Slice Capital

democratizes venture capital

12 followers

democratizes venture capital

12 followers

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Slice Capital allows anyone to invest in startups. Our equity crowdfunding platform provides quality alternative investment opportunities in a sleek and minimalist manner. Invest in startups alongside venture capitalists, private equity firms, and succ...

Launch tags:Web App•Fintech•Investing

Launch Team

Product Hunt

Congrats on the launch, @rohan_shah2 and team. 👏🏼 One of the major issue with crowdfunding are all the semi-public reporting requirements and signaling risks. As a result, we often see companies that can't raise traditional VC go this route, limiting the pool and potentially quality of companies to invest in. What are your thoughts on this? Ultimately, we need to reform this space. The whole accredited investor requirements are intentionally exclusionary to those that aren't already wealthy.

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8yr ago

Slice Capital

Maker

@rrhoover Thanks Ryan! In short, you’re not wrong. However, we’ve seen an insane volume of quality companies that have come our way... Speaking to the point on reporting: We’ve partnered with a third party registered transfer agent and have also built in notifications into the platform to help with remaining in compliance, from a reporting standpoint. With regards to the “signaling risk,” I agree that it could backfire in some cases, but we’ve found that if the platform is selective enough, then raising through crowdfunding may, in many cases, help with raising capital in later rounds, as it speaks volumes to the company’s user-loyalty, NPS, etc. We've also found that the LTV, for companies raising through Reg CF, of the backers/investors skyrockets after they invest, as they're literally vested in the long-term success of the company. Ultimately, it’s well documented and accepted that there’s a massive “Series A Gap” and that much of raising capital is based on subjective measures and network effects (not always purely dependent on the quality of the company). There’s a reason that 97% of venture capital goes to white-male CEO’s and it’s definitely not that only white-male CEO’s build great companies. We want to help empower the next AirBNB’s and Purple Mattresses, both of which had difficulty raising VC in their early stages because they didn’t have the networks to support their fundraising efforts. We want to help back companies, like QUINN, which have already raised from top tier investors (Jason Calacanis, XRC Labs, etc), but don’t want to spend time on meeting investors, but would rather focus on what actually matters, building an empire. I’m right there with you when you say that this space needs reform, but I’m incredibly bullish about the regulations that already exist. There are a number of bills already in circulation, which would make things a whole lot easier and I’m excited to see where things go. I’m also incredibly bullish about finding a happy medium between everything happening in the crypto space and equity crowdfunding. Stay tuned for Slice’s developments on that front ;)

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8yr ago

Slice Capital

Maker

@rrhoover I'd love to chat further on all of this next time we meet up!

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8yr ago

Product Hunt

@rohan_shah2 good thoughts and curious how crypto plays into this (yes, I recognize the slight hilarity of that statement). 😊

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8yr ago

Slice Capital

Maker

@rrhoover Absolutely - We should catch up when I'm back in the Bay! We have some interesting initiatives brewing in the background.

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8yr ago

@rrhoover @rohan_shah2 brilliant answer:)

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8yr ago

Ramp

Congrats on being hunted! What do you look for when bringing on other companies to invest in on the platform?

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8yr ago

Slice Capital

Maker

@charleyma Thanks Charley! We have a few criteria that we look at when evaluating a company: 1. The company has to be post-product, post-revenue. They don't have to be generating millions of dollars and don't even have to be cash-flow positive, but we like to see some sort of trajectory. 2. Generally speaking, we like to come in at the Seed-Stage (total round: $350K to $2M or so), especially when there are other Tier 1/Tier 2 VC Funds or Angels already participating in the round. 3. The companies need to have already taken in some capital. This can be an Angel Round, Pre-Seed, Friends and Family, etc. We just want to see previous use of proceeds to make sure that the founder is responsible. 4. We want to have a high degree of confidence that we'll be able to close the capital that the company needs in the timeframe they need it. As such, the company has to have an easily digestible value proposition. 5. We love companies with highly zealous user bases. Customers and users are the best investors, so we want to try to leverage a company's own user base to "anchor" a round and get the momentum going. Obviously there are exceptions to all of these rules, but companies that check all of the aforementioned boxes are usually right in our sweet spot. Hope this helps! Again, for companies looking to raise: http://slice.capital/apply

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8yr ago

Slice Capital

Maker

@charleyma PS: I just saw you're at Plaid. They're one of our partners and we love you guys!

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8yr ago

Ramp

@rohan_shah2 awesome! Been fun watching you and the team build so quickly :).

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8yr ago

Slice Capital

Maker

@charleyma Thanks Charley! Happy to have you onboard :)

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8yr ago

Slice Capital

Maker

Thanks for hunting us, Nick! My team and I started Slice for a couple reasons: 1. Fundraising is painful and time consuming 2. Most people don’t know they can invest in early-stage startups Our mission is to fix those problems, amongst others. Frankly, we're baffled that they haven't been properly fixed yet. ...So here we are, launching Slice Capital - a way for anyone to easily invest in startups, while also helping bad ass founders focus on what really matters, not fundraising. Here’s how it works: - Sign up and become a Slice Verified Investor in just 4 steps - Browse our offerings (currently just QUINN, but it's a hell of a company to kick things off!) - Conduct your research/due diligence, speak with founders, and chat with fellow investors - Invest as little as $100 into the fastest growing startups - trust us... we've looked at over 1000 companies to narrow down to the first 15 we're launching with

We have spent the past two years bringing everything together for Slice, and we still have a lot to do. We would greatly appreciate any and all feedback you'd all be willing to provide! P.S. I’ll tell you all a little secret: This won’t be our last Product Hunt Launch this year. ;) P.P.S. Get Excited! The Slice revolution is just getting started.

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8yr ago

Hustle Crew Academy

@rohan_shah2 This is awesome, @MichaelBerhane_ and I were just talking about how investing is still pretty impenetrable for most people who would like to get involved. How does it work operationally? I'm thinking about the legals, paperwork etc...

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8yr ago

Slice Capital

Maker

@michaelberhane_ @abadesi Thanks! We're working within Title III of the JOBS Act (Reg CF). We help with all of the paperwork - we're partnered with a third party registered escrow agent to hold the funds, as well as a registered transfer agent. Our legal team, along with the SEC and FINRA, have helped us lower the legal barriers as much as possible to tailor the investing experience to normal people, not just super high net worth individuals. I'm happy to dive into more detail if you want to shoot me a line at hello@slice.capital!

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8yr ago

SeekWell

@michaelberhane_ @abadesi @slice @rohan_shah2 What are the qualifications to become a "Slice Verified Investor". I'm assuming people need to have some level of income / net worth?

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8yr ago

Slice Capital

Maker

@michaelberhane_ @abadesi @slice @mike_seekwell Hey Mike! There's no income/not worth requirement. There are limits based on both of those figures, but regardless of those numbers you'll be able to invest (we just limit you to protect you, given the risks involved in investing). The Slice verification process is merely for us to remain in compliance from a "Know your customer" and "Anti-Money-Laundering" (KYC/AML) standpoint. Hope this help!

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8yr ago

Looks really cool, happy to try it out soon. FYI, you have a small typo in Jason's quote on the landing page - "$30 and* hour"

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8yr ago

Shiny

Maker

@stefdvb Thanks, Stefan! Fixing the typo now.

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8yr ago

Slice Capital

Maker

@stefdvb Thanks for pointing this out, Stefan! Happy to have you onboard :)

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8yr ago

How to Invest like a VC

Maker

@stefdvb Fixed <3

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8yr ago

LawnGuru

I love the concept, and hope to see it take off. The fundraising landscape can be really brutal, and when you're a small team that crushes through efficiency, taking the focus of your top team members off the product / platform / sales / what have you to *maybe* raise some money can be detrimental. I don't have time to dive into all the about info, but have a couple questions: Do companies have to pre-determine how much equity to put on Slice? Are they required to meet that amount, or can they accept the smaller portion available? Do the investors each individually receive shares in the company, or do they receive a share in a fund that receives the shares of the company? As a founder, I'd be very wary of a cap table growing too long, especially if I planned on raising additional VC funding. One of the biggest perks of a good investor isn't always their money, but expertise that they have that can help in more invaluable ways. Are there any tools available (or plans to make them available) to get this benefit from Slice Capital investors, or is this more strictly a monetary investment? Good luck!

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8yr ago

Slice Capital

Maker

@jake_torrence Thanks so much for the kind words, Jacob! Happy to answer your questions... 1. Given the stage of most of the companies raising (Seed), we prefer to invest through an instrument, called a Crowd SAFE (Simple Agreement for Future Equity). This allows the founder to set a valuation cap, though the SAFE does not convert into actual equity until their next priced round, generally. Thus, in essence, a company is able to cap the amount of equity which eventually converts. The founder can also specify minimum and maximum amounts, which would constitute a "close." QUINN, for example, is raising at the very minimum, $25K and at the max, $1.07M. So long as they are within those thresholds, the Slice round will be considered "successful." 2. The investors each individually receive a SAFE, which will eventually convert to equity. The company can eventually group the investors into an SPV, which will prevent crowding of a cap table with too many retail investors. We've also partnered with Carta, formerly known as eShares - they are helping tremendously with preventing cap table crowding/issues for the founders. The Crowd SAFE also solves many of these cap table issues. 3. This last point you brought up is spot on! We are working on ways to help our "portfolio companies" and give them an "unfair advantage." At the end of the day, we will do everything in our power to see the companies, that go through our platform, succeed. Hope this helps! I'm happy to dive into more detail - please shoot us a message at hello@slice.capital. Happy to have you onboard! :)

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8yr ago

Skydio

Hey @rohan_shah2, a few questions. Can you explain the Ethereum bit in this quote from your LinkedIn profile? "Capitalized on Title III of the JOBS Act and became the first SEC/FINRA-compliant platform to successfully implement Ethereum Blockchain into the ledger, merging the best of ICO’s, traditional means of raising capital, and equity crowdfunding." I'd also like to hear more about what Slice might do to help startups that raise via the platform counter some of the downsides that might come from going with that option vs. traditional angel/seed/A VCs. I'm thinking about things like guidance on early-stage company building, as well as things like having relationships with investors who would be the right fit for the next round.

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8yr ago

Slice Capital

Maker

@kylebrussell Hey Kyle! Thanks for the questions - With regards to ETH, that's currently in the works with the regulatory bodies... Stay tuned for a more formal announcement in the near future. ;) We are working to build out relationships with a variety of services and resources (think AWS, Stripe, etc) which are likely to help our portfolio companies. We're always looking to expand our investor network to cross-pollinate on deal flow with other investors to ultimately help the companies in the best way we can. I'd love to hear your thoughts on other ways we can help. Given our small team at the moment, we obviously have to pick our battles, as to prevent diluting our focus, but this is definitely something which will become more and more of a priority as we bring more companies onto the platform. Feel free to shoot us a line if you'd like to dive into more detail on anything - hello@slice.capital... Happy to have you in our corner!

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8yr ago

I've been looking forward for slice to release for a while and they did a great job! The website is clean, easy to use. Even for companies to hop aboard is quite easy. Looking forward to more companies being on the platform!

Pros:

Easy to Use

Cons:

None so far!

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8yr ago

Slice Capital

Maker

Greatly appreciate the feedback, Kyle!

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8yr ago

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