The Deep Wealth Podcast - Unlock Your Deep Wealth—In Business and Life

From Wall Street Rebel to Crowdfunding Pioneer: Sherwood "Woodie" Neiss, Serial Founder, Exposes the Hidden Playbook for Raising Capital Without Gatekeepers )#499)

• Jeffrey Feldberg • Season 3 • Episode 499

Share episode

Send us a text

Unlock Proven Strategies for a Lucrative Business Exit—Subscribe to The Deep Wealth Podcast Today

Have Questions About Growing Profits And Maximizing Your Business Exit? Submit Them Here, and We'll Answer Them on the Podcast!

“Calm down, it’s OK, you’ve got this. You can do it, it will be OK.”- Sherwood Neiss

Exclusive Insights from This Week's Episodes

What if the fastest path to raising capital has nothing to do with VCs, banks, or traditional gatekeepers? Sherwood “Woodie” Neiss helped write the law that unlocked billions in previously inaccessible funding, and in this explosive conversation he exposes the hidden playbook founders can use right now to raise capital directly from their communities.

02:15 How Woodie went from Wall Street to Silicon Valley

11:00 Why your customers may be your most powerful investors

13:30 The fight to modernize 1933 securities laws

22:00 The shock rise of healthcare and biotech in crowdfunding

24:15 How investors become strategic partners

28:00 The step-by-step of working with Crowdfund Capital Advisors

31:00 What the algorithm revealed about VC follow-on rounds

35:00 The Crowdfundomics equation explained

42:00 Simple actions founders can take in the next 90 days

43:00 Why today’s capital markets are shifting faster than ever

Click here for full show notes, transcript, and resources:

https://podcast.deepwealth.com/499

Essential Resources to Maximize Your Business Exit

Learn More About Deep Wealth Mastery

FREE Deep Wealth eBook on Why You Suck At Selling Your Business And What You Can Do About

Unlock Your Lucrative Exit and Secure Your Legacy 🚀

Ready to maximize your business's value for a successful exit? The Deep Wealth Podcast is your ultimate resource to extract deep wealth and master the strategies that led our founders to a 9-figure exit.

👉 Start Your Journey Game-Changing Exit 👈

Exclusive Resources for Your Success:

499 Sherwood Neiss

[00:00:00]

Introduction: Unlocking Billions in Untapped Capital

Jeffrey Feldberg: What if one idea could unlock billions in untapped capital and change the way entrepreneurs fund their dreams?

Meet Sherwood 'Woodie' Knees: The Architect of the JOBS Act

Jeffrey Feldberg: Sherwood Woodie Knees is one of the rare people who didn't just talk about democratizing finance. He helped write the law that made it possible As one of the architects of the JOBS Act, he played a pivotal role in legalizing investment crowdfunding in the United States.

Opening the doors for startups and small businesses to raise capital from everyday investors.

But Woodie's story goes far beyond legislation. 

Woodie's Journey: From FLAVORx to Crowdfunding Advocate

Jeffrey Feldberg: He first made his mark as a co-founder of FLAVORx, a company that transformed how children take medicine, scaling it to tens of thousands of pharmacies nationwide that success set advocacy, and ultimately to becoming one of the leading global voices on crowdfunding and venture finance.

Today through Crowdfund Capital Advisors, Woodie oversees the most comprehensive data on investment crowdfunding in the US advising [00:01:00] policymakers, entrepreneurs, and investors on the future of access to capital.

His work sits at the intersection of innovation, regulation and human ambition and his journey shows what happens when persistence collides with purpose. 

This is a story about risk resilience and rewriting the rules of entrepreneurship.

Deep Wealth Mastery Program: Testimonials and Benefits

Jeffrey Feldberg: And before we start the episode, a quick word from our sponsor, Deep Wealth and the Deep Wealth Mastery Program. Here's Sanjay, a graduate of Deep Wealth Mastery, and he says, the investment I made in the Deep Wealth Mastery Program, it's a rounding error compared to the value created today and the future value I'll receive.

Or how about William, who says, and I love this, A company that's attractive to sell is also a great one to own. The Deep Wealth Mastery Program gives me the best of both worlds. 

Now speaking of growth and adding value, check out what Leon says. He says that the Deep Wealth Mastery Program changed how and who we hire. We've now begun to hire talent today that we never would have hired if it weren't for the [00:02:00] program. The talent we're hiring today is helping both increase our growth and profits and our future enterprise value. 

Man, I love that kind of feedback because it's that kind of feedback that's what gets me out of bed every day.

Deep Wealth Mastery System, it's the only system based on a nine figure deal. That was my deal. And as you know, I said, no to a seven figure offer, created a system that we now call Deep Wealth Mastery, and that's what helped myself and my business partners all welcome from a different buyer, a different offer, a nine figure deal.

So if you're interested in growing your profits, preparing for a future liquidity event, whether that's two years away or 22 years away, and if you want to optimize your post exit life, Deep Wealth Mastery is for you. Please email success at deepwealth. com. Again, that's success, S U C C E S S at deepwealth. com. We'll send you all the information about Deep Wealth Mastery, otherwise known as the Scale for Ultimate Sales System. 

That's where you want to be. You want to be with other successful business owners, entrepreneurs, and founders, just like you, who are looking to create market disruptions. [00:03:00] Whether you're a startup, whether you've been in business for three or four decades, whether you're manufacturing, whether you're high tech, SaaS, low tech, whatever the case may Come in and network with other business owners, with other businesses, just like you, because they all want to lock in their financial freedom and enjoy both success and fulfillment.

Again, that's the 90 day Deep Wealth Mastery program. It has your name on it. All you need to do is take the next step. Please send an email to success at deepwealth. com.

Welcome to the Deep Wealth Podcast

Jeffrey Feldberg: Deep Wealth Nation, welcome to another episode of the Deep Wealth Podcast. Well, Deep Wealth Nation. I love my rhetorical questions, but let me ask you this. Would you love to get the inside track of raising more capital? Having more capital to grow your business, take you in different directions, or maybe you're looking for some professional investment?

Dare I say, maybe you're even looking to have an exit and sell your business, which we're all about here at Deep Wealth and the Deep Wealth Podcast. Well, guess what? We have a very special guest in the House of Deep Wealth. We have a fellow thought leader, entrepreneur, and incredible all around Guy Sherwood, [00:04:00] AKA. Woodie, welcome to the Deep Wealth Podcast. It's an absolute pleasure to have you with us. There is always a story behind the story. What's your story? What got you from where you were to where you are today?

Woodie Neiss: first and foremost, Jeffrey, thank you so much for having me. It's very exciting to be here. Everything that you just touched on, by the way, is something that is the essence of my being, like raising capital, having an exit sharing Wealth. So I'm like actually super excited to share this story with you.

Woodie's Story: From Wall Street to Silicon Valley

Woodie Neiss: I got my start on Wall Street. I got my MBA from an international business school thought. Wall Street was going to be my calling. Went to Wall Street, hated it. I saw them pick traders off the trading floor. Fire them. I was like, I think I want this as my career. I went out to Silicon Valley from there, so other side of the country, and worked for a pre IPO startup at the time called the PeopleSoft.

And they were at the early stages and it was exciting to be part of this hypergrowth company. See how venture backed these really great ideas with a lot of capital and how they scaled. And I took like lessons from all of that. Like how you raise [00:05:00] money, how you use that money, how you hire people.

The Birth of FLAVORx and the Crowdfunding Revolution

Woodie Neiss: I left that to start my own healthcare company called Flavor rx. We flavored medicines for children, so they're more compliant. My niece had cerebral palsy and a seizure disorder. So we started this company so she could take her medicine. It worked. We grew it from one pharmacy to 40,000 all across the United States, Canada, Australia.

We were venture funded. We were a three time Inc. 500 company. Again, I literally took those lessons from Silicon Valley, applied them to FLAVORx, but the entire time that I was raising money, I was just like, why am I raising money from venture capital when parents are calling me asking me, how do I invest in your business?

Because they got their kids, TIFF Flavor Medicine, and the lawyers, they educated me, said Woodie. You can't take, raise money from retail investors. I don't even know what the difference between, what a retail investor was, but that's really your average Joe. They're not rich. And so I just raised money from Venture and I always thought, wow, what a missed opportunity.

We ended up selling FLAVORx in 2007 and [00:06:00] 2008 was what the Great Recession. And Washington dc, which is where the company FLAVORx was based, was looking for jobs. And I was just like, well, I know. How to create jobs. we created a ton of jobs both directly and indirectly through FLAVORx.

But it has to do with access to capital. So since I lived in DC all my friends worked on the hill. So I just talked to my friends and said, who do I talk to on the hill? And they gave me a pathway to actually start talking to people in congress. 

The JOBS Act: Legalizing Investment Crowdfunding

Woodie Neiss: About what about updating the securities laws to the internet age?

So we went down there with the framework and eight bullet point framework that it would allow startups to raise money online from their friends and family. You don't have to be rich. But now you can convert your communities, your customers, into investors in your business. And this took like Kickstarter and Indigogo to equity-based and debt-based crowdfunding, which was illegal before.

Did all the lobbying in Congress testified in front of five House and Senate Panel hearings was invited to the White House by President Obama for the bill signing [00:07:00] ceremony. 465 days. It took us to take this idea, turn it into a law. President Obama was just like, what these three guys pulled off in 465 days is nothing short of a miracle.

They're not even lobbyists or lawyers. Um, But it launched this entire industry that has. 

The Impact of Investment Crowdfunding

Woodie Neiss: Allowed over 8,000 companies now to raise over $3 billion all across the United States. You just go onto these platforms that are regulated with the SEC and you file offering documents that you typically have to do when you raise money from investors.

But the platforms now have these standardized forms that allow you to do this in a very streamlined fashion. And you can put these offerings up there, create a video. And you can raise up to $5 million from your friends, family, and community. And it's transformed the early stage finance industry.

'cause Jeffrey, if you know anything as well as, as I do and many of your listeners is, it is really hard to raise money right now. VCs have really stepped out of the arena after the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank. It's made it harder for people to access capital. So where do you [00:08:00] go? You have to go where it's available and it's available online.

You just need to put these offerings together and get your community together. So that's really the story of how this whole thing came to be. And there's a lot more to it, but you know, I'll toss it back to you right now.

Jeffrey Feldberg: In Deep Nation, Woodie is being incredibly modest. He is as an entrepreneur, incredibly successful. He has awards like you wouldn't believe, and he is also an author in the show notes. It's all Point to click Goal there. Pick up Woodie's book in Bessemer and you'll get the insights scoop of all this. Before we start getting into some of the brass tacks, as a saying goes, Woodie, let me ask you a question, because what I love about your story, you've really been on both sides of the table.

So you started in M&A and you started going down that particular path, and you saw from an investor side of things, from a buyer side of things, and then you flip that, you're in the entrepreneurial seat and you went through all of that and exits. So you've done what very few people have actually done.

You've been full circle around the table in all the different seats. Looking back on that and to share this with Deep Wealth Nation as [00:09:00] entrepreneurs, because oftentimes we're just charging ahead. Glass is half full and we're just blind to our own skeletons in the closet to our own blind spots. So from the M&A side, the investor side, the investment bankers side, what were some lessons that you learned that you took into your companies that you can share with us that would make a meaningful difference to Depa Nation?

Lessons from Wall Street and Silicon Valley

Woodie Neiss: One of the key things when I was working on Wall Street and then when I was in Silicon Valley was Wall Street, it's public companies and it's earnings. Okay, so how much you bring to the bottom line. Revenues are of course very important. You wanna see that growth. But when I got to Silicon Valley, it was how quickly can you grow those revenues?

What are your customers? And the customer one was really critical. Because what I learned from the venture capital side is they want to see your customers. They want to talk to your customers. They wanna know why your customers are buying your product or service. So it's focusing in on if you've created a solution to a problem.

Who are the people that are [00:10:00] buying that, and why are they buying it? Why are they invested in it? Now we take it one step further. 

The Power of Community in Crowdfunding

Woodie Neiss: When you flip now again to becoming an entrepreneur and you wanna raise this money, if you look at that community of people, not just as customers, but as brand advocates, you can then go to them and say, listen, you know what?

We've got this Wealth knowledge, we've got capital that we can pull together. But if I can turn you from a customer into an investor, I can give you a vested interest in the outcome of my business. And so what I learned is it's not just about looking at revenue growth. It's not just about.

Looking at where the capital's coming from. It's about merging the two of those together. And that's really the transformation that's taking place right now, which is really what the book investors is all about. Because it's a new way of looking at, who are the people that are funding your business.

It's not a bank. Banks aren't lending to businesses anymore or they, unless you have three years of financials and you're very profitable and low risk, it is people that believe in you and understand you, and those are most likely their customers that use your product or [00:11:00] service.

Jeffrey Feldberg: And what's interesting about that and people with nation, I want you to think about what we're gonna talk about next. So, Woodie in the book, investors, one of your key points you. Thesis is that when it comes to not just any investors but powerful investors, in your words, they're probably already in your contact list.

Just like you said already, your customers. And from that perspective, what I loved about that is even myself as an entrepreneur, I never really viewed it that way. It was always, okay, I'm just gonna go out there and I'll get help, and we will get the pitch deck and in front of all these other people and all these fancy things and everything else.

But having our customers come in and be the investors, it's really a novel way of looking at things. When did it first hit you that, Hey, you know what? I'm gonna break the mold here. I'm gonna go down the path that probably most haven't done, maybe even a little controversial in doing that, but this for me is gonna be the way to go, and you really pioneer the way with that.

When did you come upon that?

Woodie Neiss: I mean, That really goes back to when I was running FLAVORx and I couldn't take the money from those mothers that were calling me saying, how can I become an investor? I literally had conversations with our [00:12:00] lawyers saying, you don't understand. Like I can raise millions of dollars from Venture, which by the way, I did.

But I needed tens of millions of dollars to do the marketing in order to scale FLAVORx and I said to our lawyers. Do you know Buzz marketing? Like women talk to other women. Mothers will talk to other mothers. That's what I want. And they're like, you just can't do it. And I was just like don't like that answer.

Like, why? Because a law was written in 1933. Do we have to live under these rules? It just doesn't make sense. And you know what people tell me is. Just because that's the way it is and you're not gonna be the person to change it. And I was just like, well, you know what? I'm gonna give it a shot. And even, if Jeffrey, it's hilarious.

When I told my father what I was doing, he was just like, are you kidding me? He's like, this is the stupidest idea I've ever heard of. He is like, he are not going to change a lot. And so. He was there in Washington, DC when this law went into effect and he sat there and he is just I can't believe [00:13:00] you guys pulled this off.

But it's, it's not about that. It's about we need to, everything that we do today, we are on social media. We take all our information in through social media, we communicate through social media. Our communities are on social media. Why are we not engaging that social network for capital, for brand advocacy and awareness for our businesses?

That's what this industry is about, and it allows anyone that's part of it to actually leverage it to achieve that outcome.

Jeffrey Feldberg: And duplication with what Woodie was sharing. It's so easy to really gloss over because once again, Woodie, you are incredibly modest. But as entrepreneurs, it's always been my viewpoint. I know I'm not alone in this. We make the world go round, we find these painful problems. We turn the impossible into I'm possible.

And if we're looking for an example, a poster child, if you will, of one individual who said, Hey, yeah, I hear you. That is this way. It doesn't work for me anymore. Let me be the drive behind it. Look no further than Woodie because again, title three of the Jobs Act, you are a [00:14:00] force to be reckoned with. And you went out there and you did, again, in your own words, what people said was impossible to do.

You actually did that. So you've now made it really for everyone. You've democratized. The ability for entrepreneurs to be able to raise capital, raise investment in a way that is a whole lot more quicker and time effective than it was before. Let me ask you this though, as the data guy, the smart guy in the room.

Oftentimes with entrepreneurs, one of our shortfalls from my side of the world anyways, is as entrepreneurs, we're chasing what I call these vanity metrics, where we're going after these metrics we're confusing. Activity with progress and relieving opportunity, profit dollars on the table. Going through what you've been through, as you look back, what would be a metric, a vanity metric in particular that founders should ignore and focus on something else?

Anything come to mind?

Woodie Neiss: I love that question. Okay. So everyone, to your point, is focused on revenue traction. Everyone's focused on, how can you cut costs and all that [00:15:00] stuff. 

Investor Sentiment and Data Insights

Woodie Neiss: What I love about the industry that we created is, investor is sentiment really. and it goes in many different directions, but the two sentiment indicators that we track in this industry is investor sentiment and issuer sentiment.

So issuer sentiment is people that are listening to this podcast right now, how many of you are actually gonna go out and go onto these platforms like Wefunder Republic Start Engine. Or actually, contact us and say, how do I put one of these offerings together? Where do I go? What's my chances of success?

How much can I raise? We're seeing that that number double digit growth month over month. It's just been hyper growth over the past several years. It's actually, this year's been a little tempered, I think, 'cause of the economy and people are worried about what's happening, but the capital is still there.

And that's the other one, the investor sentiment. So we track, by the way. After the bill was signed into law, I decided that the thing that I wanted to do was build a database. 'cause PeopleSoft in California was a database company and I knew about building databases. So I wanted to aggregate [00:16:00] information on every single company that raises money through investment crowdfunding on all these different platforms.

There's well over a hundred now that have done this. And I pull in on a daily basis. The total number of checks, the total amount that's committed, and I analyze all this information very much like Bloomberg does. So you could see what's happening in the industry. And so what we can track through investor sentiment is where.

People are interested in writing checks. That means what industries they're interested in writing in, what geographies they're interested in writing in, how they're interested in backing women and minority founders. So if you're a woman or minority that's listening to this, I'll let you know right now, 50% of the entrepreneurs that are raising money through investment crowd funding are women or minorities.

Show me that in Silicon Valley, only 2% of the people that get funded there are women and minorities. And you might be wondering why is that? Well, women and minorities tend to raise money from women and minorities. So it's not that hard to put two and two together, but in the data. This is like the amazing side of the data.

Even the come biggest data geek on this whole thing. [00:17:00] I wrote a 217 page annual report on the state of the industry for 2025 that covers this, but it's full of these, granular data insights. But the sentiment is a new way you should be tracking this because by the way, it can tell you where future successes will be.

And I'll just put that in context for you. So with the database, every day I'm looking at it and I'm like, wow, cool company. Wow, cool company. And I was just like, I wanna invest in this one. I wanna invest in this one. And I started making my own investments in these individual companies because I was just like, these are the seeds of the future unicorns.

I'm literally watching them in ai, in healthcare all across the board in beverages or food tech. you know, It's just amazing. And so. I sat down, I needed to automate this in a certain way, and so I sat down with three data science PhDs. And I said, I built a successful business. I sold it.

I understand what VCs look for when they wanna fund a business. I know those type of signals. I have this a hundred percent complete data set of every single offering, of every single [00:18:00] investment on a daily basis into them of their annual reports. And I want to actually build an algorithm that can predict which companies are coming in are most likely gonna go on for a follow on round of financing.

Now that doesn't mean that they're gonna be, have an exit and be successful. But companies that go on for follow on round of financing do certain things, right? They hit revenue or whatever milestones that they tell their investors they're gonna hit, they're responsible with the capital that they're raising.

They're communicative with investors, which is why investors come back with more capital. And so they go on for a follow on round at a higher valuation. So we built that algorithm. We then created a venture fund called D three vc. That invest in these select offerings, and now we're raising money from investors to actually deploy capital into a broad range of these offerings by looking at those signals.

Investor sentiment, issuer sentiment, capital flows.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Wow. So much is going on there. And by the way, deep Nation, when you go to the show notes, we're gonna have a link in there. You'll click on it and you'll [00:19:00] see Crowdfund Capital Advisors. Sherwood's company or Woodie's company in terms of what he's been doing and what's out there. And so let me ask you this, because you're aggregating all of this data.

You have all these algorithms behind the scenes. You're the data guy, the data geek. I love it. You're the smartest guy in the room. Even better. And so is it good old PTOs law, the 80 20 principle? Yeah. Jeffrey, when I see. 20% of these particular strategies or these characteristics, 80% of the companies that are following these strategies, they're the most successful.

Are there any patterns from a high level that you can share with us that you're seeing?

Woodie Neiss: It's a little different with investment crowdfunding than it is with other forms. Of capital formation. The, the people that have built a community of followers tend to be the ones that have the greatest success. So be, if you're interested in putting one of these offerings together, looking to see what your community is it just your customers?

If if you haven't done no social media marketing. Encourage people to go out there and start blogging about the [00:20:00] problem that you're solving and why it's a problem and why you develop the solution, engage that audience. You have to respond to people on there, and you have to build that community because they're the people that are going to fund your business.

So look at it from that perspective because I think that is one of the key drivers of successful outcomes. The other is. Investment crowdfunding is by its own nature a marketing exercise. So when you're raising money from VCs, you're going to particular VCs to raise capital. When you're raising money from the crowd through investment crowdfunding, you are actually putting an offering up there and then marketing your offering to your community or a broader network of that community.

And so. You need to become very savvy in putting videos together, little clip bits of videos that talk about, again, what you're doing, why you're doing it, what accomplishments you've had, and sharing that on social media. Because the more you engage, the stronger your marketing, the more people come into your offering and invest in your business.

Jeffrey Feldberg: So it's like anything else, and [00:21:00] especially with the prevalence of social media now, it's no longer a logo up on the screen. People, they wanna know who you are, what's the problem you're solving? Why should I care? Why do you care? And it's so much more personal than it was before. 

The Role of AI and Social Media in Crowdfunding

Jeffrey Feldberg: And so speaking of social media, and I'm even gonna throw ai, you know, something completely different, but where do you see things going?

Social media has definitely changed society. Some argue for the better, some argue for the worse. We'll leave it up for another podcast series, perhaps not even Episode, and artificial intelligence, ai, which has now hit the scene in making headlines daily. How is this impacting you behind the scenes in any predictions of what you're seeing?

My goodness, in the next 12 months, dare I say, 48 months or beyond in terms of what's there.

Woodie Neiss: People that are really smart are. Are figuring out how to do more with ai. but I don't know how many people are actually doing it. And it's not just the basic stuff of, using Chat GBT or Clot or one of these products to help you figure something out.

It's how do I connect the parts of what I'm trying to do together? So the marketing, I'm telling you right now. [00:22:00] You can actually automate a lot of your marketing with ai. And so there's tools out there that can help you create the AI or create videos. You can actually record them. There's videos that can make AI figures that can do the recording for you.

It's how you use those and then use the other tools that can push it out on all your social media channels. So leverage the ai. But what we're seeing within investment crowdfunding has just been fascinating because. I tell you, when I was sitting at the White House and, listening to, Obama talk about what this means for the economy, for startups all across the United States, I was thinking, you know, I wonder if who this is gonna benefit?

And I thought, well, main, street type businesses, you know, the little restaurants and little bagel shops or whatever that need capital and are, or startups this'll be great for them. But then I was just like, okay, mainly software companies. And you know what, when the industry was growing. It was a lot of software technology companies because it's easy to come up with those ideas.

They don't have much capital necessary to fund them and so you can get 'em [00:23:00] started. And so we saw that. But what I've seen over the last 12 months is healthcare, biotech, and life science companies coming in. And they're coming in for a few reasons. They're not only coming in for capital, of course, 'cause at the earliest stages it's very hard to find that capital.

But each of those. Products or services or solutions has a community behind it. So we see a lot of cancer development drugs. And, they segment that community of cancer patients or people afflicted by it and they start marketing to them, those people are, are, you know, looking for solutions left and right.

And so this is a way for that company to get exposure to a broad network of people. But what's the coolest part about it is the people that are funding these people end up in many cases. Being other scientists or other people that can say, I can actually help your company get to the next level. So they become investors in the business and then they don't necessarily take the role of the brand advocate.

They're like, you guys are onto something. This is what you need to get to the next level. And as [00:24:00] an investor, I now have vested interest in your outcome and I'm gonna help you get to that level. So that's the type of transformation.

Jeffrey Feldberg: When you think about that, it's one thing to write a check. It's an entirely different scenario when not only can you write the check, you have either the knowledge, the skillset, or the context. Hey Jeffrey, yeah, I'm investing in your company. Here's what you should be thinking about, or let me share with you this strategy or that strategy, or let me introduce you to these people who can help take you to the next level.

Incredibly powerful, and that's likely why private equity are actually overlooked, but some of the most valuable companies in the world, because they have this huge golden Rolodex of fee. But okay, Jeffrey, we're investing in your company. It's not just a check, it's not just the capital that we're bringing.

It's our network of people that we're going to infuse into your company because we now have a vested interest. We're putting our money into you. We wanna get a return on investment, and our people, our network, are gonna make a difference. 

Introduction to Hypergrowth Lessons

Jeffrey Feldberg: So let me ask you this, because offline, you and I were talking about this in Deep Nation.

You know that for the podcast, we don't preach the theory, we leave that for the classroom and the teachers, we are hardcore [00:25:00] in the trenches. Things that work and Woodie. My goodness. You are a hard charging entrepreneur. You've been in the trenches. You haven't had growth. You've had hyper growth. My goodness, you've been out there, as we alluded to earlier, three times, Inc.

500. You've been an ENY winner, just incredible awards after your name. From a hypergrowth perspective, when you look back, what would be some lessons learned? Is there a lesson learned or one or two that you can share with us that really, for better or for worse, made a huge impact? A huge difference for you?

Overcoming the Inner Critic

Woodie Neiss: I don't know if it's just me, but I'm sure there's a lot of people that are listening to this that have voices in our heads, and the voices in our heads can be either our biggest champion, most likely not, or our biggest critic. And running, being an entrepreneur and running a.

 you are surrounded by people that tell you why you can't do something. There's very few people that are like, go for it. You've got this. And then you've got that in inner critic in your head that is telling you why you won't succeed or why you [00:26:00] shouldn't do it, or why there's a safer way to go through life.

The key that I have found, and I have that critic in my head to this day is acknowledging that it's there, but not letting it win the conversation. And saying I can prove you wrong. You have to, the key to success is determination and not giving up. Because if you listen to that inner voice and you give up then you just become part of all the people that have failed.

And that doesn't make you, by the way, feel any better in the end. You will feel much better and people will be proud of you by determination. And that's, really what it comes down to, is, by the way. 

The Importance of Taking Breaks

Woodie Neiss: Take breaks. I'm in one right now, believe it or not, even though we're having this conversation,

Jeffrey Feldberg: amazing.

Woodie Neiss: I have pulled back to sort of reframe, spend a little more time with family focus on key things.

That type of stepping back is allowing me to open my mind to more. Yes. And so I'm not stopping by the way. But I'm reframing [00:27:00] and pausing. And I think for people that, particularly during the holidays, it's such a great time to reflect, understand what you're doing right.

Maybe pivot away from things that aren't working for you. It's a hard pill to swallow. But make those tough decisions and focus on success.

Jeffrey Feldberg: It's interesting and what you're talking about. Woodie is near and dear to us here at Deep Wealth because as we spoke about offline and Deep Wealth Nation knows the Deep Wealth Podcast. It's about extracting both our personal and business Deep Wealth. Our health is our first Wealth, and it's counterintuitive that.

Oftentimes we have to deliberately slow down because in reality, we're speeding up. We have more energy, more focus, more clarity of mine, we'll make better decisions. So that said, let me ask you this. 

Crowdfunding Strategies and Insights

Jeffrey Feldberg: As an entrepreneur, I'm now looking to unlock all the strategies to get some successful crowdfunding going on out there, and I am coming to your firm.

Crowdfund Capital advisors. Okay, Woodie and team, I'm here. This is what I wanna do. Walk us through your secret sauce time-wise, outcome [00:28:00] wise, and let me preempt a question or a comment you could say, and you'd be absolutely right. Well, Jeffrey, come on. Every entrepreneur, every company, they're different.

They have their own unique journey. I get that. But a high level, what does it look like when I begin to work with you and the.

Woodie Neiss: So a lot of people were coming to us and asking us, how do I do crowdfunding? What is the right platform for me? How much can I expect to raise? How do I set my valuation? Which is, why we actually wrote the book Investors. It's a 400 page books that covers how this industry came to be and how to make money off of it.

But then I realized, you know what, that's 300 pages more than people really need to read. So I created a 150 page. It's a one day read, it's a handbook of how to all, everything you need to know with investment crowdfunding and it's the playbook to the ERs guided. They're all under the same title investors.

But this is just a second in the series. And it's a one day read and we put that together and people that come to us, I'm like, just do me a favor. It's on Amazon. It's 10 bucks. You can probably get it for free through Amazon [00:29:00] Kindle. But just sit down and read that first and then come back to me because that's going to answer about 90% of your questions right off the bat.

And once you've gone through that, then let's have a conversation about, what you are trying to achieve and where you might be missing things that you need to be successful. And that's where we help people fine tune their offering. Their marketing, their outreach so that they're not spinning their wheels and wasting their time and time is money.

But that's, you know, when we're talking to entrepreneurs now, when it comes to investors investors come to us and they're like, how much is this company really worth? Are they really worth investing in? And so what I love about what we did for them is we had a lot of people coming to us, particularly when they heard I was building this algorithm.

Can I get the algorithm. And I also, well, we're not gonna give you the algorithm, but how about we create a ranking of the weekly top 15 offerings from the algorithm. And so we started to publish that. So now you can be part of D three VC and invest in us if you just don't want to do any work and [00:30:00] let your capital work for you.

And let us use our brains like venture capital to invest in select offerings. But you can actually get the list itself. Now subscribe to that and on a weekly basis, go through that list yourself and look to see which companies are right for you. And what I really love about this is I found that investors that are focused on healthcare, investors that are focused on agricultural or food tech are getting it because they're like, I really wanna focus on these new companies in different parts of the country that are working on solutions that I don't know about.

And by the way, those are the guys or women, I think we've got amazed to see how many women investors are coming to us wanting to get the data because they're the ones that are probably going to be going to these companies, not necessarily only with the check, but with the intel of how do I scale your business?

Jeffrey Feldberg: It's interesting. So as you're talking about what the algorithm is putting out there, as you look back at this past year and you look forward to the upcoming year. Is there something in the data that [00:31:00] surprised you? Something that maybe rewired your assumptions about, okay, who invests how much, where, when, anything that was a change for you this year?

Woodie Neiss: The key thing that I came to realize is there's a lot of fear and thud, fear, uncertainty and doubt about this industry. That it's the worst of the, if you can't get venture funding, it comes to investment crowdfunding. The what I have seen. Ever since the industry launched in 2016 is VCs in the beginning were like don't do it.

It'll be more on your reputation. Now, this is the ground where VCs go, I'm not gonna fund you right now, but why don't you do a round online? And if you're successful with it, why don't you come back to us? So 20% of the companies that go through investment crowdfunding end up getting venture capital financing.

And if you've got one of these businesses that is really going to. Scale. This is a great way for you to start because the VCs are gonna look at you for not just what they look for in businesses, but how have you been [00:32:00] responsible with that money? How have you communicated with your investors? Because they're gonna be like, if you can communicate with them, I know you're gonna be a good communicator with me.

And so I was most impressed with, and by the way the names of these VCs that are coming in Andreessen the biggest ones. That are coming in and funding these companies now that have gone through investment crowdfunding proves that this is the future of this early stage finance arena.

Jeffrey Feldberg: It's interesting using a sports analogy before I can go to the major leagues. They want me to go to one of the farm teams and get some practice. And sharpen my skills, and then when I show up, I'm that much more educated and more ready for what's ahead. So when it comes to crowdfunding, I know there's always gonna be exceptions.

If we remove the outliers though, typically what would be a range in terms of crowdfunding dollars that I could look to raise?

Woodie Neiss: It's grown over the years as people have become more aware of investment crowdfunding, but the average company on an equity side can raise up to about a million dollars right now. So you have to be realistic with what you can achieve with that type of money. If you need $5 million, you [00:33:00] can do it through investment crowdfunding, but you might not hit that target.

You need more than that. You have to look at externally. You can do parallel offerings, so raise money from accredited investors at the same time as Reg cf. sort of understanding where your money's coming from. the people that raise a million dollars typically have about 200, 250 investors in that round.

So does your community of backers consist of that? I tell people all the time before you go out to raise money, go to the people that you know and be like, Hey so I think I need to raise money. This is why I need to raise money. Do you think you would be interested in investing in our business? I'm just.

Just soft circling, just, you don't have to, I just wanna get an idea is this something that would be of interest to you? I'm not holding you to this, but if you were to write a check, would you write it for 1000, 5,000, 10,000? Something more? I don't know. You tell me and aggregate that type of data.

I love data. and that'll give you an idea of what you can achieve through this.

The Crowdfundomis Equation

Jeffrey Feldberg: And so as you're talking about that, you actually take me back to your book and one of your [00:34:00] chapters you're talking about the art and science of success, crowdfundomics. So for Deep Wealth Nation, and again, Deep Wealth Nation, if you haven't done so, go to the show notes, click on the link, pick up the book. But as the genius, Woodie, the genius behind the book, the Art and Science of Success Crowdfndomics what's going on there? What do you want us to know about that? 

Woodie Neiss: So what I found when we were analyzing these offerings is there were variables consistent among every single offering you've got. Your social media that we talked about, that outreach, that marketing, you've got you know, the legal documents that you're putting together. You've got accountants that are working on it.

You've got all these different parts that are responsible for putting an offering together. And the more people that you have dedicated. The easier it is, the shorter it takes to put it together. The more capital that you can allocate to this, the more resources that you can hire to assist you. Because putting these offerings together is not easy.

So the Crowdfundomis equation looks at each of these variables, allowed us to break it down as to what success looks like in that [00:35:00] individual variable and allows us to rank and score it so that people that are putting these offerings together. Really all they need to do is go to that chapter, look at the highest scoring for that different variable and be like, this is what I need aim to do and this will increase my chances of success in my offering.

And so we have the Crowdfundomis equation that works for the initial offering, and we have it for the follow on offerings. But the follow on offerings now are dependent on did you achieve your milestones? Were you communicating with your investors? Did you file an annual report to let them know how you're doing?

That stuff is really important. Follow on. By the way, it's white venture capital or anyone else that's gonna fund your business is gonna want as well. And so those are all part of the Crowdfundomis equation, but that is the Crowdfundomis equation led to the Investers playbook one, the second one in the series where I tried to not dumb it down per se, but just make it easier for any entrepreneur to understand what they need to do to succeed.

Setting Expectations with Investors

Jeffrey Feldberg: And if we circle back to that, and we're talking [00:36:00] about setting expectations, how do we avoid a situation? I call it amateur night. Other people call it different things where let's forget the investment. Out funding for just a moment. I'm going out to friends and family. I'm looking to raise money, and they're writing checks, whatever it may be, a thousand dollars, $10,000, a hundred thousand dollars.

On and on it goes. But now I'm gonna over exaggerate. I have my aunt's first, cousin's best friend who's now emailing me every day, Jeffrey, how's my investment doing? How's my money doing? When am I gonna see a return? And you multiply that times 20. And now I have meetings, I have phone calls. I'm being completely distracted.

I know I'm over exaggerating that particular scenario. But when it comes to. Setting expectations and setting really the ground rules. Hey, if you're gonna do this, if you're gonna be an investor, here's our expectations. What are your expectations? What am I doing to make sure that I'm not being taken outta the business?

To field the same questions, just time and time again from different people.

Woodie Neiss: I love that question. it's a really valid one too. Like you, you need to be focused on the business. So this is what I tell [00:37:00] people all the time. When you raise money through investment crowdfunding, you are going to have the names and email addresses of everyone that invested in your business.

They're gonna be on your cap table, okay? I tell people all the time, the number one thing that you need to do is let people know what you are doing. Now of course, you don't wanna be sidetracked with individual meetings. So if you can set up a cadence under which you're gonna send up updates, it doesn't have to be monthly.

That could be way too much time on your end, but do a quarterly update. And by the way, the quarterly update can be an email that just talks about, these are some achievements we've had through the quarters. This is by the way, these are some of the bottlenecks that we've had put by the, I'm loving this part of it.

Put the problems you are having out there to your investors. They actually want to help you succeed. This there's, vc, a lot of people are afraid to tell people what's wrong because they're afraid that's, it's gonna lead to bad things. But actually, if you put out there what your challenges are, people are gonna come to you and be like, I can actually help you with that.

And [00:38:00] so leverage that community to help you overcome those challenges. So I tell people quarterly updates, make it short, make it simple. Use ai. Feed it into a, a prompt, like I need to do a quarterly update to my investors. Tell me what are the things that I should tell them about This is what my company does.

Let's make it short and sweet, not more than like 500 words. And let AI draft it for you, and then use tools and technology to shoot that email off to everyone.

The Role of AI in Crowdfunding

Jeffrey Feldberg: And Woodie, as you're talking about the, let me ask you this, because it's still early days for artificial intelligence. It actually brings me back way back when it was called the worldwide web. Here I'm dating myself again and all the new rules of engagement and social and everything else what? As being said.

So when it comes to ai, you referenced this earlier, Hey, use ai. It can do some of the heavy lifting for you behind the scenes and help you do this or that. Where is there not a place for ai? So what would be proper etiquette where we stand today? And of course it could change of, hey, AI is great for this Jeffrey, but at least when it comes to crowdfunding or interacting with investors or your customers, this really wouldn't be the [00:39:00] place for ai.

Woodie Neiss: Probably when it comes to valuation is one of the things that comes to my mind right away. A lot of companies are using AI to say, what is the right valuation for my business? And AI will tell you multiples. many of those multiples are for public companies and not for private companies.

Private companies are valued very differently. They're valued based on the age of the firm. They're valued based on the revenue. So pre-revenue versus post revenue has different valuations. Companies that are startups versus established. So companies over three years old have different valuations.

If you put all those together, that's, eight, eight different, charts or whatever. So you need to understand. How you look at valuation. And by the way, you can do it through a mathematical equation, but when you're raising money from a community, you want to get buy-in from them.

'cause I have looked at deals, like there was one company that was a beverage company and they did a soda, a seltzer water like an alcoholic seltzer [00:40:00] water. They had $150 million valuation on a million dollars in revenue. And I was just like, who's funding that? Like, why would anyone invest in your business?

I get the fact that you've grown your brand and all that stuff, but there's no justification to your valuation. They need to go to the people and be like, okay, we're at 150 million valuation. This is what we think we can sell it for. Okay, well prove to me that someone's gonna buy it for more than $150 million.

'cause that's probably not gonna happen. So. use communication to get a feel for what your company is worth in addition to the data to help you drive that decision.

Jeffrey Feldberg: And what I love about the deep Deep Wealth Nation, the market is always right. What the market says today is for today, tomorrow, it can be a completely different number. It could be up, it could be down, it could be the same, but where the market is, that's where the truth is. That's where the reality is, at least for that particular day.

Advice for Aspiring Crowdfunders

Jeffrey Feldberg: Woodie, before we go into the wrap up mode, if a Deep Wealth Nation listener, if they could do one thing from I Investers one action, maybe two or three at the very most, that would really [00:41:00] begin to get them results in the next 30, 60, 90 days, anything that comes to mind for you?

Woodie Neiss: If you think this is interesting and you think it might be something worthwhile to you, I would tell you, go back to your computer, open it up, type in in investment crowdfunding, equity crowdfunding, go. To platforms like Wefunder StartEngine, we're not one of those platforms. We are, an consultant advisory in the space.

And go in there and type in the keyword related to a company like yours to see if there's another company that exists, and then look and see how they put their offering together. But actually more importantly, look for the company or the offering that has raised the most money because what you want to do is just replicate their success.

You wanna look and see how did they, what did they put together in terms of documents that investors liked? What did they tell people in their offering documents that investors engaged with? Go all the way to the bottom of that offering. You're gonna see questions from perspective investors [00:42:00] in that company.

So learn from those questions and make sure that the offering that you put together. Answers a lot of those questions before they're even asked. You're gonna seem so smart, you will raise so much more money because the investors are gonna be like, you are so on it. Here's my check. And that's the easiest thing to do, and it'll, keep you very busy.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Okay. Terrific. And so Woodie, with that said, I know I said this was the last question before wrap up. One more question before we go into wrap up mode. Is there a question that we haven't yet covered or even a message, a topic or a theme that we haven't spoken about yet that you wanna share with you both nation?

Woodie Neiss: The key thing is, is the capital markets are evolving. Okay. What started out 30 years ago is very different from today. The investment crowdfunding space started in 2016 and I equate it to like the medical savings account industry. In the beginning when we medical savings account, FSA HHSA, remember health savings account came into being, nobody really heard of them or used them, and slowly people became understood.

Oh, so this is how you use it. And [00:43:00] so, and then it popped, and I feel like we're in this popping part of investment crowdfunding where more and more people are becoming aware of it. More issuers are becoming aware of it, entrepreneurs and investors. And so focus on where the evolution's happening and pay attention to it and become educated in it because that will help you as you want to go out and succeed.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Terrific advice, you both nation preparation. It is the gift that keeps on giving. And I know you're saying, oh, I don't have time. I can't do this. Find the time, invest the time. It'll pay back in spades. So Woodie, that said, it's a tradition here on the Zoopa Podcast where I have the privilege and honor for every guest.

I ask the same question. Let me set this up for you. It's a fun question. 

Reflecting on Personal Growth

Jeffrey Feldberg: When you think of the movie Back to the Future, you have that magical DeLorean car that can take you to any point in time. So the fun part is tomorrow morning you look outside your window. Not only is the DeLorean car curbside.

The door is open. It's waiting for you to hop on in what you do. You're not gonna go to any point in your life. Maybe Woodie as a young child, a teenager, whatever point in time [00:44:00] it would be. What would you tell yourself in terms of life lessons or life wisdom or, Hey Woodie, do this, but don't do that. What would it sound like?

Woodie Neiss: Ooh boy, Jeffrey. I would go back to the high school me because I feel like the high school part is the one where you, probably, well, you probably most doubt yourself first there and then out of college and in your twenties. But I would just go back there and say things like, calm down.

It's okay. You've got this. Everything that you need to know is in your head and you can do it. You don't have to get over involved in it. Just take it as it comes and it will be okay. And I think the. It will be okay, is probably the most important part because again, that voice, that fear that is in our head is a very powerful one.

And that it will be okay. Is we might have heard it, [00:45:00] but it just needs to be reinforced. And so yeah.

Jeffrey Feldberg: What terrific wisdom. Calm down. It's okay. You've got this, you can do it. It's all gonna be okay. And you're absolutely right. Oftentimes we create these narratives in our minds that are so much more worse. Then reality, but it attracts from us. It feels real, and it can be scary, and it can be an energy vampire taking up all of our energy.

So it's terrific insights in terms of what we should be doing. And Woodie, before we wrap this up, DePaul Nation, if they have a question, they wanna speak to you or the team, they wanna learn more, maybe they wanna be an investor or they wanna get some tips. As an entrepreneur raising the crowdsource investment, where would be the best place online to find you?

Woodie Neiss: Well, if you wanna raise money, you can check out crowdfund capital advisors.com. If you're. Investing in the space, I would tell you actually. Both investing or understanding what success looks like, go to d3 vc.ai. And the reason I say that is this is great for investors to come in and learn about investing in the space, but [00:46:00] on our website we show you some of the companies actually pretty much all the companies that we've been investing in.

So you can actually look at the companies we've invested. In and then see, well, what did they do right that got, Woodie's venture firm to invest in them. And you can go to their offering pages again and look at the success, mimic the success, and that'll increase your chances of getting funding.

Jeffrey Feldberg: And duplication doesn't get any easier. Again, go to the show notes. It's a point and click pick up Woodie's book. You're gonna love it. And that said, Woodie, congratulations. It's official, it's a wrap as who Love to say here at Deep Wealth may you continue to thrive and prosper while you remain healthy and say thank you so much.

Woodie Neiss: Thank you. It's great to be with you. 

Final Thoughts and Call to Action

Jeffrey Feldberg: So there you have it, Deep Wealth Nation. What did you think? 

So with all that said and as we wrap it up, I have another question for you.

Actually, it's more of a personal favor. 

Did you find this episode helpful? 

Have you found other episodes of the Deep Wealth Podcast empowering and a game changer for your journey? 

And if you said yes, and I really hope you did, I have a small but really meaningful way that you can actually [00:47:00] help us out and keep these episodes coming to you.

Are you ready for it? 

The dramatic pause. I'll just wait a moment. Drumroll, please. Subscribe. Please subscribe to the Deep Wealth podcast on your favorite podcast channel. When you subscribe to the Deep Wealth Podcast, you're saving yourself time. Every episode automatically comes to you, and I want you to know that we meticulously craft Every one of our episodes to have impactful strategies, stories, expert insights that are designed to help you grow your profits, increase the value of your business, and yes, even optimize your post exit life and your life right now, whatever you want that to look like.

And every time you subscribe and a fellow entrepreneur subscribe, it's a testament to how together, Yes, we are. We are changing the social fabric of society. One business owner at a time, one liquidity event at a time. So don't let the momentum stop here. Subscribe now on your favorite podcast channel.

You'll never miss an episode. You'll be the first to hear from the top industry leaders, the innovators, the disruptors that are really changing and shaping the business [00:48:00] world, and maybe you're commuting, maybe you're at the gym, maybe you're taking a well deserved break that we spoke all about on this episode.

The Deep Wealth Podcast, it's your reliable source for the next big idea that could literally revolutionize your business. So once again, please hit that subscribe button, stay connected, inspired, and ahead of the curve. And again, your next big breakthrough moment, it might just be one episode away. Maybe it was even this episode.

So all that said. Thank you so much for listening. And remember your wealth isn't just about the money in the bank. It's about the depth of your journey and the impact that you're creating. So let's continue this journey together. And from the bottom of my heart, thank you so much for listening to this episode.

And as we love to say here at Deep Wealth, may you continue to thrive and prosper while you remain healthy and safe. 

Thank you so much. 

God bless.


Head Shot

Jeffrey Feldberg

Host