Product-market fit is usually spoken of as binary. "You either have it or you don't". But in my experience, it's more of a spectrum.
When I joined Wefunder in 2018, my job -- persuading founders that it's cool to let their customers invest in their startup, as well as VCs and angels -- was really hard. Startups could only raise $1M on Wefunder. And we couldn't roll investors up to a single line on their cap table. Ouch.
But every year, things have gotten easier and easier.
In 2018, we had 140K users on the platform to put founders in front of. Now we have over 2 million.
In 2019, we didn't have ApplePay to allow investors to checkout on mobile with the click of a button. Now we do.
In 2020, our operational processes, and founder-facing tools were rudimentary at best, and completely broken at worst! Now processes are a lot smoother, and our product is a lot more sophisticated.
In 2021, the SEC rolled out significant improvements to the Regulation Crowdfunding laws. Instead of $1M, startups can now raise $5M per year on Wefunder. And we can now roll up investors to 1 SPV on the cap table. Thanks to "Testing The Waters", companies can launch on Wefunder in a couple of hours vs. a couple of weeks, or validate investor demand before committing to launch publicly.
In 2022, we rolled out the term Community Round (and the website communityround.com). Hat tip to Andres Kupervaser Gould for coming up with the phrase! We've always hated the term "equity crowdfunding". Firstly, it sounds like Kickstarter. And secondly, "crowd" funding sounds un-prestigious. Raising from your community sounds cool. Who doesn't want to build stronger community among their users?
Over the last few years, more and more venture-backed startups have started to run community rounds on Wefunder, as part of larger, VC-led rounds. Companies like Arrived, beehiiv, Levels, Mercury, Replit, Substack. Not because they needed the money. But because they saw the value in letting their customers invest. That it would delight their users, strengthen their community, and accelerate their growth.
Perhaps most importantly of all, our Wefunder team is stronger now than at any point in our history. In our NPS survey responses, where founders articulate what they liked about their experience, so many of them reference Suzanna Rush, Jake Suggs, Justin Renfro, Katie Kobetsky (Powers), Frances MacKethan. Wefunder's product is its people. So if our people have more experience and expertise now than they did 5 years ago, Wefunder's product is better too.
These are a few examples. But there are hundreds more. Since 2018, when I joined Wefunder, our product has improved every year. It will continue to do so going forward.
My job is still hard. Community rounds remain a small percentage of the total (VC and angel) market. But it’s so much easier than it was in 2018. In 2030, it will be so much easier again.