See the Great Companies We're Considering at the Next Impact Cherub Club Meeting

I’m not a financial advisor; nothing I write in Superpowers for Good should be considered investment advice. You should seek appropriate counsel before making investment decisions.

As we gear up for the 1:00 PM Eastern, November 21st, 2023, meeting of the Impact Cherub Club, we invite you to join us. The club is an informal gathering of friends hosted by The Super Crowd, Inc., a public benefit corporation, who meet up to review impact investments everyone is eligible to make, and virtually anyone can afford. We share responsibility for completing basic due diligence before making investments. No one is required to invest.

There are no dues or fees to participate, and I don’t touch the money. When members invest, they do so directly for their own accounts. We benefit from new members only by the fresh perspectives they bring. Please join us!

Next Meeting—November 21st, at 1:00 PM Eastern

At our next meeting on November 21st, at 1:00 PM Eastern/10:00 AM Pacific, consistent with our plans for future sessions, the agenda will have three items:

• Diligence Reports

• Education Moment

• Preliminary Consideration of New Candidate Investments

I’ll review those items in reverse order.

New Company Consideration

After some preliminary screening, I’ve shared some candidate offerings with the members of the club to choose which we’ll review this month. Members chose the following:

The Drivers Cooperative

The Drivers Cooperative is one of the most well-known and respected social enterprises to have used crowdfunding. The co-op is at it again, raising money via a revenue-sharing agreement, preserving ownership for the drivers. The company has notable investors, including Impact Assets and the Mozilla Foundation. The company is raising via Wefunder.

MiKashBoks

MiKashBoks (think my cash box) has created a mobile app for use around the world with small lending groups. It is customary in many cultures for small groups to pool resources, lending the collections in turn to one of the group members until each has had a chance to be the borrower. Traditionally, this practice required paper and pencil and offered no connection to the wider financial system. MiKashBoks is designed to facilitate lending groups and connect users to the broader financial system. MiKashBoks is raising on Wefunder.

Paragraph summary of offering

Education Moment

Jackie Logan, a Wall Street veteran who has fully devoted herself to the investment crowdfunding industry and now serves as the chief investment officer at Raise Green, will lead our education moment at the next meeting. She’ll walk us through using Donor Advised Funds (DAFs) for crowdfund investing. This will be a great addition to our meeting.

Diligence Reports

We’ll begin with the due diligence reports from the Impact Cherub Club members who volunteered to research the companies after we briefly learned a bit about them last month. After hearing the members’ reports, we’ll vote to determine whether or not to recommend investment in the companies. The decision will be made available to everyone who registers to attend, including those who don’t make it. Register here.

Here are the companies we’ll learn more about this month:

Bagel Kitchen

Grand Rapids, Michigan-based Bagel Kitchen’s mission is “To inspire a conscientious lifestyle one bagel at a time by creating experiences, partnerships and employment that challenge people to embrace environmental sustainability and the importance of giving back to their community.” The company will use the proceeds to open a second location. Led by a married couple, Marc and Shannon Schulz, Bagel Kitchen is raising on Mainvest.

The Sepia Coffee Project

The Sepia Coffee Project is BIPOC-owned and led with a mission to revitalize the community of Highland Park, a close suburb of Detroit. The business sells coffee in bulk to businesses and directly to consumers. Launched in 2022, reaching $13,000 in revenue, the company projects sales of about $170,000 this year and $700,000 next year. The company is raising on Wefunder.