Jonny Price: Democratizing Capitalism, WeFunder, and the Future of Investing

Unlock the secrets of equity crowdfunding (yikes! that's another 25 cents for the swear jar), scratch that, "community round" with our insightful guest, Jonny Price – VP of Fundraising at WeFunder. Learn how the 2012 JOBS Act has transformed the way everyday Americans can engage in pre-IPO investments, making it accessible beyond the traditional wealthy elite. Embark on a captivating journey as we explore Jonny's personal story of transitioning from a consulting career in London to impacting lives through Kiva's crowdfunded microloans in the United States.  

Imagine a world where investment opportunities are not confined to an exclusive circle but are open to everyone. Jonny demystifies the legal and strategic complexities of raising capital and shares how WeFunder empowers anyone to make meaningful contributions to the startup ecosystem, leveling the playing field for all investors.

We delve into the successes of guys like Troy Carter and Nas in angel investing and explore how platforms like Wefunder are reshaping capitalism. Emphasizing the importance of community funding, the guys discuss how democratizing investment can reduce wealth concentration and empower diverse communities. 

Tune in to a thought-provoking conversation about the future of investment, the power of diverse voices, and the innovative spirit driving a financial revolution.

"Unglossy: Decoding Brand in Culture," is produced and distributed by Merrick Creative and hosted by Merrick Chief Creative Officer, Tom Frank, hip hop artist and founder of Pendulum Ink, Mickey Factz, and music industry veteran, Jeffrey Sledge. Tune in to hear this thought-provoking discussion on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you catch your podcasts. Follow us on Instagram @UnglossyPod to join the conversation and support the show at https://unglossypod.buzzsprout.com/.

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Episode Transcript

Tom Frank (00:00):
This week on Unglassy .

Jonny Price (00:02):
And it was an acronym, of course.
So it was the Jumpstart OurBusiness Startups.
Oh, okay, Jobs Act.
So 2012 Jobs Act, and part ofthe Jobs Act was to allow for
what you might say.
If you want to put another 25cents in the swagger was this
investment crowdfunding concept.
And so now, for the first timein 80 years, everyone in America

(00:23):
, middle-class Americans, 100%of the population can invest in
pre-IPO private companies Fromthe top.

Tom Frank (00:31):
Yeah, I'm Tom Frank.

Mickey Factz (00:34):
I'm Mickey Fax.

Jeffrey Sledge (00:35):
And I'm Jeffrey Sledge.

Tom Frank (00:37):
Welcome to Unglossy, to coning brand and culture.
I'm Tom Frank, partner andchief creative officer at Merit
Creative.
This is Mickey Fax, hip hopartist and founder and CEO of
Pendulum Inc.
And that is Jeffrey Sledge, aseasoned music industry veteran
who has worked with some of thebiggest artists in the business.
We're here to explore themoments of vulnerability,
pivotal decisions and creativesparks that fuel the

(00:58):
relationship between brand andculture.
Get ready for athought-provoking journey into
the heart and soul of brandingthe unscripted, unfiltered and
truly unglossy truth.
I think so.
I think right now is the besttime to do it.
This is the time to do it rightnow.

Jeffrey Sledge (01:13):
Let's do it.
Let's do it right now, Can Ibefore?

Mickey Factz (01:15):
we tell you what.

Tom Frank (01:15):
I did what I had for dinner tonight.
What?

Mickey Factz (01:18):
did you have for?

Tom Frank (01:19):
dinner I got to show you guys a picture.

Jeffrey Sledge (01:25):
This is brandon culture related.
Yeah, this is what you did.

Tom Frank (01:26):
This is what I had this was sitting on my um.
Can you see this?

Jeffrey Sledge (01:30):
oh, the kelsey's .
Yeah, who's that travis?
What is that the cereal?

Tom Frank (01:34):
it's cereal, okay, but it has cereal that growing
up it has reese's, reese,reese's puffs, cinnamon toast,
crunch and lucky charms allmixed all mixed together in one
box.

Jeffrey Sledge (01:45):
Okay, whoa, whoa whoa whoa.
I thought the same thing.
I saw it sitting on my counter.

Tom Frank (01:49):
I tried it, it was fantastic.

Mickey Factz (01:52):
It tastes good, but that's mad sugar.
Too much sugar, man.
Come on man.

Tom Frank (01:56):
I'll go for a run.
I just had to try it, thoughthat was my dinner tonight.

Jeffrey Sledge (02:00):
I'm sure it's good.
I'm sure it's good and it'sgoing to sell because they're
hot.

Tom Frank (02:04):
Shout out to the Kelsey brothers.
They're hot, but are theygetting to be too much?

Jeffrey Sledge (02:09):
Potentially Well .
Travis has been playing greatso far this season.
As they say, the rumor is hecame in camp kind of out of
shape because he was runningwith Taylor all season running
around.

Tom Frank (02:19):
And eating his cereal , and eating his cereal.

Jeffrey Sledge (02:22):
So he got to pull it together.
But you know, yeah, it'sgetting, they're getting to that
point.
But if Travis wins another ring, you know, then they get
extended time.
But you know, you've got tofigure it out.

Tom Frank (02:33):
All right, I've gotten this off subject already,
but we had a good conversationtoday With who we talked to
Johnny Price.
Oh yeah, that's right, youforgot who we talked to.

Mickey Factz (02:43):
No, I know you did London Zone.
I want to just say his namePause.
Hey yo, that's crazy.

Tom Frank (02:51):
I think it was fun, right.
We always talk about greatideas.
We're always talking aboutgreat people doing great things,
but what we haven't talkedabout yet is the money, the
finance.
How do people do these kind ofthings?
And how are you as an owner, asa founder, as someone with an
idea, how do you ever cross thatbarrier?
Because it's hard to get themoney.

Mickey Factz (03:10):
It really is difficult to raise money, and I
think what Johnny was able toconvey today was the ins and
outs, the legalities, what tosay, what not to say, how to
approach it, his company, howthey approach it, and, you know,
the surrounding areas in thatspace and how to get capital
from all over the place.
I think it's just an ingeniousidea and I can't wait for the

(03:32):
people to listen to this episode.

Jeffrey Sledge (03:33):
Yeah, I also think.

Mickey Factz (03:42):
John, they really explain.

Jeffrey Sledge (03:42):
You know most people think if I'm going to
invest in a business, I need,like mad bread.
I need, like you know, 10, 15,20, 75, $100,000 to be a real
investor.
Air quotes and you know whatJohnny's doing is showing.
You know you can put a hundreddollars in, or you know, $200 in
or whatever, and still becomean investor and possibly get
hopefully get a return on yourinvestment, but you get to be an
investor.
It's the same as if somebodyput $10,000 in.

(04:06):
You don't have to have this biglump of cash just sitting there
to invest in companies, and I'mglad he talked about that.

Tom Frank (04:19):
The other interesting thing is I've been in an
opportunity to really look at alot of these platforms because
this is all new right, all thisI think he said 2012 was when
the law changed that you can dothis.
And there's a lot of companiestrying to do this, and the one
thing I have found over and overwith WeFunder and I think
Johnny just stamped it for mewas that WeFunder really goes
out of their way to explain itvery thoroughly and they're

(04:40):
really looking towards thefounder, they're helping
founders.
Like there is no other missionhere.
They are really trying tochange, as he said, capitalism,
and it sounded all great, but indoing my research, this is the
company that's doing that reallywell and I was just thoroughly
impressed by this guy.

Mickey Factz (05:00):
Yeah, me too.
This is really good man, reallyreally good stuff.
Yeah, it was a great, it wasdope.

Jeffrey Sledge (05:05):
It was a great interview.

Tom Frank (05:06):
All right With that, let's dive into our interview
with Johnny Price from WeFunder.
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(05:28):
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Learn more at meritcreativecom.
And now back to the show.
Let me just tell you something.
Our show, as you guys know,focuses primarily on brand and
culture.
We go all over the place alittle bit and so far this show

(05:50):
we've honed in on culturaldrivers such as food, music,
sports, architecture, technology.
We're going to talk about oneof the drivers that's behind it
all and something that I thinkwe've all kind of tapped around
a little bit.
But is money right?
There's money that needs to bebehind all this stuff.
There's finance behind all this.

(06:10):
So I'm really excited tointroduce you to a guy who I
think knows a little bit aboutthis and, specifically, knows a
little bit about kind of a newwave I don't know if it's new,
but it's new to me and a newemerging kind of trend of what
I'm going to call equitycrowdfunding.
But we're going to let this guymaybe tell us a whole lot more.
So let's say hello to JohnnyPrice, the man in charge of, I

(06:31):
think, all fundraising atWeFunder.
How are you doing.

Jonny Price (06:35):
That's right.
Hello, to you too.
Unfortunately, it's 25 cents inthe swear.
Jar out the gate because equitycrowdfunding oh, I'm not
allowed to say that word, you'renot allowed to say that
community.
Community round is okay.
You know new, officially uhapproved, uh rebranded term.

(06:55):
So equity crowdfunding is outthe window.
Community round, here we come.
You run an angel round to letangels invest.
You run a bc round friends andfamily around community round,
let your community invest.
So let's talk community rounds.

Tom Frank (07:07):
All right.
So every time I say the wrongword 25 cents, 25 cents, all
right yeah.

Jonny Price (07:11):
It's not that expensive.

Tom Frank (07:12):
Not that expensive.
You can probably afford it.
But yeah, mickey can afford it.
I don't know if I can afford it, but wait a minute before we
dive into all that you need totell us about Johnny Price.
I want to know about you.
Where do we have the pleasureof?

Jonny Price (07:28):
speaking to you from today.
Yes, I'm in San Francisco rightnow at WeFunders office.
Who I work for?
The VP of fundraising, as yousay, linkedin says VP of banter,
but my formal title will be VPof fundraising.
And so, yeah, wefunders isbased in San Francisco.
I used to live here for 10years.
Now I live in Nashville,tennessee, with my wife and
three kids, my wife's fromNashville.
I love Nashville, but, as youcan tell from my accents, I am

(07:51):
not originally from this side ofthe pond.
I'm from London originally.
I started my career inconsulting, did that for a few
years, then came to volunteerfor a nonprofit in San Francisco
called Kivaorg, which is alsoin the crowdfunding space.
Then started the US team atKiva back in 2011, ran that for
seven years and then, in 2018,joined WeFunder and have been

(08:13):
here for the last six and a halfyears or so.

Jeffrey Sledge (08:16):
Wait, wait, wait .
Before we move forward, let'stalk a little London.
I've only been there twice, butI love it.
First of all, if you are a realLondoner, you're gonna tell me
right now you got tickets to theOasis reunion oh, that's a good
one.

Jonny Price (08:31):
I don't well.
Oasis, I know from London,right, they're from Manchester.

Jeffrey Sledge (08:34):
I know they're from Manchester, but that's
maybe I gotta pass um.

Jonny Price (08:38):
But no, I thought you were gonna say do I support
a London-based uh soccer team?

Tom Frank (08:42):
I thought he was going there too actually.

Jeffrey Sledge (08:44):
I'm talking away , no, no, I'm talking the lads,
man, the lads.

Jonny Price (08:48):
The lads mate?
Yeah, the lads mate, if youwant.
Yeah, I'll talk like a Londonerfor the rest of this interview.

Mickey Factz (08:56):
But no, I'm a.

Jonny Price (08:57):
Manchester United fan.
So there's a saying in Englandthat, like you know, all the man
U fans are from London.
So in England that, like youknow, all the man U fans are
from London, so that's a signthat I'm a true Londoner, that
I'm a Manchester United fan.

Jeffrey Sledge (09:09):
But no, I do not have a Ways to Stick it.
When did you move over to theStates?
What year?

Jonny Price (09:14):
In 2009,.
I came to volunteer for thisnon-profit Kiva, and while I was
there I met my wife, and sothen I went back to London and
we were dating long distance forsix months or so, and then I
got my consulting company totransfer me from the London
office to the San Franciscooffice.
So that was one event.
And then 2011, I moved toKivaorg permanently and then,

(09:39):
yeah, my wife and I got marriedin 2010 as well, in Nashville.
So we have been here in theStates for 14 years now.
Do you watch Industry?
I don't actually.
It keeps coming up on HBO.
Johnny, you're killing me rightnow, man, Right now I'm watching
the West Wing again for like amillionth time Got to watch

(09:59):
Industry.

Jeffrey Sledge (10:00):
Johnny, you got to man.
It's based in London.
It's like you know about Londonfinance and a lot of other
things, but you got to get intoit.
You'll enjoy it.
It's a dope show Industry.

Tom Frank (10:09):
I've never heard of it.
It's on.

Jeffrey Sledge (10:11):
HBO, oh, hbo.

Jonny Price (10:13):
I've seen it come up in my feed.

Mickey Factz (10:15):
Isn't it Max?

Jonny Price (10:15):
now Max HBO is the equity crowdfunding, as Max is
the community.
Rants there you go.

Tom Frank (10:25):
Ah, there you go, got a swear jar.

Mickey Factz (10:28):
Wait, wait, yeah, put 25 cents in a swear jar 25
cents in the HBO.

Jonny Price (10:31):
You said it Clink, clink.

Tom Frank (10:35):
So your route to this whole, what am I calling it now
?
Community?

Jonny Price (10:39):
Yeah, but you also have to call it root, because
I'm from England.

Tom Frank (10:42):
Root your root, but you also have to call it Root,
because I'm from England.
Root your Root, your Root, tocommunity, that's through Kiva,
then right.
I mean because Kiva?
I guess I never thought aboutthat.
Is Kiva the beginning of all ofthis?

Jonny Price (10:56):
It may be.
Yeah, so Kivaorg and there'sdifferent Kivas.
So if you're into kind of funchocolates, then there's a Kiva
in that area, and there's a kivain that area and there's robots
that amazon uses.
But yeah, kivaorg is anon-profit.
Yeah, they'd like crowdfundedmicroloans, uh, for
entrepreneurs around the world.
So kiva was founded in 2005,which was the same year that

(11:17):
muhammad yunus won the nobelpeace prize for the work that he
did with microfinance inBangladesh, which was making
these really tiny loans to ruralwomen and kind of having them
form a group which ensured likevery high repayment rates on the
loan.
So microfinance was like reallypopular in 2005.
And then kind of the internetwas coming along, and so Kiva

(11:40):
was a way for you to lend $25 toa farmer in Uganda, and maybe
eight Americans would each lend$25.
Then Kiva sends that $200 tothe farmer in Uganda and then,
as she repays the loan, you get$25 back in your Kiva account
and you can lend it on to helpsomeone else.

(12:01):
And so it was like one ofOprah's's favorite things, I
think in like 2007 or somethingand kind of really exploded onto
the scene.

Tom Frank (12:07):
It did blow up there for a while.
What happened to kiva?
Is kiva still around?

Jonny Price (12:11):
yeah I'm still here I think still fifth and howard
in san francisco, um, and stillstill growing probably 100, 200
people or so.
Um, great organization, greatnon-profit.
It was a great, great place towork for for seven years or so
and, yeah, when I was there, Ibasically started the US lending
team.
So Kiva was known for supportingentrepreneurs in Africa or

(12:32):
Southeast Asia or Latin America,and I started the team where we
were lending to a barbershop ininner city Detroit or a small
family farm in rural Arkansas,and so the average line size was
super small, like $5,000.
But it might come from like 200people lending 25 bucks each.
So, yeah, it was kind ofcrowdfunded lending and it was

(12:53):
0% interest, no fees for thesmall business owner.
The lenders weren't getting arate of return, they were just
doing it out of the goodness oftheir heart to support a local
entrepreneur.
A lot of the lenders were maybecustomers of that entrepreneur
or family members, friends andfamily members, and so, yeah, it
was a really fun ride for sevenyears up until then, kind of

(13:14):
jumping to WeFunder in 2018.

Jeffrey Sledge (13:18):
So, as time is moving on, I know you got the
the other thing won't be namedand you get, you, got your, your
like this is kind of going tobe the new way.
It's not new anymore, but thisis now the way for a lot of
businesses and small businessesand stuff to get their money.
Now it won't be through banksand stuff anymore, it'll be this

(13:38):
thing.
Is that the goal?
To kind of eliminate bank loansand add on?

Jonny Price (13:47):
Yeah, I would say the latter.
I think it's a little ambitiousso we'll totally eliminate it.
Um, for me, that one way ofthinking about it is like you
know, we funder is toinstitutional investment capital
, whether that be vcs for techstartups or banks for small
businesses and main mainstream.
You know we funder is toinstitutional capital, as like
twitter is to you know, themainstream media, or like airbnb

(14:11):
as to hotels, right, it's kindof a democratized approach to
angel investing in in startupsand early stage capital raising
for startups, just as you knowthose platforms are in in those
industry sectors.
Or like robin hood for kind ofpublic investing, right?

Jeffrey Sledge (14:28):
yeah yeah, yeah, interesting.
I gotta ask another question.
My mind is racing now.
So what is?
What are a couple of some ofthe biggest um things you guys
have done, like what companieshave really turned into, like
you know, major major companiesand whatever they're doing
through your investors?

Jonny Price (14:49):
yeah.
So a couple of the maybe biggerraises we've done, um.
So there's this company calledmercury bank.
I give them a lot of creditbecause I feel like they were
one of the first maybe the firstlike, really like exciting
venture-backed startups that,like the best vcs in silicon
valley in the world, were kindof lining up to invest in and as

(15:09):
part of their Series B in 2021,there is 120 million Series B.
Codetwo was the VC firm thatled it.
Andreessen Horowitz invested init and they said, okay, we've
raised the Series B.
Now wouldn't it be cool if wecould open up a $5 million
allocation?
That's the maximum that the lawallows you to raise through
regulation crowdfunding everyyear.
$5 million allocation that'sthe maximum that the law allows
you to raise through regulationcrowdfunding every year $5

(15:30):
million.
So let's open up a $5 millionallocation to let our customers
invest in us on the same termsas Andreessen Horowitz in our
Series B.
And so they launched that onWeFunder in 2021.
They raised $5 million in 24hours.
They were massivelyoversubscribed.
Wow.
From memory, they had like twoand a half thousand uh, people

(15:51):
do it, um, and so that's.
That's a kind of awesome likesuccess story.
Repla is another, andreessenhorowitz, by a company that did
the same thing, levels beehive.
It is a newsletter platform.
If you guys know beehive they.
They closed the 32 millionseries b loved by nea earlier
this year and then opened up amillion dollar allocation to let

(16:12):
their kind of users invest.
And then you know that's allkind of tech startups, like
venture-backed tech startups.
Then you have companies likethe oakland roots and soul
soccer teams who are who raisedwith us a year ago.
They're raising again now, butbasically a soccer team that's
letting the people of Oakland,the fans of the club, become

(16:34):
owners and investors in the team.
There's a restaurant near me inNashville called Bad Idea.
They raise $750,000 fromresidents of the community.

Tom Frank (16:43):
I love that name.

Jonny Price (16:44):
Isn't that the best name for a restaurant?

Tom Frank (16:46):
It is.

Jonny Price (16:47):
It's kind of a wine bar, so even better, um, but
yeah, um and so, yeah, theyraised 750k from a couple of
hundred.
You know local residents andyou know what, like, those
residents are gonna go theremore often support the bar
exactly because they're aninvestor in the business and
they they were just featured inthe new york times like 50 best
restaurants list this year,which is pretty cool.

Tom Frank (17:08):
Wow, but let's back up for a second because I think
we need to educate.
Yeah, we need to educate peopleon what we're talking about here
very specifically, though,because you are with a platform
and maybe even just talk alittle bit more about the
overall concept.
This is, as Jeffrey said, likeyou know, traditionally you go

(17:30):
to a bank, you get a loan.
Traditionally, you go to a VCcapital, whatever and you get,
you raise money.
This is a completely differentway to do this.
Give us a little bit of thehistory I'm now I'm afraid to
say the word, but give us alittle bit of the of the history
on, like, how is this evenlegal and how did it start and
what is it?

Jonny Price (17:49):
very specifically, yeah, that's a great question.
So for 80 years in America itwas basically illegal for what's
called unaccredited investorsto invest in private companies.
So once a company went publicin an ipo initial public
offering, you go public on thestock exchange.

(18:11):
Now everyone can invest in you,right, but until that point,
and obviously very, very smallnumber of companies end up going
public.
Right until that point they'reprivate.
And for 80 years, in order toinvest in private companies, you
had to be an accreditedinvestor.
Accredited investor isbasically a millionaire like you

(18:31):
have a million dollars ofwealth excluding your house or
200k income or 300k householdincome, so basically the richest
, like five, ten percent or soof the population.
So only rich people for 80years in America could invest in
private companies.
Now there is a ton of wealththat is being created by private

(18:52):
companies growing andeventually exiting and IPOing,
and so a big part of why I thinkthe law was changed in 2012 and
why our founders startedWeFunder in the same year of
2012.
And one of the first thingsthey did was get the law passed.
But a big part of the drivingforce for them kind of starting

(19:13):
the company and getting thislegislation passed was it is not
fair and extremely un-Americanthat you have to be rich to
invest in, like interestingearly-stage private investment
opportunities.
And so in 2012, there was a lawpassed called the jobs act,

(19:33):
which talks about a bunch ofdifferent things, and you know
politicians right in dc, so yougot to name it like something
like the jobs act and you stuffa lot of stuff in there.

Tom Frank (19:43):
I'm sure the only part.

Jonny Price (19:45):
And it was an acronym, of course.
So it was the Jumpstart OurBusiness Startups.
Oh, okay, jobs Act.
So 2012 Jobs Act, and part ofthe Jobs Act was to allow for
what you might say.
If you want to put another 25cents in the swagger was this
investment crowdfunding concept.
And so now, for the first timein 80 years, everyone in America

(20:06):
, middle class Americans, in 80years, everyone in America,
middle-class Americans, 100% ofthe population can invest in
pre-IPO private companiesthrough registered platforms, of
which WeFunder is the largestone.

Tom Frank (20:18):
So can I ask a question before you continue?
What was the rationalepreviously of not allowing this
Great question?

Jonny Price (20:26):
And this keeps me up at night today.
This is a really importantquestion.
The reason the SEC decided tosay you have to be accredited to
invest in early stage privatecompanies is because those
investments are A super risky.
If you invest in a publiccompany, it's probably not going
to disappear next week, butprivate companies are much, much

(20:49):
riskier.
And then also those investmentsare super illiquid.
Right, if I invest in a companyon the stock market, I can sell
that share next week through myRobinhood account, but if I
invest in a private company onWeFunder, it might be five years
or 10 years before I realizethe return when they get
acquired by a bigger company orIPO.

(21:09):
So they're super riskyinvestments.
They're super illiquidinvestments, kind of long hold,
not much ability to kind of buyand sell.
And so the SEC said you know,we need to kind of protect
retail investors who don't havemuch money saved up from being
exposed to these risky kind offinancial investment

(21:32):
opportunities.
Super valid point.
And so part of the law, whichwas, as I say, went through
Congress in 2012, but actuallywas only rolled out by the SEC
in 2016.
So this has only been live nowsince 2016.
But part of the law was to sayinvestors, when you invest in
these.
It's called regulationcrowdfunding is the legal name.

(21:54):
If you invest in theseregulation crowdfunding
opportunities, you can onlyinvest a certain percentage of
your income and wealth everyyear.
I think it's maybe 5%.
There's a formula to calculateit, but let's say it's 5%.
So if you make, you know, ahundred grand a year, you can
only invest five thousanddollars per year in these um
risky early stage privateinvestment opportunities.
So that was one of the ways inwhich the sec said okay, now

(22:17):
we're going to allow retailinvestors to participate in
these investment opportunities,but like, we're going to put
some rules in place to try toprotect them from losing all
their life savings that'sinteresting so so it's kind of a
noble.
It was kind of a noble thing todo to protect people from
investing in some company, inthe company of the work, and all
of a sudden they're out of,like the bank is empty exactly,

(22:40):
and I think, as with a lot ofregulations right, there's like
maybe a noble intent and there'sdefinitely some good things
that come from that and therecan sometimes be some negative,
maybe unintended or unforeseen,kind of negative.
You know consequences that comefrom that as well and I'll kind
of get up on a little bit of asoapbox for a second.
We we thunder is what's calleda public benefit corporation,

(23:01):
which I don't know if you, youguys know about this.
Really cool, like mostcompanies are C corporations,
they're legally obligated tomaximize shareholder value and
so if a decision to maximizeshareholder value would go
against, like the environment or, you know, their stakeholders,
the community, they have to belegally obligated to maximize
shareholder value.

(23:21):
With a public benefitcorporation, you're legally
obligated to uphold your charter, which talks about the kind of
greatest social impact of whatyou're legally obligated to
uphold your charter which talksabout the kind of greatest
social impact of what you'retrying to do.
Really cool way for you toincorporate your company.
That allows you to kind ofthink more holistically about
the social impact of what you'rebuilding.
So we fund as a public benefitcorporation and for me there's

(23:43):
kind of two main parts of ourpublic benefit progression
mission.
The first is let's get morecapital flowing to startup
founders.
So the idea if you can unlock alot of retail investors capital
that's right now only beinginvested in public companies, if
you can take a lot of thatcapital and invest it in early

(24:06):
stage private startups, thenmaybe we can get more capital
flowing to early stagebusinesses.
At WeFunder, we like startups,we like startup founders.
We think the economy and ourworld will be a better place if
more people are able to launchand grow startup businesses.
So a big part of our mission asa Pvc is get more capital

(24:27):
flowing to startup founders byunlocking.
This like retail investorcapital and and another part of
that as well, by the way, islike loving the playing field.
So if you look at like how muchvc dollars right now are going
to black founders or latinofounders or female founders, or
right now 77 percent of venturecapital goes to three states
californ, new York andMassachusetts so part of the

(24:49):
idea on the founder side is likecan we, if you democratize
angel investing, can we get morecapital flowing to female
founders of color in Tennessee,where I live?
So that's like the founder side.
And then on the investor sideit's basically why should only
rich people get to benefit fromthe wealth created by the next
uber or airbnb ipo?

(25:10):
More companies are ipoing laterand later.
More of that wealth creation ishappening in private.
If ordinary middle-classamericans can't participate in
that wealth creation, likethat's a problem.
Um, and so that's kind of theinvestor side of WeFunder's
mission.
Okay, off my soapbox.

Jeffrey Sledge (25:30):
One quick question before we move forward.
California and New York areobvious, but why is
Massachusetts one of the topthree?

Jonny Price (25:38):
Boston, Harvard, Harvard, I think.

Tom Frank (25:46):
I would say, healthcare is blowing up and
health tech especially, ms inboston.
Yeah, so why would?
Why would someone invest onthis?
Like if I was in, if I was justa guy who wanted to invest a
little bit of money, right, why?
Why?
It seems like it's a massiverisk.
Why wouldn't I go?
The more traditional publiccompany put money in the stock

(26:09):
market.
What's the what's the advantageto me to come through like a
WeFunder?
And, to your point, what am Igoing to do with those shares?
Like how?
do I how do I, how do I makemoney off of this?

Jonny Price (26:21):
Yeah, great question.
So I think there's kind of two,two reasons, right, and I I may
reframe it a little bit it'slike why does anyone do angel
investing in startups?
Because that's kind of whatit's like An accredited investor
could only invest in publiccompanies.
But a lot of people are makingangel investments into early
stage companies and hoping toget the next Uber seed round

(26:46):
because, yes, it's, it's superrisky, yes, it's a super long
hold, but maybe there's like a10 000 x return there, right.
Yeah, that's a good point.
Yeah, so, like I always say, if, if 5 000 uber drivers had
invested a thousand dollars in useed round, we literally would

(27:07):
have made 5,000 Uber driversmillionaires at the IPO, which
would be pretty cool.
And if you look at, in the1970s, like the top 1% of
Americans had 10% of wealth andin 2020, the top 1% of Americans
had 30% of wealth.
This stat was from ChatGPTabout 10 minutes ago, by the way
, so you, might want to check itof wealth.

Mickey Factz (27:27):
This stat was from .

Jonny Price (27:28):
ChatGPT about 10 minutes ago, by the way,
assuming Sam Altman is sellingus the truth.
Concentration of wealth top 1%it's gone from 10% to 30%.
For me, at least, one driver ofthat is that only wealthy
people have got to invest in alot of these private companies
that are creating a ton ofwealth.
A lot of the wealth that wascreated by microsoft was post

(27:50):
ipo, so then retail investorscan get in in on that.
But if you look at, like youknow, companies that are ipo
recently, like uber, they'rehuge by the time they ipo.
So there's kind of less likevalue creation growth upside for
kind of retail investors toparticipate in if they can only
invest post-IPO.

Tom Frank (28:07):
And is it because of these opportunities that people
are becoming public companiesmuch later in the process than
ever before?
And you're right that you kindof miss out unless you were able
to get in super early.

Jonny Price (28:22):
So to answer, to go back to your question, so
that's the first answer.
Right, it's like, yes, it'srisky, yes it's a liquid, but
there is potential high upside.
If you do back a flyer, thatyou know goes power law big
right, which is obviously thehope of investing in other stage
companies.
I think there's another bigreason, though, which is a lot
of what we see on WeFunder,which is kind of supporting a

(28:44):
company that you love or aproduct that you love, or even a
cause that you believe in.
So the people investing inchattanooga football club, which
is another soccer team thatraised with us, three and a half
thousand chattanoogans invested900k in chattanooga football
club.
Wow, like I don't.
I imagine most of those guyslike don't really expect to

(29:06):
become millionaires from thatinvestment.
They just think it's cool to belike an owner of their soccer
club.
Yeah, I think that is kind ofcool.
Yeah, like there's this company.
I was actually chatting to thefounder.
Yesterday's company, leah labs,went through y combinator.
They're trying to cure cancerin dogs.
Um, got some really awesomeresults recently that they're
making progress, really cool.
And so you but the vcs werelike the market's too small,

(29:30):
there's too much science riskahead of you, so sorry, like
we're not gonna, we're not gonnainvest, and they almost went
out of business, coming out ofyc.
And then they raised half amillion from hundreds of dog
lovers on wefonder and there's aplace on wefonder where you can
see the comments that peopleleave.
Why, why did you invest inLeoLabs?
And so many of those peoplewere like I had.

(29:51):
You know, three greyhounds dieof cancer.
So if I can be a part of youknow, potentially the solution
here, here's my $1,000, rightAverage investment on WeFund is
$1,000.
Median is $250.
Minimum is $100.
So it's small amounts of moneyand a vc investing 10 million
dollars.
Like they're really focused onthe bottom line, right, but like

(30:12):
if you're investing 200, maybeyou think it's just cool to be a
part of you know, maybe likegiving this awesome founder a
shot at curing canine cancer andalso maybe, if it does work,
then you make a bunch of moneyon that $200 investment but

(30:32):
there's a really big kind ofmission piece, I think, to a
mission driven piece investor,investor motivation here has.

Tom Frank (30:38):
Has there been any um ?
I mean how we funders beenaround since what you say, 2014?
Is that right so?

Jonny Price (30:45):
company founded.
That was when the law wentthrough Congress and then it
took four years for the SEC toroll it out.
So 2016 was when the laws wereimplemented and this went live
for the first time.
And then there was a big rulechange in 2021, where the max
you could raise went up from $1million to $5 million, and now

(31:07):
we can kind of roll up allinvestors to one line on the cap
table, which is reallyimportant.
Um, so yeah it.
The laws became kind ofinteresting for really hot
venture-backed startups likemercury in 2021.

Tom Frank (31:22):
so really it's only like three years old so when you
talk about success storiesbecause jeffrey asked you about
some success stories right, talkabout it from the other side.
How about from it from aninvestor standpoint?
Has there been in that amountof time periods where the guy
and it doesn't have to be on wefunder anywhere, where the guy
put in the 200 bucks on acompany he just wanted to see

(31:45):
dwell and and we have seen somekind of crazy success story from
that?

Jonny Price (31:50):
I don't think any like thousand X's.
Yet There've certainly been abunch of, you know, multiple
returns on capital througheither acquisitions or that
there've been some kind of verysmall kind of IPOs, and there's
been some companies that arekind of going through the
typical kind of raising roundsat high valuations.
Right, Fathom Video is.

(32:12):
I don't know if you guys knowFathom, but it's this tool that
like records your oh, I haveheard of Fathom, yeah.
Yeah.
So they did a round with usmaybe a year or two ago and
their growth rate is absolutelyinsane.
And they just closed another.
I think it was a Series A.
They raised 20 million and theydid 2 million for their

(32:33):
customers.
So they did did around 18months ago, did around again
just now and their valuation islike stair stepping up right.
So there's lots of exampleslike that.
In terms of the thousand extraturn, we haven't seen that yet
and for me it's because reallythis has only been a really good
fit for kind of these hawkersprobably sticking like parallel
vc back startups for the lastthree years and that's a pretty,
that's a pretty short timeframe in venture, especially
because like that vintage islike kind of peak of the bubble

(32:57):
and like ipo window has beenkind of closed the last couple
of years, so still pretty earlydays I think.
But yeah, no kind of thousand xexits yet.
We hope we'll see one in the inthe coming years.

Jeffrey Sledge (33:08):
but even when it's been interesting in music
because a couple guys have Iknow, you know uh have done
really well like uh.
There's a guy named troy carter.
I know him for ages.
He used to be in a group, uhlabel I worked at uh.
He's not a big time manager andstuff he managed will smith and
like he's like big time, but hewas one of the angel investors
in.

Jonny Price (33:28):
Uber.

Jeffrey Sledge (33:30):
He made a grip.
Nas the rapper, has a VC.
He was one of the angelinvestors in Ring.
There's a couple guys in musicthat have a chameleon there.
I forgot about him.
I forget which one he investedin earlier, but there are some
guys that have done extremelywell with this thing, so I wish

(33:51):
they would share the informationmore.
You just kind of hear they madea bunch of money, but they
don't really ever sit down andtalk about, like you're doing
now, the process of it and howto get involved in it.
So I appreciate you doing that.

Jonny Price (34:04):
Well, that's kind of what we're about, right, you
doing that?
Well, that's that's kind ofwhat we're about, right.
It's like normally these kindof early stage investments are
reserved for millionaires, likekind of a very small percentage
of the population.
And yeah, we're trying todemocratize it.
We're trying to say everyonehas the ability to, and everyone
should be encouraged to, notjust park your money in
starbucks on on wall street butlike invest in your local coffee

(34:27):
shop, invest in Red Bay Coffeein Oakland, down the street from
you.
And going back to the whole kindof the start, the introduction
about how culture ties to money,that, for me, is really why I
work at WeFunder to like imaginea financial system where
there's more like connectionsand more community, hence

(34:52):
community rounds, um, and likeit's not kind of instant or it
may be, it's institutions, butas well as the institutions not
to knock the institutions,that's great, vcs are awesome,
but like let's also let yourcustomers and community, let's
also let the people kind ofparticipate.
And then we would pitch thestartup founder on.
If your customers and communityinvest in your startup, then

(35:14):
you're going to grow faster.
Like every startup, everycompany wants to build stronger
community, wants to delighttheir customers.
And what better way to buildcommunity and delight your
customers than by giving them achance to become owners and
investors in your startup,alongside these great VCs?

Tom Frank (35:34):
That's a great point, because I talked to a client
recently about this and one ofthe things and I thought it was
a valid point, but I'd love toknow your response to it is they
worried that if they did openup to a community round like
this, that it would?
In some way, no swear job, thatit would, that it would, and

(35:55):
how would you respond to this?
That it would cheapen theirbrand.
Because they're it, it makes itmay.
It might come across as we'redesperate or we need oh I love
that question.

Jonny Price (36:05):
I love that question.
I would say the completeopposite.
I mean it depends how you frameit right.
Yeah, if you do a communityround because you're struggling
to raise from vcs, then surethat can be kind of optically
challenging right and that cankeep it.
And especially if you say we'regoing to raise five million on
we funder and then you span yournetwork and you raise like

(36:26):
$212,000 on WeFunder over sixmonths, like yeah, that's a
pretty bad signal.
Sometimes I will say I wouldtake the money that I need to
get it to the next level overthe signal.
But whatever, that's a separatepoint.
But the things I'm talking aboutthe Beehive example but the

(36:52):
things I'm talking about the.
The beehive example is like wejust raised 32 million from the
best vcs in the world.
Like we don't have a problemraising money here.
This isn't because we'redesperate.
This is an opportunity for usto invite our users and
community into become ourstakeholders and owners and we
want to put our customers at thevery center of everything we do
.
And why should we make only VCs,like you know, rich at our IPO?

(37:17):
Wouldn't it be cool if we letour writers and newsletter
owners also kind of build wealthwith us, and for me that is the
opposite of cheapening yourbrand.
Build wealth with us and for methat is the opposite of
cheapening your brand.
That is like a very emphaticstatement around your brand and
what you stand for and and kindof how customer centricity is at
the core of everything you doand you're not just paying lip

(37:38):
service to building communitybut you're actually delivering
on that by giving your communitythis like kind of ultimate
community benefit of becoming aninvestor in Beehive.
Yeah, I'm pretty biased, though.

Jeffrey Sledge (37:53):
So how does?

Mickey Factz (37:53):
how does, how does you know?
All of this is incredible, buthow does someone who has no, uh,
Prior knowledge to gainingcapital get in contact with
someone such as yourself to gaincapital for their startup

(38:14):
business, johnny, I think Ithink a lot of our listeners
potentially may be startupcompanies that are looking to
expand their growth.
How, how would they be able toget in contact with someone such
as yourself to grow theirbusiness?

Jonny Price (38:29):
Yeah, I mean weunder is a very open platform.
So I will say, like most of thecompanies that are raising
capital on WeFunder like thefounders maybe kind of know
their way around raising capital, like they they're not coming
to us to say like how should wedo this?
They're coming to us and sayingwe're raising a million bucks on

(38:51):
a safe with a 5 million cap anda 20% discount, like as part of
our seed round, and you know wejust want a platform to execute
on it.
It's definitely a spectrum andwe definitely kind of can
provide advice and guidance forfounders in helping them think
through how to structure theraise and how to think about the
, the fundraise and the termsand that kind of thing.
Um, but yeah, I would say,generally kind of founders on we

(39:13):
funder are like relativelysophisticated in terms of, um,
you know, their kind of comfortand ability to kind of raise
capital, structure the raise,like go out and pitch investors,
which is a very different worldto the one I used to be in at
Kiva, where that was like maybemuch kind of smaller businesses

(39:34):
looking for smaller amounts ofmoney so we funded.
The minimum that we do is 50K.
So it tends to be maybe alittle more kind of
sophisticated entrepreneurs.

Jeffrey Sledge (39:43):
So let me ask you this question because you
just you just brought some whenyou said that.
So what is some advice youwould give to somebody who wants
to get involved with this onhow to pitch their business to
make it exciting for possibleinvestors?
Good question.

Jonny Price (40:13):
One way to answer.
That is to say, treat WeFunderas you would if you were raising
from conventional accreditedangel investors and VCs.
And if you were kind of to aregular investor that you're
trying to raise capital from ina world where WeFunder doesn't
exist, okay, what's problem?
Solution traction, totaladdressable market, you know,
team use of funds, whatever.
That kind of standard slidedeck is almost like copy and
paste that onto we funder, likethat's a little crude and

(40:37):
simplistic.
I do think one of the benefitsof community rounds is like you
can turn this into a marketingcampaign and so you can have a
video, for example, and you canmaybe, you know, tell the story
in a maybe simpler way.
That kind of retail investorshave an easier time kind of
wrapping their heads around, butI think you maybe get into a

(40:58):
little trouble if you try todeviate too much from that.
And the same goes for, like the, the pitch deck or the we fund
the profile page and also itgoes to the terms.
So one of the things I I seekind of founders and companies
making a mistake of is like ifwe were raising from vcs, we'd
be raising on a 10 milliondollar valuation.
But because we're raising from,you know, retail investors,

(41:21):
we're going to raise on a 25million dollar valuation and
like that.
We don't love that.

Tom Frank (41:28):
Like that doesn't make sense.

Jonny Price (41:29):
Yeah, I think like you're gonna struggle to raise,
like you're gonna have kind ofquestions and then it kind of
messes with kind of thetrajectory of your valuations
through the round.
So um yeah, I kind of it's.
It's again over simplistic, butI think the starting point is
like if we funder didn't exist,what would your pitch deck look
like?
What would the structure of theround look like?

(41:50):
Now put that on, we funder withit, with a few tweaks for kind
of a larger, kind of marketingbased approach to fundraising,
like the video being a goodexample and what kind of
companies like if I, if I owneda place and I was I was selling
tires down the road WeFundermight not be for me.

Tom Frank (42:09):
What kind of companies make the most sense to
leverage, whether it's WeFunderor any of the other ones.
And then I'm going to ask youwhy WeFunder is better than all
the competitors.

Jonny Price (42:22):
I used to actually run a tire company.
I gave it up because it was tootiring.

Jeffrey Sledge (42:29):
Swear Jay, you got to put some credit in the
swear job for that corny jokeman.

Jonny Price (42:33):
You're welcome America, yeah, so we're kind of
talking here about the Mercurysand the Beehives and the Fathoms
, right, and they're kind ofmillion, like so a bunch of
companies and we fundeverybody's five million dollars
in a day as part of a larger vcround, right, and so those are
always the sexiest ones, right.

(42:54):
And from to your questionearlier about like the negative
signal and they're likecheapening the brand, like those
are the ones like no worries onthat front, right, because
we've already raised from vcs.
And that's a clear use case forweunder and those are the ones
that are most fun for us on theteam and we have the Slack
channel of all the investmentsand like those days when those
companies launch it's like boom,like thousands of like messages

(43:16):
in the Slack channel with allthese reasons why customers love
Mercury and why they're soexcited that Imad let them
invest in the company.
There's a totally other usecase for WeFunder and this kind
of goes to the question earlierof like it's a hundred K friends
and family round for like thevery first capital into a very

(43:37):
early stage startup, maybe thatpre-launch right or first
outside capital, and for me thatis also a super valid use case
here where it's like that isalso a super valid use case here
, where it's like I think thatusing a platform like WeFund can
make it a little bit easier foryou to raise that first capital
, and I usually give a fewreasons for this.

(43:58):
Firstly, you can still raisefrom accredited investors, but
now you can also raise fromunaccredited investors.
So, rather than just 5%, 10% ofthe population being able to
invest, now 100% of thepopulation can invest in you.
Everyone in your network caninvest.
And also you can publiclypromote it.
So that's the other thing wehaven't talked about.
Normally in conventionalfundraising you're privately

(44:22):
soliciting investors.
You can't talk about it onsocial media.
We're in like 2024.
And the way that tech startupsraise capital doesn't involve
social media.
It seems kind of weird to me.
Yes, so with regulationcrowdfunding, you can now kind
of publicly promote it.
You can email blast all yourcustomers or you can post on
linkedin or you can go on apodcast like this one and say,

(44:44):
hey, we're letting our communityinvest.
You can market it and get inthe press etc.
And then, thirdly, you get infront of we funder investors.
So we'll our investor base willkind of come in and invest in
in you.
Typically, it's usually aminority of the round, but it's
like some free money from beingon the platform and then and
then also we kind of lower theminimum check size, right.
So maybe it's tough to persuadeyour network to invest 10K, 20k

(45:07):
in your business, but if you cango and refund it and raise a
bunch of $1,000, $500 checks,you can turn a lot of no's from
investors into yeses.
For me, these are some ways inwhich raising on a platform like
this one can make it a littlebit easier for you to raise
capital.
If you're pretty early or needa boost in terms of raising

(45:29):
capital and 2024 is a prettytough fundraising environment
2020, 2021, covid, stimuluschecks, zero interest rate
policy, go, go, boom years likea lot of fun, easy to raise
capital.
2024 a little bit morechallenging, so it's hard for
you to raise capital.
I I think this can like giveyou make it a little bit easier
maybe.

Mickey Factz (45:49):
Wow.

Tom Frank (45:52):
So are there very specific companies, though.
Like when I look through someof these channels, like I see a
lot of.
I see a lot in like the spiritsworld, spirits and beer.
I see a lot in theentertainment space.
I see a lot in the tech space.
Is there specific things likenot not looking if they've
already went through rounds oranything, but are there things
that, like, people just love toget involved.

(46:13):
Sports obviously seems like oneof them.
Tires, tires, tires is the one.

Jonny Price (46:18):
Tires absolutely.
No I would say the main-.

Jeffrey Sledge (46:22):
Pep Boys.

Jonny Price (46:23):
Yeah, pep Boys, pep Boys.

Tom Frank (46:27):
Pep Boys.

Jonny Price (46:29):
I would say crudely like consumer facing, right?
Yeah, for two reasons.
One, if you have an audience ofcustomers, consumers then you
can send an email to thosecustomers and now you can turn
those into investors so that canmake it a little bit easier to
raise capital, and now you canturn those into investments, so

(46:50):
that can make it a little biteasier to raise capital.
And then, secondly, generallyspeaking, consumer-facing
companies are going to see morevalue in the idea of huh, if my
customers invest in me, thenmaybe they're going to buy more
of my whiskey, more of my tires.

Jeffrey Sledge (47:04):
So yeah, so it's more about branding yourself or
your again like a betterbranding yourself and then
selling the customer yourselfwho happens to own this thing?
I, I see that.
I think I mentioned um tomickey and um tom before.
There's a woman.
I just saw her on on uh tiktokyesterday.

(47:26):
I can't remember her name.
She was a liquor called UncleNearest.

Tom Frank (47:30):
And Uncle Nearest was .

Jeffrey Sledge (47:31):
You know what I'm talking about, right?
Uncle Nearest was the guy whoactually taught Jack.

Mickey Factz (47:35):
Daniels how to distill.

Tom Frank (47:37):
Yeah, actually I think she is, I think it is or
outside of Nashville.

Jeffrey Sledge (47:40):
Yeah, yeah, you're right in that Tennessee
area.
Yep, absolutely, because that'swhere whiskey comes from.
Absolutely because that's wherewhiskey comes from.
So I've noticed with her Ithink it was two of them
actually, it was her and anotherwoman I noticed that they
really branded this.
Obviously they know whatthey're talking about, they know
the spirits world, they knowhow to make it and all that.
But I noticed that they brandedthemselves as these two black
women entrepreneurs who are inthis space where there's no

(48:04):
black people really, let alonetwo black women.
And that's really driven,besides the product being I
don't really drink, but I hearthe product is really good but
also that's driven.
I think it's driven a lot ofpeople, because people want to
invest in them, they want tolike especially the black
community.
It's like we got to supportthem, especially when you hear
the backstory of how UncleNearest got his, his, you know

(48:24):
kind of this stuff stolen andthey didn't get the credit.
So, like I see what you'resaying, that's how you gotta
gotta brand yourself.
You know there's a woman downhere called named pinky cole.
She has a company called umrestaurant, rather called slutty
vegan.
She makes like obviously veganfood but it's like burgers and
stuff and she has a few of themnow.

Jonny Price (48:43):
Send it my way, man .
Send it my way, we'd love tohave those guys on WeFund.
They're doing a community runSlutty Vegan.

Jeffrey Sledge (48:49):
Yeah, slutty Vegan.
It's big.
That's actually right down theblock from Marcus' restaurant,
but people buy into her as muchas the restaurant, the people
like her, Anything she does.
When she does these openingsthey're always crowded.
People really like her.
So I see what you're saying.
I don't think it's cool to befaceless in 2024.

Jonny Price (49:11):
Exactly, that's a good way of putting it.
Kim Lewis is the founder ofCurlmix, black female founder in
Chicago hair care CPG companyand she's done now two WeFunder
rounds and if you go toWeFundercom slash Curlmix and
then there's a tab with all theinvestor comments and if you
read through that it's like somany of her customers saying I'm

(49:32):
so stoked to invest in a blackfemale founder like I've been
like using your product foryears.
Like I'm so glad you guys havebasically built this company and
built a product that caters tome and I'm like really stoked to
be able to invest in you.
Or like Lily Brose is a mediapublishing company of like

(49:52):
Latino or kind of Spanishlanguage kids books, started by
two Latino women in LA.
And again you read the commentslike so many of their investors
are Latina women.
Like if you look at like howmany VCs are, like whether GPs
at Vcs are latino women or blackwomen, like it ain't many.

(50:14):
And so a big part of kind ofwhy I work at we fund there is,
like if you can empower latinowomen to be the angel investors
with increments starting at ahundred bucks, then yeah, maybe
capital flowing to Latino women,black female founders, um, so,
yeah, so a lot of vegan.
Uh, send them my way, man.

Jeffrey Sledge (50:37):
I will.

Jonny Price (50:37):
I will.
What's the future?
What are you going to pop, boys?

Jeffrey Sledge (50:40):
That's what we we need, you know we need.
We need three black womencalled pep girls.
We need three black womencalled Pep Girls, pep.

Jonny Price (50:49):
Girls, pep Girls.
There you go, pep Girls Comingon WeFund the future I got you?

Tom Frank (50:54):
What do you think the future holds?
I mean, this whole topic hasalready changed dramatically in
the last 10 years.
What are you if you had acrystal ball?
What's the future of community?

Jonny Price (51:07):
funding.
Yeah, the future that we'retrying to usher in is.
You asked a great questionearlier, right, this is I feel
like the hardest thing with myjob is to overcome this negative
stigma where it's like that's anegative signal that you let
you delighted your customers andcommunity by letting them
invest in your startup on thesame terms as and it's like but

(51:27):
it is a negative stigma and likemy biggest job, our biggest job
as a company, is to change thatstigma and to change it from a
world today where maybe it's anegative signal that for you to
let you invest in your startup,to where it's an emphatically
positive signal and it's almosta black mark if you only let
rich vcs benefit from the wealththat you create in building

(51:51):
your consumer-facing startup andthat like the customers of
companies, raising the foundersto say, yo, like your company,
how did I let their customersinvest?
You letting me invest in you?
Um, and so that's the visionthat we're trying, especially
for consumer facing companiescan be b2b as well, can be
biotech companies.
Leo labs, right, is a biotechcompany.

(52:13):
That the canine cancer companyI mentioned.
So it doesn't have to be b2c,but b2c, I think, is a sweet
spot.
So in like five, ten years time, the expectation that if you're
a b2c startup where it's afriends and family, precede seed
series a, b, seed series A, b,c.
All along the way you'reletting your customers

(52:35):
participate on the same terms asVCs.
We haven't even talked aboutthis, but WeFunders' mission is
pretty ambitious.
But fix capitalism.
We say capitalism is broken,like the stat I gave about
concentration of wealth umearlier, like more and more
wealth being concentrated in thehands of kind of fewer and
fewer people it's like not great.

(52:56):
That's like doesn't end well.
Um, that yeah like wonder ifwe're starting to see some of
the fraying of like thecapitalist system, because
capitalism is not working for alot of people from a kind of, at
least from an equalityperspective.
So, yeah, that's what like forus, like if more people get to
kind of democraticallyparticipate in investing in

(53:18):
these kind of cool startup likefast-growing companies, um then
you know, let's fix capitalism,that's's the future.

Tom Frank (53:27):
That's a big, bold statement right there.

Jonny Price (53:28):
Pretty ambitious, it is pretty ambitious.

Tom Frank (53:31):
Yeah, yeah, wow, mickey, what else you got?

Mickey Factz (53:37):
I'm just floored by this interview.
I think I'm just I'm sittinghere just kind of listening, you
know, as someone who hasstarted his own company very
first ever one, and only hip hopschool and it is the only one
in existence you know, justhearing this thought process of
how capital was raised and allof the you know legalities that

(54:00):
go behind it.
I'm just kind of sitting herejust, you know, soaking it all
in and, you know, trying to seehow I fit in something like this
, you know, because, um, thisknowledge is very, very crucial,
uh, to take things to the nextlevel for myself, you know.
So I'm just kind of just takingit all in.
It's great.

Tom Frank (54:18):
Well, is there anything that we didn't ask you
that you want to share?

Jonny Price (54:24):
Um, I would say kind of a little selfish maybe,
but just a plug, like, if youare a startup founder and you
kind of dig the idea of, youknow, letting your customers
participate in investing in yourstartup, check out, check out
we funder and then, if you likethe idea of investing in
startups that are doing coolthings in the world and badass

(54:47):
founders, um, you know what kindof causes that maybe you care
about.
If you want to invest in yourlocal community, there's like a
map feature on we funder whereyou can check out startups
fundraising near me, you knowit's you can invest for 100
bucks and become an angelinvestor.
Like we're trying to kind oflower the barrier to entry so
that more people more peopleparticipate as angel investors.

(55:09):
It's really kind of quick andeasy to get set up and give it a
spin.

Mickey Factz (55:13):
Yeah, I'm signing up.
Let me know right now.

Tom Frank (55:16):
You're signing up.

Mickey Factz (55:17):
I'm signing up for WeFund.

Tom Frank (55:19):
I'm already signed up , mick Ham, I'm always.
I'm always one step ahead.
You can be a referral for me.
Well, hey, man, that was prettyimpressive.
I learned a ton from that, andthis is something interesting.
We need to keep checking inwith you every so often and see
how this entire industry ischanging and, hopefully, how we

(55:41):
funder and other companies likeyours are actively going to
change capitalism, because Ithink that's a pretty big
endeavor, but one that'sdesperately needed well, thank
you, this has been a super funconversation and, yeah, I love
what you guys are doing.

Jonny Price (55:54):
I I think it makes a ton of sense that you had me
on and you kind of covered thisway of raising capital, like
capital and culture often seemmaybe, like you know, almost
like very separate.
Yeah for me one way to kind ofbridge that gap.

Jeffrey Sledge (56:09):
No, it's dope.
This, this, this was.
This was really interesting.
Like I said, I'm glad thatMickey said that you were able
to come on here and break somethings down because you know,
like I said, I'll go back tothis, this things I was saying
earlier.
Like you know, or Troy was Uberand that's just amazing, but I
remember we got the details onhow they found out about it
earlier.

(56:29):
I guess it was probably justthrough you know connections.
Nas is a big star, you know,and I know he was, maybe still
is.
I know at one point he washanging out with Zuckerberg
pretty tough, so he probably gotyou know some inside
information.
But, like I said, but theaverage people isn't that.
So this is beautiful whatyou're doing, because I'm not
going to be hanging out withZuckerberg it's not going to
happen, but I can still be aninvestor.

(56:50):
It's cool.

Tom Frank (56:52):
It's very cool.
All right people, that wasJohnny Price, london's own.

Jonny Price (57:02):
Cheers, guys, you're awesome.

Tom Frank (57:04):
All right, folks, that's our show.
Tune in to Unglossy encodingbrand and culture on Apple
Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube,and follow us on Instagram at
UnglossyPod to join theconversation.
Until next time, I'm Tom Frank.

Jeffrey Sledge (57:18):
I'm Jeffrey Sledge.

Tom Frank (57:21):
Smicky.

Jeffrey Sledge (57:23):
That was good.