15 Epic Wefunder Community Rounds
From a YC startup curing cancer in dogs, to a brewery in Appalachia, to a soccer team in Oakland, here are some of the stories that Wefunder investors have helped to write over the last few years.
(1) Atom Limbs
Wefunder is a Public Benefit Corporation, and I’m personally highly motivated by impact. So what better startup to start this list than Atom Limbs — which is building better prosthetic limbs, to improve the lives of people with disabilities.
Tyler Hayes and his team have now raised $9.0M from 6,517 investors on Wefunder, across three separate community rounds. And an inspiringly high number of these investors referenced the company’s mission in their “why I invested” notes. For example:
"Ex-military: I was shot down and almost lost my leg due to a gun shot. Our injured military personnel need this invention to have the ability to live a normal life." — Richard Machina.
"I have been a bedside RN for almost 22 years. I have seen the struggles patients with limb loss endure and find this technology fascinating, innovative and exciting to say the least." — Cynthia Aburto.
"In reality, so few of Silicon Valley's top minds are focused on meaningfully transforming the human experience (as opposed to, like, building food delivery robots). Also, I've known the CEO for many years and I've never seen anyone so relentlessly focused on novel, creative, cross-disciplinary solutions to the hairiest problems in healthcare." — Tal Flanchraych.
Literally thousands more like this (2,494 to be exact).
This is what Wefunder, and community rounds, are all about.
(2) beehiiv
beehiiv is a fast-growing newsletter platform with a cult following. In early May 2024, they flawlessly executed on an explosive community round.
After announcing a $32M Series Bee (buzzzzzz) led by New Enterprise Associates (NEA) on a Tuesday, the very next day they announced they were opening up an additional $1M allocation to let their community invest.
Investors swarmed in to get a taste of that sweet, sweet honey (umm…the investment…), and the round was over-subscribed in just two hours!
There are basically two use cases for Wefunder.
Firstly, to help founders raise capital more easily – by allowing them to raise from unaccredited investors, as well as accredited investors. By allowing them to publicly promote the offering. By putting the investment opportunity in front of millions of Wefunder investors, etc. etc.
But secondly, to enable founders to let their customers and community invest in their startups, even when they don’t need the money (e.g. because they have other investors like VCs throwing money at them).
beehiiv fell squarely in this second category.
As with all great community rounds, beehiiv customers and community members were delighted that Tyler Denk 🐝 (apparently you have to be called Tyler to get on this list) let them invest in beehiiv, as evidenced by some of the investor notes below.
(3) Blender Bombs
Blender Bombs is trailblazing a new category of at-home smoothies.
In early 2023, they raised $2.9M from 1,399 investors on Wefunder.
Blender Bombs’ founder Helen Leland is abundantly charismatic, and a gifted marketer. Rich White (the founder of Fathom, lower down this list) said that his Wefunder community round was the best marketing campaign he has ever run. Helen also really caught that vision, and made the most of Blender Bombs' community round as a marketing opportunity.
The video was brilliant; the whole marketing approach was vividly colorful, creative and fun; and Helen’s engagement of her community (e.g. through her Wefunder updates) was very rich and authentic.
I believe every consumer-facing company should let their customers invest, as well as conventional investors (VCs, accredited angels, etc). And Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) startups are a great fit — especially if they have bold and compelling brands like Blender Bombs, and dazzling founders like Helen.
(4) Clockwork
Clockwork have built a robot that does manicures. After raising $5M from accredited investors through Regulation D, they opened up a community round on Wefunder, and raised $2.1M from 1,742 investors in early 2024.
One question that a lot of founders ask about raising capital on Wefunder is “how much money is going to come from Wefunder’s investor base, vs. investors I bring to the round?”. The answer varies widely. It’s encouraging to me that (what I would generally assess to be) the stronger raises on Wefunder usually pull in a higher percentage of investment volume from Wefunder’s investor base. That's the way it should be I think.
And that was definitely the case with Clockwork – who brought in around two thirds of the $2.1M they raised on Wefunder, from Wefunder’s existing investor base — people they did not know.
One of the most compelling components of the Clockwork pitch was their lead investor — Arash Ferdowsi, the co-founder of Dropbox, who invested $300K on the same terms as Wefunder investors, and who now signs on behalf of the Wefunder investors in the Clockwork SPV. You can see the LinkedIn post he wrote about Clockwork and their founder Renuka Apte here.
While consumer-facing companies are a great fit for Wefunder, Clockwork is a great example of a B2B startup that had a lot of success on the platform.
One other interesting facet of the Clockwork community round was their fundraising partner — Capital Department. When it comes to assembling a world class pitch and Wefunder profile, and orchestrating the holistic strategy of a community round, Capital Department are second to none. To see how their founder Maria Springer thinks about fundraising through Reg CF, here’s a clip of us chatting at a conference a couple of years back.
(5) CurlMix
Female-only founding teams get only 2% of venture capital dollars (vs. 80% for male-only founding teams). And black founders get less than 1% of VC dollars. So black female founders have their work cut out for them, in terms of securing capital.
But Kimberly Lewis, the founder of CurlMix isn’t one to let statistics deter her. A CPG haircare company, based in Chicago, CurlMix raised $4.3M on Wefunder in 2021, and came back to run a second round in early 2024.
They now have 8,578 investors through Wefunder, many of them customers, who love the product, love the brand, and love Kim.
If you want to read more about Kim’s Wefunder journey, check out the case study here.
(6) Fathom
An AI tool that records your Zoom (or Google Meet, etc.) meetings, and automagically writes perfect notes and next steps, Fathom is an example of a startup that’s tailor-made for a community round.
After raising $5.6M from institutional investors like Character, Soma Capital and Rackhouse Venture Capital, and notable founders (Drift, Reddit, Twitch, Cruise, Mercury, etc.), Fathom closed on a $1.2M allocation on Wefunder in early 2023, thanks to 1,084 investors.
As mentioned above, Fathom’s founder Richard White said that their Wefunder raise was the best marketing campaign he has ever run.
Fathom is in a competitive sector (e.g. Otter AI is a leading, venture-backed competitor). But recruiting 1,084 of your most passionate customers is a meaningful competitive advantage. These investors are now Fathom’s most passionate brand ambassadors, evangelists, and loyal customers. Investors aren’t churning.
Furthermore, Fathom’s users love the product, and they’re tech-literate, and relatively affluent. In evaluating a startup’s fit for running a community round, understanding who their audience is; how obsessed they are with the product/brand; whether they are familiar with startups and investing; and whether they have some disposable income to invest – are all important questions.
In college, I won an award for The Worst Note Taker In The History Of The Universe. (Not really, but if there had been such a contest, I am pretty sure I would have won). As a Wefunder VP, I wasn’t allowed to invest in Fathom’s community round, but I am a delighted customer. If you’re as bad at note-taking as me, you have to check it out. My meeting notes are now perfect, every call is recorded so I can refer back to it, and Fathom even tells me if I am monologuing, or what percentage of the meeting I spoke for (usually an obnoxiously high percentage). Check out Fathom for yourself here. I can’t recommend it highly enough.
(7) Harlan County Beer Company
Notorious for striking miners, Harlan County in Appalachia (Eastern Kentucky) is one of the poorest counties in America. This is an over-simplification, but while Democrats tend to focus more on the under-representation of women and founders of color among VC recipients, Republicans rightly focus on geography. 77% of VC dollars go to three states (California, New York and Massachusetts), and rural areas are generally starved of capital.
But community rounds can help redress that balance – and the Harlan County Beer Company Wefunder raise is a great example of a community of people coming together to invest in bringing economic vitality (and damn good beer!) to their neighborhood.
In August 2021, Harlan County Brewery raised $240K from 351 investors on a revenue share contract. Instead of an equity raise (more common on Wefunder), a revenue share deal is a loan, in which the company agrees to pay investors back a multiple of their investment, as a percentage of revenues. The founders of Harlan County agreed to pay back investors 2x the amount they invested, as they started to generate revenue.
The brewery’s founder, Geoff Marietta, tells a story of how a disabled veteran came up to him on the street to give him $100 to invest in the brewery. In their investor notes, you can see what this brewery means to the residents of the county:
"We need what's going on in the mountains of NC and TN over here in KY. Let's make it happen!" — Edward Rush.
"Like seeing old Coal Mining Communities finding different ways to bring people in." — Samuel Capehart.
"I understand Harlan County Beer Company is a part of the revitalization of Harlan County. (I have family from Wolfe County KY). Good luck Geoff! I know you'll be successful!" — Marie Cheryl Molden.
"Because I believe rural communities are ready for their comeback. Harlan County is a beautiful place and I think the region will support you in droves. I know I will." — Charles Allen.
Harlan County Brewery is one of many startups in Kentucky that have raised capital on Wefunder, thanks to a community matching fund managed by Render Capital. As part of a $20M fund to catalyze regional economic development, Render (a VC firm based in Louisville) matches dollars raised by startups on Wefunder. Other examples include Cornbread Hemp®, Elixir Kombucha and Scoop. To read more about this matching fund, check out this case study.
(8) Immersed
Renji Bijoy, the founder of Immersed, is one of the most generous startup founders I have ever encountered. He is always looking to give back with his time and wisdom, supporting founders who are earlier on in their journey.
And his three Wefunder community rounds are a nice example of karma in action. In 2020, when the Regulation Crowdfunding annual limit was still $1.07M, Immersed maxed that out (from 715 investors). And then when the SEC increased the annual limit to $5M in March 2021, Immersed was one of the first startups to capitalize on the new rules, raising that from over 2,500 investors in just 45 days.
Renji raised an additional $3M from 1,609 investors in 2023 – even in a very tough fundraising environment.
Wefunder’s podcast Adventure Capital chronicles the journeys of founders who have raised capital on our platform, and my interview with Renji was one of my favorite ever episodes. Give it a listen here.
And you can read our case study on Immersed here.
(9) LEAH Labs
When they graduated from Y Combinator in 2019, LEAH Laboratories were still very early in their journey – of attempting to cure cancer in dogs. YC are world-renowned for identifying brilliant founders, and huge markets, but a lot of the VCs at YC Demo Day saw too much science risk still ahead of Wesley A. Wierson, PhD and his team.
LEAH was down to a few months of runway, but they were able to raise $469 from 837 dog lovers on Wefunder – which bought them more time to secure additional grant funding, and make more progress in the lab (pun intended). Since their first community round, LEAH have actually raised millions more in both grant and follow-on VC funding. As well as running a second community round in 2021.
LEAH is a great example of how both early-stage, and biotech startups can successfully raise on Wefunder – even if they don’t large audiences yet.
Apparently curing cancer “isn’t easy”. But Wes and his team are taking their shot. And dog lovers everywhere are cheering them on – with words of encouragement, and dollars:
"My corgi had leukemia. His immunity was so weakened by the chemo, that he had pneumonia and eventually we had to let him go." — Vivien Lok.
"I love dogs, and have two of them. If any of them came down with cancer, I would hope that the gene therapy by LEAH labs, would help my dogs." — Tara Geria.
"I have a 14 year old Yorkie who I dearly love! I can only imagine how one feels when he hears that his dog has cancer. Hopefully you will help to win this battle." — Sharon Shemtov.
"My golden retriever passed away from cancer. Even though he has now been gone longer than he was here, I still miss him and would have welcomed an opportunity to keep him around for longer." — Michal Todorovic.
You can read our case study on LEAH Labs here.
(10) Lil' Libros
Lil Libros is a bilingual children's public publisher that's sold millions of books worldwide.
As with black female founders (see CurlMix above), so with Latina founders. ChatGPT estimates that only around 100 Latina founders have raised $1M in venture capital. But Patty Rodriguez and Ariana Stein raised $2.5M from 5,979 fans on Wefunder in May 2022.
And it’s not just on the founder side, but the investor side as well. I don’t know what percentage of angel investors or VC investors in startups are Latina women, but it’s going to be an extremely low percentage. But by allowing anyone to be an angel investor, for as little as $100, community rounds allow everyone to directly participate as investors in startups they love, not just rich people. Investing in startups is super risky, and very illiquid – i.e. returns won’t come for years and years, if ever. But middle class Americans can go to Las Vegas and bet $100 on the spin of a roulette wheel. And they should be allowed to bet $100 on an investment in their friend’s cool startup, or their neighborhood coffee shop. If millions of citizens more actively invest in startups in their communities, vs. just parking their money on Wall Street, we believe that will be a good thing for America.
(11) Mercury
A technology-enabled banking stack, Mercury’s customers absolutely rave about the product and customer service. If you’ve ever been infuriated by the antiquated process and technology aversions of traditional banks ( “Oh, I’m sorry sir. You have to go into a branch to do that. No, I’m sorry sir. All the branches are closed right now. The man that can help you with that only works from 10.00am to 10.15am on Tuesdays, but he’s actually in the Bahamas for the next three months at a conference” etc. etc.), then Mercury is for you.
Initially focused on business banking (for startups) only, Mercury recently rolled out personal banking as well. Cue even more professions of love from their rabid fan base on Twitter/X.
One of the most explosive (perhaps the most explosive) Wefunder raises ever, after raising a $120M Series B in early 2021 (Coatue, Andreessen Horowitz, CRV, etc.), Immad Akhund opened up a $5M allocation to let Mercury’s customers invest on the same terms. It was over-subscribed in 24 hours, by 2,453 investors.
Like beehiiv, Mercury is another example of a startup that definitely didn’t need the money. But when you’re competing against JP Morgan, you need all the customer love and community engagement you can get. And that was why they decided to run a community round as part of their larger round.
Wefunder (and community rounds) are crossing the chasm right now (to use Geoffrey Moore’s famous phrase). Most founders (the early and late majority) are still reluctant to “take a leap” on a relatively new and more unusual approach to raising capital. So on the Wefunder team, we have mad respect for the intrepid early adopters, who are bold enough to blaze a new trail.
The Regulation Crowdfunding rules initially rolled out in 2016 were not attractive to founders who could easily raise VC dollars (like Immad). You could only raise $1.07M per year. And investors could not be rolled up to one Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) on the cap table. But in March 2021, the rules were significantly improved. Founders could now raise $5M, and use an SPV.
Mercury was maybe the first startup to raise $5M through Regulation Crowdfunding, as part of a larger, hot, VC round. Regulation Crowdfunding is still a small percentage of VC dollars every month. But it’s growing. If the democratization of early stage investing (Wefunder) becomes as significant as Airbnb did for hotels, or Uber did for taxis, or Twitter did for journalism, or democracy did for politics – then Mercury’s raise will go down in the history books as a watershed moment.
To read the Wefunder case study, click here. And to read Mercury’s own blog on why they decided to run a community round, click here.
(12) Oakland Roots & Soul
The Oakland Roots (men’s team) and Soul (women’s team) are soccer teams, rooted (as the name implies) in the Town of Oakland.
Disgruntled by the exodus of the Raiders to Vegas, the Warriors to the other side of the Bay, and the A’s to Sacramento, in 2023, 5,306 Oaklanders came together as a city to invest $3.1M in their soccer team, and their city.
One of the most iconic Wefunder videos every made, their community round investors included Jason Kidd, G-Eazy and Billie Joe Armstrong. Marshawn Lynch was one of the many Oakland citizens super stoked about it.
The Green Bay Packers fans are pretty unanimously heralded as the most passionate fans in the NFL. And I don’t think it’s a coincidence that it’s the Packers fans who own the team. Sports teams are a great fit for Wefunder, as are all companies with large and passionate fan bases. Firstly, because these companies can easily raise capital from their fans by (e.g.) sending an email, or posting on social media. And secondly, because these companies richly benefit from their fans becoming investors and owners (more ticket sales, merch sales, etc.).
We’ve had a number of sports teams successfully raise on Wefunder, and it was hard to choose between them!
Chattanooga FC raised $873K from 3,256 “Chattahooligans” back in 2019. Their co-founder Tim Kelly is now the Mayor of Chattanooga. In fact, my advice to anyone with political aspirations would be “have your company run a community round, and then all your investors will vote for you”. jkjkjk. Tim said that the Chattanooga FC community round was “the most Chattanooga thing ever”. Here’s a link to our Adventure Capital interview with him (before he became Mayor!), about how they executed on the raise.
Minnesota Aurora FC is a women’s team in Eagen, MN. They raised $1M from 3,081 investors, many of them women themselves. Check out our case study on the raise here.
Detroit City FC raised $1.5M from 2,708 investors, one of which was Iggy Pop, a native Detroiter.
(13) Replit
Replit is an AI-powered software development and deployment platform for building, sharing, and shipping software fast. Their mission is to bring the next billion software creators online.
Like Mercury, they opened up a community round to let their users invest – not because they needed the money, but because they wanted to delight their super strong community.
After raising an $80M Series B from a16z, Coatue, Not Boring and Paul Graham, Replit closed on an explosively explosive $5M community round in 2022 – again, fully funded by 2,589 investors in 24 hours.
Amjad Masad's video on their Wefunder profile page is absolutely brilliant.
Check out the case study here.
(14) Substack
Speaking of large and passionate communities, Substack is probably the most famous brand to run a community round to-date. Backed by Y Combinator and Andreessen Horowitz, Substack maxed out the annual $5M Reg CF limit in 24 hours in April 2023, funded by 6,688 investors.
Substack is another great example of investors investing as much for the mission, as the financial return – see some of the investor notes below:
To read our case study about Substack’s community round, click here.
(15) Wefunder
And last but not least – I obviously had to include our own community rounds on this list!
Committed to eating our own dog food, Wefunder has raised almost $20M from 6,700 investors on our own platform over the last decade.
In this analysis, I share how the average Wefunder investor has made 1.6 investments on the platform. But for these 6,700 investors in Wefunder ourselves, that number rises to 8.9. This is one of the most compelling data-backed examples of our hypothesis that if you let your customers invest in you, they will love you even more, accelerate your growth, and help you win.
As I mentioned right at the start of this blog (about 4.2 million words ago), Wefunder is a Public Benefit Corporation, not a C Corp. This means we are legally mandated to uphold our PBC charter, as opposed to maximizing shareholder returns, as C Corps are obligated to do. Here’s our charter.
Wefunder is on a mission to get more capital flowing to startup founders throughout America (and ultimately the world). And to enable everyone to invest in startups they love, not just rich people.
These 15 are some of my favorite startups and founders. But there are literally thousands more. And as Andrew Gazdecki would say, “we’re just getting started”.
Next month (July 2024), we’re going on a train trip across the country to find more founders that need help raising capital (e.g. because they live in Grand Forks, North Dakota, rather than Silicon Valley, California), and/or are excited to let their customers and community invest, alongside institutional investors and “accredited” investors.
If you know any founders who we should add to this list, let us know.
* Boring mandatory legal disclaimer for any lawyers reading: "Epic" in the eyes of me, Jonny Price, VP of Banter at Wefunder. Not Wefunder’s “corporate” opinion. Not epic in the sense of “good investments”, and this should not be taken as investment advice, yada yada yada. Just epic in the sense of “Jonny thinks they’re cool”.
Not bad 8 out of the 15 listed are in the portfolio 👍🏾