CED’s Venture Connect 2022 was an amazing event with 85 startups presenting and 750 people in attendance. The band and BBQ at the end was icing on the cake and the diversity and impact of the startups presenting was unparalleled. More people need to know about these innovators.

This article focuses on healthtech & life sciences, but there were other amazing innovations in supply chain tech, consumer tech, & more at the CED event.

CED Venture Connect got me thinking — how would we 10x or even 100x the stories of these startups to more than 750 people?

Imagine if we could get those innovators messages out to 75,000 or even 7,500,000 people...

• Would this shorten the time to develop the cures & tech to save lives?
• Could this help find the right patients for new clinical trials?
• Could this reduce time for those working on vital devices which provide mobility back to those who have lost it?

Investment Crowdfunding provides an pathway for startups & other private businesses to raise investment capital from hundreds or even thousands of people who believe in their vision. Startups can leverage that army of ambassadors — many with the connections they need — to help grow the company and expand their reach.

Let me give examples and some context. My dad died of pancreatic cancer. It’s the 3rd leading cause of cancer related death behind lung and colon and it’s hard to find someone who DOESN’T know of someone it has killed.

My dad’s situation is one reason I joined 4,825 other ‘crowd investors’ who poured over $1M alongside VC-backed (how VC works) and female led Delee in 2019.

Delee — blood tests for cancer detection

Delee’ device, CytoCatch™ can detect 1 tumor cell out of 37.5 billion blood cells.

By investing, my family is helping Delee achieve success. When timing is right, I’ll also make introductions to Johns Hopkins clinical-trials team where my dad was treated for pancreatic cancer.

Delee opened investment for $50 minimums to strategically maximize their reach. They actively educate their investor community on progress and what they can do to help.

Koning — no compression breast cancer detection

Then there’s Koning who developed a true 3D breast imaging device (KBCT) and technology for Stage 0 and Stage 1 cancers, detecting tumors as small as 2mm and calcifications as small as 200 microns.

Existing compression tests are only ~30% effective at detecting cancer. With prone positioning and no compression, KBCT allows for a better patient experience. Think KBCT’s device will increase the number of women who get checked?

My wife’s family has a history of breast cancer. Will sharing this article accelerate KBCT’s time to reach 100’s or 1,000’s of grandmothers, mothers, and daughters? I’ll let you decide.

Let me share just a couple of others.

Atom Limbs — prosthetics to end physical disability

Atom Limbs prosthetics is mind controlled. Less than 1 in 5 arm amputees wear a prosthetic — prosthetics simply are not good enough. Part of the team from Atom Limbs helped develop the 1st iPhone, iMac, and Tesla

Saebo — home stroke recovery

Saebo’s products shorten the time for those who have had a stroke to restore mobility. Their products are backed by years of clinical research and designed for simple use at home. They are FDA approved and their non-invasive devices are affordable, even to those without insurance coverage.

I’ll let you dive in deeper to all of these.

But there are 1000’s of startups working on cures & devices which restore mobility.

One of the biggest issues with shortening time to cures is there is little work being done to effectively source the knowledge of these startups between researchers, funders, and those participating in tests.

Investment Crowdfunding accelerates knowledge sharing and aligns incentives between all involved. Also as I like to say, margin = mission = impact. People are dying. Startups are close to developing cures. We can focus on creating AND getting products, cures, devices, etc. to the patient / end consumer through a network who can help rapidly accelerate it.

Let’s assume each person who came to CED Venture Connect 2022 has a network of at least 100 direct connections who DON’T overlap each other and who would be receptive to at least 1 of the 85 startups.

• 750*100 (now we’re up to 75,000).
• Let’s assume each of those connections has the same. Now we’re up to 7,500,000 people

What could even a fraction of those people — mothers, fathers, students, doctors, researchers, professors, sons, daughters, and more — do to help each startup?

Is finding that network worth opening an investment crowdfunding round?

We don’t know until they are asked — and often innovation and the connection needed comes from unexpected locations

This network effect is also why in just 6 years since it became possible for founders to seek investment capital from everyone, $1.1B has poured in across 4,800+ offerings from over 1M people …and half of that came in 2021 alone.

The combined valuation of those startups is estimated to be $33B. Hundreds of thousands of jobs have been created, and there are multiple stories of accelerating time to market / expansion / reach to those are ultimately the end user / consumer / buyer.

Who are these 85 innovators at CED?

CED listed them on our their site and we have created a simple Notion table for anyone learn more and share.

Go spread the word about these innovators and any connection you have that may accelerate their time to a cure. Your life or the life of a loved one could very well depend on it.

Let’s go create the future

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This is not intended as a solicitation to invest in any offering. Any mention of companies with live investment offerings is for educational purposes only and should not be construed as a recommendation to invest. We are not tax, legal, or investment advisors. Investing is risky. Most investments fail. Never invest more than you can afford to lose.

These innovators are diverse and inspiring. Their innovations shape the way we interact. From apps, to kiosks, to supply chain, here are stories from tech founders working with Incolo.

• BatteryXchange’s “Redbox for battery rental” keeps society charged on the go especially in colleges, universities, and healthcare clients such as Atrium Health.
• The Black Dollar Corp’s directory showcases 1,100+ black-owned businesses and also runs a retail arm supporting those without physical retail space to sell their products in downtown Raleigh with more locations coming along with a co-manufacturing arm.
• Blue Gas Marine’s hybrid natural gas conversion kit for boats burning 100 or 1,000 gallons of fuel per day is more efficient than gasoline & diesel and solves major environmental problems for waterways & the air we breathe
• BNNano’s Boron Nitride NanoBarb™ can make space ships up to 40% lighter and they’ve landed some major top tier clients and partnerships — Huneed, TER Group (German chemical distribution company), DOD labs, the US Navy, Kairos,True Velocity, and several others
• Cardstalk’s print on demand greeting cards from local artisans helps you deliver a personal touch, helps artisans thrive, and takes up way less space for retailers
• GreenLifeTech™’s tech to solve food waste extends fresh produce life by up to 5x and is initially rolling out as a consumer product, but imagine its economic & environmental impact on refrigeration freight transport
• Josh Terry BitVault’s partnership with MiningStore.com allows anyone to be part of Web 3.0 by getting into Bitcoin mining operations
• Simpliworks’ software serves 3rd party Amazon and other eCommerce sellers — they even helped a company scale from $0 in revenue to meaningful sale of their business (exit) in less than 1 year
• Trilliott’s RFID IoT software is transforming logistics and supply chain in a big way — enabling them to track all of their things in real time

Time to dive in!

BatteryXchange

Desmond Wiggan from BatteryXchange (BXE) was one of the 1st founders I worked with after starting Incolo. He and Aubrey Yeboah (co-founder) early on in BXE’s journey had already managed to land 1,000 paying users with 90% saying they would use BXE’s ‘Redbox for battery rental’ on a weekly basis. To start, Desmond, Aubrey and team leased out batteries for cell phones while they stood behind the kiosk to educate consumers.

Yet even with their traction, they could not get investment funding. “You’re too early” was a common theme from the funding groups they approached. So they approached their community and landed over $100K from 90 investors. Flash forward less than 2 years later after funding and they grew 500% 2021 vs. 2020 and the crowd has also opened doors at top universities, healthcare entities, and professional sports teams.

The main reason I value my relationship with Desmond is his impact model. He told me early on that while BXE’s financial model is leasing kiosks & advertising, their impact model is finding that one kid who had never been told they could be a tech founder. “Growing up in black communities we weren’t exposed much to being a tech founder. Even when we got into the space we still didn’t see many people that looked like us, so it’s a question of “who do we learn from?” If I can find that one person who looks like me and they become a tech founder, BatteryXchange has achieved success.”

How’s that for building the #FutureEconomy!

The Black Dollar Corp

#BlackDollarNC & #BlackFridayMarket

Johnny Hackett, Jr., Founder & CEO of The Black Dollar Corp, Inc. launched the startup in 2019 with a free online directory of black owned / operated businesses across NC, #BlackDollarNC with a goal of expanding and monetizing it to reach more businesses it could serve.

In Sept 2020, I get a call from Johnny — “Hey Will, we’re opening a retail store in the heart of Raleigh, NC. What do you think?”

“Awesome!” I replied.

3 months later, in the middle of the pandemic in December 2020, Black Friday Market was born to provide commission-free retail space to small businesses. (Note: Johnny wants everyone to know the store supports all small businesses who need access to shared retail space regardless of color.)

In the 1st 10 months, the storefront was profitable generating $315K in sales for small businesses and #BlackDollarNC’s director has grown to 1,100+ members, generating over $300K for business owners through events.

Collectively, The Black Dollar Corp’s team has generated over $600K in sales for 200+ businesses in 10 months.

Now they are on a mission to grow the directory to reach 100k business owners and offer paid services that have been demanded from their existing 1.1k member audience such as paid ads.

Johnny was featured in an article in the NY Times in Jan of 2022.

Johnny’s ninja power is that he’s likable by everyone and authentic to the core of building partnerships.

Blue Gas Marine

Miguel, Founder & CEO of Blue Gas Marine (right), Boating with Natural Gas

Miguel Guerreiro, Founder and CEO of Blue Gas Marine loves the water. His startup created a portable gas dispensing solution used by breweries, airport hangers, and large utilities. Even more exciting is that they have also commercialized a hybrid conversion system for boats, enabling gasoline engines to run on 100% natural gas — far more fuel efficient, less expensive, and clean. Their tech for diesel engines which are far more polluting than gasoline engines is almost complete and once released has major potential to solve HUGE pollution issues plaguing waterways and cities

Yes, it may sound crazy at 1st, but a ton of coastal city air pollution issues are linked to tugboats & freight ships which can easily burn 1,000 gallons of diesel per day.

“Will, we have to get our natural gas hybrid solution to more locations. I love being on the water and to be able to provide a cleaner solution that’s more efficient and safer [is vital].”

I agree. Miguel leading his company to successful station roll out with their hybrid solution is vital to the #FutureEconomy and our planet’s future.

BNNano

BNNano’s nanotubes are a game changer for industrial commodities such as plastics and metals. Their Boron Nitride NanoBarb™, a nanotube encased in multi-crystal h-BN that looks like a piece of rock candy, makes the metals & plastics used in airplanes, spaceships, and cars lighter and stronger just to name a few of the applications. They have even made aluminum as stiff as steel at a fraction of the weight, and they are just getting started.

100+ use cases have already been identified and they have top tier clients and partnerships with Huneed, TER Group (German chemical distribution company), DOD labs, the US Navy, Kairos,True Velocity, and several others that cannot be listed due to NDAs.

It is exciting to work with such an innovative company. BNNano is:

• Integral to rebuilding local communities harmed by globalization by bringing manufacturing back to the US — manufacturing in Burlington, NC
• Reduce environmental impact by reducing the amount of materials needed in manufacturing
• Free from supply chain limitations (100% US produced and readily available)
• Creating new novel solutions such as water purification via their nanotubes
• A growing US National Security asset
• And more…

Did I mention that BNNano is already community owned? They were the 1st venture ready NC company to run a $1M+ investment crowdfunding round. I remember Steve, Co-Founder & CEO, telling me “Will, it just makes so much sense to be community owned. We’ve grown from the beginning as a company supported by an investor crowd of friends, family, and those who love building cool things.”

Cardstalk

Co-founder and CEO, Steph Prime, is no stranger to the tech space. Co-founder Brandon Prime and her are ex-Amazon engineers. Their startup, Cardstalk, makes the software and kiosks to help you and me find a greeting card we actually want to give.

How’s it work?

• Select a design from a local artisan,
• pay, and
• print in less than a minute.

Earth Fare in Asheville, NC partnered with them on their 1st location and others are in flight. In less than 2 months after deploying their 1st kiosk, over 100 cards had been printed with local artisans sharing in a cut for their art usage. What I love about Steph and Brandon is that they absorb a ton of information, organize, and process it to constantly test and improve.

More importantly, I remember vividly Steph & Brandon telling me, “Will, we started Cardstalk because we knew we could do work which could truly impact the local community & planet — [artisans being paid fairly, consumers having more options, local business owners having more traffic driven into their stores].”

They know they have high scale potential, and their mission includes generating local impact everywhere their kiosks are deployed!

GreenLifeTech™

The team has built some really meaningful tech to solve food waste by extending fresh produce life — up to 5x. Even prior to their product launch, they created a community of 112 investors ($100 to $100,000) who are ambassadors of the impact GreenLifeTech™ can create.

Initially they are rolling out a consumer product, but it’s more than that. Imagine the tech’s economic & environmental impact on refrigeration transport. There’s numerous ways the tech can be applied.

What really drew me into their team was their giveback component. I still remember when Bruce told me, “Will, I’m donating 50% of my equity ownership in the company to charity. If we’re successful, that’ll have a lasting impact on that charity’s work.” This is an essential component of the company’s values. Who knows how many seeds that were planted in other founders and other investors — to think about how they can expand their impact by simply allocating part of their ownership in great companies they help build to non-profits serving those most in need. Let’s make GreenLifeTech™ successful to drive scaling ROX in the world [X=your definition of impact].

“Josh Terry BitVault”

Josh Terry (@joshterryplays) TikTok | Watch Josh Terry's Newest TikTok Videos

Josh Terry is a master of deep reflection and thought. His audience of 1.2M people and counting on TikTok value his regular insights. His passion for combining forces with JP Baric and Drew Kulak from Miningstore.com came from his desire to spread the decentralized economy.

When I asked Josh why, his answer was simple, “Everyone should have access.”

Josh, JP, and Drew are innately curious and I imagine this venture is only the 1st of many that may be to come. For now though, in true decentralized fashion, they are opening the ability to become part of a Bitcoin mining operation to the masses.

Raise Disclaimer: Incolo proudly has a stake in Josh Terry BitVault and serves as a paid business consultant.

Simpliworks

Malik McCray, CEO & Co-founder of Simpliworks shared with me that their Ad/MarTech helped start, grow, and exit the startup of a new founder who started with $0 in sales to selling their startup for over $800K to one of the large Amazon business aggregators in less than 1 year.

Simpliworks — a startup that began less than 2 years ago in 2020 is scaling quickly themselves and already helped another business achieve a meaningful exit in less than 1 year. Progress can move at lightning pace in the startup world. (Here’s a super fascinating podcast about those taking a play on Amazon without investing in Amazon).

Malik and Keith both share a similar passion. They exist to help the small business owner on Amazon who is riddled with marketing expenses, and soaring inventory costs plagued with super high interest rates (some would call it ‘predatory lending’).

Trilliott

Trilliott’s team is part of the 4th wave of computing — Internet of Things (IoT) & Radio-frequency identification (RFID). Founder & CEO Booth Kalmbach wrote the original software and Trilliott’s clients include some of the largest & well known manufacturers in the world. Their software and devices enable large B2B supply chains to operate more effectively — giving control back to companies to know exactly how much and where their ‘things’ are.

Trilliott SmartSITE™ is an RFID-first supply chain and warehouse management service for businesses to digitize inventory and assets, improve accuracy, and manage asset lifecycle

The 1st wave of computing birthed Silicon Valley, so it’s exciting to see the 4th wave is being propelled in North Carolina. e.g. A major chip manufacturing eyeing this region with $40B+ ($40,000,000,000) potential investments is improving and attracting a ton of talent and innovation to add to what we already have in the area.

Oh so many memories to share about Booth ;-), especially since he was one of the 1st founders I started to work back when I was starting Incolo in 2019 (then known as CrowdfundNC). I think my favorite was when Booth and I were talking about past experiences. Get this! He literally wrote the algorithm that allows our phones to talk to each other. Let that sync in for a bit…

That’s some pretty cool & vital innovation coming out of the region.

…and this is just a subset of the teams we work with. We can’t wait to share all the stories.

If you like this, clap, but more importantly let us know what you’d like to see more of. Also, we’re always happy to connect others directly with the founders we work with. We use a double opt in. Just let us know, hello (at) incolo.io.

Note: No company listed here should be assumed to be raising capital or planned to raise capital unless specifically mentioned. Not all of the companies we work with run investment rounds.

As an entrepreneur, I’ll admit, I’m fairly protected and insulated from the world’s most severe problems, both within the US and globally. Don’t get me wrong, I have access to see them, but I’m usually so ‘busy’ they don’t impact me directly, so I’m not watching.

I’m ashamed to make that statement in a world where everything is accessible…

… but I don’t think I’m alone.

I write this article, because my wife and I were watching the news (something she normally does and I’m very bad about) and I wonder if the ‘Nature of Capitalism’ within an ‘Morally Ethical’ people could produce a flywheel to solve these problems. I believe there will always be rich and poor, but I’m referring to the length in which an individual sits in that situation can be resolved with the above.

• Nature of Capitalism defined as a multiplying force that continues to multiple if left alone
• Morally Ethical defined as an conscientious awareness / thoughtfulness of the interconnected nature of cause and effect on others for actions we take — from the food we eat to the way we live and how we act on our desires

The global complexities of access to capital to prevent starvation even though we produce more food than the world needs are mind boggling.

Ok entrepreneurial & broader community — Let’s start…

Problem — People are dying in their streets globally due to lack of food, and inability to create commerce

Context — Bloomberg, the UNEP and others report that there is enough food produced annually to feed the world 2x over. Let’s assume the data is true even with current global droughts.

Potential Solution — access to capital and commerce

The following article has interesting Q&A context on how commerce works with a country controlled by the Taliban as well as the unilateral control by the US and World bank over Afghanistan’s Central Bank. The GDP of the country is only $20B and $509 per capita with a population of 38.93m people which is shocking to think about.

Especially shocking in comparison to even some of our cities like Raleigh, NC who’s GDP topped $90B in 2020 for a population of 467k people.

#’s wise, there’s plenty of commerce that could be had.

• How does one do commerce with a country controlled by a group that wants to kill the US?
• The US allowed the Afghanistan Central Bank to commerce again (kind of), but how does that money and aid get directly into the hands of the people who need it especially when a country is ruled by a group that still believes women have less rights than men — and therefore prevents a part of it’s population from participating in the nature of capitalism?

I won’t even go into Ukraine and Russia right now, not because I think the topics are any less worthy of attention, but because there has been plenty of recent coverage on that.

I think the world is facing an ethical divide. Those who value control over another vs. those who value decentralization. This gets out of whack from the nature of humans (us) to compare one to another, to be right, and to get ahead.

Centralization vs. Decentralization — I had a very fascinating conversation with one of Incolo’s investors that I believe to be very true.

We are on the brink of a war of centralized control vs. decentralized power that can be cut on in an instant simply by cutting off the distribution pipe that allows decentralization to work — technology + internet + ruling governments that allow the exchanges between monetary instruments.

Think about that…

…ok, now let’s put everything into context.

• what is your ethical guide?
• Can capitalism within the ethical context that everyone should be able to transact with those who can provide a valuable product or service in return be completely open (De-centralized Control)?
• Should there be restrictions on who can commerce with one another? When?
• Would my interaction on Fiverr with a creator who can provide me a graphic I need fund a terrorist group or feed a family?

I believe over time technology will become more widely adopted providing greater transparency to WHOM we are transacting with and TRUE IDENTITIES and what they stand for will be harder to hide (therefore reducing some of the issues with $ flowing into the wrong hands). Global borders will break down because people will be frustrated with CENTRALIZED rule IF it prevents them from interacting and doing business with others they trust will do good work.

…but for now I just want to see food and water flow to those who need it through those BRAVE souls / boots on the ground who are willing to enter into those areas of conflict — who interface day to day with the very people starving, crippled by war, and those who would control them.

Are they any less worthy to have access to the basic needs I believe my family, my kids and their friends and families should have access to? I choose to believe no. Our fellow citizens of Earth just happen to live in a geography with difference circumstances. That doesn’t remove my obligation to help of make me any more worthy because I have currently have access to more than them.

“The idea that some lives matter less is the root of all that is wrong with the world.”

-Paul Farmer

For the past 80+ years the notion to ‘go to school to get a better job’ is an utter lack of education on how to build up a generation who’s maximizing their talents for impact on community and for their opportunity for personal wealth. Perhaps this is why higher education and even middle schools are RUSHING to provide entrepreneurial education.

It starts with investing

I believe this systematic educational DNA deficiently has been driven by a lack of access to invest in startups and small businesses.

What’s the 1st step a founder takes when starting their business?

• They put a little money on the line. It may be small. It may be big, but they have skin in the game.
• They learn when thing don’t work and pivot and double down when things are working well because cash is the lifeblood of the company.

So why do we expect ANYONE to be able to be better entrepreneurs and founders if they don’t know how to invest?

My wife and I have really learned about what makes culture and communities tick since 2016 simply by investing similar amounts across 80+ companies in founders we believe in.

This isn’t like ‘trading’ in the stock market where you buy & sell at a whim based on the ‘analysis’ of the financial advisors.

This is ‘investing’ in the long term grow of exciting, fun, and boring companies who are shaping the future. Financial returns come from ‘exits’ e.g. being listed on the stock market, selling to another private company, paying investors off cash flows. However, the education on how new technologies and other innovations are being built is what is most interesting to me.

The last exit was for a startup who sold to Logitech. They created a camera which streamed wirelessly on multiple social platforms with 1 click vs. having to leverage 3 to 4 different programs and hardware.

The other — a new medical provider concept where I learned how medical provider coverage could be changed to reach more people. They sold to a public Canadian company.

We have tons of revenue shares with cool main street businesses like Ghostface Brewing which has nearly double their payout since it started just over a year ago — yes the crowd is a powerhouse at driving sales momentum.

Several others on paths to IPO (aka ‘exit’ to the stock market). Sorry, except for Knightscope (security robots) and NYCE’s Temple-I (college student living space), I can’t disclose who those are at this time, but in general, any company that is scaling rapidly fits the potential to IPO.

I learned a ton about how commercial real estate works within NYCE’s TRIBE community.

…and I’m learning the science behind how immunotherapy treatments are being created to help cure cancer so others don’t have to suffer from this disease.

The world of how we educate is rapidly evolving

Investment Crowdfunding is a trigger for new investors to potentially start new companies of their own they otherwise may not have started.

This leads to an increase of innovation and maximization of individual potential. Is there risk in trying something new and putting money on the line to do it. Hell yes, but that’s the way we progress as individuals and a society to train up the next generation.

We can either be relegated to what the company dictates OR we create the company. In either case, the risk is on those who put the money in for the potential of what could be.

Founders & their teams go deep into how things are made. They respond to investor questions. They welcome intros that can drive their innovation and companies forward.

The world of investing in early stage companies is more like choosing what one is willing to pay for a 1 to 7 year degree around material that rapidly evolves as innovation evolves with the ‘graduation’ having a potential financial return — in which active involvement only increases potential outcomes.

I can pay ~$15–50K/yr to go to a university for a single degree or invest that same amount across 30 to 50 companies to get multiple ‘degrees’ …. with a potential for return.

Elizabeth and I are not experts. We just love what founders are building.

Hell, it’s a risky world and one we knew nothing of until 2016. 2 companies we’ve invested in have failed so far. I’m sure others will too. It’s expected. We got involved because we found it fascinating that we be involved in this world by putting a little money in and then responding to founder asks to open doors for them, connect them with people we knew, go have a beer at their location and bring a friend, etc.. It’s been far more meaningful to us to invest locally and in moonshot ideas across the country because we want to be invested in the innovators creating that world for our children.

Do you know how many founders my son (9 at the time of this writing) has been able to learn from that HE’D NEVER HAVE ACCESS TO IN SCHOOL?

What’s that type of education worth as a parent for your child?

I don’t have a choice on taxes, but at least I can have some opportunity for upside if I put some discretionary or IRA money into local startups, small businesses, and real estate with 100’s or 1000’s of others who all want to work together to make those startups successful.

The system created in the 1930’s to protect people from losing money has created a system where we put wealth into a few select hands (those with knowledge and access) and created diminishing chances to drive innovation.

It doesn’t have to be that way.

Innovation has a dark side — it causes displacement

We have to fix that.

The innovators may create the opportunities that drive up prices, but it’s those who have access to benefit from any Return on Investment that shape communities (because the select few choose what to fund next and at what expected return it will create).

It’s about those who have access to participate in ownership.

• Those who have access to invest in commercial real estate development where leases are paid from retailers, manufacturing, life sciences, and other businesses. Who has access? Typically to some group who gave access to those who could write a minimum check of $50K to $1M.
• Those who have access to invest in the local business community such as main street, franchises, car wash stops, and more.
• Those who are allowed to participate in new innovative startups who might initially be valued at $5M and then shoot up to $50M, $100M, or even become $1B+ (aka “unicorns”)

…and more importantly, individuals having the knowledge of how to help these companies grow even if they are just an investor and not an employee or partner in the company.

If my neighbors are purely relying on the salaries, bonuses, and investments in the public stock market, they’ll do alright, but they will eventually face diminishing returns for time they put in because growth in the cost of living will outpace those gains, just like it has in places like California, New York, is more recently happening in Austin, TX. History does repeat itself.

More importantly, I think they will miss out on of the best educational paths for themselves to really inform what they are called to do in life.

I have met countless entrepreneurs who never would have found their calling and purpose had they not been given access to invest due to the law changes in 2016. Many of these opportunities are open for as little as $100. Heck, an aerospace company, Orbital Assembly, had an offering open for $1 minimums last year. That’s really cool — owning a piece of a space company, learning about to help them grow, and being a part of creating the future.

Please let me be super clear. I am not saying people should invest. I am saying that I’ve found putting some skin in the game has taught me more about industries I never would have known and enabled me to start & grow Incolo within a community of founders who are now growing from the collective knowledge and founder to founder connections.

If we can build this robust education into the DNA of individuals, we’ll have more innovation, the impact we want to see in society, and people living more fulfilling lives where taking a risk is more than jumping from one job to another because of the compensation package or having a ‘comfortable life.’

This new Educational DNA is about creating a culture of risk takers who move dynamically between the best role for them to solve really big problems they are passionate about.

Let’s talk about the ways people can participate.

Employees & Contractors are the most common and will continue to be. Non-profits, government entities, and companies seek out these fine folks. However, unless employees or contractors are granted equity in the companies they work with, their pay grows linearly, while the cost of living in rapidly growing areas increases exponentially.

Sure, they may get a bonus or even a significant raise, but they are mostly locked in = trading time for money.

Founders / Business Owners & early stage Team members take on outsized risk, but if they succeed even just once, in 5 to 10 years, it can yield more $ than what an employee achieves in a 30+ year career. When that occurs, it often generates massive returns for anyone invested.

For example, Malik McCray, CEO & Co-founder of Simpliworks shared with me that their Ad/MarTech helped start, grow, and exit the startup of a new founder who started with $0 in sales to selling their startup for over $800K to one of the large Amazon business aggregators in less than 1 year. Summary: Simpliworks — a startup that began less than 2 years ago in 2020 is scaling quickly themselves and already helped another business achieve a meaningful exit in less than 1 year. Progress can move at lightning pace in the startup world. (Here’s a super fascinating podcast about those taking a play on Amazon without investing in Amazon).

…and lastly

Investors — let’s separate these into those who have access to the ‘stock market’ (everyone) vs. those who have access to private companies ~7% of the population for 80+ years.

There’s definitely a difference. For example, just look at actual returns between public markets and private markets.

You know what separates the left and right side? Even if you wanted to take the risk on the right side of that chart, if you are not an ‘accredited investor,’ you still cannot legally participate in private equity funds, even with the new rule changes.

A level playing field still does not fully exist, but it is rapidly getting better.

Would opening access help increase the potential opportunity for bridging wealth gaps? Despite the risks, the average +ROI is so high, it definitely looks like it might help.

Educational DNA aided this system of the haves and have nots

The common status quo of what one should do for opportunity is to go to higher education (community college, universities, etc.) to land that shiny degree that helps land a ‘great’ job.

I’m going to piss a lot of people off with my next statement.

That’s lazy and uninformed thinking.

Before you write me off, let me answer the question “Should people seek higher education?” Sure. If that path is the best way to both:

• obtain the knowledge they need, and
• opens doors for the experience they need to start

I sure want my surgeon to have the knowledge he/she needs, but I also want them to have the experience.

Isn’t it ironic that in job interviews, candidates that rise to the top are those who demonstrated a mindset of ownership and execution that followed through experience in the ‘real world’ or on unique projects while they were in college.

So the next time you’re thinking about where you might sit in the socio-economic scale, however you define it, remember, there is a community out there that wants you to succeed and may even put $ and their network on the line to help you achieve your vision, but 1st, you have to take the risk of starting…

If you are not wealthy (‘accredited investor’), your opportunity to put your money in private companies you believe could succeed was virtually illegal from 1930 to 2015.

Let me simplify why this is important.

Accredited investors have access to a world of everyday private companies in our backyard while they are early. In other words, private companies are NOT listed on the stock market.

Impact? Uber became available on the stock market (IPO’d) at a $82.4B valuation. As of 1/12/2022, they trade at a $83.5B valuation. Who owned the wealth in the below chart for the various funding rounds? Accredited investors. Why, because laws in the 1930’s gave them access.

How impactful is this? Uber is one of the best performing private market companies of all time and $1K invested in Uber’s 1st round was worth an estimated $1.4M on exit. However, Uber is not alone.

Early investments in AirBnB, Notion, Redhat, and just look at companies on the stock market you recognize all started as private companies. They required early investments. Who shares in the wealth when they list on the stock market?

1. 1st the early accredited investors, and
2. Then the team who built the companies, or
3. Sometimes both of those groups split the returns equally with their ownership without preference over the investors (but that’s beyond the scope of this article).

Investments in these companies are typically done via a high growth Private Fund (aka ‘venture capital’). The average annualized returns of venture capital is 27%. Private Fund or fund is just a fancy word for pooling capital together into an entity such as an LLC or Limited Partnership fund which then invests in 1 or more companies.

But it doesn’t stop at just the high growth tech and device companies…

You may have heard about baby boomers retiring and even may have come across a Youtube ad or 2 to buy existing companies. That’s an example of another subset of the types of companies private funds target, called ‘Private Equity’ or ‘PE. — which is not to be confused with your PE class back in school…though the rush of private equity may feel like a sporting event.

In private equity, Managers or ‘General Partners’ source ‘deals’ (aka opportunities to invest in existing revenue generating companies ‘Operating Businesses’ such as a doctor’s office business or franchise, HVAC company, or other). Then the private equity fund manager buys out the business and deploys a plan to operate the business more efficiently (sometimes that involves firing employees — not all do this, but it is a common practice).

Goal? Get to the top end of this return chart.

I know, this is going to start sounding like a broken record, but guess what?

It doesn’t stop at Operating Businesses…

What about Commercial Real Estate (CRE) such as apartments, leases to manufacturing companies for their space, or your local coffee shop?

Many of those CRE investments are returning 12% to 25% per year and while no-one can formally state the ‘risk profile,’ data shows the average risk profile of high quality apartments and similar commercial real estate is lower than that of bonds. That’s why so many wealthy people invest in real estate.

Who has access? You guessed it. Accredited investors.

Rules created in the 1930’s don’t allow ~93% of the US population to invest in opportunities like Uber until they hit the stock market due to this ‘accredited investor’ arbitrary wealth status. These opportunities are not ‘traded’ and liquid like the stock market. They are ‘invested’ in for the long term potential with limited access to sell along the way and if they ever generate a return (most fail losing investor money), hold times of 7 to 10 years are not uncommon.

If you don’t have $1M in net assets (not including your primary house) or make $200K/yr (or $300K if married), then sorry, you’re out of the ‘accredited investor’ club.

Funny enough, 90% of accredited investors don’t even know they have this elevated access

Where would they have discovered it? ‘Accredited only’ opportunities WERE NOT PERMITTED to be publicly solicited until 2012. So they were shared only with those in the know.

Impact to households and families

The average return of the stock market has been ~10% per year for the past 100 years.

So 93% of the population has access to the stock market returning ~10%/yr on average vs ~7% of the population has access to investments paying MORE for 80+ years.

That’s largely why we have a wealth gap.

It’s important to share that there was a reason for these laws. Most early-stage companies (aka ‘startups’ like Uber, AirBnB, etc. before they are household names) fail meaning it’s very likely to lose most if not all your money made in individual companies. That’s why professional investors such as Angels or VCs will diversify across 30, 40, or more startups at at time.

However, it’s shocking that in America we had laws from the 1930’s lasting until 2016 which restricted the opportunity to take this risk based on an arbitrary wealth status.

More importantly, I can’t even fathom all of the missed opportunity for founders of these startups & other private businesses to leverage a broader network of people to propel sales, marketing, connections, & innovation.

Now, everyone has the opportunity

That’s why I’m excited that a leveler playing field started in 2015 with the passage of ‘Reg A+’ and then Reg CF in 2016 (collectively, ‘Investment Crowdfunding’). They are fancy terms which allow pretty much any company to raise up to $75M and $5M from anyone. They both drive the #FutureEconomy which:

1. creates the opportunity for entrepreneurs to seek capital from anyone,
2. encourage those people to help them grow their companies, and
3. share in any returns created together

The risks of investing early haven’t changed, but the opportunity for who wants to invest in creating the next 80+ years of companies has.

As of the end of 2021, $33B ($33,000,000,000) in value has been created on $1.1B invested across 4800+ companies, creating nearly 100K jobs. It’s expected to hit $2B in 2022. It’s here to stay. Just imagine what we can create together.

Disclaimer: This is educational content and not a solicitation to invest.

The #FutureEconomy has a lot of words associated with it — Web 3.0, NFTs, Decentralized, etc..

• “Distributed Ownership” — Kristine Sloan, Executive Director, Leadership Triangle
• “The Future is Shared” — Topher Thomas, Founder & CEO, Coram Houses

“Equity” — as in literal ownership and “equitable communities” are the words I use to describe what founders in the Incolo community are creating.

From ghost kitchens to on-demand greeting card kiosks, gasoline to natural gas engine hybrid conversion kits for boats, and more, the founders & teams we work with at Incolo create some really cool & impactful stuff!

Here’s a snippet of their amazing stories you’ll find within.

• BatteryXchange’s “Redbox for battery rental” keeps society charged on the go especially in colleges, universities, and healthcare clients such as Atrium Health.
• The Black Dollar Corp’s directory showcases 1,100+ black-owned businesses and also runs a retail arm supporting those without physical retail space to sell their products in downtown Raleigh with more locations coming along with a co-manufacturing arm.
• Blue Gas Marine’s hybrid natural gas conversion kit for boats burning 100 or 1,000 gallons of fuel per day is more efficient than gasoline & diesel and solves major environmental problems for waterways & the air we breathe
• BNNano’s Boron Nitride NanoBarb™ can make space ships up to 40% lighter and they’ve landed some major top tier clients and partnerships — Huneed, TER Group (German chemical distribution company), DOD labs, the US Navy, Kairos,True Velocity, and several others
• Cardstalk’s print on demand greeting cards from local artisans helps you deliver a personal touch, helps artisans thrive, and takes up way less space for store owners than card aisles
• GreenLifeTech™’s tech to solve food waste extends fresh produce life by up to 5x and is initially rolling out as a consumer product, but imagine its economic & environmental impact on refrigeration freight transport
• HUBB Kitchens’ equips food & drink entrepreneurs with what they need succeed through commissary kitchen space & food truck parking to running ghost kitchens in collaboration with global partners.
• Josh Terry BitVault’s partnership with MiningStore.com allows anyone to be part of Web 3.0 by getting into Bitcoin mining operations
• Lonerider Spirits’ is growing through Lonerider Brewery’s distribution channels and have already won multiple awards
• North Cove Leisure Club sits on 157 acres and is on a mission to create the best outdoor music venue this side of the Mississippi
• Simpliworks’ software serves 3rd party Amazon and other eCommerce sellers — they even helped a company scale from $0 in revenue to meaningful sale of their business (exit) in less than 1 year
• Trilliott’s RFID IoT software is transforming logistics and supply chain in a big way — enabling them to track all of their things in real time

Now for a taste of these innovators as we work to add more stories of 20+ startups building a cool & impactful future.

BatteryXchange

Desmond Wiggan from BatteryXchange (BXE) was one of the 1st founders I worked with after starting Incolo. He and Aubrey Yeboah (co-founder) early on in BXE’s journey had already managed to land 1,000 paying users with 90% saying they would use BXE’s ‘Redbox for battery rental’ on a weekly basis. To start, Desmond, Aubrey and team leased out batteries for cell phones while they stood behind the kiosk to educate consumers.

Yet even with their traction, they could not get investment funding. “You’re too early” was a common theme from the funding groups they approached. So they approached their community and landed over $100K from 90 investors. Flash forward less than 2 years later after funding and they grew 500% 2021 vs. 2020 and the crowd has also opened doors at top universities, healthcare entities, and professional sports teams.

The main reason I value my relationship with Desmond is his impact model. He told me early on that while BXE’s financial model is leasing kiosks & advertising, their impact model is finding that one kid who had never been told they could be a tech founder. “Growing up in black communities we weren’t exposed much to being a tech founder. Even when we got into the space we still didn’t see many people that looked like us, so it’s a question of “who do we learn from?” If I can find that one person who looks like me and they become a tech founder, BatteryXchange has achieved success.”

How’s that for building the #FutureEconomy!

The Black Dollar Corp

#BlackDollarNC & #BlackFridayMarket

Johnny Hackett, Jr., Founder & CEO of The Black Dollar Corp, Inc. launched the startup in 2019 with a free online directory of black owned / operated businesses across NC, #BlackDollarNC with a goal of expanding and monetizing it to reach more businesses it could serve.

In Sept 2020, I get a call from Johnny — “Hey Will, we’re opening a retail store in the heart of Raleigh, NC. What do you think?”

“Awesome!” I replied.

3 months later, in the middle of the pandemic in December 2020, Black Friday Market was born to provide commission-free retail space to small businesses. (Note: Johnny wants everyone to know the store supports all small businesses who need access to shared retail space regardless of color.)

In the 1st 10 months, the storefront was profitable generating $315K in sales for small businesses and #BlackDollarNC’s director has grown to 1,100+ members, generating over $300K for business owners through events.

Collectively, The Black Dollar Corp’s team has generated over $600K in sales for 200+ businesses in 10 months. Now they are expanding to more locations.

Johnny was featured in an article in the NY Times in Jan of 2022.

Johnny’s ninja power is that he’s likable by everyone and authentic to the core of building partnerships.

Blue Gas Marine

Miguel Guerreiro, Founder and CEO of Blue Gas Marine loves the water. His startup created a portable gas dispensing solution used by breweries, airport hangers, and large utilities. Even more exciting is that they have also commercialized a hybrid conversion system for boats, enabling gasoline engines to run on 100% natural gas — far more fuel efficient, less expensive, and cleaner. Their tech for diesel engines which are far more polluting than gasoline engines is almost complete and once released has major potential to solve HUGE pollution issues plaguing waterways and cities

Yes, it may sound crazy at 1st, but a ton of coastal city air pollution issues are linked to tugboats & freight ships which can easily burn 1,000 gallons of diesel per day.

“Will, we have to get our natural gas hybrid solution to more locations. I love being on the water and to be able to provide a cleaner solution that’s more efficient and safer [is vital].”

I agree. Miguel leading his company to successful station roll out with their hybrid solution is vital to the #FutureEconomy and our planet’s future.

BNNano

BNNano’s nanotubes are a game changer for industrial commodities such as plastics and metals. Their Boron Nitride NanoBarb™, a nanotube encased in multi-crystal h-BN that looks like a piece of rock candy, makes the metals & plastics used in airplanes, spaceships, and cars lighter and stronger just to name a few of the applications. They have even made aluminum as stiff as steel at a fraction of the weight, and they are just getting started.

100+ use cases have already been identified and they have top tier clients and partnerships with Huneed, TER Group (German chemical distribution company), DOD labs, the US Navy, Kairos,True Velocity, and several others that cannot be listed due to NDAs.

It is exciting to work with such an innovative company. BNNano is:

• Integral to rebuilding local communities harmed by globalization by bringing manufacturing back to the US — manufacturing in Burlington, NC
• Reduce environmental impact by reducing the amount of materials needed in manufacturing
• Free from supply chain limitations (100% US produced and readily available)
• Creating new novel solutions such as water purification via their nanotubes
• A growing US National Security asset
• And more…

Did I mention that BNNano is already community owned? They were the 1st venture ready NC company to run a $1M+ investment crowdfunding round. I remember Steve, Co-Founder & CEO, telling me “Will, it just makes so much sense to be community owned. We’ve grown from the beginning as a company supported by an investor crowd of friends, family, and those who love building cool things.”

Cardstalk

Co-founder and CEO, Steph Prime, is no stranger to the tech space. Co-founder Brandon Prime and her are ex-Amazon engineers. Their startup, Cardstalk, makes the software and kiosks to help you and me find a greeting card we actually want to give.

How’s it work?

• Select a design from a local artisan,
• pay, and
• print in less than a minute.

Earth Fare in Asheville, NC partnered with them on their 1st location and others are in flight. In less than 2 months after deploying their 1st kiosk, over 100 cards had been printed with local artisans sharing in a cut for their art usage. What I love about Steph and Brandon is that they absorb a ton of information, organize, and process it to constantly test and improve.

More importantly, I remember vividly Steph & Brandon telling me, “Will, we started Cardstalk because we knew we could do work which could truly impact the local community & planet— [artisans being paid fairly, consumers having more options, local business owners having more traffic driven into their stores].”

They know they have high scale potential, and their mission includes generating local impact everywhere their kiosks are deployed!

GreenLifeTech™

The team has built some really meaningful tech to solve food waste by extending fresh produce life — up to 5x. Even prior to their product launch, they created a community of 112 investors ($100 to $100,000) who are ambassadors of the impact GreenLifeTech™ can create.

Initially they are rolling out a consumer product, but it’s more than that. Imagine the tech’s economic & environmental impact on refrigeration transport. There’s numerous ways the tech can be applied.

What really drew me into their team was their giveback component. I still remember when Bruce told me, “Will, I’m donating 50% of my equity ownership in the company to charity. If we’re successful, that’ll have a lasting impact on that charity’s work.” This is an essential component of the company’s values. Who knows how many seeds that were planted in other founders and other investors — to think about how they can expand their impact by simply allocating part of their ownership in great companies they help build to non-profits serving those most in need. Let’s make GreenLifeTech™ successful to drive scaling ROX in the world [X=your definition of impact].

HUBB Kitchens

Jason Johnson, is the Founder & CEO of J. Johnson & Company, LLC, better known as HUBB Kitchens. He created ‘co-working’ for food & drink entrepreneurs and his startup landed a collaboration with the REEF & RDU to create the 1st multi-faceted ghost kitchen in an airport in the country coming off his 1st community raise.

I still remember Jason coming to me about the idea and saying, “I know a better way to help food businesses to start, but no one but me seems to see how it can be done.” Jason’s definitely showing everyone now.

Location 1 opened Dec 2020, was profitable in 3 months, & it has not slowed down since. He has hundreds on his waitlist for future spaces (construction is underway for 3 more locations). True to one of HUBB’s goals to support the core business planning and growth of food & beverage founders, they’ve had 4 entrepreneurs in the 1st year of operation grow enough to graduate to their own separate brick & mortar locations.

“Josh Terry BitVault”

Josh Terry (@joshterryplays) TikTok | Watch Josh Terry's Newest TikTok Videos

Josh Terry is a master of deep reflection and thought. His audience of 1.2M people and counting on TikTok value his regular insights. His passion for combining forces with JP Baric and Drew Kulak from Miningstore.com came from his desire to spread the decentralized economy.

When I asked Josh why, his answer was simple, “Everyone should have access.”

Josh, JP, and Drew are innately curious and I imagine this venture is only the 1st of many that may be to come. For now though, in true decentralized fashion, they are opening the ability to become part of a Bitcoin mining operation to the masses.

Raise Disclaimer: Incolo proudly has a stake in Josh Terry BitVault and serves as a paid business consultant.

Lonerider Spirits

Chris Mielke, President of Lonerider Spirits, along with Sumit Vohra, Founder of Lonerider Brewery, started Lonerider Spirits off the passion Chris had for distilling. Chris led teams at Epic Games — you know, the creator of Fornite — for 6 years and then at another company for 3 years before deciding to go all in.

Opening in 2018, the Lonerider Spirits company was born and leveraging Lonerider Brewery’s vast distribution network and a crowd of ‘investomers’ to help them scale.

I remember sitting down with Chris and Sumit to ask why Investment Crowdfunding? After all, between both of them, they’ve raised millions through traditional accredited only networks in the past.

“We believe that people should have access to invest in quality companies with experienced management teams,” was Sumit’s reply. Chris added that “by turning our customers to investors, we hope that it’ll give one more reason for them to bring their friends to visit.”

Learn where you can enjoy a dram, https://loneriderspirits.com.

North Cove Leisure Club

Kyle & Luke, Co-founders of North Cove Leisure Club’s goal is to create “the best outdoor music venue this side of the Mississippi.” They started by buying over 157 acres of land and converting the golf course into a top place for disc golf in the country…in 2021. Next they are adding a bar / restaurant and short term rentals. I’ve hiked the trails as well as toured a good portion of the property. It’s epic!

Dedication to the idea is one thing. Commitment is another. Their purchase of the the North Cove property comes off of Kyle’s vision to create this type of venue at just the right location that he originally conceived back in 2009. Since purchase in 2021, they have been off to the races quickly gathering support.

Standing up on mountain with Luke, Kyle, and a few other founders in December of 2021, I remember looking out and just thinking, this is one of the most spectacular places in #WNC.

Simpliworks

Malik McCray, CEO & Co-founder of Simpliworks shared with me that their Ad/MarTech helped start, grow, and exit the startup of a new founder who started with $0 in sales to selling their startup for over $800K to one of the large Amazon business aggregators in less than 1 year.

Simpliworks — a startup that began less than 2 years ago in 2020 is scaling quickly themselves and already helped another business achieve a meaningful exit in less than 1 year. Progress can move at lightning pace in the startup world. (Here’s a super fascinating podcast about those taking a play on Amazon without investing in Amazon).

Malik and Keith both share a similar passion. They exist to help the small business owner on Amazon who is riddled with marketing expenses, and soaring inventory costs plagued with super high interest rates (some would call it ‘predatory lending’).

Trilliott

Trilliott’s team is part of the 4th wave of computing — Internet of Things (IoT) & Radio-frequency identification (RFID). Founder & CEO Booth Kalmbach wrote the original software and Trilliott’s clients include some of the largest & well known manufacturers in the world. Their software and devices enable large B2B supply chains to operate more effectively — giving control back to companies to know exactly how much and where their ‘things’ are.

Trilliott SmartSITE™ is an RFID-first supply chain and warehouse management service for businesses to digitize inventory and assets, improve accuracy, and manage asset lifecycle

The 1st wave of computing birthed Silicon Valley, so it’s exciting to see the 4th wave is being propelled in North Carolina. e.g. A major chip manufacturing eyeing this region with $40B+ ($40,000,000,000) potential investments is improving and attracting a ton of talent and innovation to add to what we already have in the area.

Oh so many memories to share about Booth ;-), especially since he was one of the 1st founders I started to work back when I was starting Incolo in 2019 (then known as CrowdfundNC). I think my favorite was when Booth and I were talking about past experiences. Get this! He literally wrote the algorithm that allows our phones to talk to each other. Let that sync in for a bit…

That’s some pretty cool & vital innovation coming out of the region.

…and this is just a subset of the teams we work with. We can’t wait to share all the stories.

—

If you like this, clap, but more importantly let us know what you’d like to see more of. Also, we’re always happy to connect others directly with the founders we work with. We use a double opt in. Just let us know, hello (at) incolo.io.

Note: No company listed here should be assumed to be raising capital or planned to raise capital unless specifically mentioned. Not all of the companies we work with run Crowd Investment rounds or even Traditional Investment rounds. Some bootstrap and grow through revenue.

It is said a well-known London newspaper, The Times, once sent out an inquiry to famous authors, asking the question, “What’s wrong with the world today?”

After receiving numerous writings from people with long responses about all of the situations in the world, the famous philosopher and writer, G.K Chesterton responded:

“Dear Sir,

I am.

Yours, G.K. Chesterton

“

I’ve heard this story numerous times and it always invokes deep reflection & focus for what to do next to drive impact for my family, the mission for Incolo, and the community.

So, here’s my attempt, however perfectly imperfect this may be.

Start with others. <-period

When my family 1st started on the entrepreneurial journey of starting Incolo (formerly CrowdfundNC) in 2019, our company advisors, my wife Elizabeth, my parents, and experiences at Impact Makers (both the failures and successes) provided a tremendous framework and sounding board. In addition, I kept hearing the words in my head, everyone is created with essential worth and intrinsic value.

It starts with others. It starts with people.

Desmond Wiggan (CEO & Co-founder) of BatteryXchange and me at Venture 135 in 2021

Desmond Wiggan from BatteryXchange (BXE) was one of the 1st founders I worked with after starting Incolo. Desmond is sharp, his company was new, but he, Aubrey Yeboah (co-founder), and team had already managed to land 1,000 paying users with 90% saying they would use BXE’s ‘Redbox for battery rental’ on a weekly basis.

Early BXE Kiosk Desmond, Aubrey and team would use to lease out batteries for cell phones while they stood behind the kiosk to educate consumers.

Yet even with their traction, they could not get investment funding. “You’re too early” was a common theme from the funding groups they approached.

I could see the fire in Desmond soul from the 1st time I met him, even as he told me “Will, [the traditional groups] around here will not fund us. They don’t understand our solution, because the pain point is not relatable. We believe in what we’re building and know it will be something special. The opportunity you’ve presented is our only option to make our dream a reality. Let’s do it.” So he, Aubrey, and crew busted ass soliciting investors and managed to land over $100K from 90 people who did believe in them.

Flash forward less than 2 years later after funding (and a follow on round from a ‘traditional group’) and BXE’s kiosks are in universities, bars & restaurants, and occasionally you’ll find the team at a conference or 2 continuing to build relationships with the community.

Desmond at Innovate Raleigh 2021

The main reason I value my relationship with Desmond is his impact model. He told me early on that while BXE’s financial model is renting batteries & advertising, their impact model is finding that one kid who had never been told they could be a tech founder. “Growing up in [black communities] we weren’t exposed much to being a tech founder. Even when we got into the space we still didn’t see many [people that looked like us], so it’s a question of “who do we learn from?” If I can find that one [person who looks like me] and they become a tech founder, BatteryXchange has achieved success.” At the time, the statement shocked me. As a wakeup call to me, I didn’t realize our society had limited the creatively and untapped potential of so many. I see BXE’s progress and their impact is far more reaching by every metric than Desmond’s original impact vision. Imagine what our society will be in the future as Desmond and crew at BXE are creating more innovators and laying the framework from which others can start.

With people, it starts with valuing the other person. Each person has been uniquely created. Honoring their creativity, passion, and evolving aptitude unlocks amazing potential. If boundaries are violated, the individual can not live into their calling and therefore is not operating in the “Zone of Genius” that benefits them and those they impact.

Operating in one’s “Zone of Genius”

Thank you to Brandon from our team for the term “Zone of Genius.” It’s the area where an individual, when truly challenged, operates at their highest level of aptitude (aka ‘calling’) which stirs innovation & focus for the benefit of the individual and others.

In business, I strongly believe individuals at every level of the organization, should be operating in their “zone of genius” 80% to 90% of the time with a willingness to step outside of it when their fellow teammate needs them to.

If someone finds themselves unfulfilled, I often find it’s because they took on what they thought was a ‘calling’, but a number of other factors were/are at play:

• ‘comfortable economics’ of compensation,
• family-life events shift what is most important,
• management has ‘lost their way,’ or
• the business simply has evolved to a point where market demands require some individuals to move on to fulfill their calling.

Founders’ foundation to honor people & community

In my opinion, in business, founder’s/leadership’s #1 calling is to create a foundation that protects each individual’s ‘calling’ and therefore impact on society. It starts with founders looking at their current & future potential cap table (who owns their company) and governance docs to make sure all the legal, tax, and other transactional frameworks formed upon tons of diverse philosophically informed “grayness” are in check. They should

[A] protect a balanced interest between the community and team (investors, employees, advisors, & founders), and

[B] be as transparent as possible.

Some really big questions emerge from the above

• Does the business purpose state anything other than maximizing share/unit holder value?
• Are operations structured to help individuals operate in their “Zone of Genius” a majority of the time?
• Has the founder/founding team looked at their cap table with an eye on people other than themselves? Are they willing to open up authentically and be vulnerable to others?
• Has the compensation plan (even if there are limited funds) been looked at within the framework of the individual short-term and long-term potential returns? Who shares in those?

As part of this, one of the most common questions I get from founders is, who should be on their cap table and when?

Here’s some discussion on this and some sample models of how economics might be split (which may be completely different than voting control). Note: The models include standard terms such as cliff, vesting, ‘full acceleration,’ but I recognize not everyone may know these. I’ll dive into these in a later article. For now, focus on the %’s. Who can fill these and why?

Link to the cap table PowerPoint file

A founder’s answer to “who?” and “why?” for this impacts everything from business growth to societal benefit. In part 2 of this series, I’m going to dive more into where I think Incolo is failing and succeeding in this realm. For now, here’s a summary:

Incolo’s Cap Table Why: Create holistic, generational community impact that reaches people I’ll never meet.

Original How: Build a really successful ‘funding portal’ & ‘Angel List’ focused on North Carolina to facilitate capital in partnership alongside the founders of other companies. Carve out 10% for community impact (non-dilutive to other equity holders) to influence others to do the same. Build a BROAD and DIVERSE base of investors who over time own a majority of the cap table.

Our goals for our governance and cap table have started, but have quite a bit of room to take flight.

What about Return on Investment (ROI/RO$)?

…or more broadly stated, Return on Equity Rights.

Do you define returns purely in terms of shareholder $$$?

In The Wealth of Nations, published in 1776, Adam Smith’s central thesis is each individual’s need to fulfill self-interest results in societal benefit, in what is known as his “invisible hand.” In other words, a free market will balance itself.

In contrast, in 1970, Milton Friedman’s proposed a business’ ‘true north’ ‘end state’ is for a Corporation to maximize share/unit holder profits. Social responsibility is that of the employee, not the employer (aka the shareholders). This proposal, further carried out by financial, legal, and tax systems has caused more destruction to society and families being ripped apart than any other philosophy. Why?

• It devalues the individual in favor of ‘profits’ being the primary motive
• It tends to benefit the few who know how to ‘play the game’ and then are protected by the law to do so. The C-Corp structure (aka “Corporation”) was invented in the 1970’s and accelerated the growth of Friedman’s philosophy.
• Rules created in the 1930’s and continuing until 2016 made it virtually illegal to invest in the potential returns a private company created unless one was already wealthy (aka. ‘accredited investor’ — roughly 7% of the population meet this criteria and even then, most people who qualify as ‘accredited’ didn’t even know there was a term for their wealth status).

Food for Thought: Who owned the wealth Uber created from the time it started until it listed on the stock market at a $75 Billion valuation?

Who owns the wealth generation of the leases paid in an apartment complex or the lease your favorite coffee shop pays? They were & are not accessible via your TD Ameritrade or Robinhood account.

Why? Read why some have played by a different set of rules since the 1930's.

The above are key reasons why wealth gap has increased. A fellow founder I speak with often about these topics who is a force for equitability is about to write a series on this with some other key reasons. Check out Kasem.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wealth_inequality_in_the_United_States

Sources: Robinhood learn, Investopedia, NY Times

Sure there’s a lot to unpack above. Let’s simplify.

When we increase access for anyone to invest & anyone to be funded, we increase the opportunity for more diversity in why, how & where companies are created and investments are made so returns are more broadly felt and meaningful. This rapidly & organically solves multiple systemic issues built up over centuries.

Example: The City of the Future podcast Clark Rinehart just sent me from Sidewalk Labs features Rukaiyah Adams whose statements bring wisdom & clarity.

“In 400 years we’ve gone from being the objects of capital, to being the subjects in control of capital. […] and I’ve made that jump in 1 generation. […] I know what it feels like to be downstream of some of the decisions that investors make. […] But, in the same ways we’ve destroyed communities with capital and capitalism, I believe we can actually rebuild them. How can we use wealth to be healing rather than extracted and destructive?”

I hope I honor Rukaiyah in quoting her. Her wisdom comes partially from the context of families of color, who have been far more impacted than most. I suggest you listen to the podcast and learn from Rukaiyah, who is an expert in how private markets work. Her innovation in this space is also super informative to models we are crafting with others.

Using capitalism to rebuild communities

In our institutionalized economy, cap tables dictate who shares in generational wealth building.

Those in control of cap tables have an opportunity create access for a broader & more diverse base of people, earlier in a company lifecycle to drive business growth & impact. However, these founders & investors must also grow successful companies in order for the impact to be broadly felt. As Eric from our team often says, “nothing else matters except [generating traction].” Traction = Impact.

So back to “What’s wrong with the world?”

I am. We are. We all are also the very people who can fix it.

What are individuals part of Incolo’s cap table doing to fix the world of capitalism so it’s healing, innovative, and wealth generation is more broadly felt?

Join us for part 2 to find out what our team and our community is doing.

I don’t have a salary, but as someone who used to, I find this interesting. The Triangle Biz Journal calculates that ~$32K on average is ‘left over’ if you’re one of the 142K+ households in Raleigh metro area making $100K+.

I wonder how many of these households with fathers and mothers in Raleigh know they have opportunity to invest part of the ‘left over’ in their ‘local stock market’ of local entrepreneurs building companies their children would find fascinating and use that as a way of connecting better with their children’s proclivities vs. just investing in their IRAs and 401(k) for ‘retirement.’

…and this local type of investing is not just available to the 6 figure household. It’s available to all 18 years or older, estimated to be nearly 1M people living in the Raleigh metro area and all 254M+ people in the US (Previous source for metro * population of those 18 years or older).

Where Does One Find Access to Invest in Companies Connected to Raleigh Building the Next Big Thing?

As part of Innovate Raleigh Summit, our team alongside the founders of 6 local companies connected to Raleigh building the next big thing, spun up the site http://investinraleigh.us (#InvestInRaleigh) as awareness and access for people to help newer companies grow as well as for them to have an easy way to find local investment opportunities offered by companies impacting Raleigh.

Hanging out with some of the speakers and organizers of Innovate Raleigh Summit 2021 before the event

http://investinraleigh.us doesn’t host the investment offerings. Links either direct to a:

1. Page on the individual company’s site where people can learn more about the companies and then choose if they want to indicate they would be interested investing, or
2. Regulated funding platform where people can learn more about the offering and choose if they want to invest directly in the company.

*More context on these 2 paths at the very end below the article.

It’s important that to know investing in startup, early, and small companies is risky and they should never invest more than they are willing to lose. It’s also important to note that this article is for information purposes only and should not be interpreted a solicitation to invest in any of these companies.

However, I’m also vocal about how much of an educational asset these founders’ companies have been for my wife and I to our children, especially our almost 9 year old who has a mind for ‘engineering’ among other areas.

Investing in Entrepreneurs in Raleigh Building Cool Stuff is an Education Asset both for Parents and Our Children …Sometimes it also Generates a Return

For example, one of the last Raleigh-based companies we invested some smaller dollars in was https://republic.co/gobe run by a father and wife founding team. GoBe makes a snack spinner which my son will most certainly deconstruct and it was him as we were perusing some of the offerings on NC Grind who said, dad, it’s only $100…let’s invest. So I started to question him a bit on it and asked, how might that team make a return on his $1 alongside mommy and daddy’s money (gotta make it relatable for the kiddo). His response and reaction was quite cool when he realized he might turn $1 to $5, $10, or even more. He didn’t care if he lost the $1. It was more about putting money into something he could relate to. It was quite a cool.

The GoBe Snack Spinner. Get them at Costco

It was even cooler when I was able to let him know a couple of months ago, GoBe landed a 200K GoBe Snack Spinners order at Sam’s club which was 185% growth over all of the company’s historical revenue combined. Know how they did it?

1. They ran an crowd investment campaign aka one open for anyone to invest real $ for real potential upside $.
2. They asked their investors if they had a connection into big retail.
3. One of their crowd investors, an engineer at Wal-mart, made the connection.
4. Financing for the Snack Spinners came through another connection in their community of equity investors and fans.

Definitely not rocket science, but also very intentional and on point for what founders should do to leverage their network and create opportunities for mutually beneficial outcomes. It’s also interesting because 1 connection for a company of this size can have tremendous potential to help the company increase in value. However, I’d venture it’s rare such connection for Apple would move the bar on the share price.

From my perspective, equally as important, as a parent, it equips me with real life situations he’s interested in (like building ‘stuff’), in order to train him on how all his buddies can build and fund things together they are interested in. I mean after all, isn’t that why we send our children to schools and higher learning?

Shark Tank for All

Many people of all ages love Shark Tank. I remember speaking to a class of middle schoolers trying to explain all of what I do to help companies grow and all I could think of that may be relatable to them was Shark Tank. So I asked. How many of you watch Shark Tank. All 20+ of them raised their hands. “Phew, got lucky on that one,” I thought. So I said, “Did you know, now you can be the shark.”

…Gasps from all 20. “I love shark tank.” “Whoa, cool.” etc. I’m sure you can imagine the energy in the room at that point.

“I train founders how to build their companies and part of their training is how they can open opportunity for anyone [at least 18] to be the sharks in their companies,” I explained.

Our Children Are Creators!

Our children love the thought of creating and being part of it. For them, I find it is more about being a creator of something cool that they love 1st, than the cultural influence of becoming a millionaire (or billionaire). As a father with a 5 and almost 9 year old, like many of you with kids, I see the things they love to create and try to think of ways to expose them to related ideas that may help them create something new.

But Where Does One Start to Learn More?

http://investinraleigh.us is one. Check out https://ncgrind.com for education and links to live company offerings connected to NC. Here’s a condensed crazy history lesson…

…For 80 years, since the 1930’s it was largely illegal for most people in America to invest in private companies. Until 2016, My wife and I had no education on this world called the “private markets” where every company not on the stock market ‘sits.’ Most companies are private and until 2015, access was largely just for the wealthy.

What are private companies?

• Your favorite local coffee shop, brewery, distillery, restaurant, the building they sit in, early stage / startup tech companies, etc.. are private companies.
• 60% of Amazon’s revenue comes from a multitude of ‘3rd party Amazon sellers’ who are mostly all private companies

Meaning unless you have $1M in assets (not including your primary home) or make $200K/yr (single), $300K/yr (married) you can’t invest in them. That was at least until rules changed in 2015, 2016, and most recently 2021 allowing private companies to raise up to $5M/yr from hundreds or thousands of people at a time while setting the minimum investment check size as low as they want…often $100 to $1K.

Let’s Put Things in Perspective — Private vs. Public and Access

To give some perspective of private vs. the stock market (NASDAQ, NYSE, etc.), let’s take one of the greatest private market investing stories of all time. Uber IPO’d (aka became listed on the stock market making it accessible for public investing, IRAs & 401(k)’s for the major of Americans) at a stellar high ~$75 Billion valuation trading at $45/share. As of this article’s date, it’s now at an $82B valuation and share price is around the same (for the majority # of people who have access now).

So who shared in the wealth generation on the way up? Uber was once at a $4 Million valuation, turning every $1,000 invested to an estimated $1,400,000. Before IPO, Uber was a private company owned mainly by a bunch of wealthy investors. This is a major reason why the wealth gap is so large. Apple… Amazon… Google, etc. have similar stories of wealthy investors becoming wealthier. This isn’t a rich vs. poor proposition. It’s just how the laws were written to ‘protect investors’ for 80+ years. Crazy huh?

However, now anyone can be an investor in early private companies.

Our dog Carolina who wears a red collar because I went to NC State and my wife’s dad went to Carolina.

Remember how I talked about risk earlier? Here’s some context. My wife and I have a 13 year old lab named Carolina. Our 1st investment was a traveling pet veterinary concept named VetPronto. The founders ‘sold’ (‘exited’) the company, but at a loss so we lost our entire investment. That was a wake up call for me to learn why they failed and we got smarter about it.

Our last 2 exits were for a new concept doctor’s office who ‘exited’ to a company on the stock market and Mevo who sold to Logitech.

How’d we do that?

Luck? Kind of. One ‘trick’ is we learned is that ‘seasoned’ sharks (aka “Angel investors”) like Mark Cuban diversify investments over time across a minimum of 20 if not 50+ high growth companies who might have the potential to shoot up:

• from early revenue $100K/yr or less (or 100, 1K users, like app users)
• to several $Million or even $Billion in revenue (or Millions of users)

So we changed our strategy, investing the same amount we did in VetPronto, but equally over 5 founders’ companies we believed in over a 3 to 6 month period and now 3 years later, are invested in 80+ companies and help the founders when they have asks of us. Revenue data, user grow, information about the founders’ history, and other information is publicly accessible on these Reg CF and Reg A+ offering pages so we also pay more attention to what a founder is saying about how they will grow and bounce that rationale off other people to see what holes they can poke.

See we can’t make a huge difference in the upside of an Apple, but we have become better at learning how we (along with hundreds if not thousands) can for a local or smaller company especially when it’s an intro (like the investor did for GoBe). This is the new world of “CrowdBased” companies.

What about Super Local Companies such as Coffee Shops, Breweries, Local Growing Franchises that Offer Revenue Shares and Commercial Real Estate?

We’ve also learned that companies who share in their revenue like those found on sites like MainVest** (coffee shops, franchises, etc.) or investments in house flips (like those on GroundFloor) or commercial real estate (such as multi-family, student housing, spaces for franchises or multiple businesses) typically pay us quarterly or yearly and in general seem to have worked out well for us…even during COVID. These founders used their large crowd investor base to sustain or propel revenue growth.

We use the returns (when there are returns) to reinvest in other main street businesses and for investments in high growth companies that in our opinion are higher risk. Plus even if one of the higher growth companies takes off, typically there’s no return for 7 to 10 years so for us, the revenue shares and commercial real estate have been a nice way to create a cushion of re-investment capital without pulling new funds in.

Historical performance can never determine future results, but I have learned now there is a reason why wealthy people put their money in revenue shares and commercial real estate.

A New Way of Investing for Possible Early ‘Retirement’

In fact, this may sound crazy, but the majority of our investments are now in local companies. Not only do they provide the backbone of the economy and area we love via hiring and innovation, but we also find investing in them, more relational (aka I’m not looking at a daily share price. I’m looking at value generation over time)…

…and 80+ years of data shows, it has the highest potential for return overall when we look at it portfolio wise.

• Traditional Angel/VC Funds have historically generated 26% YoY returns on average (higher than the stock market’s 10% return). Under new public investment laws, now my wife and I have opportunity create our own potential high growth family fund comprised of high growth companies of founders we love and can help make valuable connections, while also exposing our children to certain founders who are building things which match their interests.
• We invest in Main Street. Average returns on revenue share offerings on a site like MainVest are targeted at 10% to 25%/yr. Connections help increase opportunity for higher returns, like Ivyees Everything Honey which generated a 38% IRR (Internal Rate of Return) for a community of investors. These are the very places our friends and family may eat and drink.
• We invest in local commercial real estate. Every wonder where cost of living increases come from? It’s not just residential housing. A leading indicator is often commercial real estate which historically there have been opportunities to generate 6% to 8% cash per year with overall returns of 15% to 25% IRR (aka the investment period may be 3 to 5 years. After being sold to another investor, the rest of the cash associated with the annual IRR target above the yearly cash per year is realized). These are the buildings housing new families that we all say “Welcome Y’all” to or buildings the businesses we eat, drink, and shop from are housed.

Remember for many of these companies, we have connections that can help them grow or at a basic level, if it’s a food/beverage entrepreneur, yes, you’ll find us eating or drinking there with buddies mainly because we enjoy what they make. It’s more holistic knowing we’re helping the company and our portfolio grow in value too. You can see some of our portfolio on my LinkedIn profile under ‘Tionchar’ in my ‘Experience’ section.

Note: This is risky, even more so to those who are new. If you’re not willing to lose what you invest in a company, don’t invest because most likely at least 1 company, if not more than 1 you invest in will fail.

Over the past 4 years, my wife and I have learned how to invest this way and FOR US, we view this as less risky TO US than the ‘whims’ of the stock market where people are just trading with other people vs. in private companies and local investing where a crowd of investors is trying to create long term value for a company with the founders & teams of those companies.

So What Will the Future Hold for Raleigh and Our Children’s Children?

At the 2021 Innovate Raleigh Summit, the keynote, Johnny Hackett, Jr. (serial entrepreneur, CEO & Founder of The Black Dollar Corp) stated “As founders… as business owners, we have the duty to help youth find out what they’re called to do.” Johnny walks the talk. They have a 14 year old paid employee who is amazingly talented and is living out part of his calling.

I envision a world where part of the education system is founders and children interacting together at an earlier age…even as young as 3rd grade. Waiting too much longer, I think creates a HUGE missed opportunity to take the ‘theoretical’ a child is learning in school alongside their immense creativity and ability to do throughout their ‘school days.’ I personally hope my children never are ‘pushed’ to go to college, unless they decide that is a path that better helps them in their unique callings in life. My wife and I both went to college and universities. My story about NC State…I’ll save that for another article…it was definitely worth it, but not intentionally so like it could have been if I had the type of system the new regulations have created. My wife even has a Masters degree in Divinity, but for her calling in ministry.

So Why Did We Create #InvestInRaleigh?

Some of the founding founders of #InvestInRaleigh at Innovate Raleigh Summit 2021. Others not pictured had prior company ‘build’ obligations for the day. We all meet weekly.

The founders of the companies who launched #InvestInRaleigh with our team at Incolo decided to spin up http://investinraleigh.us because we wanted the entire population, not just those in the know, to have exposure and access to a world most have no idea about. Incolo makes no money off investments. Instead, founders creating the future pay us to help them with founder stuff such as guiding them on topics such as how to leverage a crowd to grow their companies, sales growth tactics, and super technical things like the impact of artificial downstream dilution, and protecting their vision, mission, & values even if they take on investors. For avoidance of doubt, Incolo and I are not asking or suggesting you invest in any of these companies. However, we do want you to be aware of what they are building and know your opportunity to be the shark in companies you believe in and want to take a risk on is no longer limited by wealth status.

The last 80 years was written by laws that divided us and locked out access based on wealth status. We hope the future 80 years will be written by those who desire to fund and create it regardless of wealth status. It’s a small, but significant change. It’s one of the highest risk / reward journeys out there. Most early stage companies fail. Never invest more than you can afford to lose.

What will never fail or be lost, is the memory I will always have with my son when I saw him realize he could create & fund whatever he desires with whomever wants to go after it with him together. That memory and ongoing discussions, plans, memories being created with him (currently a trampoline park in Holly Springs) sparked initially by an investment GoBe he asked Liz and I to do will still be worth it even if GoBe eventually fails and we lose what I would guess is less than most spend on a vacation. The journey with my son continues to be fueled by exposure to what all the founders we work with are creating.

Liz and I have invested $10’s of thousands across 80+ early stage founders’ companies. Founders, whether you’ve pursued a crowd investor raise or not, you and your teams are powerful educators for our society’s children’s children simply by building great companies. This article is dedicated to you in honor of Liz and my children and the world you’re creating with the crowd. Let’s go build it together.

—

Join Elizabeth and I at Mountain Raise on Nov 10th to hear from founders building the next big thing in Western North Carolina.

Say hello at will (a t) incolo.io and follow me on social, https://linktr.ee/WillLivesVested

Incolo on social, https://linktr.ee/incololife

Additional Disclaimers, Disclosures, and Additional Context Referenced

Incolo Disclosures & Disclaimer

*A funding platform is either a Funding Portal or Broker-Dealer regulated by the https://www.sec.gov/ who’s main job is to regulate the securities markets (aka investments) to protect investors. In March 2021, the rules changed so most any business could test 1st to see if individuals, regardless of wealth, would invest in their companies before they file a live securities offering where those individuals can then commit actual $ to become an investor in the company. It’s kind of like Kickstarter, but instead of a product, individuals become investors, sharing in the potential upside of the company based on the Terms the company offers. These US based businesses can raise up to $5M on Regulation Crowdfunding (Reg CF) or $75M on Reg A+ on terms they choose between them and a ‘crowd’ of investors. Hence the name Investment Crowdfunding, Crowd Investing, and Equity Crowdfunding. Though Equity Crowdfunding is an official name for Reg CF, it’s a misnomer since founders can choose to offer an equity OR debt offering for people to invest in their companies.

**I receive $20 and you receive $20 if you connect your bank account on MainVest pending their referral terms whether or not you make an investment. I’ll use any referral dollars to invest in other Main Street founders my wife and I believe in to help propel their companies forward.

1st, thank you to CED for providing me permission to use various screenshots from their report. Show them some love and download the full version. There’s no cost. You just agree to get some awesome updates from them on what’s happening within the founder community in NC. They have not endorsed my post or linked statements. These are my thoughts.

The CED Innovators Report just came out. Over $3.4B ($3,400,000,000) was invested in 187 unique North Carolina private (pre-IPO / pre-stock market) companies in 2020, primarily from institutions and larger funders outside of North Carolina.

The result?

If and when these companies have an event where investors are paid, a good majority of those returns will end up OUTSIDE North Carolina, meaning less economic (re)investment capital within the local citizens who are most ‘invested’ in North Carolina.

Well that sucks… kind of…

I mean, I can’t really blame outside investors for loving the founders in our state. It’s a fantastic region. We’ve always been filled with a community of founders who love building great companies that have global impact!

…and if my fellow founders can’t raise the money they need within the state — well then they feel they have to go outside the state — OR more importantly, if they are expanding to other areas.

How many groups can write a check for >$50M in our area and how many can coordinate the syndication of larger capital requirements for bigger offerings locally?

What is going to happen now that these founders can raise up to $75M from anyone on friendly founder terms?

I’m referring to the rules from May 16, 2016 that were just updated on March 15, 2021. Now founders can seek up to $5M on Reg CF (many already have, even VCs) and $75M on Reg A+ ($50M was the largest raise as of this article and prior to that Knightscope raised $22.9M with $200 mins).

Nationwide, Reg CF & A+ has been used by founders to raise nearly $1B ($1,000,000,000), often with the entry point being $100. Typically ‘friendly founder terms’ are set by the founders for anyone who wants to invest in their startups. Then founders leverage the investor base to act as sales & marketing agents, supply chain partner connectors, and more.

Also, a diversity of NC founders are having their share of success. Here’s the data on the exponential growth from current offerings and closed offerings.

Even cooler yet, these models have created ACCESS for 400K+ people to have opportunity to one of the fastest growing asset classes in the US…the private markets. This access has been what has made the wealthy wealthier. It has nothing to do with rich vs. poor. It has everything to do with ACCESS.

Now everyone has access.

When do investors in high growth startups make money?

Typically at exit. e.g. a startup ends up on the stock market (aka IPO’s).

However, out of 36 exits tracked in the report, only 3 ended up on the stock market. The wealth generated from the other 33 ended up staying within the private markets, a place where still < 97% of Americans have no idea they have access. These 33 startups ended up in combined mergers, acquisitions and buyouts with Strategy Buyers and/or Financial Sponsors. aka other companies.

These exits are great for the startup founders, their advisors, and team. I hope they all remember how hard it was to raise capital and become investors and educate other new individuals in our area about their opportunity to invest local. This helps increase ACCESS to capital and ACCESS to potential returns.

These exits suck for all of those who have been told the lie that the stock market is the only place to put their money via 401(k)’s and IRAs. They never had the opportunity to invest in these private local startups in the 1st place. However, now the playing field is getting more and more level.

Exits in the future are celebrated with a broader community who benefits from them directly. Even traditional VCs like Sequoia Capital are syndicating with other VCs and then providing access for as little as $100 to the VC’s investment upside potential. These returns can be be massive…even 1,000X+ in extreme cases like some of those exits listed in the report from local startup businesses.

Will these new public investment models shift the model in favor of founders and community?

I believe they will. I also believe they will help create better businesses. Data is backing this up. On average companies who complete successful investment crowdfunding rounds are growing 23% YoY according to a 2020 report from Crowdfund Capital Advisors.

Also, unlike ONLY high growth offerings I’ve been discussing above, public investment rounds have made it possible for 250+ industries to raise capital, including the coffee shop or distillery. Investment Crowdfunding doesn’t rely on a one-size-fits-all investment thesis. Revenue generating companies that are highly scalable and can provide potential returns off of profitability are also getting funded. e.g. like growing franchises.

People shop local and now they can invest local. If a community of people wants to pick and choose the businesses they want in their local areas, they can now act as the bank or the angel investor together.

Everything from commercial real estate such as multi-family housing to high tech growth to life science companies who make medicines and treatments for cancer are succeeding with these new public offerings.

So, what will these new models of funding create? You can read my posts to find out more about my vision for the future, but more importantly…

…What do you want to create?

*Disclaimer: This article is for educational purposes ONLY and NOT a solicitation to invest. Investing in startup businesses is risky. Returns aren’t guaranteed, and you could lose your entire investment. Never invest more than you are willing to lose. This article is not meant to provide investment, legal, or tax advice and no party listed is an investment advisor, attorney or tax advisor.