Mark Winstein

On March 15, 2021, new US financial rules became effective allowing businesses to "test the waters" before committing to raising capital under Regulation Crowdfunding. This is a massive game changer, allowing Vegan Launch to act as an "investment banker" for investors who are able to invest $100 or more!

I'm a big fan of HyperChange, a modern finance and investing channel. The creator Gali was recently interviewed about his vision for the future. I was excited to hear he'd watched Seaspiracy, and wanted to help fund companies that address our devastated oceans and create new government rules favorable to these types of businesses. This episode offers solutions from my own life experiences building purpose-driven businesses and shifting government policy which can be applied to any large-scale challenge, and are part of the core design of Vegan Launch.

HyperChange YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1LAjODfg7dnSSrrPGGPPMw

Gali Interview video: https://youtu.be/6awXm-tOeUI

A lot of first time founders get into trouble when presented with a seeming opportunity to raise a large amount of money into their seed capital round. Today we introduce the idea of Complete and Incomplete transactions as a framework for all transaction, including large investment checks.

Understanding the difference between a trend and a paradigm is vital to successful investing. Today, we'll see why veganism is a true sea change, and how seeing it this way can help you profit as an investor in the exploding vegan economy.

Major trends in fintech and finance laws have resulted in a "liquidity boom". This financial revolution holds great promise for growing the vegan and ecological economies, and for solving previously intractable world challenges.

Let's talk about me! Today, I'll tell you my vegan story, and fill in some details about how Vegan Launch got started.

Vegan entrepreneurs can have a lot of fears around raising capital for their company. Here are several practical steps to help you avoid bringing a "vulture capitalist" into your company and instead build a great team of investors!

Since the 1930's, Investing in startups has been largely limited to the most wealthy investors. With the growth of investment crowdfunding, the general public can now widely invest in privately held startups for the first time in generations. Investing in early stage vegan companies is quite different from buying stocks on Wall Street. We discuss some basic concepts to help make the experience satisfying despite the high risk of loss.

On April 5, 2012, the Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act became law. Title III of the JOBS Act established crowdfunding provisions that allow early-stage businesses to offer and sell securities to the general public. This activity was originally made either illegal or extremely difficult by the Securities Act of 1933. Today, we'll discuss the three main regulations of Title III to help investors and entrepreneurs understand how they can be used to fund projects from a few hundred thousand dollars up to $75 million.

I attended an online vegan women entrepreneur and investor conference the other day. It was awesome. But a lot of people were talking about "Imposter Syndrome" in the chat. Like most entrepreneurs, I've had to deal with Imposter Syndrome myself. Here's a 20 minute quick fix!

Money changing hands is a symbol of mutual commitment. We discuss the structure of commitment to help you improve your skill at completing sales and raising capital.

Thanks to Title III and other modern financial regulations worldwide, vegan millennials and zoomers can solve large-scale challenges now and directly build their own economic future without waiting for boomers to take action.

We discuss how to use the new Title III rules to raise $60 million from the general public. This is the same amount Elon Musk first single-handedly earned and then spent to launch Tesla. Being able to assemble large amounts of risk-tolerant capital as a community can allow vegans to launch scores of culturally transformative companies without the need for the founder to first earn a fortune in some unrelated industry.

We've been learning how to raise capital in low risk ways to grow scalable, culturally transformative companies. Here we zoom in on one business concept in the healthcare sector that could make a huge difference for animals, people, and the planet.

Vegans can learn a lot about solving large-scale challenges by closely examining Uber and other firms that seek to transform culture on an epic scale. Uber has grown to an $80 billion+ market cap without ever having a profitable quarter or even generating a gross profit on sales. Instead, their growth was fueled by extraordinary amounts of venture capital led by famous financier and SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son. The company recently poured millions into winning California Proposition 22, defeating the state's efforts to categorize drivers as employees instead of contractors. Each chapter of this saga is rich in meaning for vegans hoping to change the world.

Big finance firms like Goldman Sachs and BlackRock have a huge impact on world culture. Vegan Launch's work to transform the finance sector can be more readily understood by comparing it to Tesla's strategy in the automotive and energy sectors.

Here are two tricks I've learned that help make accomplishing large scale results fun and a lot easier than we might think. Saving the animals and the planet can seem like hard work. I like to say, "If it isn't fun, it won't get done."

The two main steps are:

1. Clearly visualize the future condition you wish to create. Realize that in that future, there will be an economy that supports the new condition. Start building the businesses and institutions that will thrive in that future economy today.

2. Movements create markets, but movements often default to an "us vs. them" mentality. Work on your personal perspective until you can honestly feel loving to all humans, not just the ones you like. From that perspective you'll see how to create lasting change.

SAFE's, convertible notes, and straight equity are the most common deal structures for startups raising their first round of capital. How does each one work? How do you choose the right structure? And, how do you keep control of your company while taking in outside investments? Let's get some answers!

When selling a securities offer, investors want to know what they are getting in return for their money. What is the right valuation for your company? What are the terms? What are you really selling? Once you understand how to answer these questions, raising capital becomes much easier.

Most entrepreneurs have sold goods or services. Few have raised capital. Raising capital involves making an unusual kind of sale. The investor gives you a bunch of words called money, and you give back a different bunch of words called a "securities offer". Today we'll discuss some foundational skills that will help you raise capital to scale up your business.

Raising capital happens in words, your story in text and pictures, and your story in numbers. In this short podcast, we take a playful look at these two different stories in preparation for a deeper look at creating pitch decks and investment offers.

Building the vegan economy means creating agreements with people. In this podcast, you'll learn key elements of creating agreements via peaceful yet powerful use of your words.

Recent updates to financial laws in the US and other countries offer new opportunities to build a peace-based economy that can address climate change, improve human health, and expand rights for animals.