Entrepreneurs
Get Funding
We help you raise money, engage your communities, and comply with SEC regulations.
Steps To A Raise
We will be with you every step of the way!
The online application takes about 15 minutes to complete. We will be in touch within one business day.
Once your application is approved, you can upload a logo, banner, pitch deck, and video (if you have one). We can have your initial offer page up and running in “Test the Waters” (TTW) within 72 hours…AT NO CHARGE! See HERE for more details about Test the Waters.
One of the most important parts of a successful offer is the marketing campaign. You have to get the word out OFTEN and within SEC Limits on Advertising and Promoters. FINRA takes these rules seriously, and so should you! Here’s how EquityVest can help you with marketing:
· First, make NO public mention of your offer or even your intention to run an offer on your website, through email, or social media UNTIL you have either set up a “Test the Waters” campaign or filed your Form C with the EquityVest platform.
· Once you set up either a “Test the Waters” campaign or filed your Form C, you can begin to promote your offer under these Basic Guidelines for Marketing.
· We can also refer you to a number of companies that provide marketing services for Reg CF offers.
· We will promote your offer to our current investors and through our own ongoing marketing efforts for EquityVest.
Here’s where you gather all the legal documents, company info, financials, terms, disclosures, business plans, background checks, and a whole lot more. This can take anywhere from a few weeks to a few months depending on what kind of financials you need, how quickly you can gather all the necessary documents, and what kind of help you have on your team. Here’s how EquityVest can help you with all the legal stuff.
- Legal Services through EquityVest – We have a partnership with a third-party legal service that provides a do-it-yourself, step-by-step process for gathering the documents and disclosures necessary for the Form C. Your agreement with EquityVest allows you, at no cost, to use their basic, do-it-yourself services to complete your Form C. If you already have legal help, your attorney can use the portal at no cost to help streamline the process. However, if you want a little more help, they offer two upgrades that are very reasonably priced. Their “White Glove Service” will provide you with a paralegal to walk you through the process of gathering the right documents and filling out the form. Additionally, it is important to have a licensed attorney familiar with Reg CF conduct a final review of your Form C before we file it with the SEC. They can provide you with that, as well. They have a team of skilled attorneys and paralegals who have agreed to provide services at reduced rates. These options, along with the associated costs, will be available during the onboarding process.
- Financial Services – Issuers must provide financial reports as part of their filing with the SEC. The type of financial report required is determined by the total amount of your current offering plus any other offerings your company has conducted in the last 12 months. We have a partnership with a couple of CPA firms experienced in Reg CF filings. They provide a FREE CONSULTATION to help you determine the type of financials you need and can do the work at a very reasonable cost. Click HERE.
EquityVest Marketplace
Where The Everyday Person Can Invest In Entrepreneurs,
Businesses And Causes They Believe In.
We have answers to your questions.
Basics About Raising Funding
All this information and much more can be found in our FAQs and Educational Materials.
Crowdfunding allows for multiple individuals to make small contributions in businesses looking for capital, which allows these companies to fund their new projects.
Historically, new businesses had to either get a loan from a bank or from family and friends to raise capital. Crowdfunding has given a new funding option for startups and early-stage companies.
Throughout history, for the most part, only the very wealthy sector of investors (angel investors, venture capitalists, and “business insiders”) had the right to invest and benefit from high-growth/ high ROI companies at the earliest stages, thus getting in “on the ground floor”.
Now the tide has turned. A new legislation called JOBS Act of 2012 eases securities regulations in key areas to allow the selling of equity in private companies to the general public. This makes it possible for crowdfunding, also known as crowdinvesting.
A crowdfunding portal is an online platform that allows for crowdfunding campaigns/deals/ offerings. A crowdfunding portal must register with the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission (SEC), a federal regulation committee. These funding portals have strict requirements in place to protect their investors. EquityVest is registered as a crowdfunding portal with the SEC.
Not at all! At Kickstarter and GoFundMe, you make donations to businesses and get nothing in return other than “rewards.” – this is referred to as Reward Crowdfunding. On the EquityVest platform you are actually making an investment. A business can choose to offer several different types of securities on EquityVest. Generally, an equity security represents an ownership interest in the Issuer, while a debt security represents a loan that the Issuer will pay back over time, plus interest.
Entrepreneurs are required to create a personal account on EquityVest. Click over to our Get Funding page and we will walk you through the process of establishing an account with us. Once you are signed up a member of our team will reach out to initiate our due diligence process and if that’s a fit then we’ll give you the green light. In short, you will be responsible to:
- Create your pitch on the EquityVest platform. We have all the tools for you to create or upload your slide deck, videos, disclosures, terms, pictures graphics, etc.
- Bring the crowd. Invite customers, friends, family, and colleagues to invest in your business. Like every crowdfunding portal EquityVest has investors that have a special interest in the types of companies we put on our portal. Some of these might invest in your company but they won’t be what makes your round successful. Your friends, customers, and local community will be your most enthusatic and valuable supporters. They’ll help spread the word to people they know, get the ball rolling, and provide the “social proof” that makes strangers more comfortable investing. The more work you do to get a big turn out on the first day of your campaign, the more successful it will be.
- Provide information about your business. Once you’ve raised your goal, you’ll provide things like GAAP financials and potential risks to get the money in hand.
Shared Value:
We seek to support companies and entrepreneurs who believe that capitalism combined with faith and Christian virtues can generate lasting economic, social, environmental and spiritual benefits and act as a tempering agent against selfishness and greed. We also believe such an approach advances social justice and inclusion lifting individuals and whole communities out of material poverty while expressing God’s tangible love.
While we do not require any particular statement of faith for either entrepreneurs or investors, why and what we do through EquityVest is rooted in our Christian faith. We intentionally aim to mobilize the faith-based world to enterprise solutions as a way to advance the gospel, affirm human dignity and address poverty.
In general, we want to support companies that provide good goods and good services for the good of society. Within that broad framework, we reserve the right to limit offers on our portal to businesses reflecting Judeo-Christian values and whose mission seeks to generate lasting economic, social, environmental, and spiritual benefits. In consideration of the audience EquityVest serves, we have chosen to not work with certain industries including but not limited to tobacco, abortion, euthanasia, cannabis, other legal mind-altering substances excluding alcohol (Kratom, Delta 8, drug paraphernalia, etc.) gaming, pornography and other adult entertainment.
If these general values align, then…
Compliance Requirements:
Under regulations issued by the SEC, we are required to:
- Have a “reasonable basis” for believing that every Issuer on our Platform is eligible to offer its Securities on our Platform, and is complying with Title III. We might perform our own due diligence, but we are generally allowed to rely on the representations of the Issuer.
- Have a “reasonable basis” for believing that every Issuer on our Platform has established means to accurate records of the holders (owners) of its Securities. Again, we might perform our own due diligence, but we are generally allowed to rely on the representations of the Issuer.
- Deny access to the Platform to any Issuer if:
- We have a “reasonable basis” for believing that an Issuer or any of its officers, directors, or beneficial owner of 20% or more of its outstanding voting securities is subject to disqualification under the rules discussed under “Disqualification of Issuers” below. We are not allowed to rely solely on the Issuer’s representations to form this “reasonable belief,” but must conduct background checks with third parties.
- We have a “reasonable basis” for believing that the Issuer or the offering presents the potential for fraud or otherwise raises concerns about investor protection, or we can’t effectively assess the risk.
We will comply with all of those requirements. But – and this is very important – we are not required to conclude that Issuers on our Platform represent good investments for investors. In fact, we are not even allowed to tell you if we think that one Issuer is a better investment than another Issuer. You have to make those decisions on your own.
Final Decision:
After completing our due diligence, we will decide whether to offer the company the opportunity to conduct an offering on EquityVest.
Once the proper documentation is prepared, the offering will go live on EquityVest, where we will continue to monitor the campaign and help educate and inform investors.
General Considerations:
- Notwithstanding the foregoing, these investments are illiquid, risky and speculative and you may lose your entire investment. Additionally, the foregoing process does NOT guarantee that any company will be successful or that you will receive a positive return on your investment.
- The foregoing summarizes our standard process. However, each diligence review is tailored to the nature of the company, so the aforementioned process is not the exact process for every issuer.
- Completing the vetting process does NOT guarantee that the company has no outstanding issues or that problems will not arise in the future.
- While the foregoing process is designed to identify material issues, there is no guarantee that there will not be errors, omissions, or oversights in the due diligence process or in the work of third-party vendors utilized by EquityVest.
- Each investor must conduct their own independent review of documentation and perform their own independent due diligence and should ask for any further information required to make an investment decision.
It depends on the company and not all companies succeed in raising capital using this approach. The time it takes to complete a successful financing can vary widely, but companies should expect that it will take a minimum of 90 days to complete.
In order to protect investors, companies are required to reach a minimum funding target to have a successful fundraise. Therefore, investments are not finalized until the company raises enough money to meet its funding target and completes all other closing conditions (together, the “closing conditions”). When investments are initiated through the EquityVest platform, the subscription proceeds are held securely in an independent escrow account. Once all the closing conditions have been met, the money is released to the company and investors will receive the applicable securities. If all the closing condition are not met, subscription amounts are returned to investors by the escrow agent.
Onboarding Fee – EquityVest pays certain upfront costs related to escrow, operational, due diligence, and certain legal fees. These costs are covered by an Onboarding Fee of $6000 that must be paid in advance by the company.
Success Fee – Funding Portals charge companies a “success fee” on monies raised through their platform. This fee is only paid IF the company has a successful raise. While many platforms charge between 8-10%, EquityVest charges only 6% on everything up to $1,000,000 and 5% on everything over $1,000,000.
Other Costs While the above costs are the standard fees EquityVest charges to issuers on our platform it is important to know that there are additional costs involved in a successful raise to cover things like marketing, legal and financial services. EquityVest works with and can refer issuers to various third-party vendors that provide these services if you do not already have them. These services are optional and purely at the discretion of the issuer and the fees for such services are paid by the issuer to the service provider directly.
EquityVest is one of the least expensive Reg CF Crowdfunding portals out there. Some charge as much as $5,000 for the initial set up and 8% or more on the funds raised. If you can find a better deal we’d encourage you take it. On the other hand, here’s a short list of the things you’ll get for your money with EquityVest:
First and foremost…we make it possible for you to legally raise money from non-accredited investors! That means you can turn your friends, family, customers and just about anybody else into actual investors. Beyond that:
- We provide sample contracts for revenue shares, simple loans, and SAFE notes, or… you can create your own.
- We give you feedback on ways to polish your pitch to make it as clear and compelling as possible.
- We promote your round online as far as the internet can go.
- We provide software to easily engage with investors.
- We handle all investment transactions as well as all the necessary background checks
- With your input, we generate, and file your Form C with the SEC
It is important to have an open communication channel to keep your investors informed. Maintaining long-term relationships with your investors is one of the most important parts of maximizing the added value that investors can provide to your company. The communications are best delivered in writing, either through mail or e-mail, or through the EquityVest Portal.
Business Updates
Many companies choose to provide investor updates on either a monthly or quarterly basis. These periodic updates usually include information about key metrics, traction, and any business issues that have arisen. This update can include links to new articles about the business, information about new partners, team members, opportunities, etc. You also want to notify investors about any current and upcoming issues that the company may face, particularly those that relate to fiduciary duty and organizational impact.
Finance Related Updates
You should always notify your existing investors of a new financing round. Your investor agreements may also legally require you to do so when future capital rounds take place. Some investors from previous rounds may also have the legal right to participate in new rounds of capital raising. Maintaining good records of each investor’s holdings and contact details is vital for companies that are raising multiple rounds of capital.
When you receive offers to acquire the business, the terms of your investor agreement may require you to notify the investors of any such offers.
The monthly report you send to investors should not be longer than a page or two and can include P&L information. A more substantial quarterly report should include detailed financial information. Depending on the level of involvement of the investor, phone calls and in person meetings can be beneficial too. Consider scheduling semi-annual meetings or brainstorming sessions with investors, either in person or via conference call.
Why is Investor Relations important?
- It forces you to be accountable to yourself and to investors.
- It encourages ongoing evaluation of your company and business model on a monthly and/or quarterly basis.
- It helps investor identify potential areas of growth, partnerships, or new business angles.
- A record of strong investor communication and a documented history of the company’s performance can help attract new investors.
- Investor relations and reporting are important infrastructure components for larger companies and you should start developing this infrastructure early.
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