Mainvest generally does not charge an upfront fee to launch most campaigns. Equity raises and some fringe cases may carry an upfront fee depending on complexity. Otherwise, a one-time blended fee is calculated upon the close of your campaign. If your raise is successful, your fee is based on “in network” and “out of network” investors: investment that comes from your network through a special Mainvest provided link carries a 4.5% fee, and investment that comes from Mainvest’s existing ecosystem of investors carries a 9% fee. If your raise is not successful, you do not owe a fee. Certain additional fees may be incurred for amendments and other fringe cases as laid out in our terms.

If you have all of your paperwork and financials in order, a clear pitch, and existing marketing materials, we can review your campaign and launch within a few days. However, it’s not uncommon for preparing a campaign to take a number of weeks- it all comes down to your strategy and timeline.

The revenue sharing model entitles investors to a percentage of your business’s revenue each quarter until they get a return on their investment or the note reaches maturity (i.e. the note becomes “due”). This means that when investors actually become customers at your business, the revenue that they’re helping to generate goes back into their pockets. The more revenue that you generate each quarter, the faster they get returns, increasing IRR. We hear from almost all Mainvest alumni that their customers increase loyalty after becoming investors, and that investors are likely to become customers.

Mainvest campaigns typically last between 30-90 days, with a minimum required time of 21 days- we usually recommend around 60 days to maximize the marketing opportunity of your fundraiser and to give you enough time to pitch investors effectively. If you do need to edit or extend or shorten your campaign, you can amend your campaign.

Per regulations, your campaign must be live for 21 days before any funds are withdrawn. However, you can also wait until the end of your campaign to withdraw funds all at once. It usually takes around 3 business days to transfer funds from the escrow account, where funds are held during the campaign, to your business’s bank account.

Mainvest debt is subordinated to all existing and future debt, so if you have a bank loan, your Mainvest raise shouldn’t affect anything on your loan. In fact, many of our clients do have traditional financing in addition to their Mainvest investment. We’ll take into account your existing obligations when preparing your terms.

If you have equity investors, Mainvest shouldn’t affect your ownership structure since it’s debt-based, not equity-based. New investors will not own shares of the company. With that said, we’ll take a full look at your business’s financial picture when preparing your terms and fundraising strategy.

You set them! We’ll come up with a baseline based off of:

• how much you need to raise
• how much revenue you’re willing to share given other commitments and projected cash flow
• how soon you want to pay back investors
• the return you want to offer investors

You are able to review and edit the terms to make sure that you’re building a campaign that provides flexible working capital at a cost that works for you, while giving investors an attractive opportunity.

Yes - Mainvest is designed for communities to become socially underwritten, meaning that the eventual customers and supporters of a business are the ones investing in it. Once you reach certain fundraising milestones, however, you can access tools to engage with Mainvest’s existing database of thousands of SMB investors.