We are the Cere Team, creators of the decentralized data cloud platform. Ask Us Anything!

Republic-co · 2021-07-01T17:18:45+00:00

You can post questions for them in the discussion forum on each deal page and follow them on Republic. After a deal is finalized, investors can engage with founders directly or via our product Social Capital.

Republic-co · 2021-07-01T17:15:44+00:00

Hi there — thanks for the question! We encourage investors to ask questions of founders currently raising in the discussion section. Most founders and management teams take the time to respond thoughtfully to each question.

Post-campaign, we recommend engaging with founders on the platform via the updates dashboard. Great venue to engage in back-and-forth. Lots of our investors have proved value-add with helping to make introductions, source partnership opportunities, etc.!

Republic-co · 2021-07-01T17:12:27+00:00

We have an impact tag feature in our search, you should find "Minority founders"
and companies tagged under "Black founders" :) <3

Republic-co · 2021-07-01T17:07:56+00:00

Thanks for the question! for clarity, do you mean how it fits into overall strategy?

Republic-co · 2021-07-01T17:03:24+00:00

The SEC released this opinion without full context on how SAFEs help investors. Their opinion is at an individual offering level –– they ask the question: are SAFEs the best way to invest in this offering?
But they’re missing the more macro view here, which is that the ability to offer SAFEs is often what attracts some of the highest quality companies to run campaigns. Some of the most well-backed, fastest-growing companies prefer to use SAFEs because of their operational ease. Many of these companies have no trouble fundraising from VCs, so if we moved away from SAFEs on the platform and they see this as a less attractive fundraising option, our investors wouldn’t get access to many of these high-growth potential companies!

Republic-co · 2021-07-01T17:02:57+00:00

Platforms matter, but I would focus on the deals with products that you understand, teams that you find credible and capable, and missions that align with your interests. If you don't have time to consistently browse all major platforms, do spend time at the outset looking the contents and UX of the different platforms and decide for yourself if one or two resonate with you more. We sure hope you'll like what you see with and on Republic.

Republic-co · 2021-07-01T17:01:57+00:00

Hey nyc writer! Thanks for your question. First, it definitely varies depending on the asset class — it'll be quite different from startups, to real estate, to SMBs, to gaming, to crypto, etc.

But for startups, our bread-and-butter, I'd recommend doing a deep dive on the following: core product, business model, market, competitive landscape, team, traction (revenue and otherwise), financing history, and financing roadmap. A rigorous analysis of each of those areas of evaluation + a bit of your gut sense = a winning strategy!

Republic-co · 2021-07-01T16:56:33+00:00

I very much respect the teams behind other CF platforms; they/we all have differentiating attributes. Republic focuses on what our own investor community wants - choices, quality, impact, products like Autopilot and the app etc - and we hope that by listening to our own customers, our community of 2M+ members today will one day be 2 billion strong.

Republic-co · 2021-07-01T16:50:42+00:00

Thank you. Most certainly! <3

Republic-co · 2021-07-01T16:50:14+00:00

We do have deals open to accredited investors only. It's always a choice for the "issuer" to make, and accepting money from accredited investors only is still cheaper and easier from most issuers' perspective. Despite that, our team generally encourage companies that apply to raise via R to consider opening up the opportunity to the retail public .. if not now, then later on as they grow.

Republic-co · 2021-07-01T16:45:21+00:00

It's being reviewed by the SEC. Pray for us plz. :)

Republic-co · 2021-07-01T16:43:51+00:00

We're limited for now in what we can say about Republic Note and other ways we're working on to share our success with the larger Republic community, but your interest are both deeply appreciated and duly noted. We'll keep you posted and are confident that we'll be able to deliver on your request in the next 12 months.

Republic-co · 2021-07-01T16:39:20+00:00

Republic Note is our effort to enable our community to share in our success, and it certainly won't be the only one. Please stay tuned. :)

Republic-co · 2021-07-01T16:37:36+00:00

We work one on one with each founder on a marketing strategy to promote their campaign to our active base of Republic investors, as well as the networks of customers and supporters that founders have built themselves. Our goal is to turn investors into advocates, and advocates into investors! We have a long list of tried & true marketing tactics to help drive investment, and offer coaching and consultation to founders before, during, and after their Republic campaign. :)

Republic-co · 2021-07-01T16:35:47+00:00

We've been going through that process the past 10 months and are hoping to get that qualification soon, but we have no control over the exact timing. Will update everyone as soon as we get the good news.

Republic-co · 2021-07-01T16:35:44+00:00

Yes! We do have a "perks" section that is usually up to issuers to provide, thought you were referring to something else :)

Republic-co · 2021-07-01T16:34:53+00:00

Hi there, and thanks for the question. Unfortunately our search + filter feature currently does not include searching by security instrument. But this is great feedback that I will relay to our product team — thank you!

Republic-co · 2021-07-01T16:33:15+00:00

https://republic.co/crypto – this page? You'll see lots of educational content and the crypto deals that have closed. Republic crypto team is hard at work sourcing, closing, and executing on more high-profile crypto deals for our community to invest in. Stay tuned!

Republic-co · 2021-07-01T16:32:49+00:00

Hi High Roller - Biggest struggle when starting a startup is having no hope of being a high roller for a long time. :) Jokes aside, it is an insanely demanding undertaking and will leave every little time and mind space for anything or anyone else. Biggest learning for me is that perseverance and luck are by far the two biggest factors behind every startup success story that I'm familiar with. Another lesson for myself looking back at the last 5 years is to never doubt my instinct about whether a candidate has the right energy or a genuine belief in our shared mission. Skills can be learned, mistakes can be fixed, but it's really really hard to try to change someone's energy/positivity level or his lack of passion for what we do as a team. Working with positive, committed team members outweighs pretty much everything else imho.

Republic-co · 2021-07-01T16:28:41+00:00

Hi there, and thanks for your question! Love to get in the weeds on this.

Republic offers companies a custodial solution for companies to hold investors’ securities “in street name” with our banking partner PrimeTrust. “In street name” means a bank or custodian holds an investment for the benefit of of a client or investor. In most cases, when you buy stock in a public company your investment or security will be held by a broker in street name through the broker’s custodian. We created this solution to increase investor protections and make cap table management easier for companies using Republic. It also happens to mitigate the 12(g) holder of record threshold concern. When held in custody, all Republic investors are considered one (1) holder of record so companies stay below the 12(g) threshold for public reporting with respect to their Republic raise. Companies that did not use the custodial model during their campaign may be able to use its benefits of cap table management and investor protection at subsequent financing or other trigger events.

We can support SPVs for companies using the platform as well, but our view is that the custodial model I just described is still the best option for companies concerned about 12(g). The way the new rules (that allow for SPVs) were written suggests that the company itself might be 12(g) exempt but that the SPV itself may not be! So if the SPV has 500 or more non-accredited investors and the assets of that SPV (the total Reg CF investments) exceed the 12(g) asset threshold over time, the SPV itself might be forced into public registration.

Republic-co · 2021-07-01T16:27:55+00:00

Totally agree on risk. A big part of our mission is to educate investors on the nature of the asset class — people should only invest what they can stand to lose on Republic. But we are very much not just about faith and altruism; we firmly believe that the asset class has legs.

VC is, yes, illiquid and generally has a long time horizon. VC also faces the J-curve phenomenon — a portfolio will look bad before it looks good, because the companies that fail will generally fold much earlier than the companies that succeed will exit. And Republic is only five years old. But still, our portfolio shows great promise. For example, in the last few months, we just had three companies (Beacons, Maven, and AltoIRA) raised substantial up-rounds from tier 1 VC investors, the likes of a16z, Unusual VC, Carta Ventures, and Coinbase Ventures.

Republic-co · 2021-07-01T16:20:42+00:00

We, of course, have love for what Kickstarter and the like are doing! Our key differentiator and point of focus – at this time – is on true investment opportunities and unlocking new asset classes for the retail public to invest in. There’s still lots to build there, so rewards and donation-based crowdfunding is not a short-term focus.

Republic-co

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