New Impact Offerings, Revolutionizing Wind Power, Crowdfunding: Who's Exploiting?, Empower Small Businesses, and Announcement: Successfully Funded Campaigns
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Carina’s Bakery Featured Among New Impact Offerings - September 02, 2024
Each week, Superpowers for Good shares a list of new impact-related offerings added to FINRA-Registered crowdfunding portals and by broker-dealers. We’ll share four separate lists:
Impact offerings determined by our proprietary analysis.
Offerings with minority founders.
Deals with women founders.
Those with LGBTQ founders.
Sometimes, it takes weeks for our source to determine that a company has a social impact, a woman, minority or LGBTQ founder. When we discover an offering qualifies for our list, even if it is no longer new, we will include it. See the lists below.
Revolutionizing Wind Power: How Flower Turbines is Changing the Game
tl;dr:
Guest Introduction: Dr. Daniel Farb, CEO and founder of Flower Turbines, returns to the show after several years to discuss the progress and innovations in small wind turbines designed for urban environments.
Innovation and Progress: Dr. Farb shares how Flower Turbines has evolved from early-stage prototypes to manufacturing and selling turbines. They’ve made significant strides in aerodynamics and electronics, leading to unique products that perform better when placed close together.
Crowdfunding Success: Flower Turbines has completed five successful crowdfunding rounds on StartEngine, raising substantial funds from over 8,000 investors. They are now preparing for their sixth round.
Multidisciplinary Approach: Dr. Farb attributes his success to his ability to combine different fields of knowledge, from science and art to business, which has been crucial in developing innovative products and solutions.
Advice on Becoming Multidisciplinary: Dr. Farb encourages others to explore diverse interests, as these experiences often connect in unexpected ways, enhancing both personal and professional growth.
Who's Exploiting Who With Crowdfunding?
In the impact investing community, we often worry that we may be exploiting entrepreneurs by investing; it sounds ironic, if not impossible, but it’s true. Outside this community, more people fear that portals and issuers are exploiting ordinary investors who may lack the experience to screen deals properly. In this post, I’ll share my take on just who is exploiting who—and how seldom it happens.
First, I want to explore this idea that investors may be harming entrepreneurs we want to help by investing in their businesses. This grows out of reported experiences from the venture capital scene, where angel investors and VCs often have outsized power.
The power imbalance approaches a closer equilibrium in Silicon Valley, where VCs are more likely to worry about not getting in on a good deal than outside the Valley. Capital is scarce in other markets, and those with it can more readily exploit founders, imposing arcane, hard-to-understand deal terms.
In one deal I saw up close, the founders accepted a round of participating preferred, an unusually toxic deal structure that almost never converts to common, allowing the investor to both claim the preference and participate in the remaining proceeds—essentially double dipping. Years later, when the deal structure became clear to them, they felt victimized.
In the impact investing community, investors worry that as relatively wealthy market participants, they can better absorb losses than the founders and should, therefore, avoid even basic preference provisions.
Rachel Renee's Mission to Empower Small Businesses with Goat Moves
tl;dr:
Introduction of Guest and Business: Rachel Renee, CEO of Goat Moves, discusses her company's marketplace platform designed for small and medium-sized businesses, allowing them to sell products, services, and digital downloads on one centralized platform.
Business Model and User Experience: Rachel highlights that Goat Moves offers a streamlined experience for both sellers and buyers, eliminating the need to manage multiple platforms. The marketplace is still in beta, with over 900 sellers waitlisted, including estheticians selling products and services.
Regulated Investment Crowdfunding Campaign: Rachel explains Goat Moves' current crowdfunding campaign on NetCapital. She emphasizes her commitment to making wealth accessible to the general public, regardless of their financial standing.
Rachel’s Entrepreneurial Journey: She shares her diverse career background, including government contracting and various other jobs, and how this experience shaped her vision to create a business that benefits and supports small businesses.
Superpower and Personal Growth: Rachel describes her superpower as maintaining inner peace amidst chaos, which fuels her creativity and passion. She encourages others to reconnect with their inner child to rediscover joy and creativity.
BIG Announcement: Discover This Week's Most Impactful and Successfully Funded Campaigns!
Every Sunday, we bring you a roundup of the most successful crowdfunding campaigns that have achieved their funding goals. Join us to celebrate the impact and innovation that these ventures have brought to life.
Max-Impact Members
The following Max-Impact Members provide valuable financial support to keep us operating:
Carol Fineagan, Independent Consultant | Lory Moore, Lory Moore Law | Marcia Brinton, High Desert Gear | Ralf Mandt, Next Pitch | Sheryle Gilihan, CauseLabs |
Upcoming SuperCrowd Event Calendar
If a location is not noted, the events below are virtual.
Impact Cherub Club Meeting hosted by The Super Crowd, Inc., a public benefit corporation, on September 17, 2024, at 1:00 PM Eastern. Each month, the Club meets to review new offerings for investment consideration and to conduct due diligence on previously screened deals. To join the Impact Cherub Club, become an Impact Member of the SuperCrowd.
SuperCrowdHour, September 18, 2024, at 1:00 PM Eastern. Each month, we host a value-laden webinar for aspiring impact investors or social entrepreneurs. At September’s webinar, Devin Thorpe will provide an in-depth answer to the question, “Can I Beat the Stock Market with Impact Crowdfund Investments?” Free to attend.
Superpowers for Good Live Pitch, September 25, 2024. The application window is open now. Apply today! The Live Pitch will stream simultaneously to the e360tv network, Facebook, Linkedin, YouTube and Superpowers for Good. We hope for an audience of thousands! Don’t miss this opportunity to pitch your regulated investment crowdfunding campaign to the SuperCrowd!
Recently, we created an AI GPT to help you learn more about The Super Crowd, Inc., a public benefit corporation, and our upcoming events. Click here to try it.
Community Event Calendar
Successful Funding with Karl Dakin, Tuesdays at 10:00 AM ET - Click on Events
Community Revitalization, Thursdays, 10:00 AM Eastern.
SEC - CfPA Webinar, September 17, 2024, at 11:00 AM Eastern.
Community Capital Alternatives for Outdoor Recreation Challenges, Kathleen Minogue of Crowdfund Better speaking at American Trails, October 3, 10:00 AM, free.
Main Street Skowhegan and NC3 Entrepreneur Finance Workshop Series, September 17 - November 19, 2023.
Power Your Passion: Funding Social Enterprises Through Crowdfunding, September 19, with Paul Lovejoy, Logan Fahey, Eve Picker and Devin Thorpe.
Crowdfunding Professional Association, Summit in DC, October 22-23
If you would like to submit an event for us to share with the 8,000+ members of the SuperCrowd, click here.