Invest in Wefunder: We're like Kickstarter for investing. Help us fund 20,000 more founders. on @wefunder

CEO

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

Greg Belote

CTO

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

Mike Norman

Founder (indefinite sabbatical)

MBA from MIT. Former national kickboxing champion. Holds Series 7. Alumni of Y Combinator. Loves interviewing founders and telling their story.

Stats & Traction

Annual charts

On May 2016, Regulation Crowdfunding rolled out. Our business changed from serving only the wealthy to allowing anyone to invest as little as $100. We spent most of 2017 and 2018 on automations to handle the dramatic increase in investments and operational burden. Our growth is now starting to re-accelerate.

Q1 2019 is Our Best Quarter Ever

Our market share is increasing

Over Q1 2019, we've done about as much Reg CF funding volume as our three closest competitors. This is despite Wefunder having a team of 12. Most of our other competitors have over 40.

Source: CCA and Crowditz

Economics

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

Our monthly expenses have been below $225,000 in Q1 2019. At a 9% average fee, we need to exceed $2.5M in Reg CF investment volume per month to be profitable.

$303,053

Avg. Funding per Company

7.5%

Cash Transaction Fee Paid by Company

1.5%

Avg. Cash Transaction Fee Paid by Investors

$27,275

Revenue per Company Funded

$500

Direct Costs per Company

$200

Acquisition Cost per Company

$225,000

Avg. Monthly Expenses,
Q1 2019

$2.5M

Reg CF Investment Volume to breakeven at 9% fee

Our Growth Driver: Companies

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

$303,053

Average funding per company funded since May 16th 2016

334

Average Investors per company funded since May 16th 2016

58%

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

22%

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

$99,370

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

Lifetime Value per Company

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

Barrow's: $154,000+

Barrow's raised $301,688 in 2016.

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

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

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

LegionM: $1M+

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

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

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

Cost of Company Acquisition

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

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

2013-2016 Investor Returns

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

41%

Unrealized net IRR²

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

$2,975,000

Total if invested $25K in each startup on Wefunder

$9,569,549

Current unrealized value as of Dec 2018

3.3X

Return multiple

81%

Startups still active
(96 of 119)

40%

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

$2.2 Billion

Follow-on financing
after our investment

11 @ $100M

11 startups now valued at over $100 million

Company	Follow-on Funding after We Invested	Last Status	Return Multiple	Value of $25K Investment
Zenefits	$581,500,000	$500M Series C by Fidelity	206.1X	$5,152,500
Ginkgo Bioworks	$429,000,000	$270M Series D by General Atlantic	4.37X	$109,250
Rappi	$339,000,000	$200M by DST Global	12.34X	$308,500
Checkr	$149,000,000	$100M Series C by T. Rowe Price	34.31X	$857,750
UBiome	$105,000,000	$83M Series C by OS Fund
GrubMarket	$62,000,000	$32M Series C by GGV Capital	3.15X	$78,750
ShipBob	$61,500,000	$40M Series C by Menlo Ventures	7.31X	$182,750
Equipment Share	$56,500,000	$26M Series B by Insight Venture Partners
Ironclad, Inc.	$30,750,000	$22.75M Series B	2.9X	$72,500
Goldbely	$30,000,000	$20M Series B by Enlightened Hospitality Investments
Unbabel	$29,500,000	$23M Series B by Scale Venture	1.45X	$36,250
Guesty	$22,750,000	$19.8 Series B by TLV Partners	2.56X	$64,000
Casetext	$19,000,000	$12M Series B by Union Square	2.4X	$60,000
Eight	$19,000,000	$14M Series B by Khosla Ventures	1X	$25,000
Flirtey	$16,000,000	$16M Series A by Qualcomm and Menlo Ventures	1.11X	$27,750
Paperspace	$15,778,000	$13M Series A by Battery Ventures	1.63X	$40,750
Astranis	$13,500,000	$13.5M Series A by Andreessen Horowitz	1.87X	$46,750
Skymind	$11,900,000	$8.9M By Translink Capital & others	1.81X	$45,250
Regalii	$11,900,000	$7.9M by Kapor Capital	1.68X	$42,000
Aptible	$11,800,000	$11.8M Series A by Maverick Ventures	1.08X	$27,000
Freight Farms	$11,000,000	$7.3M Series B by Spark Capital	1.75X	$43,750
Bonfire	$11,000,000	Acquired by GTY Technology Holdings for $108M	1X	$25,000
SimpleLegal	$10,000,000	$10M Series A by Emergence Capital	2.49X	$62,250
Eden Tech	$10,000,000	$10M Series A by S28 Capital	1.23X	$30,750
Mux	$9,000,000	$9M Series A by Accel	1.33X	$33,250
Ross Intelligence	$8,700,000	$8.7M Series A by iNovia Capital	1.53X	$38,250
LabDoor	$7,740,000	$3.4M Series A by Floodgate	1X	$25,000
Jopwell	$7,500,000	$7.5M Series A by Cue Ball	1X	$25,000
Gecko Robotics	$7,000,000	$7M Series A by Founders Fund	2.58X	$64,500
Virtuix	$7,000,000	$7M on SeedInvest in 2016	1X	$25,000
Zenprospect	$7,000,000	$7M Series A by Nexus Venture Partners	1X	$25,000
Replenish (Liveblends)	$6,900,000	$6.9M by Alumni Ventures	1X	$25,000
Privy	$6,350,000	$4.25M Series A by Accomplice	2.68X	$67,000
Senic	$6,300,000	$4M by Birchmere Ventures	1X	$25,000
Zenysis	$5,800,000	$5.8M Series A by Tencent Holdings	1.65X	$41,250
Second Measure	$5,400,000	$5.4M seed round	1X	$25,000
Terrafugia	$5,350,000	Acquired by Geely for Stock	1X	$25,000
Next Caller	$5,000,000	$5M Series A by Crystal Towers	1.9X	$47,500
Cleanly	$5,000,000	$5M Series A by AddVenture	1.24X	$31,000
Shinesty	$4,460,000	$3.38M Series A	1X	$25,000
Gravitational	$4,200,000	$4.2M seed round	1X	$25,000
Alphaflow	$4,100,000	Seed Round $4.1M	1X	$25,000
Plate iQ	$4,000,000	$4M Series A by Eileses Capital	1X	$25,000
Circle Medical Technologies	$3,500,000	$3.5M by A. Capital Ventures	1X	$25,000
Wevorce	$3,100,000	$3.1M Series A by TechStars	1X	$25,000
OncoSynergy	$3,000,000	$3M Series A by Connecticut Innovations	1.44X	$36,000
Final	$3,000,000	Acquired by Goldman Sachs	1X	$25,000
Dealflicks	$2,900,000	Failed	0X	$0
Flaviar	$2,250,000	$2.25M Series A by Speedinvest II International	2.08X	$52,000
Mtailor	$2,000,000	$2M by Khosla Ventures	1X	$25,000
Chai	$2,000,000	$2M seed round	1X	$25,000
TranscendLighting	$2,000,000	$2M Seed Round by Rose Capital	1X	$25,000
Scopear	$2,000,000	$2M by New Stack Ventures	1X	$25,000
Lawnlove	$1,900,000	Alive	1X	$25,000
One Month Rails	$1,900,000	$1.9M by Arena Ventures	1X	$25,000
Instavest	$1,700,000	$1.7M seed round	1X	$25,000
Real Crowd	$1,600,000	$1.6M seed round	1X	$25,000
Pakible	$1,500,000	$1.5M seed	1X	$25,000
Naytev	$1,300,000	Alive	1X	$25,000
Roomstorm	$1,300,000	$1.3M seed round	1X	$25,000
Asseta	$1,000,000	$1M by Flight Ventures	1.54X	$38,500
Statuspage.io	$0	Acquired by Atlassian for Cash	2.87X	$71,750
7 Cups of Tea	$0	Alive	1.62X	$40,500
Geekatoo	$0	Acquired by HelloTech	1.28X	$32,000
Interviewed	$0	Acquired by Indeed for Cash	1.21X	$30,250
Bitaccess	$0	Alive	1X	$25,000
GBatteries	$0	$1.2M grant by Canada	1X	$25,000
Motionsavvy	$0	Alive	1X	$25,000
Ravti	$0	Alive	1X	$25,000
Roost	$0	Alive	1X	$25,000
Two Tap	$0	Alive	1X	$25,000
CapLinked	$0	Alive	1X	$25,000
Chronos	$0	Alive	1X	$25,000
Depict	$0	Alive	1X	$25,000
Experiment	$0	Alive	1X	$25,000
Give Me Tap!	$0	Alive	1X	$25,000
Italist	$0	Alive	1X	$25,000
Meadow	$0	$2.1M seed round	1X	$25,000
Olset	$0	Acquired by Deem Inc.	1X	$25,000
OwnLocal	$0	Alive	1X	$25,000
Parknav	$0	Alive	1X	$25,000
Toymail	$0	Alive	1X	$25,000
Underground Cellar	$0	Alive	1X	$25,000
Voiq	$0	Alive	1X	$25,000
Mashgin	$0	Alive	1X	$25,000
NexTravel	$0	Alive	1X	$25,000
Smarking	$0	$3M seed round led by Khosla	1X	$25,000
Placenote (previously Vertical)	$0	Alive	1X	$25,000
Worklife	$0	Acquired by Cisco Systems Inc.	1X	$25,000
AppCanary	$0	Acquired by Github	1X	$25,000
Her	$0	Alive	1X	$25,000
Ticketfairy	$0	Alive	1X	$25,000
DealGamed (Lynks)	$0	Alive	1X	$25,000
TrendMD	$0	Alive	1X	$25,000
Unima	$0	Alive	1X	$25,000
Nomiku	$0	Alive	1X	$25,000
Outbound.io	$0	Acquired by Zendesk	0.84X	$21,000
Bikanta	$0	Failed	0X	$0
Watchsend	$0	Failed	0.78X	$19,500
Camperoo	$0	Failed	0X	$0
Gone	$0	Failed	0X	$0
Bluesmart	$0	Failed	0X	$0
CoolChip	$0	Failed	0X	$0
Emberlight	$0	Failed	0X	$0
Kash	$0	Failed	0X	$0
Automate Ads	$0	Failed	0X	$0
MadeSolid	$0	Failed	0X	$0
SourceEasy	$0	Failed	0X	$0
Stayful	$0	Failed	0X	$0
Swapbox	$0	Failed	0X	$0
ValetAnywhere	$0	Failed	0X	$0
WhalePath	$0	Failed	0X	$0
Beep	$0	Failed	0X	$0
Doblet	$0	Failed	0X	$0
Fixed	$0	Failed	0X	$0
Magnises	$0	Failed	0X	$0
Traction	$0	Failed	0X	$0
Skynet	$0	Failed	0X	$0
Vive	$0	Failed	0X	$0

1.Assuming all startups funded by Wefunder Advisors were in the portfolio of one fund with equal $25K investments, comparison data by Cambridge Associates.
2.Net IRR after fees and carry. Marked as of Dec 2018, to latest valuation paid by an investor. Unaudited. Unrealized. Learn about IRR
3.Source: Cambridge Associates. Note that unrealized IRR often goes down over time. The final realized return will likely be lower.
4.Past performance is not indicative of future returns. Read Other Disclosures
5. xx.team is operated by Wefunder Advisors, an exempt reporting advisor. Results include startups funded via wefunder.com.

XX has recruited great partners

The results above do not include the track record of the XX team members, who often invest individually. The XX is a team of 50 founders who built startups worth $3.9 billion (with 10 exits). That experience gives us an edge: we spot good founders and help them reach their full potential. Collectively, we've seeded 20 startups now worth over $100M.

Investor Q&A

Expand all

What does your company do?

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

Where will your company be in 5 years?

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

Why did you choose this idea?

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

How do you earn money?

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

What is the value of your current carried interest stake?

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

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

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

Why are your fees lower than your competitors?

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

How are you different than AngelList?

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

Who are your competitors?

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

How big can you be?

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

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

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

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

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

What are the most important parts of your user experience?

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

Why is your team awesome? Why you?

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

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

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

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

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

What is your biggest risk?

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

How will regulatory reforms help you grow faster?

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

1	~$90 million investments made on Wefunder.
2	Processed over 100,000 payments from ~50,000 investors.
3	$2M+ revenue in 2017-18.
4	Largest funding portal by investment volume and number of investors. Almost larger than our top three competitors combined.
5	$2.2 billion of follow-on financing into startups first listed on Wefunder. 40%+ IRR from 2013-16 vintage years.
6	We're the first funding portal. We helped change the law in 2012 and launched the first day Regulation Crowdfunding was legal.
7	Helped Congress pass JOBS Act in 2012; invited to watch President Obama sign into law.
8	Helped House pass JOBS Act 3.0 406-4. Senate action expected in 2019. This is expected to turbo-charge our growth.

Why you may want to support us...

Our Team

And Our Major Accomplishments

Why people love us

Some of our investors

we've raised $8,856,639 from 680+ investors since our founding

In the news

The Story of Wefunder

Lobbied Congress to legalize equity crowdfunding

Invited to watch president obama sign

Y COMBINATOR

Launched 'rich person crowdfunding'

Talks with sec

make beautiful software

sec posts final rules for reg crowdfunding

Amtrak across America

regulation CROWDFUNDING GOES LIVE!

Launched XX: a community of founders

Wefunder is the largest funding portal

Results: May 2016 to May 2017

Stats & Traction

Annual charts

Q1 2019 is Our Best Quarter Ever

Our market share is increasing

Economics

Our Growth Driver: Companies

Lifetime Value per Company

Cost of Company Acquisition

2013-2016 Investor Returns

XX has recruited great partners

Investor Q&A

Q1 2019 Investor Update & Special Invite

Founder-in-Residence (Full-Time)

Exploring the Most Unique Relationship in Investing

Wefunder goes to the woods to build

Mid-Year Wefunder Update

The Six Types of People You Meet on a Cross-Country Train Trip

What should I look for in a good startup founder?

Let's make capitalism more human

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What people are saying

Notes from investors

In the news

Nick applied to Wefunder

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