Tomorrow We Throw More Fuel on the Fire
The Impact Crowdfunding Movement Accelerates With SuperCrowd22
SuperCrowd22 begins tomorrow. You’ve watched me yammer on about this for months. Here’s the thing. I’m going to keep yammering on about impact crowdfunding because it is the least we can do and as an old friend of mine likes to say, “I never want to be accused of not doing the least I can do.”
As the investment crowdfunding arena matures and you learn more about impact investing, you’ll be able to earn financial returns allowing you to build a self-funding impact portfolio.
It is exciting to me to think about doing good this way. It isn’t about my financial situation so much as it excites me to think about infinite impact. If your investment drives an impact you value and provides a financial return so you can reinvest the money for yet more impact, your ability to do good is unlimited. That is exciting!
SuperCrowd22 begins at 11:00 AM Eastern on Thursday and runs through about 10:00 PM, starting again on Friday at 11:00 AM. We have over 100 people on the program. These are investors, recognized experts, professional practitioners and entrepreneurs who have successfully raised money.
Attending SuperCrowd22 will empower you to invest better and learn more about how you can raise money from the crowd. We now live in a world where everyone is an investor and anyone can raise money as an entrepreneur without regard to race, religion, gender, gender identity or sexual preference.
You can still register for SuperCrowd22. There are three ways to get cheap tickets to SuperCrowd22.
Get half-price tickets here. All readers are eligible.
Pay what you can here. If you can’t afford the full or even half price, pay what you can. No questions asked. We don’t want the cost to keep you from attending.
Become a paying subscriber to Superpowers for Good. You can subscribe for just $5.95 per month and cancel anytime. We hope you’ll stay for a long time. Benefits include free admission to future events.
Next week, we’ll convene our monthly Impact Cherub Club meeting as usual. We hope you’ll join us via zoom for that, too.
If you would like to join the Impact Cherub Club, there is no cost or obligation to invest. Come to learn more about the process and get comfortable with the idea. No matter how new you may be, we are confident you can bring a valuable perspective to the group. Many of our members have deep investing and entrepreneurial experience you can learn from—but don’t be intimidated. Your opinion counts equally!
Our next meeting is on September 20, 2022, at 3:00 PM Eastern. Register for free now.
August Meeting Report
At last month’s meeting, we heard diligence reports from club members on just two companies, Sober Sidekick and Laminar Scientific. We decided not to conduct due diligence on one of the companies we first considered. The club members discussed the pros and cons of investing and voted to determine the decision.
We don’t announce our investment recommendations. If you’d like to know what we’re seeing, selecting and recommending, please join us on September 20, 2022, at 3:00 PM Eastern. There is no cost to participate; you don’t have to invest anything ever. When members choose to invest, I don’t touch the money and don’t earn any fees, commissions or favors.
Education Moment
At the August meeting, we took a moment to learn how to use KingsCrowd’s search tool to find impact investment opportunities among hundreds of crowdfunding offerings. KingsCrowd’s search tool lets you find the impact you’re looking for quickly. Try it now if you haven’t already.
New Company Screening
In August, we took a first look at the following three companies. Club members volunteered to conduct some due diligence and report on all of them.
7 Generation Games
Based in Minneapolis and founded by Maria Burns Ortiz and Ann Maria De Mars, 7 Generation Games develops educational games and the tools to make them. With a platform that allows for faster, cheaper development, the company makes it possible to create educational games around any topic people are passionate about - not just those themes with the largest mass market. Their premise is that such games improve educational outcomes. The company is raising money via Wefunder.
Wicked Bold
Founded and operated by a young family in North Texas, Wicked Bold manufactures vegan chocolates starting with making chocolate from cocoa beans. Deric and Brooklyn Cahill are the founders with their children Ophelia and Landon. BOLD is an acronym for their names. The little company already distributes through 14 Whole Foods stores and recently got picked up by some Walmart stores. The company is raising money on Mainvest. (Note that Wicked Bold will pitch live at SuperCrowd22 on Friday.)
Aqua Equity
Aqua Equity, based in Watts in the Los Angeles area, is a Black and woman minority-owned bottled water brand and a certified Minority Business Enterprise that exists to close the social equity gap in under-resourced communities. The company plans to build a bottling plant for its aluminum water bottles in Watts. Founded by Ryan Morgan, who discloses his time in prison up front, and a diverse team, the company uses the motto “drink good… do good.” The company is raising capital on Republic. (Note that Aqua Equity will pitch live at SuperCrowd22 on Friday.)
Next Meeting—September 20, 2022, at 3:00 PM Eastern
At our next meeting on September 20, 2022, at 3:00 PM Eastern/Noon Pacific, consistent with our plans for future sessions, the agenda will have three items:
Diligence Reports
Education
Preliminary Consideration of New Candidates
Diligence Reports
We’ll begin with the due diligence reports from the Impact Cherub Club members who volunteered to do the research. 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.
Education Moment
This month, we’ll take the opportunity to share insights and lessons learned from SuperCrowd22. Many of the Club members will attend or speak at the virtual conference. We’ll compare notes.
Preliminary Consideration of New Candidates
At our September meeting, we’ll be following the pattern of past months to conduct a preliminary review of three companies raising money via Regulation Crowdfunding on FINRA-registered portals. If you have identified a social enterprise or community-building company raising money via investment crowdfunding, feel free to recommend it to me for consideration next month.
Here is a bit of information about each of the three we’ll consider this month.
Kado
Headed by Black immigrants Gladymir Philippe (Canada) and Siyakudumisa Mali (South Africa), Kado is creating a platform to help match students to internships, consulting projects and permanent jobs. The company has engaged several universities, has a student waitlist of over 90,000 and hopes to achieve $5 million in 2023 revenue. Kado is raising capital on Wefunder and will pitch at SuperCrowd22.
Bison Venture Partners
Bison Venture Partners is a Black-owned startup building a marketplace to sell consumer products created by students and alums of Historically Black Colleges and Universities. CEO Garry Johnson III has already launched the @WeBlackUnicorsn clothing brand as part of the company’s early execution. Bison Venture Partners is raising capital on Wefunder and will pitch at SuperCrowd22.
Design to Build
Black-owned Design to Build creates design-rich applications for shipping containers to be used as affordable homes and offices. Founder and CEO Kémo A’akhutera is passionate about using real estate and the opportunity to invest in it to lift communities out of poverty. Design to Build is raising money on Wunderfund and will pitch at SuperCrowd22.
Please join us for the monthly Impact Cherub Club meeting on September 20 at 3:00 PM Eastern. There is no cost or obligation. We’re genuinely having fun! Register here for free.
Don’t forget that we’re hosting the biggest impact crowdfunding event of the year, SuperCrowd22, on September 15 and 16, 2022. Our readers can register for the event for just $99.50, half off the $199 public price. Join us today!