Four Companies Will Face Our Judges Live at SuperCrowd26—Here’s What the Judges Will Be Looking For
Milk Care Co., Changemaker Education, Azure Printed Homes and Oshi emerged from 15 applicants for the SuperCrowd26 Live Pitch. The judges’ questions may be as valuable to investors as the pitches them
Fifteen well-qualified companies applied for a coveted spot in the SuperCrowd26 featuring PurposeBuilt100™ Live Pitch.
Our judges—Paul Lovejoy, Sherwood Neiss and Léa Bouhelier-Gautreau—reviewed the field and selected four companies they found especially compelling:
Milk Care Co. (Harmony Baby Nutrition)
Changemaker Education
Azure Printed Homes
Oshi
On Wednesday, August 26, beginning at approximately 4:07 p.m. Pacific / 7:07 p.m. Eastern, those four companies will pitch live, with SuperCrowd.tv serving as the primary viewing venue.
The program will also stream on LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, the Superpowers for Good Substack and SuperCrowd26.com.
For me, however, one of the most interesting parts of the Live Pitch won’t simply be hearing four polished presentations.
It will be hearing what happens after them.
Our judges will have an opportunity to move beyond application materials and prepared presentations and ask the kinds of questions investors actually confront when deciding whether an exciting company also represents an attractive investment.
Four Very Different Opportunities
The finalists span pediatric nutrition, education, sustainable housing and alternative seafood.
Milk Care Co. (Harmony Baby Nutrition) is a Boston-based infant and toddler nutrition company developing a human milk-inspired, allergy-friendly toddler formula. Its Wefunder campaign seeks up to $2 million using a SAFE.
Changemaker Education, based in Sacramento, is developing a national network of independent microschools while helping educators launch and operate schools as entrepreneurs. Its Wefunder offering uses a SAFE to support expansion of the network and its founder-support program.
Azure Printed Homes manufactures 3D-printed structures using post-consumer polymer materials, with applications that include accessory dwelling units, workforce housing and supportive housing. The company is raising debt capital through Honeycomb Credit to support manufacturing capacity, equipment, inventory and working capital.
Oshi develops plant-based salmon as an alternative to conventional seafood, seeking to reduce pressure on fisheries while expanding the availability of alternative proteins. The company is raising equity capital through Wefunder.
That diversity is important.
There shouldn’t be one formula that determines whether all four represent attractive investments.
Instead, I expect the conversation to explore whether each founder understands the problem being solved, the market opportunity, the economics of the business, the risks ahead—and why the investment being offered makes sense for investors.
Léa Bouhelier-Gautreau: Does Impact Strengthen the Business?
For Léa Bouhelier-Gautreau, Sr. Investment Associate, Impact Investing at Kingscrowd, the strongest opportunities have to withstand scrutiny on two dimensions at once.
“I’ll be looking for the connection between impact and investment potential. I want to understand whether the company’s positive impact is truly embedded in the business model—so that impact grows as the company grows—while also seeing evidence of a durable, scalable business. A powerful mission can get my attention, but I’ll also want to understand the market, traction, competitive advantage and what has to go right for investors to ultimately succeed financially.”
Léa brings an impact-investing and sustainability lens to the panel. Her work at Kingscrowd includes evaluating investment opportunities for impact-oriented investors, and her earlier experience with Stanford accelerator StartX included helping identify promising entrepreneurs.
I particularly like the distinction embedded in her approach.
It isn’t enough to ask whether a company does good.
A more demanding question is: Does doing good help create an investable company?
For businesses tackling health, education, housing, climate and food-system sustainability, I think that is one of the most useful questions an impact investor can ask.
Paul Lovejoy: What Could Go Wrong—and Is the Investor Being Rewarded for the Risk?
Paul Lovejoy, Principal Investment Advisor at Stakeholder Enterprise, approaches crowd investing from the perspective of investor financial well-being and disciplined capital allocation.
“A good story matters, but investors also have to ask what happens if the story doesn’t unfold exactly as planned. I’ll be listening for founders who understand their risks as clearly as they understand their opportunities. What assumptions are embedded in the projections? What has to break for this not to work? Is it execution, timing, competition, or something outside the founder’s control entirely? And once I can see that risk clearly, I want to ask whether the upside actually matches it. ”
Paul’s investment philosophy emphasizes building wealth ethically while maintaining the financial discipline necessary to protect an investor’s long-term well-being.
That makes downside analysis an essential part of the Live Pitch.
I’m hoping we’ll hear questions not just about how large these companies can become, but about how much money they’ll need to get there.
What happens if growth takes longer than expected?
Can the margins support the business model?
How much additional financing could be required?
What might that financing mean for today’s investors?
Those questions can make founders uncomfortable.
They can also make a pitch much more useful to investors.
Sherwood Neiss: Show Me the Evidence
Sherwood Neiss, a longtime leader in the investment crowdfunding industry, will bring a capital-formation lens to the pitches, testing whether companies’ aspirations are supported by evidence.
“When I evaluate a crowdfunding opportunity, I want to separate the promise from the proof. What has the company already demonstrated? Are customers buying? Is revenue growing? Has management shown that it can execute? Then I want to understand how this round changes the trajectory of the business. Investors should be able to see a logical connection between the capital being raised today, the milestones it will fund and the value the company hopes to create tomorrow.”
That gets at one of the central challenges I face whenever I evaluate an early-stage investment: distinguishing an attractive vision from demonstrated execution.
Market size matters.
So do traction, customer adoption, unit economics, capital efficiency and the credibility of management’s assumptions.
In crowdfunding, I think there is another fascinating question:
Why raise from the crowd?
Some companies can gain something from hundreds or thousands of investors that goes far beyond their money.
Those investors can become customers, advocates, referral sources, community validators and ambassadors.
Other companies may be turning to crowdfunding principally because alternative sources of capital aren’t available.
As an investor, I want to understand the difference.
The Security Matters, Too
One reason I’m especially interested in this particular group of finalists is that they aren’t merely four different businesses.
They are also offering different securities.
We’ll have SAFEs, equity and debt represented on the stage.
That gives us an opportunity to explore a fundamental question that sometimes gets lost in our enthusiasm for a company:
What exactly does the investor get?
That answer affects nearly everything else.
Valuation. Dilution. Cash returns. Liquidity. The possibility of an exit. The mechanism through which investors might someday realize a gain.
I can love a company and still dislike the investment being offered.
A promising business can represent an unattractive investment if the terms are wrong.
Conversely, an unusual or complex security doesn’t necessarily make an opportunity unattractive if I understand the structure and believe the potential return compensates me appropriately for the risk.
That distinction between the company and the investment is one I hope the Live Pitch helps investors appreciate.
Questions I Hope Investors Will Borrow
Taken together, the three judges give us a remarkably useful framework for evaluating investment opportunities.
These are questions I’ll be listening for—and questions I think investors can borrow when conducting their own due diligence:
Is the problem real and important?
Has the company demonstrated genuine customer demand?
What evidence suggests the business can scale?
What competitive advantage can it defend?
How does the company make money—and can the economics improve with scale?
What does this financing round actually accomplish?
How much more capital is likely to be required?
What could cause the plan to fail?
What security is being offered, and on what terms?
How could investors ultimately earn a return?
Is the company’s social or environmental impact material, measurable and connected to growth?
Does crowdfunding itself provide a strategic advantage to the company?
That last point is worth emphasizing.
The goal of the judges—and certainly my goal with SuperCrowd26—is not to tell you what to buy.
It is to help all of us ask better questions.
I’m looking forward to hearing directly from each of the pitching companies, but I’m equally excited to hear from these thoughtful judges.
Their probing questions will help me evaluate the offerings more effectively, too.
A strong pitch can tell you a great deal about a company.
Sometimes a really good question tells you even more.
Selection for the Live Pitch does not constitute an endorsement or recommendation to invest. Investors should review offering materials carefully, consider their own circumstances and conduct appropriate due diligence before making any investment.
Watch—and Join the Conversation
The SuperCrowd26 Live Pitch will stream primarily on SuperCrowd.tv on Wednesday, August 26, beginning at approximately 4:07 p.m. Pacific / 7:07 p.m. Eastern.
You’ll also be able to watch on LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, the Superpowers for Good Substack and SuperCrowd26.com.
Watching is free.
For people who want to go beyond watching, the $50 Executive Access ticket opens the networking side of SuperCrowd26, including opportunities to communicate directly with speakers, judges, sponsors and PurposeBuilt100™ winners.
You can find tickets, the complete agenda and event information at:
I hope you’ll join us. Remember, Impact Members get free Executive Access!
About SuperCrowd26 featuring PurposeBuilt100™
SuperCrowd26 featuring PurposeBuilt100™ is a three-day, televised virtual convening produced by The Super Crowd, Inc., a public benefit corporation. Running August 25–27, 2026, the event brings together founders, investors and crowdfunding ecosystem leaders for conversations focused on capital, community and impact.
The event culminates in the inaugural PurposeBuilt100™ Showcase, recognizing 100 fast-growing, purpose-driven companies and highlighting the intersection of business growth and measurable social or environmental purpose.
Max-Impact Members
(We’re grateful for every one of these community champions who make this work possible.)
Brian Christie, Brainsy | Cameron Neil, Lend For Good | Carol Fineagan, Independent Consultant | Eric Coury, Arthia AI | John Berlet, CORE Tax Deeds, LLC. | Justin Starbird, The Aebli Group | Ken Steele, Rotarian | Lory Moore, Lory Moore Law | Marcia Brinton, High Desert Gear | Mark Grimes, Networked Enterprise Development | Mike Babbit | Coledger Solutions | Mike Green, Envirosult | Nick Degnan, Unlimit Ventures | Paul Lovejoy, Stakeholder Enterprise | Pearl Wright, Global Changemaker | Scott Thorpe, Philanthropist | Sharon Samjitsingh, Health Care Originals | Add Your Name Here
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