisms, they shape economies, dictate interest rates, and influence government policies.   Moreover, the notion of ownership extends beyond mere monetary control. Banks hold sway over individuals and businesses alike, determining access to credit, loans, and financial services. This concentration of power raises questions about economic equality and the distribution of wealth. By gaining insights into how the banking system operates, individuals can navigate financial landscapes more effectively. From optimizing savings to making informed investment decisions, knowledge becomes a tool for reclaiming financial autonomy.   In the midst of recognizing the extensive influence of banks, it's crucial to explore alternative avenues for raising capital and conducting business without solely relying on traditional banking institutions. One effective strategy is to leverage the power of crowdfunding platforms. Whether through rewards-based crowdfunding on platforms like Kickstarter or equity crowdfunding on sites such as SeedInvest, entrepreneurs can access capital directly from a broad base of supporters, bypassing the need for traditional bank loans. Additionally, exploring peer-to-peer lending networks provides another avenue for securing financing.   Platforms like LendingClub and Prosper facilitate direct lending between individuals, offering competitive interest rates and flexible terms. Fostering strategic partnerships and seeking venture capital investment can fuel business growth without resorting to bank loans. By diversifying funding sources and tapping into innovative financing models, entrepreneurs can chart a path towards success while reducing dependency on traditional banking institutions.   Tune in to the Charles Kelly Money Tips Podcast on Spotify, iTunes and YouTube and unravel the mysteries behind the assertion that "The Banks Own The World." Together, let's embark on a journey towards financial enlightenment and empowerment. Because when we understand the system, we hold the keys to our financial destiny.   Ever wonder why you never seem to have enough money? We are living in challenging economic times. I want to show you how can you: ·        Not only survive, but thrive in a recession or depression? ·        Get control of your finances and spending? ·        Save and invest for your future? ·        Learn about money and finance? To help you, I am running a ⁠free training webinar⁠.  3 Steps To Success Money Management! I want to take you to the next level, help you get control of your money, learn how to invest and become financially free. Join me online on my free live money management training Wednesday at 7.00PM. Places are limited, so ⁠register now⁠ below to avoid disappointment. ⁠https://bit.ly/3QPp8IH⁠ #finance #moneytraining #moneymanagement #wealth #money #marketing #sales #debt #leverage #property #investment    

Eric Langan is the President, CEO, & Chairman of RCI Hospitality Holdings. They are a publicly traded company that owns bars, restaurants, nightclubs, and strip clubs. In this conversation, we talk about how this business works, revenue streams, margin, tech products, M&A, the streak of 31 consecutive quarterly cash dividends, private jet, and what they think about the rise of loneliness in young males in America.   ======================= Sign up for a StartEngine account today using the link below and explore live investment opportunities where you can start investing with as little as $100:⁠⁠⁠⁠https://invest.startengine.com/?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=anthonypomp&utm_campaign=startengine-own⁠⁠⁠⁠ The information provided in this marketing material is for illustrative purposes only and should not be considered as financial advice. Past performance, including the success of certain individuals, is not indicative of future results. Investing in any market, including startups, involves risks, and there is no guarantee that similar opportunities will yield comparable returns.Number of Users is determined by counting user profiles with unique email addresses which are active and have been confirmed*Includes $760M in funds raised as of May 9, 2023 via Reg. CF and Reg. A+ combined through StartEngine's funding portal and broker dealer, StartEngine Capital, LLC and StartEngine Primary, LLC respectively, as well as StartEngine's own raises. Also includes $470M in funds raised previously through offerings conducted on http://www.seedinvest.com outside of the StartEngine platform. In May 2023, StartEngine acquired assets of SeedInvest, including email lists for SeedInvest's users, investors and founders seeking to raise funds. ======================= Get Better Crypto Data: Do you want faster, easier crypto data? Sign up for Velo Data, a new product that we have been working on to solve this problem: ⁠⁠⁠velowaitlist.com⁠⁠⁠ ======================= Pomp writes a daily letter to over 250,000+ investors about business, technology, and finance. He breaks down complex topics into easy-to-understand language while sharing opinions on various aspects of each industry. You can subscribe at https://pomp.substack.com/

Carson Block is the founder of Muddy Waters Research. In this conversation we talk about the short selling environment, ESG grift, AI stocks, US & China relations, and what exactly is happening with tech companies with sky high valuations in private market & have come out in the public market. ======================= Backed by world-class investors, including Google's AI Fund, Range has redesigned wealth management from the ground up. Range delivers a tech-first experience that provides fast, high-quality, transparent wealth management services making it simple to optimize and grow your wealth.With Range, you get comprehensive services like tax optimization, investment management, and estate planning with no hidden fees. That means no AUM fees.Get started today with code POMP15 for 15% off any quarterly plan for your first year at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠range.com/pomp⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ======================= Sign up for a StartEngine account today using the link below and explore live investment opportunities where you can start investing with as little as $100:⁠⁠⁠https://invest.startengine.com/?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=anthonypomp&utm_campaign=startengine-own⁠⁠⁠ The information provided in this marketing material is for illustrative purposes only and should not be considered as financial advice. Past performance, including the success of certain individuals, is not indicative of future results. Investing in any market, including startups, involves risks, and there is no guarantee that similar opportunities will yield comparable returns.Number of Users is determined by counting user profiles with unique email addresses which are active and have been confirmed*Includes $760M in funds raised as of May 9, 2023 via Reg. CF and Reg. A+ combined through StartEngine's funding portal and broker dealer, StartEngine Capital, LLC and StartEngine Primary, LLC respectively, as well as StartEngine's own raises. Also includes $470M in funds raised previously through offerings conducted on http://www.seedinvest.com outside of the StartEngine platform. In May 2023, StartEngine acquired assets of SeedInvest, including email lists for SeedInvest's users, investors and founders seeking to raise funds. ======================= Pomp writes a daily letter to over 250,000+ investors about business, technology, and finance. He breaks down complex topics into easy-to-understand language while sharing opinions on various aspects of each industry. You can subscribe at https://pomp.substack.com/

Darius Dale is the founder & CEO of 42Macro. In this conversation we talk about global liquidity, what drives it - both in private & public sector, and how to understand its future impact on asset prices. ======================= Sign up for a StartEngine account today using the link below and explore live investment opportunities where you can start investing with as little as $100:⁠https://invest.startengine.com/?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=anthonypomp&utm_campaign=startengine-own⁠ The information provided in this marketing material is for illustrative purposes only and should not be considered as financial advice. Past performance, including the success of certain individuals, is not indicative of future results. Investing in any market, including startups, involves risks, and there is no guarantee that similar opportunities will yield comparable returns.Number of Users is determined by counting user profiles with unique email addresses which are active and have been confirmed*Includes $760M in funds raised as of May 9, 2023 via Reg. CF and Reg. A+ combined through StartEngine's funding portal and broker dealer, StartEngine Capital, LLC and StartEngine Primary, LLC respectively, as well as StartEngine's own raises. Also includes $470M in funds raised previously through offerings conducted on http://www.seedinvest.com outside of the StartEngine platform. In May 2023, StartEngine acquired assets of SeedInvest, including email lists for SeedInvest's users, investors and founders seeking to raise funds. ======================= Get Better Crypto Data: Do you want faster, easier crypto data? Sign up for Velo Data, a new product that we have been working on to solve this problem: ⁠⁠velowaitlist.com⁠⁠ ======================= Pomp writes a daily letter to over 250,000+ investors about business, technology, and finance. He breaks down complex topics into easy-to-understand language while sharing opinions on various aspects of each industry. You can subscribe at https://pomp.substack.com/  

Anthony Pompliano breaks down billionaire David Rubenstein's thoughts on bitcoin, BlackRock, and why he believes bitcoin is not going away.   ======================= Sign up for a StartEngine account today using the link below and explore live investment opportunities where you can start investing with as little as $100:https://invest.startengine.com/?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=anthonypomp&utm_campaign=startengine-own The information provided in this marketing material is for illustrative purposes only and should not be considered as financial advice. Past performance, including the success of certain individuals, is not indicative of future results. Investing in any market, including startups, involves risks, and there is no guarantee that similar opportunities will yield comparable returns.Number of Users is determined by counting user profiles with unique email addresses which are active and have been confirmed*Includes $760M in funds raised as of May 9, 2023 via Reg. CF and Reg. A+ combined through StartEngine's funding portal and broker dealer, StartEngine Capital, LLC and StartEngine Primary, LLC respectively, as well as StartEngine's own raises. Also includes $470M in funds raised previously through offerings conducted on http://www.seedinvest.com outside of the StartEngine platform. In May 2023, StartEngine acquired assets of SeedInvest, including email lists for SeedInvest's users, investors and founders seeking to raise funds. ======================= Get Better Crypto Data: Do you want faster, easier crypto data? Sign up for Velo Data, a new product that we have been working on to solve this problem: ⁠velowaitlist.com⁠ ======================= Pomp writes a daily letter to over 250,000+ investors about business, technology, and finance. He breaks down complex topics into easy-to-understand language while sharing opinions on various aspects of each industry. You can subscribe at https://pomp.substack.com/  

Darius Dale is the founder & CEO of 42Macro. In this conversation, we talk about consumer spending, durable goods, whether the economy is heading to a recession, what the Fed possibly could end up doing, and what it means for the US economy to be resilient. =======================Sign up for a StartEngine account today using the link below and explore live investment opportunities where you can start investing with as little as $100:https://invest.startengine.com/?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=anthonypomp&utm_campaign=startengine-own The information provided in this marketing material is for illustrative purposes only and should not be considered as financial advice. Past performance, including the success of certain individuals, is not indicative of future results. Investing in any market, including startups, involves risks, and there is no guarantee that similar opportunities will yield comparable returns.Number of Users is determined by counting user profiles with unique email addresses which are active and have been confirmed*Includes $760M in funds raised as of May 9, 2023 via Reg. CF and Reg. A+ combined through StartEngine's funding portal and broker dealer, StartEngine Capital, LLC and StartEngine Primary, LLC respectively, as well as StartEngine's own raises. Also includes $470M in funds raised previously through offerings conducted on http://www.seedinvest.com outside of the StartEngine platform. In May 2023, StartEngine acquired assets of SeedInvest, including email lists for SeedInvest's users, investors and founders seeking to raise funds. ======================= Pomp writes a daily letter to over 250,000+ investors about business, technology, and finance. He breaks down complex topics into easy-to-understand language while sharing opinions on various aspects of each industry. You can subscribe at https://pomp.substack.com/

The search for business financing can be frustrating. Banks don't want to lend to you because they say your company is too risky. Venture capitalists say you're not fundable. And angel investors? Well, they can be hard to find. Is crowdfunding the answer? Kickstarter and Indiegogo can work well—especially if you can offer great rewards and you're excellent at online marketing. But there's another way to raise money from the crowd. It's called equity crowdfunding. Now you can sell shares of your business to just about anyone. And no, it's not just for tech companies. What is equity crowdfunding? Equity crowdfunding—also known as crowd-investing or investment crowdfunding—lets startups and private businesses raise capital from the public (i.e., the “crowd”). Basically, it allows everyday people to invest in your business and in exchange, you offer them equity in your business (think Shark Tank and Dragon's Den). Each investor is entitled to a stake in your company proportional to their investment. And these days, anyone can be an investor. This type of fundraising has always existed, but until recently, you could only sell your business shares to accredited investors—relatively wealthy individuals who met specific net worth and income criteria. Now, your cousin, your neighbor, or almost any public member can buy shares as a non-accredited investor, provided you set your business up properly (more on that later). Equity crowdfunding vs. crowdfunding Crowdfunding refers to raising money from the public, primarily through online forums, social media, and crowdfunding websites like Kickstarter to finance a new project or venture. In return, these people might get a reward, like a copy of what's being produced, for example, or nothing at all. Project creators on Kickstarter and similar platforms maintain 100% ownership of their work and business. With equity crowdfunding, the crowd can fund your business or project. In exchange for relatively small amounts of cash, public investors get a proportionate slice of equity in your business venture. How does equity crowdfunding work? Navigating the equity crowdfunding landscape can be pretty confusing. Typically, securities and those who offer securities to the public must be registered and subject to regulation. Securities regulation protects investors by ensuring that investors obtain the information they need to make an informed decision, and that issuers are held accountable for any misrepresentations or fraud. But equity crowdfunding is considered an exception. In recent years, regulatory bodies have allowed registered platforms to act as an intermediary between crowdfunding issuers and your investors. But that means you can only raise financing this way by signing up for a registered equity crowdfunding platform in your country or region. There are plenty of equity crowdfunding sites out there right now, but you should do your research to find the right one for your business. In general, FrontFundr is one of the best Canadian portals for equity crowdfunding and in the USA, SeedInvest and Indiegogo are the better options. And depending on your campaign and how many investors you're looking for, it may even be an option to use more than one platform. While the structure of your offer, including the equity percentage and the type of securities you will sell, is a bit complicated and best done with the help of your lawyer, the process of creating a campaign is fairly straightforward. Here's a general overview of how the process works in the U.S. and in Canada: Sign up for a registered equity crowdfunding platform. Set up an offer on a registered equity crowdfunding platform and raise funding in exchange for real, legal shares in your company. Make your pitch. Once accepted by your platform, you have to prepare your crowdfunding pitch. This is the most time-consuming part of the process and may involve frequent iterations to keep interested going. You'll also have to determine your pitc...

Jeremy Neilson is the Co-Founder and CEO of Assure. Assure is a fintech fund administration company that provides the most complete back-office services in the market for fund managers, equity crowdfunding platforms, angel groups and other private-transaction investors. Jeremy has provided support and leadership for some of the most innovative and dynamic industry initiatives in the U.S.--including launching and managing the State of Utah's $300 million Fund of Funds program, providing due diligence and advisory services for the U.S. Small Business Administration's $1-billion early-stage venture capital initiative, and created the LLC syndicate (SPV) administration service used by AngelList, SeedInvest, EquityZen and more.

For decades, startup capital was almost exclusively raised through venture capital firms, relying on a handful of institutions and high-net-worth individuals to drive innovation and bring disruptive new businesses to the market. In 2012, the passing of the JOBS Act enabled millions of retail investors to finally access startup investment opportunities, giving them a shot at significant returns and giving founders an entirely new way to fund and grow their big ideas. In this episode of The Money Movement, Jeremy is joined by Cary Breese, CEO & Co-Founder at NowRx along with SeedInvest Co-founder and CEO Ryan Feit. *Important Disclaimers This presentation should not be viewed as a current or past recommendation or a solicitation of an offer to buy or sell any securities or to adopt any investment strategy. Past performance is no guarantee of future results, and there can be no assurance that an investment strategy will be successful or that the historical performance of an investment, portfolio or asset class will have a direct correlation with its future performance. SeedInvest's due diligence process is no guarantee of success or future results. All investors should carefully review each investment opportunity and cancel their subscription within the allotted time-frame if they do not feel comfortable making any specific investment based on their own DD. Learn more about due diligence on the SeedInvest Blog and our vetting process in our FAQs. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. In addition, SeedInvest's due diligence process is no guarantee of success or future results. All investors should carefully review each investment opportunity and cancel their subscription within the allotted time-frame if they do not feel comfortable making any specific investment based on their own DD. Learn more about due diligence on the SeedInvest Blog and our vetting process in our FAQs. All securities-related activity is conducted by SI Securities, LLC dba SeedInvest, an affiliate of Circle Internet Financial, and a registered broker-dealer, and member FINRA/SIPC. NowRx is offering securities through the use of an Offering Statement that has been qualified by the Securities and Exchange Commission under Tier II of Regulation A. A copy of the Final Offering Circular that forms a part of the Offering Statement may be obtained from: NowRx: https://www.seedinvest.com/nowrx ** Jeremy is an early-stage investor in NowRx They cover:

For decades, startup capital was almost exclusively raised through venture capital firms, relying on a handful of institutions and high-net-worth individuals to drive innovation and bring disruptive new businesses to the market. In 2012, the passing of the JOBS Act enabled millions of retail investors to finally access startup investment opportunities, giving them a shot at significant returns and giving founders an entirely new way to fund and grow their big ideas. In this episode of The Money Movement, Jeremy is joined by Cary Breese, CEO & Co-Founder at NowRx along with SeedInvest Co-founder and CEO Ryan Feit. *Important Disclaimers This presentation should not be viewed as a current or past recommendation or a solicitation of an offer to buy or sell any securities or to adopt any investment strategy. Past performance is no guarantee of future results, and there can be no assurance that an investment strategy will be successful or that the historical performance of an investment, portfolio or asset class will have a direct correlation with its future performance. SeedInvest's due diligence process is no guarantee of success or future results. All investors should carefully review each investment opportunity and cancel their subscription within the allotted time frame if they do not feel comfortable making any specific investment based on their own DD. Learn more about due diligence on the SeedInvest Blog and our vetting process in our FAQs. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. In addition, SeedInvest's due diligence process is no guarantee of success or future results. All investors should carefully review each investment opportunity and cancel their subscription within the allotted time frame if they do not feel comfortable making any specific investment based on their own DD. Learn more about due diligence on the SeedInvest Blog and our vetting process in our FAQs. All securities-related activity is conducted by SI Securities, LLC dba SeedInvest, an affiliate of Circle Internet Financial, and a registered broker-dealer, and a member of FINRA/SIPC. NowRx is offering securities through the use of an Offering Statement that has been qualified by the Securities and Exchange Commission under Tier II of Regulation A. A copy of the Final Offering Circular that forms a part of the Offering Statement may be obtained from: NowRx: https://www.seedinvest.com/nowrx ** Jeremy is an early-stage investor in NowRx

Today I'm joined by Rachel Charlesworth. Rachel is the Director of Marketing at SeedInvest. In this episode, we talk about how to message differentiation in the VC space; how to tell success stories when the story can be seven or eight years long, and what role trust and credibility play in product marketing.

Ryan Feit is the CEO and Co-Founder of SeedInvest, a leading equity crowdfunding platform that provides individual investors with access to vetted startup investment opportunities. To date they have over 600,000 investors on their platform, through which founders have raised over $350M. SeedInvest sold to Circle in 2019. Prior to founding SeedInvest, Ryan worked at Wellspring Capital Management and Lehman Brothers in New York City where he invested in, financed, and managed dozens of private and public businesses. Ryan was instrumental in the passage of the 2012 JOBS Act, which changed 80-year-old U.S. securities laws to make it possible for entrepreneurs to raise capital over the Internet. Since then, Ryan has served as a focal point of the budding Equity Crowdfunding industry, co-founding the Crowdfunding Professional Association and serving as a board member of the Crowdfund Intermediary Regulatory Advocates. He also worked closely with members of the SEC, FINRA, the White House, and the Treasury Department on the implementation of the JOBS Act. In addition, he frequently serves as a subject matter expert on startup investing and the JOBS Act for the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, CNBC, FoxBusiness, the Economist and the New York Times as well as a columnist for Fortune Magazine and Inc. Magazine. Ryan received an MBA in Entrepreneurial Management from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and a BBA in Finance and Accounting from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Topics Covered by Ryan Feit in this Episode SeedInvest in a nutshell How Ryan got into the digitization and democratization of investing Getting the Entrepreneur Access to Capital Act approved The challenges of building a two-sided marketplace Getting SeedInvest off the ground and why they started with onboarding investors How they scaled the platform Shifting from onboarding investors to focusing on onboarding great companies Risk mitigation and how they vet companies for SeedInvest Their semi-automated diligence process Following up with and supporting companies who don't qualify for the platform Tracking investors Supercharging their business with more resources by selling to Circle Their decision-making process and Ryan's advice around acquisition SeedInvest's big ambitions and Ryan's thoughts on the future of investing Listen to all episodes of the Just Go Grind Podcast: https://www.justgogrind.com Follow Justin Gordon on Twitter: https://twitter.com/justingordon212

How much money do I need to raise?  This is one of the biggest and most common questions entrepreneurs ask whenever they start a business.  But unfortunately, it's also one of the most misunderstood aspects of entrepreneurship. Ryan Feit, CEO, and co-founder of SeedInvest, says that entrepreneurs often get caught up in the glamor and prestige of raising a massive amount of money when they really need to focus on profitability and growth. There isn't a set amount of money entrepreneurs need to raise to succeed. Ryan says the amount depends on the type of company you're trying to build and how fast you aim to grow. Listen in as we discuss: -How raising money changed over the years -Is it advisable to raise money while giving away equity? - Best practices on self-funding or bootstrapping a business -How to raise capital  -Key characteristics to look for as an investor -Investment trends to watch out for 2022 Listen here or visit byobpodcast.com to get the show notes and watch the video interview.  Don't forget to leave us a review if you like the show.  We frequently get asked things like: What do we use for courses and email marketing? What platform do we use to find people to join our team? What tools do we use for project and task management? Where do we host and publish podcasts and how do we transcribe them? And More.  Well, we just put together the Entrepreneurs' Online Business Toolkit PDF which will give you a complete breakdown of the tools we use to run our 7-figure businesses and how we use them. Click here to grab a copy, it will be an invaluable resource in your entrepreneurial journey! Connect with us: Website: https://www.byobpodcast.com/  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/byobpodcasting  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thebyobpodcast  Twitter: https://twitter.com/thebyobpodcast  Newsletter: http://www.byobpodcast.com/newsletter 

The Sunday Times' tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Ryan Feit, co-founder of SeedInvest, to talk about creating the Robinhood for private startups (3:45), working at Lehman Brothers before the recession (6:45), scratching the entrepreneurial itch (12:45), business school (16:30), the idea for SeedInvest (18:30), getting a law passed in Congress (20:20), making the regulator's job harder (28:45), pondering giving up (31:45), finally getting regulations passed (34:20), the average SeedInvest investor (37:50), what's in it for founders (42:10), and frothy markets (46:40). See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The pandemic presented the perfect opportunity for introspection; unemployment spiked as physical workplaces shut down. Some turned to other means of pursuing income while adjusting to this sudden change, and many turned to self-employment, entrepreneurship and investing. This shift has led to a rise in interest and exposure to alternative assets. But with all the buzz, FOMO and risk-taking, especially on the part of younger generations, are necessary investment precautions being taken or are people running into the markets blindly? How should these activities be regulated? These questions need to be answered today.   In this Startup Edition of The Money Movement, Jeremy and Ryan are joined by Jason Calacanis, Entrepreneur, Angel Investor & Author.   They cover:  

If you are interested in investing, specifically in early stage investment funds, you will love this conversation with Leslie Goldman, Co-Founder of The Artemis Fund. Leslie shares how her 20 year legal career as General Counsel led her down a path  to board advising, investing and then to finding two co-founders who were the perfect partners for Artemis. The Artemis Fund's vision is to invest in companies  democratizing access to wealth, encouraging sustainability, and reducing friction in the care economy. We discuss how Leslie and her partners raised their first fund,”one check at a time”. Leslie predicts between her partners and their networks they probably had 1000 meetings and talked to any accredited investors who were willing to listen. Leslie shares how her partners decide on investments, their diligence process  and Leslie tells us about a few of their exciting current investments, including unest, Dressx and Hop Skip Drive. Leslie shares the biggest challenges in managing an investment fund and how her responsibilities are growing as their portfolio companies grow. If you listen to this episode and start to dream about working for an investment fund, Leslie shares how she learned about the space and how she started her first investments. For those considering angel investing, Leslie suggests tiny bets with sites like Seedinvest and to be aware,  “If you are going to start investing in this asset class - first of all you need to have money you can lose.” Leslie suggests you learn how to do diligence and analyze companies, and then you can start making bigger bets or invest in a fund. This is a fascinating conversation with a woman who is so clearly meant for her career path, her role and the impact she is making for female founders and the world. The Artemis Fund If you enjoyed this episode please follow this link to our IG page @meantforit and say hello! You can also reach out to contact@meantforit.com      

Last year, in the height of the pandemic, we decided to launch The Money Movement. Nearly forty episodes and thousands of views/downloads later, we've covered an incredible range of topics with guests like Larry Summers, Balaji Srinivasan and others from top crypto organizations like Dapper Labs, Aave and FTX. And now… we're expanding. Expanding in two different ways… First, we are being joined by two, new co hosts: Dante Disparte, Chief Strategy Officer and Head of Global Policy here at Circle and Ryan Feit, CEO of SeedInvest, a Circle company. And second, we're going to be sharing a weekly newsletter to further delve into the world of crypto, startups and how to build things in the new internet based financial system. In this short episode, Jeremy reflects on what The Money Movement has achieved so far and what will be changing going forward.

Last year, in the height of the pandemic, we decided to launch The Money Movement. Nearly forty episodes and thousands of views/downloads later, we've covered an incredible range of topics with guests like Larry Summers, Balaji Srinivasan and others from top crypto organizations like Dapper Labs, Aave and FTX. And now… we're expanding. Expanding in two different ways… First, we are being joined by two, new co hosts: Dante Disparte, Chief Strategy Officer and Head of Global Policy here at Circle and Ryan Feit, CEO of SeedInvest, a Circle company. And second, we're going to be sharing a weekly newsletter to further delve into the world of crypto, startups and how to build things in the new internet based financial system. In this short episode, Jeremy reflects on what The Money Movement has achieved so far and what will be changing going forward.   Subscribe here:

Evan is focused on growth-stage investing at SeedInvest. He is always looking to partner with motivated founders and high-growth companies in the following sectors: Healthtech ∙ Robotics ∙ SaaS ∙ Virtual Reality / Gaming ∙ Agtech ∙ Consumer ∙ Proptech ∙ Cleantech ∙ Fintech Music credits: Clouds by MBB | https://soundcloud.com/mbbofficial, Music promoted by https://www.free-stock-music.com, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en_US IMPORTANT NOTICE: This web series and podcast is intended for informational purposes only. The views expressed are not, and should not be construed as investment advice or recommendations. Recipients of this should do their own due diligence, taking into account their specific financial circumstances, investment objectives, and risk tolerance (which are not considered in this web series and podcast) before investing. None of this information communication is an offer, nor the solicitation of an offer, to buy or sell any of the assets mentioned herein. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/joelpalathinkal/support

There are very few industries that are growing as fast as the cannabis industry, which saw about $20 billion in sales in 2020, and that number is expected to double in the next five years. With that much potential profit and opportunity available, getting into the cannabis game is something that a lot of folks are starting to jump into. But as with any other industry, there is more to it than just the product itself. Manufacturing, distribution, expansion and regulation all play a role.Liz Wald has experience in all of these areas, and she is putting them to use as the Chief Strategy and Digital Officer for Good Earth Organics. Liz has a long and impressive history in the digital world, having gotten her start at places like AOL, Etsy, and Indiegogo. On this episode of Up Next in Commerce, she guides us through all of it, including the trials and tribulations of turning an ecommerce marketplace such as Etsy into an international player and what other companies can learn from that journey. Plus, she talks about building partnerships, expanding into new markets, and how all of that will happen in the cannabis space. Enjoy this episode.Main Takeaways:International Interests: Companies, especially ecommerce companies, can sometimes think they are ready for international expansion before they actually are. In order to not get in over their heads, companies or marketplaces that want to expand internationally should start with countries similar to the one they already operate in — they speak the same language, use similar payment methods, and have common standards and practices. Once expansion there is successful, they can continue to seek other opportunities abroad.Partner Up: Sometimes the best way to reach potential customers in a new market is to partner with companies that already have those customers' business. In the case of Good Organics, reaching new customers in Oklahoma or New York means forging partnerships with distributors of other goods and services that target customers need, and bringing the conversation into that space rather than trying to reach them elsewhere.Work Smarter, Not Harder: There is nothing wrong with riding the coattails of a big industry boom. If you can position yourself as ancillary or as an offshoot to the main product or goods that people are rushing to purchase, then you have just as good of an opportunity to be successful, and you don't have to compete with the big guys who are dominating the game in the main space.For an in-depth look at this episode, check out the full transcript below. Quotes have been edited for clarity and length.---Up Next in Commerce is brought to you by Salesforce Commerce Cloud. Respond quickly to changing customer needs with flexible Ecommerce connected to marketing, sales, and service. Deliver intelligent commerce experiences your customers can trust, across every channel. Together, we're ready for what's next in commerce. Learn more at salesforce.com/commerce---Transcript:Stephanie:Welcome back to Up Next in Commerce. This is your host, Stephanie Postles CEO at mission.org. Today we have Liz Wald joining the show, who currently serves as the chief strategy and digital officer at Good Earth Organics. Liz, welcome.Liz:Thanks so much, Stephanie. Great to be here.Stephanie:Same. Yeah. I wish this was in video format so people could see your background, but for anyone who can't see it, describe it a bit because I think it will be a good segue way and intro into this show.Liz:Absolutely. Well, my background is an amazing cannabis plant. It is fully crystallized and ready for harvest, full of amazing terpenes and somebody is going to really enjoy consuming it.Stephanie:Yeah. When I was going through and looking at where you've worked previously, it was really cool to see where your journey has led you through places Etsy and Indiegogo, and now to the cannabis industry. And I wanted to hear a bit about your background and how you got to where you are now.Liz:Sure. Well, I went to business school at Kellogg at Northwestern and I graduated in 1995. And a lot of people were going to banking and consulting and whatnot. And I looked around and I was like, "This whole internet thing. It seems it's going to be big. People are going to be shopping and doing things like that." And so, I was also not really interested in going to a big corporate. So, I found my way to a small group of people doing consulting to a little company called AOL back when you [crosstalk] mail was a thing. We were getting thick magazines with CD ROMs in them and you had a dial up internet connection. So, some of your listeners might have been too young to even know what all that is.Liz:But, basically that was the beginning of when people were really thinking about whether e-commerce was going to be a legit thing. And at that time, people were like, "You'll never buy clothes. That's crazy. You'll only buy books or CDs," back in the day. So, I got into the industry, through that initial work with AOL. And then, from there, I did a lot of different things. One of which was built my own business working with women all over Africa bringing fair trade products to the US and then reselling those products. And I'd like to say it was about 15 years too early, a little ahead of the curve on a sort of fair trade sustainable businesses, but I learned a ton about what it's like for makers and importing and exporting and just the whole life cycle of getting a product made. And then from point A to point B.Stephanie:I think we still need that. I mean, I think we can just come back and do that still.Liz:Exactly. That experience between my experience at working with AOL and then, my experience working with these makers set me up really well when I saw this opportunity to join Etsy. And it was back then, there was only about 50 people working at Etsy. It was really small. They were doing under a hundred million dollars of what's called gross merchandise value sort of stuff sold on the platform. And they really wanted to go global. And I was like, "Well, I'm your girl. I live in New York. I've had experience doing global and I've got some experience with e-commerce." And so, that's how my journey got me to that space. And then, from there when new things popped up like crowdfunding, I got on that boat and then cannabis.Stephanie:That's amazing. So, I would love to maybe touch on Etsy for a bit and hear about, what that looked going global. Like, what was it when you entered Etsy and where did you take it to? Just some of the details around that, that seemed super fascinating.Liz:Yeah, sure. So, the thing that's interesting about the internet is you can look at your stats and almost immediately you're like, "We're global. We've got people coming from all over the place." So, it's very tempting early on to say, like, "We're ready to go international." And I think a lot of the learning is that because the internet is so global, it makes companies, I think jump early, perhaps even earlier than they should. But I didn't know that then. Etsy didn't know that then. It was very early days of all of this. So, when I came in, I was like, "All right. Well, we've got all these sellers who are living in other places," but most of the buyers at that time were still in the US. So, it's global, but it's a little bit different because you're not having a full marketplace outside the US and a lot of the buyers don't even know that that product was made in France or the UK or Japan or whatever. They just see a cool product and they want to buy it.Liz:But we wanted to try to develop those outside markets and Etsy had a real first mover advantage in the US for like digitizing the craft fair, if you will. So, the first thing you really understand is the way business works in other countries, isn't necessarily the same as the US. And the first thing I did, everyone was like, "Hey, let's go to Guatemala, let's have sellers." And I was like, "No, no, no, we're going to Canada. We're going to Australia. And we're going to the UK because A, they speak English, B, they use credit cards, C, culturally, the expectations for quality control and everything else are the same.Liz:And then from there, we can start looking at other European countries where you've got language and other things that might be different, but similarly, expectations and whatnot." The other major challenge when you have a marketplace is payments. So, the way somebody typically pays for something in Germany, France, and the UK are entirely different. And this was way before we had all these amazing payment companies that existed. 10, 15 years ago, we didn't have those kinds of tools. So, back then, you know, Germans use very little credit. They use effectively a debit card. It comes straight out of their bank, but they do that differently than we do it. They don't actually, do it the same way. The French at that time were still writing checks. I mean, they weren't using credit either. And then in the UK, they were using credit sort of the way we normally think of it and the systems were different. So, Carte Bleue was the French credit card. We didn't have a way to process that in the US. So, those kinds of issues came up very early.Liz:Like, are we really going to invest in the payment platform, let alone the language and converting euros to dollars and all those different tax pieces and all that stuff. So, that stuff spirals up real quick. And I think when you're a small company, you've got to understand, like is it worth it for us to take part of our engineering and product development team and put it toward that problem today? Or are we really going to just allow sellers who are willing to jump through their own hoops to be on essentially a US platform and then cultivate that and come back to international later. So, those were some of the challenges we had to think through. And then that learning really helped me when I went to my next places.Stephanie:Yeah. I think that's such a good lesson just overall, because it can be so easy to see the shiny thing of like, "Of course, I want to like be in Vietnam and get all the products there and serve this tribe here and buy their goods." It's easy to want to jump on that instead of being like, "Wait, let's do the maybe more risk-free semi boring things or like do more of what we're already doing a good job at, and then expand afterwards and bring people to you if you can, while building up a stellar platform."Liz:Yeah, exactly. And I put together this thing in my mind, I called it best. B-E-S-T. And the B and the E were sort of at a macro level, is a country easy to do business in? Is there an entrepreneurial mindset? Is there access to credit? Like at a big business level. And then economically, is there strong GDP? Like, do people spend money? Is there access to regular services? If you're going into a very much a developing country and you're expecting regular shipments and all of that, and then power is going out every other week, that's a real problem.Liz:So, you have these two business and sort of economics pillars and then you have the other side, which is sort of the social and technical pillars. So, that's the S and the T. Like, socially, is it very trusted and common and high risk tolerance and a global mentality and a trust in the markets and people are just very fluid with shopping online and that kind of thing. And then finally, it's just the basics of like, do the payment systems integrate? Are the platforms open? Is there social media access? All those kinds of things. So, you really have to look at those big macro economic things, as well as the cultural things to figure out if you're going to the right places for your products and services.Stephanie:Yeah. I completely agree. So, the one thing I keep thinking about too, now that we're talking about payments and how to explore different countries, and I feel you've been ahead with seeing certain industries and I think being way ahead of your time and introducing things probably before it's even like has the technology there to be able to support it. But I keep thinking about crypto and right now we're still worrying about payments and there are a lot of payment companies, but it's still tricky of like converting things. And I think of this world where you don't even know what's happening behind the scenes. Like everyone's going to be transacting, it's all going to be a similar currency and all of that's going to go away when it comes to converting different currencies and what plugs into what, like, things will just work in the future and the underlying tech behind it, or whatever crypto is behind, it doesn't really matter to the average consumer, even if it's maybe smart, not just payments, but also smart contracts and stuff too. Like, same thing. Like it just works. What are your thoughts on that today?Liz:A hundred percent. I couldn't agree more. I mean, the analogy I to use is everyone watches TV, zero people know how a television works.Stephanie:Yeah. [crosstalk] in the early days, or they may have known how their computer works in the early days or storage and all that, but then it's like, you kind of take it for granted.Liz:Yeah. You just use it. And crypto I think is really interesting and I think more interesting is blockchain, the technology in general. The backbones of this. And it needs to be figured out so that you can... If you happen to have ether and you want to use it, it's as simple conversion that you don't really think about just the way you have your phone and you hold it up over a terminal and somehow magically your credit card pays for something. It needs to be at that level of simplicity so that people don't think about it. And I think that the key benefit of blockchain and crypto, setting aside, of course, the security and traceability, it's just removing costly friction. It makes me bananas that it takes three days to send a wire transfer and they charge me $25 on one end, $15 on the other end. And I'm like, "Guys, I sent that email in a millisecond, why can't I send my money? And why are you charging me $25?"Liz:And, you know, it has so much to do with the security of, "This one transaction, is it going from bank A to bank B?" With blockchain, all that goes away and you don't have to pay those crazy fees. You look at the developing world, the amount of money that goes to a Western union on transfers and payments, it's outrageous. [crosstalk]Stephanie:... very scared, I would think.Liz:Absolutely.Stephanie:Yeah. Like, they're definitely going to be gone in a couple of years. I used them. My aunt and uncle are in Germany and they're like, "Oh, we sent you money via Western union." And I was like, "What is that? What do I do with this?" And then they're like, "Yeah, I think you just go to a grocery store like Safeway." I'm like, "What?" And I saw the fee and it was a whole thing. I'm like, "Wow, how are you all still even around? Like, can you guys just send me a Bitcoin and I'll be good." So, how should companies be preparing for that? Because right now so many companies, I see them either investing in their own payment technologies, figuring out all the logistics for that, or investing in other people's technology of course, and onboarding with that. But to me, it all feels a little bit short-sighted if knowing that the world could be very different in just a couple years, and it's not going to be this much friction.Liz:I think most companies, I mean, Etsy was in a really unique situation in that it was a marketplace and very few payment options existed for marketplace. You basically had PayPal and eventually Amazon payments, which was domestic only for a long time. And so, Etsy made the decision to build a payments platform. I would not suggest for most companies, that is a route to go. Blockchain and crypto on top of that, I think Visa and MasterCard and companies that are trying to dethrone Visa and MasterCard use their rails, bring in crypto, be able to use their backbone, but not really pay all the Visa and MasterCard fees. I think those are the companies that are going to solve this problem. And most companies that are doing e-commerce, whether they're selling soil or t-shirts, or Elon and his cars like, ultimately they're going to have a third party that's figuring out the backend of that to make it easy for consumers.Liz:But those problems, I think just like dial up was a disaster and now, we're doing a live Zoom with streaming video, no problem. So, I think those problems will get solved. And especially for smaller companies, I would just let the process happen and then just integrate it when it's easy for consumers. And in the meantime, most people are going to use a credit card and be fine with it.Stephanie:Yeah. I love that. It's easy to forget how many technological problems have been solved and how many times people thought like, "Oh, we'll never be able to figure this out. Like, we'll never be able to figure out dial up. We'll never be able to figure out cars like horses are the way that we're going to be traveling." So, I feel like it's such a short term mindset right now. And people are like, "We won't be able to figure out the energy usage of mining Bitcoin," or whatever it may be. And it's like, "We figured out a lot of other things so I'm pretty bullish on America and people in general figuring it out."Liz:Well, it's so interesting you said cars and horses because I'm working in the cannabis industry and hemp, the cannabis plant is the same thing. Hemp and cannabis, it's all the same plant. Obviously, it's grown in different ways for different purposes. But back in like the twenties when Henry Ford was making a car, he made a car out of hemp. Like, it's as strong as steel. And here we are now a hundred years later figuring out that, "You know what? Hemp could be an amazing product that is a carbon sequester. It's super strong. It helps regenerate the soil. There's so many great things about it." So, sometimes we make innovation moving forward and sometimes we come absolutely full circle and now have the additional technologies to make it scalable or whatever it is. So, I just think it's a really interesting dichotomy.Stephanie:Yeah. Well, let's jump into Good Earth Organics. Tell me a bit about what it is and what drew you to this company.Liz:Yeah, sure. So, in a nutshell, we make soil. And so, I didn't know this and a lot of people probably don't realize that like when you go down to a store and you buy a bag of potting soil, there's no dirt in it. It doesn't come from someone's backyard. No one dug that up and put it in a bag.Stephanie:I actually always wondered where it came from.Liz:Yeah, where does it come from? Is there a giant place where we're taking all the dirt? So, soil is made from organic materials. It's made from compost and it's made from peat moss and it's made from perlite or pumice or other natural and organic elements that you mix together. In our case, Good Earth Organics, we do all natural 100% certified organic inputs.Liz:So, when you put a plant in the ground, it gets its food from what's ever in the soil. So, a lot of the earth soil today because of farming practices, pollution, just people stomping on the ground, all over the world, that soil doesn't have the nutrients that it used to have in it. It's compacted, it's got toxins in it. So, if you want to grow really super healthy plants, you've got to put it in really solid soil. And, of course, it needs air and water and sunshine, but the food comes from the ground. And so, we make premium organic soil that is optimized to grow cannabis. So, it will have the right combination of nitrogen and phosphorus and potassium and other bunch of microorganisms and whatnot that will feed this plant and have it grow in a natural, organic enriched way.Liz:And the company is based in an area in Southern Oregon. I like to call it sort of the Napa valley of Weed because it's called the Emerald Triangle and it's Southern Oregon and Northern California. And some of the best outdoor cannabis is grown in this part of the country because of the weather and the terroir and the rainfall and all the things that mix together. But even here, people need to use the soil, actual, not from the ground soil. Some of it, the terroir you can grow, but they add this living soil. It's got living organisms in it. And if you think about what you eat every day, if you eat super healthy, wonderful food, you feel great. You work out, you feel healthy. If you eat a ton of junk food, you don't necessarily feel so good.Liz:And it's the same for the plant. If they're pulling a bunch of toxins out of the ground, it doesn't grow as well, or look as beautiful as the photo behind me, which we'll try to share with the listeners. And then whatever's in that plant is what goes into you. So, if that plant pulls a bunch of toxins and heavy metals out of the ground and then you smoke it or vape it or consume it in a beverage or whatever it is, that's going into your body. So, for us, it's all about a super clean, healthy soil. It's really good for the plant. It's going to be also good for you as a person. And it helps regenerate that existing soil that's not in great shape now. So, it's a little bit of a long answer to your question, but that's what we do.Stephanie:I have so many questions now because this whole world... I mean, I have heard for a long time that the soil that we have today, it's not what it used to be and that we used to be like kids would be out playing in the dirt and they'd be getting good organisms from that. And like, they'd be getting exposed to things and just they're not today. And it makes me start to think about everything we eat now and everything we do, like, is there a certain regulations that make sure that if something says it's organic and that means it's growing in a type of soil and it's been tested for toxins, like, what does the landscape look right now not just for growing cannabis in good soil, but overall?Liz:So, there's a couple of different things. So, at one level, the FDA, the US food and drugs association is not regulating cannabis because cannabis is not federally legal. So, there are other groups. So, we've got two certifications on our soil, OMRI and Clean Green. And these two organizations really look at the inputs. What's going into that soil? Then each state, state by state by state, because again, cannabis is not federally legal, technically legally, you cannot cross a state line with cannabis. So, if you grow it in Oregon, you have to sell it in Oregon. And every state has its own level of testing and their own specific requirements. So, Oregon and California and Washington have very, very, very high requirements to ensure that there are no toxins, no heavy metals.Liz:So, if you're a grower and your entire crop is hinging on, "Did I pass this test?" You want to be pretty sure that the inputs in your plant are great, so you don't fail those tests. And other states, especially where you're growing indoors, most cannabis in the US, if you're growing it in these 36 legal states, most states don't have the environment of Oregon, Washington, California, so it's grown inside.Liz:And even in Oregon, a lot of it's grown inside except for this area of Southern Oregon. And so, they're growing their plants and soil, but they're feeding it hydroponically and whatnot. And they're very, very careful about what those nutrients are in order to pass those state tests. So, if you see, OMRI or CDFA, which is California's certification on inputs like if you're a home grower, you know, "Okay. Nothing going into my plant is going to be bad for me, it's all going to be natural and organic, which is great."Stephanie:Okay, cool. So, why with this amazing [inaudible] like cannabis? Like, why not start expanding into, like "Now we're doing produce, now we're doing... whatever it might be.Liz:It's a great question and the short answer is you could absolutely grow your tomatoes in this soil and it'll be amazing.Stephanie:The best tomato I've ever had.Liz:The best tomato ever. And most of our cannabis growers, some of them have huge farms. They also have amazing vegetable gardens. They grow all their own things because they're amazing growers. And if you go to goodearthorganics.com, there's a woman on there named Joy. And she came in with these radishes that are the size of softballs, and she grew them in our Gaia's Gift Soil. And she's like, "They're amazing. They're juicy. They're huge. They're incredible." So, people do use our soil for things other than cannabis, but cannabis is a massively growing industry. It was about $20 billion in sales this past year 2020. It's going to 40 billion.Liz:So, it's doubling in the next few years and cannabis on the east coast sells for $4,000, a wholesale pound. On the west coast, it might be a thousand dollars a pound. So, our soil, we're optimizing for people that are growing things for a $1,000 to $4,000, a pound. Even heirloom tomatoes don't cost that much, even at the most expensive organic grocery. So, it's just a huge market to go after. And because of our 12 years or 13 years of experience working with growers and really optimizing for cannabis, we want to take that heritage and experience and target it in an industry that's booming and that can absorb a higher cost soil.Liz:If you go down and buy a bag of our soil, it's not going to be the least expensive one on the shelf just like organic food or organic strawberries costs more than conventional ones. So, we want to be in this growing market and we also want to use all this experience that we have from this learning when we go into new markets. We've just entered Oklahoma and you have 6,000 growers there, and they're all pretty new to growing cannabis. And so, we can come in and say, "Well, we've got 12 years experience from Oregon, let us help you think through what might be the right products' soils, nutrients, whatnot, to grow your cannabis."Stephanie:Yeah. So, what does the partnership with the farmers look like?Liz:So, basically, bigger farmers, growers, cultivators, they come to us and they say, "Hey, this is our planting season. This is how much soil we need." Some of them ask us to create small changes based on things that they're doing. But for the most part, we've got these three core soils that we make. One of them is sort of a fully loaded, it's got all the nutrients in it, it's got everything you want.Liz:Another one is we call it inert. It doesn't have any living nutrients in it. It's just a really great base. And sometimes I explain to people if you've got a sponge and you've got dish soap, you can use that sponge more time... You know, you put the soap in it and you wash your dishes, the soap eventually runs out, but the sponge is still there. And that base of the soil is like the sponge. And then you add the nutrients in as needed. So, people who are growing indoors, they have very specific regimen of how they're feeding their plants, but they want really a nice, healthy thing for the roots to hold onto and for the drainage to be just right. And then they can add the food as they need it, but keep using the base and then replace the base in the next growing season.Stephanie:Mm-hmm (affirmative). How do you think about new markets? I mean, I can see you being very strategic about that, just you were with Etsy. So, how do you choose a place to go and then how do you even get on the radar of these farmers and acquire new customers?Liz:Yeah. So, it's a great question. Part of it being in Southern Oregon and since 2008, people know us here. So, they know of us and they come to us, but we started looking... I live in New York and New York just finally legalized cannabis and we have a not legal $4 billion market already. So, this is just a huge opportunity. So, being in the east and looking at already what's been going on in the west, you can see where major opportunities are happening. So, I mentioned Oklahoma, Oklahoma is a medical only state and they have more dispensaries per capita than any other state other than Oregon. And they have 6,000 growers. Now, some of these growers grow two plants and some of these growers grow 2000 acres. It's a wide range.Liz:But when you look at these new markets that are just literally exploding flowers like it's blooming overnight. You can see that they don't have the knowledge of more sophisticated markets. And it's such a great opportunity to say, "Hey, we know we've got products that will serve that market and that there aren't a lot of other companies yet in that market." So, Oklahoma was one place. Another place might be Michigan or Illinois. Those are relatively new cannabis markets with massive amounts of people and a lot of learning. So, we're looking at those kinds of markets. And of course, ultimately New York now. Right now, New York only has 10 licensed growers. They're all these big multi-state operators. So, over time, as we see how many licensed growers are going to be in these other areas with big populations, we could map out where we want to go.Stephanie:Yeah. It also seems like you would have maybe two different types of farmers that you would need to reach. I mean, there's the entrepreneurial person who's just like, "I want to get into this industry. I've never farmed before, but I know there's an opportunity." And they're probably, very savvy when it comes to like their digital savviness or okay with going online, trying something, maybe if they see an ad from you, they're like, "Yeah, sure. I'll give it a try." And then you have this whole other segment of customers that it's probably just a part of their farming strategy where they're like, "Oh, I've done, all the other [inaudible] before. I always just go to my retail location and I pick up the soil I need, or I have a big truck delivery of it." And they're not really accustomed to going online and maybe having orders coming in like through e-commerce. So, how do you approach these different types of customers?Liz:Yeah. You're totally right. So, we think of ourselves as direct to grower. So, instead of, DTC, we're sort of DTG. And the first group you mentioned, I put them in the home grower category. With the pandemic last year, tons of people, particularly young people were like, "I'm going to start gardening. I'm going to start growing things." And now there are over 20 states that allow home grow. And so, those people, you're absolutely right, they're going online, they're seeing Good Earth Organics soil on our website, on Amazon, on walmart.com and they're reading like, "Wow, this looks like great soil. It's healthy. It's going to be good for my plants." They could come on our website and attend a webinar about growing, things like that.Stephanie:I was going to say, I love the tutorial, How To Grow Weed 101.Liz:Exactly. But then there's the large cultivator. And those people are going through either an independent garden center or a hydroponic store and they're coming in there for all their needs. They're buying soil, they're buying lights if they grow indoors, they're buying nutrients, all these things. It's really a commercial endeavor. And so, with that market, we are partnering up either with the distributors that sell to those guys and doing education at that level so that people understand why Good Earth Organics soil and nutrients are valuable to these growers. And that's what we're doing in Oklahoma it's partnering with some of the local distributors there, educating their customers that they've already been working with for years, who like you said, maybe those are people who historically were growing tomatoes and alfalfa and who knows what. And so, they're used to coming into that an environment. So, we see that direct to grower conversation at a different level than the one for the home grower.Stephanie:Yeah. So, when I'm thinking about a traditional grower going in and seeing the products that are there, I mean, even from my perspective, I'll go to a [inaudible] I need some soil, "Okay. We've got Miracle-Gro and this one. Oh, this one has a nicer name. It sounds a miracle. It's going to turn my plant into a big plant. This one seems like it's not." And I just pick one based off packaging. Obviously, I'm not as knowledgeable as a farmer, but how do you really make sure that your product stands out and it really showcases all the benefits without being there? I mean, you guys are there.Liz:It's absolutely a great question. It's not easy, is the answer. For us, our name, Good Earth Organics with the giant organic on the front like that helps. And we have our certifications right on the bag. If you look at some soil that's synthetically made and you flip over and you start reading the back and there's giant warning, "Keep away from children," et cetera. It gives you the idea that, "Maybe this is great to grow my lawn really quickly. Maybe it's not something I want to be eating after I grow it." Of course, these are obviously tested and no one's going to get sick or whatnot, but it's just that-Stephanie:[crosstalk] we know of.Liz:Exactly. If you go to the grocery store and you see the whole organic section and you see the not organic section, you can choose. And especially items that like, I know the berries, they're sprayed and it's right on the berry. It's different with an orange or a banana where you're peeling off the outer skin. So, some people might decide, "I'm going to spend a fortune for those raspberries, but I'm going to buy the conventional bananas." And so, I think with soil, people are starting to understand like learning that like what's in the ground goes in the plant. And it's up to us to provide more of that education through podcasts, through advertising, through our website. And hopefully as consumers really start to think about everything that goes into their bodies. And again, the pandemic, it's kind of like, what is a pandemic? It's a virus that was transmitted from person to person that came about probably because we've done a lot of damage to our planet. There's a lot of pollution and chemicals and whatnot. And I think people are getting that into their heads to think more about what goes into their bodies.Stephanie:Yeah. It also seems like now's the time when consumers for a while we're focused on like bigger is better. So, like I was mentioning around like looking at the soil and being like, "This one will get you the biggest plant or this one will... Go to the grocery store. Oh, I want the bigger one." And now they're starting to really think about, "Okay, what's in that? Where it's being grown? Maybe I'm actually okay with these smaller raspberries that might become bad in two days but knowing that they're organic versus the one that looks beautiful and sits around for two weeks and it's still okay." Like, I think now's the time when people are starting to question a lot about how they eat and consume things and where it's grown, but to your point, education is key. And I think there's still a lot of room there. Now I'm just wondering about anything I'm eating, "What kind of soil is it grown in? I don't know. And what are the regulations here in Texas? Probably not much. I don't know."Liz:Well, the thing is testing. So, we have great anecdotal evidence and we grow our own plants at the company and compare those to others. But now we're doing very detailed third-party testing. So, we can say, "Hey, if you use our soil versus these other soils, this is how your plant is going to grow. This is how much terpenes is available in this plant." And terpenes is what gives flavor and aroma to anything that you eat, whether it's an orange or a cannabis plant. So, it's going to tell you how much production is in each leaf, et cetera. So, we're doing those tests now so that we can say to people, "Hey, this is not only certified organic, but you're going to get more from the plant. And maybe it is going to be growing, not just faster, but much, much thicker stock, much bigger leaves," all of those things.Liz:It's not about how fast it grows. Yes. You want it to not be slow, but how much do you get out of it? What is the yield at the end of the day? And so, through these studies that we're doing now, we'll be able to actually prove what we've known, sort of anecdotally, and just from our own personal experience in-house growing our stuff against other products. And that'll really also be part of the marketing it's like, "Hey, if we can say you get X percent more terpenes in each cannabis plant," people are going to be pretty excited about that. Or, "This much THC is in this plant versus this other plant," people are going to be pretty excited about that.Stephanie:So, what channels are you most excited about right now when it comes to your marketing efforts? Are there any ones that you're bullish on or that you're testing the other people maybe are sleeping on?Liz:Well, I think this last year, it was really interesting. Cannabis is not a federally legal product, but it became an essential item overnight with. It was like, "Wow, from illegal to essential in a month kind of thing." And it exploded e-commerce in this category. In general, e-commerce we saw massive growth but I'm really excited about the home grow market and the opportunity to talk to people yourself directly who are interested and want the education and want to learn more and probably are, I'm not going to say that you don't care about price, but if you're growing four to six plants on your own and you want them to be great and you're going to spend say a hundred dollars on soil, you'd probably be willing to spend $150 on soil if you understood the value and the benefit that was going into that plant.Liz:So, to me, that's a really exciting market because it's brand new and home growers are going to get most of their information online from trusted sources. And because we've done this since 2008 with professional growers, hopefully people will consider us a trusted source. So, I'm super excited about that channel. On the larger cultivators, those people do go to hydroponic stores and independent garden centers and whatnot. And the hydroponic stores are also moving very much online so that they can... If you're buying two pallets of soil, that's very different than two bags of soil, people also want to be able to get that quantity delivered to them. And maybe they don't live that close to a store where they can pick it up or whatnot. So, I do see opportunity in the larger cultivator.Liz:People with massive farms, I mean, they're getting truckloads of soil. They're not ordering it online. They're going direct conversations. But I think the home grower and that sort of mid-sized person starting to... Maybe they're doing a shipping containers worth of grow, they have a huge opportunity to talk to those people online and really help with the education and through the whole growing process like soil is step one. But then, you get to the vegetative state where it's all green and you add certain nutrients to feed the plant at that time. And then it starts to bloom, these beautiful flowers and you give it different nutrients to help with the terpene production and the blooming. And then it gets all crystallized and sugary. There's a third set of nutrients that you add at that growing. So, we want to help people through that entire cycle.Stephanie:Yeah. I mean, I think I just need that 10 step process for any of my plans, even just thinking about which ones do I trim back, which ones don't I, should I be watering it right now when it's dormant? I mean, why don't we have this just for, in general, when even having plants or having at home gardens. That whole world to me feels like something I need to learn, but there's no easy spot to find good education. And then growing cannabis is a whole different level like you said. I mean, do you see more like the large farmers who are used to having the conversations and going to that person... It seems in one to three years, they're all going to be operating digitally too. And a lot of times kind of having the average consumer operating in that market being the home grower also helps, highlight the benefits of that to these bigger farmers who maybe aren't operating that model right now. How do you see that transforming?Liz:Well, I think what we're going to see is lots more technology at the cultivator level. So, I mean, already there are these amazing startup companies that let you see like, "Okay, we have a slightly yellow leaf in the seventh bay of the fifth row in the third level, what's up with that plan?" And it's like, "Oh, that plant got a little too much water." Like everything is becoming extremely technical when you're growing in mass volume and for huge production. So, I think what you're going to see is you're going to see a separation in the industry of... Like we have craft beer today. We have these small batch amazing craft brewery where the brewer is experimenting with things, and then you have huge mass market beer. And I think you'll see that in cannabis too.Liz:If you have a cannabis beverage and you're a Budweiser size company, you're constellation brands, which has made early moves into the cannabis space, they're going to grow... They might even do synthetic THC that's created exactly the same in a very technology driven. The craft person is going to use technology in a different way to make sure that every plant is perfectly healthy and whatnot. And I think the companies that are more integrated with those people, digitally, they will be doing... But at the end of the day, soil is one of those things. You can't get it digitally. It's a physical thing you've got to have. And so, whether they're placing their orders online or talking to their growers or whatnot, I think ultimately they still need to just get this physical product. But we will see huge inroads in technology in running these companies and running these businesses just we've seen in every other industry.Stephanie:Yeah. I completely agree. So, what are you most excited about with Good Earth Organics? What things are you doing right now that you're really bullish on? Where do you want to be in a couple years?Liz:Yeah. In Southern Oregon, we've got this great reputation, we're well known, but I'm super excited just to take us to the whole US. And one of the things we're doing to do that is raising money. And because I spent a few years of Indiegogo doing crowdfunding, I wanted to be able to leverage that experience here at Good Earth Organics. And we're doing a crowdfunding campaign right now on a platform called SeedInvest. And the thing that's great about this is that everyday average person can invest in Good Earth Organics today and ride this wave with us for expansion. And sometimes with private companies, you have to be an accredited investor, you have to have a certain amount of capital, et cetera. With our opportunity, you do not have to be an accredited investor.Liz:The minimum investment is $1,000, which is pretty accessible for a lot of people. And the coolest thing about this is you're investing in the cannabis industry, but you're not, "Touching the plant." We sell a fully legal in every state of the country product soil and nutrients. But because we're going after this cannabis industry, it's a way to invest. And everyone talks about picks and shovels, right? Like Levis got started during the gold rush and all the bar owners and restaurant owners in California who were near the goldmine, they did great, whether or not people found gold. And so, we think of ourselves in that same way and ancillary to the business or to the industry. So, it's an exciting time because we're raising this capital, we're going to go national and all the things you're talking about like how do you build the brand and how do people understand who you are and doing the testing. That's where we are right now.Liz:And my whole career has been come to companies when they've got a vision, but they don't know exactly how they're going to get there. And it's a super exciting time to scale the company and capture these new opportunities. So, I'm super excited about that. And I love that we can open this to everyday regular people who want to jump on this train with us. So, anyone in my [inaudible] you can find us on SeedInvest or from our website, goodearthorganics.com.Stephanie:I love that. I mean, it's also so true to your roots of what you've done so far in your life of like empowering people to be a part of that journey and trying to get artisans to be able to sell their products in the US and it just seems so true to where you've been to be like, "Yeah, we're going to do a crowdfunding investment thesis where everyone can join along with us." That's really cool.Liz:I really do like when we can get, "The little guy and the little girl," on an equal playing field with everyone else. And I think that's probably, technology, one of the most important things that has happened with the result of building the internet and e-commerce, and whatnot is almost anybody can put a website up and it's pretty inexpensively these days. And if not for free and be out there just like the bigger corporations.Stephanie:Yeah. So, the one big question I have is when do you think cannabis will be federally legalized? I feel like [crosstalk]Liz:If I do that [crosstalk]Stephanie:Make a guess, what are you thinking? I know you don't have to talk about this.Liz:So, I actually think we could get to 50 states having it legal before it's federally legal. We're already at 36. Practically, every day I open my email newsletters and it's like another state has it on the ballot. So, I think we're going to see... The way politics is today, trying to get Congress on one page and all of that, I think it's easier for states to say, "Hey, you know what? The job creation and the tax base from this industry is amazing. We need to get on board. Like, our neighboring states are taking all of that from us right now. Like, we need to get on board too." So, I think we could see that and I think we could see some legislation around banking and some of the other things that will allow capital to flow into the industry.Liz:And so, if more states come on and then the safe banking act passes or whatnot, at some point, federal legalization is going to be like, "Well, we might as well do it because all these states are legal." So, I think there's been some hope that the banking might pass this year. And so, we're all crossing our fingers on that. And I mean, Alabama is now got it on the state ballot. So, if you're seeing states in the deep red south thinking about cannabis, it's a really good sign.Stephanie:Yeah. And so, even if all 50 states did legalize it, you still can't do the cross state like transferring of cannabis, which to me is the biggest issue. I read an article a while back where maybe... And I might mix the states up, but there was a huge surplus of cannabis, maybe Nevada or something and then California didn't have enough like they had a lot of demand, not enough cannabis to sell and just the fact that like, they were just stuck in those two states where some of those cannabis was about to just-Liz:Go bad.Stephanie:... go bad. Yeah. And to me that's like, the biggest issue is not being able to like logistically be able to send it around where the demand is and just having to predict accurately like what will the people in the state need? And if you have a surplus then, sorry.Liz:I mean, it is interesting because I always say like, "We don't grow oranges in Minnesota, but everyone has orange juice there." And wine comes from Napa and things are grown where it makes sense, with the bread basket of the US and whatnot. And I think cannabis will get there like interstate commerce is just what we do here. It's just the norm for every other agricultural product or pretty much any product. So, that will change.Liz:And already some states, I think Oregon, California, Washington, and maybe Nevada, the governors have already pre-signed an interstate commerce bill, so if, and when certain things happen legally, they'll be able to... Like, if all of those states are legal, if all 50 states are legal and there are certain things that have happened, they'll be able to start doing that like on day one. So, there's a big push for that thing. And economically, people see, back to the orange juice example, that it doesn't really make sense to grow oranges in 50 states. So, I think we'll get there.Stephanie:Yeah. And I can see a big... Well, I mean, you can tell me, but it seems there'd be a big consolidation effort to [inaudible] people being like, "Wait, why am I growing something in Texas or something where it's very hard to do, maybe I'm going to close up shop here and go where it's a little bit easier or think about an indoor method." And it seems just by all that passing, there'll be another big shakeup coming [crosstalk]Liz:No doubt. And I think indoor has the ability to control the environment. And I think especially on a large scale, almost pharmaceutical grade cannabis, the beauty of outdoor sun-grown, the flavor and the texture and whatnot can be really unique. And it's going to be a little bit different from batch to batch, just like, the 2016 Cabernet is not the same as the 2015 Cabernet. But there's also going to be a huge number of products whether it's gummies like everyone thinks about now or in the future, I think, beverages is going to be an amazing thing. So, instead of going out and having a beer or wine with friends, you go out and you have a cannabis beverage.Liz:They're going to want whatever's in that beverage to be 100% exactly the same every time. So, that you have a beer, you know how your body's going to react to that and it needs to be the same. So, things that will probably be grown indoors and it'll be more of a manufactured type item. So, I think there will be different methods of growing for different purposes no matter what. It's not going to all be done one way. And so, there'll be a lot of opportunity in different areas.Stephanie:Yeah. And it'll be fun to watch.Liz:Yeah, absolutely.Stephanie:Let's shift over to the lightning round. The lightning round is brought to you by Salesforce Commerce Cloud. And this is where I ask a question and you have a minute or less to answer. [crosstalk]Liz:Okay. Yes.Stephanie:I'm secretly curious about what?Liz:Oh, wow. I'm secretly curious about... This is such a good question. I'm secretly curious about what other countries will legalize cannabis before the US.Stephanie:That's a good one. When you want to feel more joy, what do you do?Liz:I go outside. 100%. I hike, I ski, I bike. I do something in nature.Stephanie:I love that. Tell me about a time when you made a powerful choice that you still think about.Liz:Powerful choice I still think about? It's funny, throughout my career, I've always been like, "I want to go learn this." And something good will happen from it. And so, that was the case in cannabis. I decided, "I'm just going to start going to conferences and learning." And now I'm working at a company that's 100% focused in this industry.Stephanie:Yeah. That's great. What's something wise your elders taught you?Liz:Keep going, don't give up. I have two older brothers who are about 10 years older than I am. And I learned early that you have to learn how to play the game or learn how to throw the ball or you'll be the ball. And so, just keep at it.Stephanie:Yeah. I like that. If you were to have a podcast, what would it be about and who would your first guest be?Liz:What would it be about? It would be about all the exciting things that women are doing to build businesses and companies. And I would try to bring a bunch of younger generation folks and understand what their challenges are so we could mentor them and ensure that we have a lot of strong women leaders going forward.Stephanie:That would be a good thing. And then the last one, what's up next on your reading list?Liz:I have to say I'm a terrible reader in the sense that I love to read, but I spend too much time reading newsletters and things like that. So, up next on my reading list is, I would really love to read just a good summer beach novel that's completely mindless and I can just flip the pages.Stephanie:All right. Liz, well, this has been such a fun interview. Thank you for coming on and sharing your knowledge and it's just been really interesting. Where can people hear more about you and Good Earth Organics?Liz:Great. Well, first of all, thanks so much for having me. It was a pleasure to be here. You can find more about Good Earth Organics at goodearthorganics.com. You can learn more about investing at seedinvest.com/goodearthorganics. And since I've been in the internet space since the mid nineties, you could find me on all the socials pretty much. Liz Wald on LinkedIn and everything else.Stephanie:It's amazing. Thanks so much.Liz:Thank you.

This is episode four, and the final episode, of a multi-part series on the Future of Mobility. Today, we invite Rob Lindsay onto the show, an expert and thought leader in the next-generation aviation space.Rob is a seasoned investor and thought leader in the Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) and Urban Air Mobility (UAM) space. At Uber Elevate he launched Uber Copter, Uber's first multimodal product and instantiation of UAM. Rob's experience includes investing roles at Levitate Capital and SeedInvest, as well as having served as CFO of Blade Air Mobility, which recently announced its public listing on the NASDAQ as the first publicly traded UAM company.Our conversation spans a comprehensive primer on eVTOL and explores the present and future of vertical takeoff and landing technologies. 

GeneralSubscribe to Fully Vested at FullyVested.co or through your podcast app of choice.DisclaimersNeither Jason Rowley nor Graham Peck are financial advisors or tax professionals. We're just a couple of friends talking about our opinions of money and tech stuff on the internet.Fully Vested content is primarily for entertainment purposes only; although we do try hard to stick to the facts according to the best of our knowledge at the time of recording, this content is not to be taken as legal or investment advice. Consult your own advisors and do your own research before deciding to make investments in private-market companies.Equity CrowdfundingNew companies have several options for funding their startup and scale-out. They may solely rely on revenue from customers and clients, may be funded through the personal savings of their founder(s), may sell securities to outside investors, or some combination thereof.Equity crowdfunding is a relatively new option for raising capital. Prior to June 2015, equity crowdfunding in the U.S. was limited to accredited investors participating in Regulation D offerings brokered through registered online portals like AngelList, CircleUp, SeedInvest, and others. These offerings were limited to accredited investors only.Title IV of the JOBS Act of 2012 became effective in June 2015, which allowed unaccredited investors to invest in Regulation A+ offerings (with some minor restrictions depending on the terms of the deal).Title III of the JOBS Act went into effect in May 2016, which allows companies to sell shares to unaccredited investors through a registered online portal. Under these Regulation CF offerings, unaccredited investors are limited in the amount of money they can invest annually, and issuers (companies) are required to disclose significantly more information about their businesses than they would otherwise be required to under a traditional private placement offering.2020 changes coming into effect for Reg CFIn March 2020, the Securities and Exchange Commission released a proposed set of changes to various regulations governing exempt securities offerings. Many of those rule changes were passed in November 2020 and went into effect in early 2021.A vastly simplified list of changes includes:Raising the offering limit in Reg CF offerings from $1.07M to $5MRemoving annual investment limits for accredited investorsChanging the investment limits for non-accredited investors by taking the "greater" rather than the "lesser" of annual income or net worth when calculating the investment limits. For most non-accredited investors, this rule change results in significantly increased limits.Further readingRegulation Crowdfunding: A Small Entity Compliance Guide for Issuers (Needs updating to new limits, as of time of publishing, but it's still a solid resource on SEC.gov)SEC's page on exempt offeringsSEC's overview of Exempt Securities OfferingsAbout The Co-HostsJason D. Rowley is a researcher and writer at Golden.com. He volunteers with startup outreach for the open-source community and sends occasional newsletters from Rowley.Report.Graham C. Peck is a Venture Partner with Cultivation Capital and additionally helps companies build technology development teams in partnership with Brightgrove and other technology development organizations.

If you have a business serving cannabis growers, it can be hard to get funding. Here to walk us through her nontraditional path to funding is Liz Wald of Good Earth Organics. Website: Goodearthorganics.com Seedinvest: https://www.seedinvest.com/goodearthorganics/series.a Email: liz@goodearthorganics.com  

BE SURE TO SEE THE SHOWNOTES AND LISTEN TO THIS EPISODE HERE Eve Picker: [00:00:16] Hi there, thanks for joining me on Rethink Real Estate. I'm on a mission to make real estate work for everyone. Real estate can help to solve climate change, can house people affordably, can create beautiful streetscapes, unify neighborhoods and enliven cities. So I'm on a journey to find the most creative thinkers and doers out there. I'm not the only one who wants to rethink real estate. You can learn more about me at EvePicker.com or you can find me at SmallChange.co, a real estate crowdfunding platform with impact real estate investment opportunities open for investment right now. And if you want to support this podcast, join me at Patreon.com/rethinkrealestate where there are special opportunities for my friends and followers.   Eve: [00:01:24] Today, I'm talking with Brian Dally of Groundfloor. Groundfloor started with the seed of an idea born out of the Jobs Act of 2012. From humble beginnings, funding their first 50,000 dollar loan with just 50 investors, Brian and his partner have built Groundfloor into the go to funding platform if you want to fix and flip property. And now they've added in accessory dwelling units as well. Last year, with the pandemic looming over their heads, 90,000 investors invested 145 million dollars into 'fix-n-flips' through Groundfloor. You might learn how to fund your next ADU. It's an unusual model and worth listening in. If you'd like to join me in my quest to rethink real estate, there are two simple things you can do. Share this podcast or go to Patreon.com/rethinkrealestate to learn about special opportunities for my friends and followers and subscribe if you can.   Eve: [00:02:44] Hi, Brian, it's a real pleasure to have you on my show today.   Brian Dally: [00:02:48] Great to be with you, Eve.   Eve: [00:02:50] Yes, so you and I are kind of in the same business, we both founded companies based on the 2012 Jobs Act and we both care about democratizing investment in real estate. So I want to just start talking about what you do first today and that is Groundfloor.  Why don't you just explain what Groundfloor is.   Brian: [00:03:13] Well, as you said, we realized back in 2012-2013, you and I didn't know each other back then, but you were tracking the same trend. You know, the world of investment and capital formation was undergoing some very early change back then, and it continues to go through change, even today. But what started back then is Congress and the SEC put rules in place that for the first time allowed everybody, regardless of your income or wealth, to participate in a whole class of securities offerings that haven't been open to people who don't meet the definition of an accredited investor.   Eve: [00:04:00] Let me jump in.   Brian: [00:04:01] Sure.   Eve: [00:04:01] Because people don't know what an accredited investor is. It's probably about three percent of the adult population in the state, which in itself is pretty shocking and it's anyone who has income of 200,000 dollars a year and has had for three years. Or has net worth of a million dollars, at least a million dollars without their primary residence. That's right. Right?   Brian: [00:04:26] Yeah, exactly. And that's a very small slice of the American population. And if you meet that definition, if you're in that club for a long time, you have had access to investments that the other 97 percent of us haven't had. And which started to change in 2012 is Congress and the SEC put forward rules that would start to open that up. Now, since then, they've continued to improve those rules, spell them out a little bit more. Companies like Small Change and Groundfloor have been built. Republic is another one that allows you to invest in startups, for example, or StartEngine or SeedInvest, there are a bunch of portals now where you can go invest in a wide variety of securities offerings that weren't open to us all before. We saw that coming, we started a company to help open up that market and we're still going. Now, we've got about 90,000 investors who are investing. Last year put in about 150 million in aggregate into our investments. We're funding 70 or 80 different real estate projects per month now using this model. And I mean, we're really just getting started. I think you would agree, right, with Small Change we're just in the early innings even still.   Eve: [00:05:43] So what is your model? Because we both have real estate platforms, but they're pretty wildly different, right?   Brian: [00:05:49] Yeah, we looked at the market for investments and we said, look, what's missing out there is sort of a short term high yield secured investment that people could get their hands around. You know, so many times you invest in real estate or you invest in a startup or something, and your capital is locked up for a very long period of time. Typically, the terms of those investments don't give you a lot of control over it. Like, for example, if you put money in any of the eREITs like Fundrise or RealtyMogul, any of these new kind of funds that have launched, you weren't able to access your capital when you probably wanted it. And you're in Covid. Because they shut down redemptions out of those funds. And we looked at the landscape of investments and realized what was really missing was for all of us to invest the same way that hedge funds and banks do, which is on a per deal basis, on a short term, a short term loan that that has a high yield. So where we started with Groundfloor was with value added renovation to single family houses that were being basically built by independent entrepreneurs. Right, so you have somebody who had a real estate project that they wanted to fix and flip, for example, or fix up and rent out and create rental housing out of it. We make a loan to them and then we turn around and allow individual investors to participate in that loan, ten dollars at a time. So, most people invest about an average of two or three hundred dollars. But you can start with a minimum of just ten. And what that means is if you have 1,000 dollars to invest, you can invest in 100 loans, which is a very nicely diversified portfolio. You're as diversified as a lot of small private equity funds or hedge funds. So you get the same benefits of diversification and the loans repay on an average of about nine to ten months. And the average rate that people are earning ranged between 10 and 11 percent. So it's a very high rate of return on short holding period in an asset that if you watch any house flipping show, you can understand what's going on there.   Eve: [00:08:01] Sure.   Brian: [00:08:01] And I think that's why it's been so popular, is those factors.   Eve: [00:08:04] So, a couple of things. One is I get what you're offering investors. Opportunity to invest in a way they've never had before. What does this do for developers who do 'fix-n-flips?'                             ?   Brian: [00:08:17] So developers who do 'fix-n-flips' or who are trading rental housing or we also finance independent builders who are doing new construction. There are a couple of problems with the capital markets, the way that they've been built, so far, on the legacy infrastructure. The legacy infrastructure is financed by some kind, what used to be banks. But when banks stopped funding this category of real estate development or or this type of small business, if you will, these types of projects, really who stepped in were sort of wealthy people with checkbooks. In any town, there are probably a couple dozen people who will finance these types of real estate projects. The problem is that the form of lending was not very professional. It was hard to find these lenders. The terms were all over the map, sometimes very lopsided terms for these agreements.   Eve: [00:09:12] Yeah.   Brian: [00:09:12] And I think the problem is if you're just getting started out as real estate investor, a house flipper, a builder, it's pretty hard to find your way in those capital markets. And I think the other problem is that a lot of the real estate development that's getting done in residential real estate, in places where housing stock is aging, for example, when Wall Street steps in, they just buy up blocks of a neighborhood and they bulldoze everything and they build up mcmansions or they build up some kind of mass market product. And that doesn't leave a lot of room for the independent builder or the independent real estate investor. So they've been playing at a disadvantage over the last 10 or 15 years. And Groundfloor's approach solves that problem because we're not lending out tens of millions of dollars at a time to one company that's going to go bulldoze a neighborhood. We're working with independent real estate developers who know these neighborhoods. They probably live in the neighborhoods. They care about the neighborhoods. And I think that's a good counterweight to gentrification. Right. I think it's a way to to renovate the residential real estate stock in a way that is more community friendly. Right. It also allows people in the community to participate in the financing of it, which I think is a novel idea.   Eve: [00:10:32] And so where are you lending now?   Brian: [00:10:35] We lend in about 30 states. Our lending is heavily concentrated in the southeastern U.S. We dabbled quite a bit in the mid-Atlantic and the midwest and we're starting to expand out west now. We started to finance projects in Colorado. We've done a couple in Washington state. We're not in California, but we're in about 30 states for lending and then investors nationwide.   Eve: [00:10:59] Yeah, yeah, obviously. And then how do you vet the the developers and the deals.   Brian: [00:11:05] We're frankly looking at developers on these deals the same way that anybody who's lending money or investing money in an entrepreneur would look at an entrepreneur. We're asking ourselves, can this entrepreneur with this plan create the result that they're hoping to create? And a lot of times we use this expertise to help entrepreneurs realize maybe the deal wasn't as good as they thought it was going to be. Right. Maybe their plan, they didn't have a big enough budget. Right. We really look very closely at the budgets for the projects and we look a lot at the valuation at the end. Do we believe I mean, every entrepreneur, myself included, we always believe what we're doing is super valuable. Right. So Groundfloor will serve as a little bit of a reality check for those situations where maybe their expectations are a little inflated. We need to make sure that the properties can sell for enough in the end...   Eve: [00:12:00] That investors get their money back, right?   Brian: [00:12:02] Yeah, I mean that and they get it back in a timely manner. Right? I mean, that's that's really important to the model that investors can trust the projects that we put up. It's not that things don't go wrong. Things do go wrong. You know, when you're renovating something, you know this well. You've dealt with so many interesting projects in Pittsburgh and beyond that, you know, you've seen it firsthand. I mean, you can't plan for every contingency, right?   Eve: [00:12:27] For sure.   Brian: [00:12:27] Things take longer, things cost more money. And so in our vetting, we make sure that the plan covers those major contingencies. And that's why we've had such a low loss ratio. Over time, we've lost less than one percent of the money that we've loaned out. And the returns of 10.5 percent are net of those losses. So, it's a pretty low volatility and investment where you really know what to expect.   Eve: [00:12:54] Right.   Brian: [00:12:54] That's why it works for the investor. Why it works for the borrower, for the entrepreneurs, they get a professional outfit that's actually looking at the merits of what they're trying to do. And we're providing some advice to them and a perspective. And if everything lines up, we're happy to fund it. We're doing like I said, we're doing about 70 to 80 fundings a month right now.   Eve: [00:13:14] Wow. A few years back when I met you, we talked about how hard it was to find your crowd of investors.   Brian: [00:13:23] Yes.   Eve: [00:13:23] And what you have to go through at the beginning. And I'd love to talk about what that was like and how that compares to today and what you think made a difference.   Brian: [00:13:33] Well, I realized early on that, and I think you felt this too, you and I are creating, you know, an unknown product in an unknown category from an unknown company. Right? So it kind of just amazed me in the early days that anybody would, you know...   Eve: [00:13:52] That's absolutely true.   Brian: [00:13:54] Isn't that the feeling, though? It's kind of just amazing.   Eve: [00:13:57] Yeah. And by the way, we just closed an offering today for 890,000 dollars.   Brian: [00:14:02] I saw that. Congratulations. That's huge!   Eve: [00:14:06] Yeah.   Brian: [00:14:06] That's huge! Congratulations. That's got to be one of the bigger ones, I would think.   Eve: [00:14:11] Yes.   Brian: [00:14:12] Yeah, I would think so. That's that's a huge success. And that's a testament to just continuing to persist because I think what I was about to say is, I think you're probably feeling this too, is that people now are more comfortable with the idea that this exists, you know, this category exists, that they, too, can get access to these deals. And there's a little less of what I used to call the Groucho Marx problem, which is like I wouldn't want to invest in any investment that would allow me to. Right? It's a problem of investor psychology. And I think the category has advanced now enough that people are interested. I also think we're seeing the rise of the retail investor more generally. I mean, look no further than what happened last month with Robinhood and GameStop.   Eve: [00:14:59] Yep.   Brian: [00:15:00] The retail investor is waking up and as they wake up, they're also realizing that public markets for a lot of people feel like it's a rigged casino. And they're now open to the idea that they can invest, that they should invest, that they can band together to put their capital to work and cause a change. And I think some of these traders are going to become investors. And that's part of what's happening, too. And then the third factor that has started to change the game and bring in a lot more growth. And we had a record Q2 and record Q3 last year because of some of those other factors, you know, the retail investor waking up and opting out of public markets. But I think the future growth that's to come and that we're starting to see lift off from now is the track record that we've all built. Right.   Eve: [00:15:49] Yes.   Brian: [00:15:49] Now that we're repaying, you know, we have over 1,500 loans that we've repaid.   Eve: [00:15:54] Yes.   Brian: [00:15:55] You know, and people now can see what the empirical data tells them about what they can expect. You can go on our website and see a scatterplot of, I think 9,000 portfolios that have returned capital on at least one loan over the years and you can see what returns that portfolio has earned on average based on how many loans they've invested in. What you learn is the more you invest, the more you can predict the return. And I think that's giving people more confidence in the category, in the companies and in the products, right, that we're building here.   Eve: [00:16:29] Right right right. So along with all of this, but I want to go back to what I originally asked. Sorry. And that was like I remember you telling me a story about what it took to get one person to invest in the beginning. And how many did you have last year?   Brian: [00:16:45] Gosh, we now have 80,000 investors.   Eve: [00:16:47] That's amazing and really what is a fairly short time to kind of scratching your head over why you can't even find one investor to...   Brian: [00:16:56] Well, the first loan we funded was a 50,000 dollar loan for a house flip in Adair Park in Atlanta, which is a neighborhood, transitional neighborhood near the beltline. I think we put, it was a 40,000 dollar loan. We put 39 investors in it, you know, a thousand dollars each. And it was a lot of work.   Eve: [00:17:16] A lot of work.   Brian: [00:17:18] A loan that small won't last a day or two on the platform.   Eve: [00:17:22] Yes.   Brian: [00:17:22] And, you know, people are investing smaller amounts in many more loans. So there might be 500 people in that loan. Three or four...   Eve: [00:17:31] It's pretty amazing that you can invest just ten dollars.   Brian: [00:17:33] I think just yesterday we hit a new record for I think 1.2 million dollars was invested on the platform just yesterday alone.   Eve: [00:17:41] Oh, wow. That's that's amazing. Congratulations.   Brian: [00:17:44] We've come a long way. But I'll tell you one thing that's exciting to me about that is that now that we have those basics in place is we recently started piloting an ADU financing program.   Eve: [00:17:57] That was my next...   Brian: [00:17:59] Oh, oh good.   Eve: [00:18:00] Question. Yeah. I want to know about your ADU program because that's a little bit different for you. And I wanted to ask why you are piloting that.   Brian: [00:18:09] I'm psyched to talk about that, because when we started off, yes, we wanted to build a financial product, but more than that, we wanted to build a platform that could be used for good. You know, we wanted to open up this asset class. We wanted to make a great investment product. But we also hoped that people would come to the platform as borrowers or sponsors and investors in order to have a positive impact on the world as well. I feel very strongly that the source of capital really matters to the result that we actually see in the world. And I think real estate plays an important role in shaping our communities. I mean, it's where people live and shop and work. And I think that who is financing that work really matters. And I think this ADU program is exciting to me because as an entrepreneur, when you build a platform, you have ideas about how people will use the platform. You can't predict it. If it goes well, people use your platform to create even more value for themselves in the world around you. Then you even get. Right. I mean, that's the whole idea of a platform. And still with this ADU pilot, we were actually approached by some people in that community who are having trouble finding financing because of the particular borrower situation that sometimes exists where you have somebody who doesn't want to move out of their house, out of their neighborhood. Home values are changing over. They like to participate in the growth of the neighborhood and they see ADUs as a way to do that because we're increasing density. I mean, there are two ways of dealing with increasing lot values and housing stock values. Right. One is you can knock everything down and just rebuild it all with mcmansions and more valuable real estate. I think most of us in the impact community would agree that sucks. Right? The other way is to increase density by changing the zoning rules and you change the zoning rules, but then you still need financing.   Eve: [00:20:11] Right.   Brian: [00:20:11] So to support that increased density. And I know you've talked with PadSplit, for example. That's one way to increase density. This ADU sort of approach is another way...   Eve: [00:20:21] PadSplit doesn't really increase density. They find unused spaces.   Brian: [00:20:26] Right.   Eve: [00:20:27] A little bit different. And by the way, I feel bad, because we we haven't told everyone what ADU stands for. It's accessory dwelling unit. And it's also what we know as a granny flat. It's just an additional unit on your property, on your piece of land.   Brian: [00:20:44] I think the reason we were excited about it is we saw it right away as a valuable approach to urban development in certain situations, especially with gentrifying neighborhoods where homeowners don't need to be displaced, but they can participate in what's happening around them as owners and grow their equity value without having to be displaced.   Eve: [00:21:06] Yeah.   Brian: [00:21:07] Right. So, selling their property and taking that money and moving elsewhere, we think is a suboptimal outcome for many people who would rather stay right where they are. You know, stay in their neighborhood, retain the character of the neighborhood, but open up some more housing opportunity in that neighborhood, too.   Eve: [00:21:24] Yeah.   Brian: [00:21:26] We've got excited about it, mostly because we saw a place where, you know, the traditional financing sources weren't going to step in. We thought that investors on our platform would like it. And we were right. The first two ADU deals that we've put out there have sold very quickly. Had a really enthusiastic reaction. And so, you know, we we have a little ways to go to kind of build up the pilot. But I'll tell you, we piloted new construction two years ago, and it's already, I think it's on track to be about a third or maybe even 40 percent of our volume this year. And I mean, the same thing could happen with ADUs.   Eve: [00:22:01] The most difficult thing might be that the person who wants to build an ADU, accessory dwelling unit, the homeowner may have absolutely no experience building anything.   Brian: [00:22:13] Right.   Eve: [00:22:13] What do they do? And this is probably one of the most difficult things to crack about accessory dwelling units. How do people who have no development, no real estate experience, go about adding that value to that property?   Brian: [00:22:28] Happily, there's an ecosystem of builders, contractors, architects who are ready to meet the needs of the people who want to do that. The problem is that those people cost money. The projects cost money.   Eve: [00:22:44] Yes.   Brian: [00:22:44] And a lot of people don't have the money. So even if you know about the idea, you know, first of all, you have to get connected into the ecosystem of people who work on these things and do them right. Right. Do them within the zoning standards, you know, do them in a way that will be good for long term value. People who are inexperienced that I think have to tap into that network. But then even if they tap into that network, what's been missing is the money. Where do you get the money to do it?   Eve: [00:23:12] Right. And, you know, the whole business of financing something as complicated as well.   Brian: [00:23:19] Agreed.   Eve: [00:23:19] You know, provide something consistent and easy to understand, that would be really helpful.   Brian: [00:23:25] And that's the goal, right. So we're we're looking to partner with contractors and architects who know how to get these projects off the ground. And so, when someone has an interest, there's already a network of providers that know how to plan it out, design it, and, of course, finance it, because we're we're out there offering that fund.   Eve: [00:23:51] That's fabulous. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, I was on a panel with a CDFI a few months ago and was horrified when they explained with great pride how they had spent the last three or four years developing a program which looked like it would, you know, finance a couple ADUs, maybe four a year. And I was just like, how do we even get this to work if there's no financing out there?   Brian: [00:24:14] Right.   Eve: [00:24:15] Yeah.   Brian: [00:24:16] Yeah. I think people on our platform, investors on our platform have a lot of appetite for it. I think it's a it's a really attractive investment. I think it's a really attractive initiative for homeowners in certain situations where they want to stay put and they want to grow their equity value in concert with the neighborhood around them. And I like it because we think that one of the benefits of crowdfunding for financing as a way to finance real estate is that people should be involved, directly involved in deciding what gets financed and how. This is a way that that can happen. Right?   Eve: [00:24:56] I like ADUs because I think they build on infrastructure and community that's already there, which is a great thing. You know, the bus stop that's right out there on the street or grocery shop or a school or anything like that is already there in that community. And we're adding density around those really important pieces. So it's a fabulous idea. So I want to go to your background now. Your background is very diverse. Communication technology, gaming, political theory, business and law, but not real estate. So I wonder how you came to this real estate platform from your background?   Brian: [00:25:36] Well, I have been an investor since about age 15. And one category that I had never really invested in was real estate. You know, you always hear it's it's almost like a trope in American life, right? Like, well, the way to build cash flow is through owning real estate. Right. And so there's there are no shortage of real estate investing seminars and whatever out there. So I feel like real estate investing is kind of in the air, you know, in America, more or less. I mean, it's amazing to me that we still have house flipping shows that are watched. You know, people people are interested in it. And I think that drove me as an entrepreneur because what I was looking for after leaving the wireless industry in my previous startup, by agreement, I could no longer work in the wireless industry. But we had built this wireless company that was structured in a way that allowed people to route around, you know, the cell phone network, except when they absolutely had to have it. And then they could, you know, the calls would switch from the Wi-Fi network to the cell phone network. And the company that we built, it's called the Republic Wireless it's still around today. One of the things I noticed and I think this is true in politics, in philanthropy, I know it's true in finance, people when you give them a platform where they can band together, I mean, this happened on Reddit, right? You give them a platform where they can band together and cause some change by voting with their dollars, by buying differently, by investing differently. They will do it because we can all debate whether people are smart enough to make their own decisions or whether they know what they're doing or not. The truth is, regardless of whether they are or not, they're going to behave as though they are. And that's what can drive a lot of change in the world. And I think we start to get a closed loop feedback system where people do get a lot smarter. And so, you know, as an entrepreneur, I was very attracted to that. I didn't quite know what sort of financial product we could build and what would be underneath it. But pretty quickly, Nick and I realized that if you're building this new type of product and you're trying to open up this type of investing, you should probably do it in a space like residential real estate that's tangible, that people can understand, that people are excited about. And I think that's what really led us there. Now, once we got there, you know, also as an entrepreneur, you need to have something as a beachhead that, you know, makes up for the perceived risk, like, for example, at Republic Wireless, we're launching phones, we said, look, this is an unlimited plan that's going to cost you 20 bucks a month instead of 150 bucks a month. And you're not going to be locked into a contract. Well, people really like that. They saw some advantage in that. So they were willing to try the technology. With Groundfloor, we said, look, you know, you're not going to lock up your money, you know, for years. You're going to lock it up for months. You're going to get a really high rate of return. If this thing works, over ten percent and you're going to get to control it, you're not turning your money over to a fund manager.   Eve: [00:28:46] Um-hm.   Brian: [00:28:46] You get to make the decision. And I think because it was residential real estate, they believed it. Right? It was tangible and they could buy into it. If we had done it in some exotic category that nobody understood, like financing receivables or something, I don't think it would have been as successful. So I had to learn about real estate. I've spent a lot of time with people with many decades of experience in real estate. And now very shortly as an operator will have made a billion dollars worth of loans in this category.   Eve: [00:29:16] I think that's fantastic.   Brian: [00:29:16] You know, which is not an insignificant number. So I had to climb the learning curve. We have a lot of advisors and executives around the company with deep experience in this. And as an entrepreneur, you know, a lot of us want to learn something. This was an exciting area for me to to learn. And now I guess I don't get to claim that I'm not experienced in real estate anymore.   Eve: [00:29:36] I think that would be true. What do you love doing the most about this?   Brian: [00:29:41] I love working with people who are putting themselves out there and taking a chance. So the people who I've most enjoyed interacting with are the entrepreneurs who are financing projects on our platform. I can really identify with them and equally the investors who are venturing off into this unknown. I really identify with those people. You know, we started raising money from our customer base to finance the growth of the company. So we have a crowdfunded equity offering that's still live today on SeedInvest. I love talking to people about getting involved in angel investing. So I really like engaging with the people who are drawn to these platforms because I admire them for being intrepid enough to take the risk and vote with their dollars to change the way that we finance, in this case, real estate. And we're startup. I think that's that's what I love about it.   Eve: [00:30:41] I think that's great. And actually, there's still a relatively small number, because one of the reasons this is hard is there's still a pretty big group of people out there who don't trust online investing and...   Brian: [00:30:54] It's still the early innings, it really is.    Eve: [00:30:56] Early innings. Yeah. So what is your big, hairy, audacious goal for Groundfloor?   Brian: [00:31:04] The big, hairy, audacious goal is to take the model that we've pioneered for these private capital markets and to show that what we've done in these first couple of sub asset classes in real estate can be done at a bigger scale across a broader scope. You know, the big, hairy, audacious goal would be to infect other asset classes with this model. You know, it's a very disruptive model. It's easy for people to look down on it and say, oh, it's underpowered, but that always happens with disruptive technology. So my big, hairy, audacious goal for this is to see how many asset classes at what level of scale this model can produce, the kind of results that it's producing in this market. And I don't know where the endpoint for that is. I think it can go very, very far. So I don't have a specific quantification of that. But that's the idea, is I'd like to take what I think we've proven in this one market and see how many more markets we can extend it into.   Eve: [00:32:08] And I have another question for you that may be a little bit difficult, but is there anything else that you're noticing out there that really excites you about the way we might do things differently, live a lot differently, what we what we can change?   Brian: [00:32:22] I look at our own market and I think it's true in digital assets, I think it's true in the securities that we're offering online, I think it's true and how we transact in real estate. I see a lot of opportunity to remove friction from the system. I mean, you look at something like title and how much time and money.   Eve: [00:32:44] Oh yeah.   Brian: [00:32:45] Is put into clearing title and then battling the insurance company when there's a defect in title that comes up later. I think this is the bane of real estate investors everywhere. And I think it's true in private market transactions with illiquid assets generally. And I think it's something I'm excited to see change because I feel like it's a very difficult change to effectuate. But I think as a community, we're going to keep chipping away at it and eventually we're going to have to knock down the barriers to I mean, title is a great example. But I would just say in general, these kind of transactions in illiquid securities need to, the friction needs to come down.   Eve: [00:33:28] Yeah, I totally agree with you. Well, thank you really so much for talking with me. I really enjoyed it. And I'm really wondering what's going to happen this year if you did so well last year as well, too. Right.   Brian: [00:33:42] I think things are looking up, you know, in 2021. And and I hope we get to work together.   Eve: [00:33:48] Yes.   Brian: [00:33:49] Eve, I really admire the work that you've been doing and been persistent enough to keep doing over the years. And I hope we get to join forces someday and do some work together.   Eve: [00:33:59] That would be fantastic. Thank you so much, Brian. Bye.   Brian: [00:34:02] Yeah, you too.   Eve: [00:34:06] That was Brian Dally. Brian isn't planning to stop at 'fix-n-flips' or accessory dwelling units. He thinks the Groundfloor model can be used on a much bigger scale. And on a much more varied asset class with 145 million raised in 2020, I can't wait to see where he takes the company in 2021. You can find out more about this episode on the show notes page at EvePicker.com. Or you can find other episodes you might have missed. Or you can show your support at Patreon.com/RethinkRealEstate, where you can learn about special opportunities for my friends and followers. A special thanks to David Allardice for his excellent editing of this podcast and original music. And thanks to you for spending your time with me today. We'll talk again soon. But for now, this is Eve Picker signing off to go make some change.

This week Jason Fishman speaks with Chris Lustrino, Founder & CEO of KingsCrowd. Chris walks us through how he was able to Test, Optimize, and Scale his businesses.     Prior to founding KingsCrowd, Chris served as a Consultant at L.E.K. Consulting, where he focused on private equity due diligence. Before his time at L.E.K., he ran finance ops at Freebird, a travel tech startup. He also founded Simple.Innovative.Change, a Fintech publication focused on alternative investments and lending and was a finalist for the 2018 LendIt Fintech Journalist of the Year. Chris graduated from Boston College with a Business degree in Operations, Info Systems, and Marketing. KingsCrowd is the first independent ratings and analytics platform for the online private markets. They aggregate and vet the 1000's of pre-seed to pre-IPO investment opportunities now available across 50+ online private marketplaces (e.g., SeedInvest, Republic, Angellist, Sharepost) and work on behalf of both individuals and institutions to provide actionable investment insights. They provide trusted insights, analytics and ratings to help you navigate the fragmented market of startup investing and vet the best deals worth adding to your investment portfolio. KingsCrowd aims to empower everyone to invest in startups confidently through a platform-agnostic suite of EC support products including research, recommendations, data analytics, and financial products. g. LinkedIn- https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrislustrino/ Website- https://www.kingscrowd.com Email- chris@kingscrowd.com   For more episodes and information, visit us at https://www.digitalnicheagency.com/media Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/test-optimize-scale/id1508379681 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4zS5V79xPwTsrYiyibaS2b Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/s?fid=524781&refid=stpr   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/digital-niche-agency Instagram: DNA - Digital Niche Agency (@digitalnicheagency) • Instagram photos and videos. Twitter: https://twitter.com/DNAgency_CA YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDlzUtbB5RMpzRmDu9wtfRQ/

Charlie O'Donnell, Founder & General Partner of Brooklyn Bridge Ventures Charlie O'Donnell has been an active member of the NYC startup community for over 15 years, with a reputation of being the most accessible early stage investor in New York. After being hired as the first analyst at Union Square Ventures and helping to open First Round Capital's first NYC office, he founded Brooklyn Bridge Ventures in 2012. Brooklyn Bridge Ventures has made over 60 investments since it was founded, making it one of the most active funds investing in pre-seed and seed rounds in the city. It often leads or co-leads, investing in a wide variety of startups founded by a diverse pool of founders including The Wing, Petal, Clubhouse, Hungryroot, Canary, goTenna and Imagen, among others. The fund was the first to be launched in Brooklyn--where he was born and raised. Danny Brown, Partner at MaC Venture Capital Danny Brown is Partner at MaC Venture Capital, an LA-based early stage fund focused on technology companies leveraging shifts in cultural trends and consumer behavior in an increasingly diverse global marketplace. Additionally, he is the current Chief of Staff at Atom Factory, where he focuses on leveraging their unique position at the intersection of tech, music, media, and various other industries to the benefit of their portfolio, as well as the surrounding ecosystem. Gyan Kapur, Managing Director at Bayes Ventures and Co-Managing Partner at RTP Seed (RTP Ventures) | B2B Investor Gyan joined RTP Ventures in early 2020 and became co-Managing Partner of RTP Seed, RTP Ventures' fund dedicated to investing in seed and pre-seed stage companies, later in 2020. Prior to joining RTP Seed, Gyan ran Bayes Ventures, an early stage fund with a similar focus. Prior to Bayes Ventures, Gyan was a Vice President at Activate Venture Partners (first investor in Medidata, a $6bb exit) and an active angel investor. Gyan graduated from the MBA program at the Wharton School of Business. Before Wharton, Gyan worked for Gather Health, a chronic disease management startup, and Citigroup where he built and scaled businesses in foreign exchange derivatives, focusing on complex products. Megan Ananian, Investor, Seedinvest Megan joined the Seedinvest team in 2019 after receiving her MBA at Yale School of Management. SeedInvest is an early-stage fund as well as an investment platform connecting founders with a community of over 375k investors. They've invested $200M+ into over 200 companies through Reg CF, Reg D, and Reg A. https://entre.link/EntrepreneurShow --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

Lots of insights on equity crowdfunding today from Buck Jordan.  He's raising $50-100k/day (mostly on SeedInvest) for the cool robotics and food companies coming out of WaveMaker Labs. He also has great insights on corporate innovation and how seed stage companies can take advantage of corporate partners.

Top 7 Start Up Companies on SeedInvest. Looking for a Unicorn? Unaccredited Investors can invest up to approx. $2000 a year in start ups. Get 1 free stock from *Robinhood* join.robinhood.com/marylih4 by simply signing up :) Wow!! Free to join. No fees ~best for beginners! ***** Get 1 free stock Public & you pick the stock!!! https://share.public.com/theduchess Get 1 free stock from Webull & Deposit $100 to get 2nd free stock!! https://act.webull.com/t/MtfVji2DXKMB/25w/ You don't have to buy anything to get free stocks! No fees. Bitcoin crypto promotion: Earn while you learn coinbase https://coinbase-consumer.sjv.io/keo1N Support the Channel using our links/promotions/like/subscribe :) https://www.patreon.com/sneakies Support $1 , $5 the channel :) Thank you! paypal.me/anonymouscontent $ support for the channel :) $ https://www.youtube.com/user/Fellinijr/videos Subscribe :) Wizard book series like Harry Potter- Margaret Merlin's Journal https://www.amazon.com/Margaret-Merlins-Journal-Battle-Black-ebook/dp/B01634G3CK Amazon Discount Deals for Listeners: Baby products :) https://amzn.to/39Q1mXP Dog/Pets Flea medicine 15% off https://amzn.to/3i3GWxo Phone!! $500 off LG V35 phone! https://amzn.to/30mdgFz $100 Moto X4 phone https://amzn.to/33iD2wp Powerbeats3 wireless earphones 65% off! https://amzn.to/3gCAa1n Video games https://amzn.to/3kad8ke Big Summer Sale Kitchen! https://amzn.to/3fj7rNu Deebot vacuum sale https://amzn.to/3k5OuRW Top kids podcast https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/enchanting-book-readings-reviews/id1498296670 "Let's Get Rich!" Disclaimer this podcast is for entertainment purposes only. I am not a licensed professional. Smart investors study stocks and meet with licensed financial brokers before they make decisions to invest. Investments can be risky. I am not responsible for your losses. I may own some stocks that I include in my podcasts or videos. Affiliate links listed above. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/girlmogul/support

On this episode of Accelerate OC, we get to hear from Cary Breese and his journey from software engineer to insurance company executive to tech startup CEO, and his current venture, NowRx.Cary is currently the co-founder and CEO of NowRx, a tech startup in the pharmacy experience industry.  Using improved logistics, intelligence and analytics, the company is saving the health care industry cost and improving patient adherence to prescriptions.  NowRx opened its first pharmacy in Northern California, yet is led by a team from Orange County.  Their latest one is about to open here.Prior to NowRx, he was CEO at Genie DB which went after Amazon Web Services in the DB as a service (DBaaS) space.  He was also an executive at several insurance businesses, including a marine one he acquired out of a larger financial services firm.  He began his career at Lockheed Martin as a software engineer.We met several years ago when we were both in the middle of navigating our respective startups and I really enjoyed our conversations. Cary is also a community guy here in Orange County and has been involved in youth sports and mentoring other entrepreneurs.  He is the model for the type of innovator we need many more of here – making things happen in his business and in the community.Our conversation went fairly deeply into fundraising for startups and particularly, equity crowdfunding, which has been a key part of the NowRx fundraising formula so far, and it's been quite successful.  They are currently raising their Series B on SeedInvest, a leading equity crowdfunding platform.

Do you love the idea of an underdog winning the race in business or otherwise? If so, we've got a great story for you that happened just this past week and the top two reasons WHY this founder pulled ahead to win the race! PLUS... we've got a special treat for you. Angel Investor Irwin Ki is on our show and he brings the gold revealing everything from what he looks for in an investable company, how to develop trust (the real superpower) with potential investors, and he even shares an inside story about the 3 questions Steve Jobs asked himself that led to the iPhone. It's another can't miss episode! Links Mentioned in This Episode: Legalucy's Livestream Channel: https://bit.ly/legalucylive  Play Bigger: https://amzn.to/32DdGpS  Angel: https://amzn.to/2MEkuOp  Irwin Ki's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/irwin_ki/  Irwin Ki's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/irwinki/  SeedInvest: https://www.seedinvest.com/ 

In this week's special episode, Brandon sits down with Bushl CEO + founder, Josh Bareket, to discuss the world of clean and sustainable craft cannabis. Recent issues with pesticides and vitamin E in vapes have highlighted safety and quality concerns across the industry. Josh saw this issue coming, and created Bushl to help fix the problem. Bushl gives customers a marketplace to buy highly vetted CBD and THC products. With over 25 brands on the platform, Bushl provides customers with a safe space to buy clean, natural, and sustainable cannabis products online. Josh and Brandon also dive into certification standards, Bushl's vetting process, and how to create transparency with their brands. Tune in, listen up, and get acquainted with Bushl! If you're interested in learning more about Bushl and the investment opportunity, their SeedInvest crowdfund is open to everyone. Bushl SeedInvest: http://bit.ly/BUSHLSeedInvest EVERYONE CAN INVEST! ======================== Disclosure Note: This info is solely for informational purposes. Past performance is no guarantee of future returns. Investing involves risk and possible loss of principal capital. No advice may be rendered by E&B LLC unless a client agreement is in place. ========================

About this Episode Jon Rimanelli discusses how he and his firm, ASX,  addresses urban congestion to help fulfill the promise of mobility services as a time saver.  Jon gives incredible detail to the approach he’s taking by applying mass market supply chain methods from the automotive industry and applying them to the short-range aerospace industry. From aircraft design to discussion on multimodal modular configuration, we get a detailed look into what makes his firm so unique. Jon concludes with an honest look into how much “the team” means to him and guides us through the a discussion of his advisors who give him the immense courage to dive deep in the of attempting to shape a new industry category. About Jon Rimanelli Mr. Jon Rimanelli serves as the Founder and Chief Executive Officer at Airspace Experience Technologies. Inc. (ASX). He is an electronics entrepreneur and private pilot with over 1,000 hours of flight time. He is the founder of Nextronix Inc. As a contract manufacturer, he spent 18 years prototyping and producing automotive, aerospace and communications industries. He is also the founder of Detroit Air Racing Inc., which lead and facilitated the 2008 Detroit Red Bull Air Races, resulting in over $100 million in economic impact over three years for both Detroit and Windsor Ontario. In 2013, he teamed Lockheed Martin to manufacture and distribute the IndagosUAS VTOL for military, civil and commercial customers worldwide. He is also the founder of the Detroit Mobility Park (DMP), a non-profit 501C3, based at Detroit City Airport to facilitate autonomous air and ground mobility testing at the airport. Show Highlights Segment 1: Intro, Background, and Forming a firm. 3:16        Jon Rimanelli and his unique approach to urban mobility: What are his initial thoughts on where the  disruption rests? 5:08        What are the fascinations that inspired Jon and eventually got him to where he is today?   10:25      Why Detroit? What led Jon to build his firm, ASX, in the “Motor City”?   Segment 2: Disruption in Industry & Needed Capabilities 12:23      Reuse. Repurpose. Restructure. How do these three r’s fit in with the predictions Jon’s has for urban air mobility? 13:13      What does Jon see now and in the future ahead as it relates to mobility transformation? 16:17      What does Jon see as a necessity to smoothly and successfully bridge the aerospace and auto mobility   industries? 18:22      What makes his firm so unique in the Aerospace industry? 21:48      Unique attributes of the ASX aircraft design and architecture 24:54      Who are some of the individuals that make up the ASX team? Dr. Anita Sengupta – Co-founder and Chief Product Officer of ASX JP Yorro – Co-Founder of ASX Camilo Pardo – Chief Industrial Designer Senior Controls Engineers   27:30      How did Jon tackle the bridge into supplier base? 30:10      What is the process of raising money for his startup? How can listeners get involved?                 Seedinvest.com – Own a share of ASX ! Segment 3: Brave Leadership & the “Top Three” 37:17      Who are the individuals that Jon calls on for courage? Who are his “Top Three”? RJ King – Editor of DBusiness Magazine Bob Lutz – Automotive industry icon Bob Campbell – Former Senior Leader at Deloitte and Federal Government advisor Sandy Munro  - Founder, Munro & Associates Wrapping Up 41:42      What other big news can Jon share on the firm? 43:04      What advice does Jon have for the next generation of leaders? Additional Information About ASX: www.iflyasx.com www.seedinvest.com/asx/bridge Contact Jon: LinkedIn Contact Gregg: LinkedIn Twitter Bio

It's time for Summer Tour, friends! This week we jump into a Summer Tour preview and talk about a set that we really appreciate from a tour opener—6.7.12. We hope you enjoy. We'll be back with some Quick Hits starting in just about two weeks!Thanks to one of our new sponsors, Passion House Coffee. Click here to enter the coffee naming contest. If you win, you can score some free coffee. And get 30% off of coffee from Passion House.And thanks to Eardial, another new sponsor. Please don't mess up your ears, get some earplugs. Check them out—our listeners get 20% off.Are you interested in being more than a listener of Osiris podcasts? YOU can become an investor in Osiris. Check out the details at our SeedInvest page.Lastly, if you haven't yet, please give us a review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your podcasts. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Ubitquity a real-estate and records back up company founded by Nathan Wosnack, is in the process of raising seed capital after successful pilot projects in Brazil and a partnership with AIC. Unlike the vast majority of crypto companies, including most of its competitors, Ubitquity has never done an ICO, instead opting to take the clearly legal path, raising funds through regulation C and regulation CF of the jobs act. In this podcast Nathan Wosnak, Sam Raynolds and I discuss how Ubitquity started, their long journey trying to bring immutable blockchain records to the essential notary system, their success in Brazil, their partnership with AIC the air space tittle service, and their future past this so far very successful public fundraise. Be sure to check out their Seedinvest profile for all details. https://www.seedinvest.com/ubitquity/... As well as their flagship website and top software product offerings.Official Ubitquity link: https://www.ubitquity.io/SmartEscrow: www.ubitquity.io/smartescrowBlockDRS: www.ubitquity.io/drs

Join us for the first of several celebrations of the 25th anniversary of a magical year for Phish: 1994.Scott Bernstein of Yemblog and Jambase joins us to talk about three pivotal shows on the first tour of a year that would see Phish grow from theaters to Madison Square Garden in the span of eight months. Jonathan and Matt go deep with Scotty on 4/15/94, 5/7/94, and 5/28/94.Are you interested in being more than a listener of Osiris podcasts? YOU can become an investor in Osiris. Check out the details at our SeedInvest page. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

#CryptoCorner: Market Going Into Weekend Red, Indian Gov't Considers Ban On All Cryptos, SBI Holdings (TYO:8473) CEO Named Executive of Ripple Labs and Circle's SeedInvest Approved for ATS by FINRA

MapableUSA.com: Regulation A+ and Reg.CF crowdfunding spans just about any industry out there, and medical is BIG! While many struggle, 20/20 Gene Systems is a great example of how to do crowdfunding the right way. Listen and learn first-hand from company CEO Jonathan Cohen about what his company exactly does, its goals, strategies, and how investors can get involved. Whether you’re an established company or pre-revenue, listening to this podcast and understanding the insights provided by Mr. Cohen will give you the confidence to move forward with your crowdfunding efforts. With a current raise of over $4.4 million dollars on the SeedInvest crowdfunding portal, the success of 2020 Gene Systems provides more proof that Regulation A+ / Reg.CF crowdfunding isn’t just good for entrepreneurs and issuers, but also good for investors as well.

We continue our discussion with Ryan and learn about the proposed transaction with Circle, some of the early challenges SeedInvest faced and how passion is a necessary part of any start-up vision. (Nothing in this or any other episode is advice of any kind; please contact your own experts to help with investment, legal, regulatory, or other advice.)

Ryan Feit of SeedInvest talks about how he and his team built a leading equity crowdfunding platform and was involved with the passage of the JOBS Act, and gets into the details of the platforms features and functions to make crowdfunding securities a new asset class. (Nothing in this or any other episode is advice of any kind; please contact your own experts to help with investment, legal, regulatory, or other advice.)

Who is Gabrielle Katsnelson?     Gabrielle Katsnelson is co-founder and Chief Operating Officer of SMBX. She has a decade of financial accounting, strategy, and operations experience; including: managing the loan portfolio of the Artists Community Federal Credit Union; the restricted royalty funds of TuneCore, a digital distributor of music; and architecting financial infrastructure for countless startups and SMBs.       Dedicated to creating a surplus ecosystem, Gabrielle believes that giving SMBs access to capital while creating an engaging and empowering investing experience for people is the means.        Show Highlights  Terri and Gaby talk about how they met at a Draper University blockchain pitch day and gravitated towards each other over common interests  Gaby shared her journey from accounting into biotech in New York and ultimately into FinTech in San Francisco in early 2017  Gaby met her co-founder of SMBX at one of the crypto, blockchain and ICO meetups she went to; he was always asking the interesting questions.   Their company, SMBX is built on a private Etherium network and takes advantage of Title III of the JOBS Act to help small businesses issue bonds so that investors can invest in businesses they are interested in providing a secondary market for investors.    Gaby and Terri talk about where blockchain is from a maturity perspective and the future of blockchain.   Gaby explains equity crowdfunding and the differences between Title II, Title III and Title IV. Terri and Gaby talk about using crowdfunding to democratize funding and how we are still in early days.    If Gaby could wave a magic wand to change something in this world, she would change mindset and personal responsibility for your own mindset.      Terri’s Key Takeaway  It is important to maintain a sense of fun.  It doesn’t have to be so serious all of the time.      References in the Podcast  SMBX: https://www.thesmbx.com/  Jane VC:  https://www.janevc.com/  OwnYourCash:  http://site-1317096-1533-8422.strikingly.com/  Skydeck: https://skydeck.berkeley.edu/  Wilson Sonsini (WSGR):  https://www.wsgr.com/WSGR/Default.aspx  Draper University: https://www.draperuniversity.com/  Fred Wilson’s blog post on blockchain infrastructure:  https://avc.com/2018/10/the-appsinfrastructureappsinfrastructure-cycle/  JOBS Act:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jumpstart_Our_Business_Startups_Act  JOBS Act Title III:  http://www.finra.org/investors/alerts/crowdfunding-and-jobs-act-what-investors-should-know  Terri’s Medium post on blockchain, crypto and ICO resources:  https://medium.com/@terrihansonmead/cryptocurrency-and-ico-resources-55766cae29e  Crowdfund Main Street: https://crowdfundmainstreet.com/  Republic: https://republic.co/  WeFundr: https://wefunder.com/discuss  SeedInvest: https://www.seedinvest.com/  Investibule:  https://investibule.co/  FinTech Collective:  http://www.fintech.io/      Contact  Gabrielle can be reached via email gabrielle@thesmbx.com; Twitter: @gabykatsnelson and through LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gabrielle-katsnelson-6a73958/.  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. 

Simon's in the studio with Joon Ian Wong, Managing Director for Europe and Asia at Coindesk, Claire Wells, Director of Legal & Business Affairs EMEA at Circle, and Aman Kohli, CTO of Financial Services and Insurance Practice at Microsoft. First up, Circle eyes crypto securities bid with crowdfunding site acquisition. Circle is reportedly moving to acquire SeedInvest, a crowdfunding platform for startups. Their acquisition will – if approved by regulators – open to the door to allowing startups to raise funds by selling digital tokens via its platform. Yale Invests in Crypto Fund That Raised $400 Million. The Ivy League school is getting into the market for cryptocurrencies. $30 billion endowment is headed by David Swensen. Under Swensen’s leadership, Yale has returned 11.8 percent on average for the past 20 years. Ninety-six percent of endowments and foundations responding to a survey by consulting firm NEPC in February said they don’t invest in digital currencies. SEC, CFTC charge bitcoin futures firm 1Broker with securities law violations. The SEC announced in a press release that it filed charges against 1pool Ltd., also known as 1Broker, as well as its CEO Patrick Brunner for selling security-based swaps to U.S. and international investors without following proper "discretionary investment thresholds." Notably, investors could only purchase these swaps with bitcoin, according to the claims. The SEC is further claiming that 1Broker was not registered a "security-based swaps dealer" and "failed to transact its security-based swaps on a registered national exchange." Marco Polo blockchain platform for trade finance released. Marco Polo is an initiative to develop an open account trade finance platform powered by blockchain technology. The platform is built by TradeIX, R3 and a group of banks on the Corda blockchain framework, using TradeIX’s open-source tools to test, pilot and manage open account trade finance transactions. The announcement was made at the CordaCon London event on September 13, where Rob Barnes, co-founder and CEO of TradeIX, gave the audience new insights into the project’s timeline. TD Ameritrade all-in with crypto, invests in exchange. Announced this week a strategic investment in ErisX, the cryptocurrency spot and futures exchange. We also have a Tweet of the Week on Iconomi discontinuing their ICN token. Tying up the show we have a great interview with Adi Ben-Ari, Founder of Applied Blockchain (he was supposed to be on this week but he was sick). All this and so much more on this week's episode of Blockchain Insider. And if you enjoyed our tweet of the week why not send us your best tweets? See if you can get a shout out on the show! We hope you enjoy the show and, as ever, don't forget to subscribe! Want to join the conversation on all the topics discussed? Tweet the show @bchaininsider and if you really love the show, please leave us a review on iTunes. This week's episode of Blockchain Insider was produced by Laura Watkins and Petrit Berisha. Edited by Michael Bailey. Special Guests: Adi Ben-Ari, Aman Kohli, Claire Wells, and Joon Ian Wong.

The Bitfinex saga continues and two things happened over the weekend, complicating the picture further. Crypto Twitter found out during the weekend that Bitfinex is now banking with HSBC US, but not directly. Rather through a shell company, Global Trading Solutions LLC, and the address of the headquarters of this shell company doesn't seem to be exist. Or rather it does, it is a valid address, but it is the address of a volleyball club on the outskirts of Chandler, Arizona. Bitfinex also published a blog post yesterday vehemently denying that the exchange is insolvent, and pointing to cold wallet addresses to prove their point; but fiat withdrawals are not really working.Nicolas Maduro announced that passport fees have to be paid in the country's new cryptocurrency. But does Petro actually exist? Or is it possible that the Venezuelan government simply doesn't want to issue passports to anyone anymore?Circle, the Goldman Sachs-backed crypto firm which bought Poloniex a few months ago announced acquiring SeedInvest, a platform where retail investors can invest in startup companies. Their plan is to make it easy for startups to issue their own tokens - securities as I imagine - and sell them to retail investors.

Increasing the number of local angel investors has been the goal of Metro Startup Launcher from the very beginning. We've done a lot of blogs, emails, and podcasts, and now we've participated in two different types of crowdfunding campaigns. How's it going? Well, one of the companies just landed an investor/partner that has agreed to invest up to $10 million and is launching one final $300,000 local investor round. Learn more about this final $300,000 angel round!   So what's working and what's not working? If you look at angel investing in our area, here's what's happening: 1. Companies like Edj Analytics, MobileServe, and SentryHealth (formerly Edumedics) are raising millions of dollars in capital. They're raising capital the "classic" way, using a Regulation D 506(b) SEC exemption. Under this type of exemption, you can raise an unlimited amount of capital from accredited investors, up to 35 non-accredited investors per year, and you must only raise capital from people with whom you have an existing relationship. Generally, an accredited investor is defined as a person with an income of $200,000+ or $1,000,000 net worth (excluding the value of their home). You cannot use any form of public advertising. This method of capital raise is still very successful, IF you know the right people. You must find a lead investor to help you set up your capital raise, get all the right paperwork in place, and encourage all of their friends to invest. Typically, they shoot for $25,000+ investments from each investor. 2. One local company, Cuddle Clones (https://cuddleclones.com/), has utilized the Regulation CF exemption for equity crowdfunding. This is a newer method of crowdfunding that allows anyone, accredited investors or non-accredited investors, to invest. It is very similar to Kickstarter in that you can publicly advertise as much as you like; however, you can actually sell equity investments in your company. Investments can be very small, as little as $100 per investor, so just about anyone can afford it. You can raise a maximum of $1,070,000 per year using this exemption. To use this method, you must utilize one of the licensed online equity crowdfunding portals (such as WeFunder, StartEngine, or SeedInvest). They provide great online resources for walking you through the process and for collecting your funds. But, they're not so great at marketing the capital raise for you. You must be prepared to execute a significant marketing effort (and dollars) in order to make this work. Your capital raise also is limited to a set period of time. If you haven't completed your full raise, you're out of luck. Finally, with most of the portals, you cannot access any of your raised funds until the full capital raise has been completed. However, if you perform an amazing marketing campaign for your capital raise, this process can be very effective. Over $100 million has been raised using Regulation CF since it became legal in May 2016. 3. Finally, another local company, Blue222 (https://blue222.com/), has been successful in utilizing the Regulation D 506(c) SEC exemption. The 506(c) exemption allows a company to raise an unlimited amount of capital from an unlimited number of accredited investors only. You can publicly advertise as much as you like. The one caveat is you must prove that each investor in an accredited investor. The great thing about this exemption is that it is easy to set up, and you don't need to go through a licensed portal to collect funds. You can deposit the funds directly into your account and utilize the money immediately. In the first trial run of this method, Blue222 raised $214,000. Blue222 has intentionally chosen to raise capital in small chunks using the 506(c) exemption. Each small chunk of $200,000 to $300,000 is being sold at higher valuations. This allows earlier investors to get more bang for the buck and encourages people to move quickly to get involved.

ICO regulation is coming to Crypto so its critical to become an expert in securities laws. Learn what will happen to ICOs which didn’t comply in the past, how to perform a compliant security token offering and which key regulatory landmines you should look out for. With Ryan Feit of SeedInvest.

Show Highlights Terri answers Jacqueline’s questions about pitch events and demo days Terri talks about the Ada program in Berlin to encourage more women to be founders and entrepreneurs where she will be a mentor in their first cohort. Terri talks about the SwissNex event last year where she met Anne Cocquyt of The Guild where she had to ask to be on the all-male panel and the facilitator said they would be declaring the king of the evening.  Terri had to shout out “or queen.” The winner ended up being a female founder.  Terri comments on how she dislikes pitch events where winners are declared but there’s no actual financial reward. Terri attends events to learn about what is going on, the latest technology, and potentially find new startups to invest in.  She also looks for founders/startups to help even if she doesn’t invest in the startups.  Terri clarifies her understanding of an evergreen fund for her own investing. How long does it take a company to exit?  Typically, 7-10 years.  But it depends on the business and the exit strategy (IPO, acquisition).  What is an accredited investor?  Terri talks about the discussions around investing in startups and the SEC requirements and that the net worth and income requirements limit who can invest regardless of knowledge and experience.  Terri shares what she is listening for at the various pitch events.  It depends on which hat she is wearing.  In addition to the standard pitch elements, she is looking for ability to communicate.  Is Terri looking for leadership style in the pitches?  Indirectly, yes.  The point of the pitch is to pique interest for follow up conversations.  In early stage startups, you are generally investing in the team.  Terri is excited about one of her investments, Zum, that just announced their $19M Series B raise. Zum is on demand and scheduled rides for kids ages 5-15.  They have a female co-founder/CEO.  At what point do big VCs invest in startups?  What are the various rounds?  Seed, Series A, Series B, etc.  Terri talks about the current landscape with more money coming into startups earlier and VCs investing earlier in the startups.  Geography impacts this as well.  Terri talks about when she invests in convertible notes versus priced rounds. Terri is excited about the first deal, Sendaride, she is syndicating on AngelList.  (This is not a solicitation for funds).  Terri is sharing out to folks in her network who she knows are accredited investors to get them onto the AngelList platform.  Terri found getting onto the platform a bit confusing without a specific deal to invest in.  Terri and Jacqueline were saved by the bell when Terri’s neighbor, Sean,  came over with a cocktail to discuss cryptocurrency, blockchain and ICO’s.    Call to Action Subscribe to one podcast or one newsletter about angel investing and get into the groove of listening and reading.  Feel free to reach out to Terri if you have any questions or comments or other suggestions for resources for new angel investors.  PilotingYourLife@gmail.com   References in the Podcast The Guild: https://theguilded.org/guild/home/index.html#/ Founder Institute: https://fi.co/ Sand Hill Angels: http://www.sandhillangels.com/ Terri’s Medium post on what she looks for in a pitch: https://medium.com/@terrihansonmead/pitching-to-angel-investors-or-at-least-to-me-30696345ebe6 Y Combinator: http://www.ycombinator.com/ 500 Startups: https://500.co/ Acceleprise: http://acceleprise.vc/ Alchemist Accelerator: http://alchemistaccelerator.com/ Ada Accelerator (Ignore Gravity):  https://www.ada-accelerator.com/ SwissNex: https://www.swissnexsanfrancisco.org/ Terri’s Medium post on cryptocurrency, blockchain, ICOs: https://medium.com/@terrihansonmead/cryptocurrency-and-ico-resources-55766cae29e GoBambino: http://www.gobambino.com/ Ben Narasin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bennarasin/ NEA: http://www.nea.com/ Accredited investor requirements: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/a/accreditedinvestor.asp SeedInvest: https://www.seedinvest.com/ Jason Calacanis: http://calacanis.com/ Launch Festival: https://www.launchfestival.com/ Jobs Act: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jumpstart_Our_Business_Startups_Act Clara Brenner of Urban Venture Fund talks about the Series A crunch at a Founder University event: http://thisweekinstartups.com/founder-university-clara-brenner/ Sequoia Capital: https://www.sequoiacap.com/ AngelList: https://angel.co/ Sendaride: https://sendaride.com/   Contact 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.

Peter Daigle attorney specializing in consumer bankruptcy. He has helped thousands of individuals and families obtain relief from creditors  Ryan Feit CEO and Co-Founder of SeedInvest. Ryan was instrumental in the passage of the 2012 JOBS Act, which changed 80-year-old U.S. securities laws to make it possible for entrepreneurs to raise capital over the Internet.  Since then, Ryan has served as a focal point of the budding Equity Crowdfunding industry, co-founding the Crowdfunding Professional Association and serving as a board member of the Crowdfund Intermediary Regulatory Advocates. He also worked closely with members of the SEC, FINRA, the White House, and the Treasury Department on the implementation of the JOBS Act Pamela Thorp Integrative Psychotherapist, Guided Personal Solutions, Owner/Operator and Motivational Coach. Her fascination with the richness of the human experience brought her to her first career as a professional actress Laney Lyons Co-Author of Amazon #1 Best Seller “Don't be a yes chick: How to Stop Babysitting Your Boss, Transform Your Job and Work with a Dream Team Without Losing Your Sanity or Your Spirit in the Process  For more information go to MoneyForLunch.com. Connect with Bert Martinez on Facebook. Connect with Bert Martinez on Twitter. Need help with your business? Contact Bert Martinez. Have Bert Martinez speak at your event!

October 24, 2013 - Read the Forbes article and watch the interview here: http://onforb.es/1hcwY8Q. Subscribe to this podcast on iTunes by clicking here: http://bit.ly/ymotwitunes. Yesterday the Securities and Exchange Commission voted to approve its first rules under Title III of the 2012 JOBS Act governing crowdfunding. Experts Jilliene Helman of Realty Mogul, a crowdfunding site for real estate investments, Doug Ellenoff, a securities lawyer specializing in crowdfunding law, Ryan Feit of SeedInvest, and Bill Clark of MicroVentures will join me for a live discussion and instant reaction to the proposed rules at 11:00 AM Eastern today, October 24, 2013. The following is my summary of Title III of the JOBS Act adapted from my book, Crowdfunding for Social Good. The law limits businesses that raise money through crowdfunding to $1 million of crowdfunded investments per twelve month period. The SEC is likely to clarify when such periods start and end, though such limits may not be part of the rules issued today. Limits are set by the Act on the amount of money non-accredited (those without a million-dollar net worth excluding their home or without a $200,000 personal income) investors may invest. For those with both income and net worth less than $100,000, they will be allowed to invest the greater of $2,000 or 5 percent of the greater of their annual income or net worth. For those with either net worth or income greater than $100,000 they will be allowed to invest up to 10 percent of the greater of their annual income or net worth. The Act requires that all crowdfunded transactions be completed using a registered portal or broker-dealer. You are not allowed to set up your own website to conduct your offering or to use a website like Kickstarter or Indigogo that are not registered with the SEC or FINRA. (FINRA is expected to issues rules soon that will govern the registration and conduct of portals and broker-dealers conducting crowdfunding.) The Act also provides some specific rules for intermediaries (portals and broker-dealers). The Act requires that Intermediaries: Register with the SEC and FINRA as either a portal or a broker-dealer. Provide all of the disclosure of risk that the SEC may require. Ensure that investors complete investor education requirements established by the SEC and understand the risks of investing in crowdfunded securities, including the fact that they can lose their entire investment. Deter fraud by conducting background checks and taking other measures as required by the SEC. Protect the privacy of investors. Ensure that investors are not violating their individual investment limits across all of the crowdfunded investments. (The SEC is rumored to have decided not to enforce this provision.) Shall not pay “finders” or “affiliates” of any sort for bringing investors to the opportunities. Prohibit its own directors and officers from investing in companies issuing securities on their platforms. Issuers, that is to say the companies raising money by issuing the new securities, are required by law to disclose the following information (note that the SEC has rulemaking authority to expand and clarify this list): Directory information for the company so that people can find and verify its existence. Officers, directors and large shareholders (those holding more than 20 percent of the ownership) are required to be disclosed. A complete business plan will also be required. A description of the financial condition of the company, including tax returns and financial statements. Those raising less than $100,000, the financial statements needn’t be reviewed or audited. Those raising between $100,000 and $500,000 are required to have their financial statements reviewed. Finally, those raising more than $500,000 are required to have their financial statements audited. Companies must explain the use of “proceeds” or the money raised. The price of the securities offered must be disclosed, or, in the event the platform uses an auction or other process to determine a price, the process for setting the price must be disclosed and the price must be made available to investors prior to making a final commitment to participate. The ownership structure of the entity must be explained, including the rights of each class of stock so that investors understand how their new shares of ownership (in the case of an equity offering) will compare to the rights of other shareholders. Please be sure to tune in to the discussion to learn more about today’s newly issued rules; the summary above pertains to the law as passed in 2012 and not to today’s announcements and is provided only for context. Please help me continue this conversation on Twitter at @devindthorpe and at my personal website yourmarkontheworld.com.