Jonny Price and his wife, Ali, had been planning to move from San Francisco to Nashville not long after she gave birth to their third child. The Covid-19 pandemic sped up that move — and wound up triggering an expansion for the business crowdfunding platform where Price is a top executive.
Price is vice president of fundraising at Wefunder, leading its national business development team. Nashville's tech and entrepreneurial scene should expect to hear from Price and his crew soon: Wefunder now has a half-dozen employees in Nashville, which has evolved into the company's only other concentration of workers outside of Silicon Valley.
"That’s probably cause and consequence of the pretty fast-growing startup scene here," Price said in an interview. "There's a lot of companies moving here and a lot of startups being founded here, but I think probably the capital ecosystem is still challenging for a lot of founders to raise that early-stage capital, especially that first capital. We can help more founders raise that early pre-seed, seed-stage capital so they can get to the point where maybe more conventional angel investors or institutional investors are willing to give that company a look."
Wefunder is a pioneer of equity crowdfunding and one of a few places, such as StartEngine or Republic, where startup founders can raise money from investors who aren't "accredited" (lacking the minimum $200,000 annual income and million-dollar net worth set by federal regulatory standards). Most months in 2020, investors committed $5 million to $20 million in companies through Wefunder, and that pattern has accelerated this year.
One local case study is Earth Rides, a ride-sharing service run entirely with Teslas, which are all-electric. As of July, founder Raven Hernandez had raised $750,000 on Wefunder.
Price is testing a new kind of role in Nashville: Someone charged with blanketing a city, drumming up interest among entrepreneurs and funneling locally based startups onto the platform. If successful, Wefunder could replicate that "city lead" role in other places in America.
That Nashville contact is Read Ezell, a native who's attending Vanderbilt University's Owen Graduate School for his MBA.
"There's plenty of money here, but it just gets deployed in health care because that's a reliable way to make a great multiple. We want to clear the way for smaller-scale companies and other types of entrepreneurs around town," Ezell said.
Price said he's seeing momentum.
"It's been pretty cool for me to see a pipeline built up locally," he said. "It's one data point, but based on our experience in Nashville over the last few months, I'm hopeful this is one of those levers we can pull in other markets."
Price remarked that his "dream" is getting Nashville's Bearded Iris Brewing Co. to fund its next taproom expansion on Wefunder. He means it, but what Price really wants to see is Wefunder making investing accessible to more people (the minimum is $100) and a more diverse array of founders.
"Nationwide, the percentage of capital going to female founders or founders of color is massively under-indexed," Price said. "If you can have a democratic approach to founders raising early-stage capital, we can hopefully level the playing field."
