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Startup Resources

Venture Capital


Wefunder - For community round of equity crowdfunding

Engage you loyal customers and communities as investors. You can raise from $50K to $5M via the current regulations. And anyone can invest for as little as $100. With recent changes in regulations, anyone with any background and any financial status can invest in your startup. You’re no longer dependent on a warm intro to some MBA grad on Sand Hill Road. You can raise from your fans, customers, you plumber, etc. For more information contact and we can save you 20% on platform fees and promote your startup to our local community.
Ready to raise?
Michael Thaney is a local Venture Partner and happy to help get you started...and a platform discount.

Calm Company Fund - For bootstrappers of profitable, sustainable, CALM businesses

We love bootstrapped companies! You've launched, have some paying customers, and some feedback. We don't invest in idea stage, pre-product companies — that is not our realm of expertise. We invest in MVPs, not proof of concepts. We invest between $75k – $250k and can lead rounds of $500k-$1m.
ARE YOU THE FOUNDER OF A CALM COMPANY?
We're in the business of keeping you in business. We invest early in profitable businesses that want to maximize their chances of success and build for the long-term.
FOUNDER ALIGNED FUNDING
Our investment structure keeps founders in total control and aligns us with profitable businesses. We win when you win, on your terms.
RADICAL TRANSPARENCY - WE LEARN AND GROW TOGETHER
With 150+ (and growing) experienced software founders as mentors and investors in the Calm Company community, mentorship is your unfair advantage.
WHAT CALM COMPANY FUND INVESTS IN?
Check out the
Michael Thaney is a local Venture Scout and is available to discuss if Calm Fund is a good fit for you and help write an investor memo.

StartFast - For founders based outside of VC hubs

At we LOVE ❤️:
Strong, diverse teams with proven track records and exceptional domain expertise
Recurring revenue business models, particularly with a business to business focus
Founders based outside venture capital hubs, at the Series Seed and Series A stage
Michael Thaney is a local Venture Partner and is passionate about connecting founders from emerging startup ecosystems.

Tres Win - For pre-seed founders looking for a local angel group

At we developed a network of accredited investors living in or connected to the western NY region. We love early stage deals where our network can provide a strategic advantage to our founders.
Our founding team is Buffalo and Rochester.



Pitch Resources

10 Slide Pitch Deck Template video by Guy Kawasaki
Video of Adeo Ressi of Founder Institute Mad Libs template for a 1 sentence elevator pitch
Zigzag is like having an accelerator in your pocket.
Its AI help you think through your startup and go to market strategy.
It was founded by Scott Ford, former COO of Techstars + speaker at local AI conferences :)

Tools

- Ship your product in days, not weeks. This is a NextJS + Emails + Payments + DB + Authentication + SEO + more kit all in one. ().
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