516,506 investment memos

A day in the life of the Wefunder #investments Slack channel

One of my favorite things about working at Wefunder is our investments Slack channel. Every time someone makes an investment through the platform, we see it in that channel.

When I first joined Wefunder, it was more sporadically populated. In February 2018, there were 618 investments made through the platform. This month will be close to 9,000. I still scroll through every one.

But the best part about the channel is not that it gives us a very real-time pulse on investment volume activity (although it does)…

…Or that when a company like Replit or Mercury or Chattanooga FC launches, it explodes with thousands of investments in the space of a few minutes (although, again, it does)…

…The best part of the channel is the notes that investors (often) leave when they invest in startups through Wefunder.

To illustrate, here are a few investor notes from the last few hours:

• “I believe in your product”

• “I've been following the journey for some years now. Happy to help any way I can.”

• “Love your product. It works wonders for me and I think it will really take off.. Based on current products on the market. Plus I like the idea that my buy in gives me a life time discount. Thanks”

• “Because I love Thomas and he deserves the world. He is so driven and talented and I would not be where I am today without him.”

• “I want to diversify my invests to include CBD now that it’s legal.”

• “Because this technology definitely has a solid future which we all need to improve our environment, & whilst they’re not planning any sales to UK, I wanted to find another way to be some part of it!”

• “I have gotten to know Michael and believe in him, his grit, his passion and most importantly, in his worthwhile dream. You guys will do well by doing good for the planet. I also wanted to support Xavier entrepreneurs. All the best. Dan”

• “The plot sounds interesting and I believe in investing in our Latino talent. Felicidades!”

• “I think this is the future of personal Tailor clothing”

• “I love your concept, and want to help in your mission.”

• “Great Bourbon, great people, hope to see a nice return on my investment.”

• “Love the future and we need things like fhis to save the planet”

• “Growth has been strong so I want to take a chance and get in early. Known Kyle for years and been following the company. Would love to see where it goes.”

• “For the survival of the USA.”

• “Thank you to visionary Steve Jones for his commitment to not just provide representation of our communities but in providing a base and being a beacon for the entrepreneurs of color that will follow. Im grateful to the team members who joined this extraordinary vision with sweat equity creativity and purpose. This brilliant team has provided images of me in my best light for the world to see. Congratulations POCSTOCK...may your path be forever lit and paved with MONEY!!!”

• “Quiero una inversión que de ganancias”

• “sounds appealing”

• “Interesting future”

• “Mucho éxito!”

• “I always wanted to invest in a promising startup company at the ground level and finally found something that spoke to me.”

• “I believe in the product”

• “I'm a Benz owner and a fan.”

• “Sounds like a no brainer”

• “I have seen Fathom being used. I think there is much more that can be done especially incorporating AI into Fathom”

• “No bees, no crops. No crops, no us.”

• “Good luck guys, I'm happy to be an investor”

• “Love your team's hustle and your bold take on very good UI design in your app.”

That’s every investor note in the last couple of hours. Literally zero editing from me.

If you’re a founder, what an incredible confidence boost. Hundreds and thousands of your friends, family and fans backing you with their dollars, and articulating why.

When we had Tyler Hayes (the founder of Atom Limbs) on our podcast, he said “when you raise from VCs, it feels like “no”. Because even if the round is successful, you pitch dozens of investors and almost all of them say no. But when you run a community round, it feels like “yes”. Because you don’t see the no’s. But you get thousands of emails from people saying yes, and writing you encouraging notes of support”.

The other thing I love about these investor notes — you hardly see any saying “I want to make a ton of money”. Our tagline at Wefunder is not “invest in startups to get super rich”. It’s “invest in startups you love”. It’s really encouraging to see this brand emphasis shine through in these investor notes.

As of just now when I ran the query, 516,506 investments have been made through the Wefunder platform. It’s my favorite collection of investment memos on the planet.

To view the investor notes for any campaign on Wefunder, click on the “what people say” tab. Here’s our own Wefunder one. This is the true magic of the community round.