
Vegan Launch
By Mark Winstein

Vegan LaunchSep 19, 2021

What is a Vegan Financial Organizing Community?
Today we discuss some of the essential elements of a community, and how Vegan Launch is different from virtually every financial website, vegan or otherwise. Join Vegan Launch!

Creating a Powerful Elevator Pitch
Vegan Launch founder Mark Winstein discusses how to create a powerful Elevator Pitch that evokes clear images in the mind of potential investors. Join Vegan Launch!

Mark Winstein speaks with Michaela Kennedy at the Vegan Heart Business Summit
Q&A style discussion covering vegan investing, peace-based economy, and more! Take our free Capitalism for Activists course at Vegan Launch!

How Elon Musk used the NASDAQ as his personal investment crowdfunding platform
Key to Tesla's current success was Elon Musk's ability to use the NASDAQ to raise billions of new capital for Tesla. However, he first risked $80 million of his own personal fortune to build Tesla to the minimum level needed to successfully raise "public venture capital". Thanks to new US financial regulations that became effective in March 2021, today's visionary founders can seamlessly raise their first $80 million in capital starting from scratch using the public venture capital techniques we teach in our free online course, Capitalism for Activists.

Capitalism for Activists – Mobilizing $1 Trillion to Veganize the World
This summer, we pivoted Vegan Launch to build the kind of enterprise I always wanted. We now have a vegan Financial Organizing and Education Community and tech platform that is truly ready for people to use create the world we dream of as vegans. In today's show, I lay out our best peace-based strategies to move $1 trillion of investment capital into the vegan economy by 2025. Enjoy, and be sure to visit veganlaunch.com!

How distributed finance can help build a peace-based society
Now that we have a basic understanding of FinTech and digital currency, and new finance laws, it is easier to see that we already have all the tools in hand to address urgent global challenges at scale. The main ingredient needed to that is the rapid training of citizen financial leaders around the world who can effectively use these tools, the Vegan Launch community platform and all the current and rapidly evolving technology platforms associated with modern finance, to bring money to where it is most needed to reshape the economy around the ethics and values that are aligned with creating peace for all beings. From our FREE online course, Capitalism for Activists.

The rise of digital currency
The growing acceptance of crypto currencies is another aspect of the future of distributed finance that holds great potential to build a culture that respects animals, people, and the planet. Naturally, the old guard of the financial system have begun their attempts to control, regulate, and manipulate this new form of currency into a version that complies with old financial concepts that are no match for today's massive and urgent issues. We explore the significance of digital currency, and give a rationale for moving forward to solve these challenges regardless of the future of currency. From our FREE online course, Capitalism for Activists.

The rise of FinTech
We trace the progression of our monetary system in response to our rapidly transforming technology systems. As the cost to conduct financial transactions moves closer and closer to zero, the cost of transacting securities offers is also plummeting. These two trends have lowered the bar tremendously for people who wish to participate in the field of finance, including early-stage ethical and impact investing. From our FREE online course, Capitalism for Activists.

A brief history of money and central banks
As western societies transitioned from primarily agrarian to industrial cultures, new financial systems were deemed necessary to manage financial power sharing among the ruling class. The US Federal Reserve central bank and other central banks can best be understood as a 100 year old approach to 100 year old problems. Effectively addressing today's urgent issues of animal rights, ecosystem devastation, and deteriorating human health requires an understanding of the both the old system of central banks and the new more distributed financial systems that are evolving at breathtaking speed. From our FREE online course, Capitalism for Activists.

A brief history of capitalism
When we understand capitalism as an evolutionary step from feudalism, we can also grasp the greater expansion of financial power sharing that is happening around the globe today. From our FREE online course, Capitalism for Activists.

Money, Hard Power, and Soft Power
Money is a tokenization of various aspects of human relationships. One of the main tokenizations is the human drive for power. In this podcast, we consider two main forms of human power, "hard power" which is brute force, and "soft power" which is cultural alignment growing from individual self-determination and self-interest. From our FREE online course, Capitalism for Activists.

Case Study - Beyond Meat Private and Public Valuation History
We examine private investment rounds and the public "retail" trading history of Beyond Meat to help vegan investors gain new insights into early stage investing, and what is changing now that the public can once again invest freely in startups. From our FREE online course, Capitalism for Activists.

Public Venture Capital Methods
We discuss the practical, detailed application of today's modern startup capital regulations for growing vegan startups and leveraging early stage investment capital. This information is vital to all investors, and can also help managers of larger capital pools maximize their financial and vegan gains relative to the conventional finance methods currently being applied by most all vegan venture capital firms, family offices, and high net worth individuals. From our FREE online course, Capitalism for Activists.

Compressing the vegan future timeline
The outdated capitalization methods resulting from the Securities Act of 1933 have thwarted the growth of all startups by forcing them to raise capital in secret via private investment rounds. Now that founders have the option to raise startup capital publicly, vegan companies can get double duty from their capital raising efforts, building brand awareness in a far more compressed timeframe than what is possible via the highly linear, sequential capitalization methods that have been used for nearly ninety years. This means we can now educate the public and solve today's urgent challenges faster than ever before. From our FREE online course, Capitalism for Activists.

Capital Marketing As Mass Education
Now that it is once again legal to market investment offers in startups to the general public, we can use modern finance laws and platforms to educate the general public about the benefits of veganism while we raise capital for vegan startups. From our FREE online course, Capitalism for Activists.

Foundation - The Liquidity Tidal Wave
"Liquidity" is the ability to easily convert an asset into cash. The Securities Act 1933 turned equity in startups from a highly liquid asset into a highly illiquid asset. With new laws, rules, and regulations starting in 2012, liquidity in startup equity is becoming increasingly liquid. It is imperative that vegan investors understand this enormous change in the playing field so that we use today's more progressive finance laws to maximize vegan outcomes. From our FREE online course, Capitalism for Activists.

Launch future enterprises today!
The hardest part of creating large-scale economic transformation is simply getting started launching and growing the companies today that we can clearly see will exist in the future we are creating. The secret ingredient is "commitment". From our FREE online course, Capitalism for Activists.

What kinds of enterprises will exist?
When values change and conditions change, the economy changes as well to serve the new reality. Knowing that, we can envision the lifestyles of the future and kinds of enterprises and activities that people will be doing. If we can envision a vegan world, we can also envision the full scale and scope of the vegan economy. From our FREE online course, Capitalism for Activists.

Visualize future conditions
The first step in solving large challenges is to visualize the world in which the challenge is solved. This is because we "create from our state". When we hold the vision that we are aiming for, our intuition will provide the seemingly unknown steps that we must take to arrive at the destination. From our FREE online course, Capitalism for Activists.

Changing the conventional models of change
Most movements are stuck in old conflict and struggle based paradigms of progress. Using finance as a platform for activism allows for the creation of new peace and agreement based approaches to societal change. From our FREE online course, Capitalism for Activists.

Transforming the Values Economy
The majority of the monetized economies are values-based economies, not survival-based economies. Because values are so dynamic, capitalism has historically been used effectively to transform values at a cultural scale in "modern" economies. Can we now follow a similar change model to accelerate the adoption of vegan ethical values throughout the world? From our FREE online course, Capitalism for Activists.

Money & Commitment
To be effective in using finance to create vegan ethical change in cultural, it's crucial to have a clear, foundational understanding money. We dive into that here. From our FREE online course, Capitalism for Activists.

Why do movements often fail to accomplish their goals?
If we wish to address today’s “mega-challenges”, it’s vital to understand why common movement dynamics often limit a movement’s ability to thoroughly resolve the issues they care about most. From our FREE online course, Capitalism for Activists.

How do movements grow and create change?
We look at the basics of how movements start, grow, and typically produce results. Part of our free online course, Capitalism for Activists.

What is an Activist?
This is the first topic in our free online course, Capitalism for Activists. We begin by establishing a simple working definition of Activism.

New Testing the Waters rules - why they matter to vegan investors
On March 15, 2021, new US financial rules became effective allowing businesses to "test the waters" before committing to raising capital under Regulation Crowdfunding. This is a massive game changer, allowing Vegan Launch to act as an "investment banker" for investors who are able to invest $100 or more!

Response to HyperChange - Funding Seaspiracy solutions businesses and remaking government policies
I'm a big fan of HyperChange, a modern finance and investing channel. The creator Gali was recently interviewed about his vision for the future. I was excited to hear he'd watched Seaspiracy, and wanted to help fund companies that address our devastated oceans and create new government rules favorable to these types of businesses. This episode offers solutions from my own life experiences building purpose-driven businesses and shifting government policy which can be applied to any large-scale challenge, and are part of the core design of Vegan Launch.
HyperChange YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1LAjODfg7dnSSrrPGGPPMw
Gali Interview video: https://youtu.be/6awXm-tOeUI

How AVEGAN Beauty is transforming the $15B animal collagen market
Andrew Alexander interviews AVEGAN Beauty founder Sally Malanga on his Creating a Vegan World Podcast. A long time vegan activist and entrepreneur, Sally is the first vegan Founder to post a public offer on Vegan Launch's new public investment crowdfunding platform. In the interview, she lays out the case against animal collagen, and how AVEGAN Beauty's skincare products and supplements provide a true anti-aging solution without harming animals.

Complete & Incomplete Transactions, Handling Million Dollar Investors for Newbies
A lot of first time founders get into trouble when presented with a seeming opportunity to raise a large amount of money into their seed capital round. Today we introduce the idea of Complete and Incomplete transactions as a framework for all transaction, including large investment checks.

Mark Winstein Interview | Creating a Vegan World Podcast
Andrew Alexander interviews Mark Winstein on his Creating a Vegan World Podcast. We go deep on a number of topics vital to the future of veganism, vegan investing, and the future vegan economy. Best overview of Vegan Launch to date.

Is veganism a trend or a paradigm?
Understanding the difference between a trend and a paradigm is vital to successful investing. Today, we'll see why veganism is a true sea change, and how seeing it this way can help you profit as an investor in the exploding vegan economy.

Vegan Investing and the Liquidity Tidal Wave
Major trends in fintech and finance laws have resulted in a "liquidity boom". This financial revolution holds great promise for growing the vegan and ecological economies, and for solving previously intractable world challenges.

Why did I go vegan? How and why did I start Vegan Launch?
Let's talk about me! Today, I'll tell you my vegan story, and fill in some details about how Vegan Launch got started.

Raising capital for a vegan company? How to avoid bad investors
Vegan entrepreneurs can have a lot of fears around raising capital for their company. Here are several practical steps to help you avoid bringing a "vulture capitalist" into your company and instead build a great team of investors!

How do I avoid getting scammed when investing in vegan businesses?
Since the 1930's, Investing in startups has been largely limited to the most wealthy investors. With the growth of investment crowdfunding, the general public can now widely invest in privately held startups for the first time in generations. Investing in early stage vegan companies is quite different from buying stocks on Wall Street. We discuss some basic concepts to help make the experience satisfying despite the high risk of loss.

How to raise capital from the general public using new finance laws
On April 5, 2012, the Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act became law. Title III of the JOBS Act established crowdfunding provisions that allow early-stage businesses to offer and sell securities to the general public. This activity was originally made either illegal or extremely difficult by the Securities Act of 1933. Today, we'll discuss the three main regulations of Title III to help investors and entrepreneurs understand how they can be used to fund projects from a few hundred thousand dollars up to $75 million.

Entrepreneur Imposter Syndrome QUICK FIX!
I attended an online vegan women entrepreneur and investor conference the other day. It was awesome. But a lot of people were talking about "Imposter Syndrome" in the chat. Like most entrepreneurs, I've had to deal with Imposter Syndrome myself. Here's a 20 minute quick fix!

What is structured commitment? How does it lead to financial transactions?
Money changing hands is a symbol of mutual commitment. We discuss the structure of commitment to help you improve your skill at completing sales and raising capital.

Millennials and zoomers don't need to wait for boomers to solve big challenges!
Thanks to Title III and other modern financial regulations worldwide, vegan millennials and zoomers can solve large-scale challenges now and directly build their own economic future without waiting for boomers to take action.

How to start Tesla from scratch!
We discuss how to use the new Title III rules to raise $60 million from the general public. This is the same amount Elon Musk first single-handedly earned and then spent to launch Tesla. Being able to assemble large amounts of risk-tolerant capital as a community can allow vegans to launch scores of culturally transformative companies without the need for the founder to first earn a fortune in some unrelated industry.

Back of napkin design for a scalable vegan healthcare business
We've been learning how to raise capital in low risk ways to grow scalable, culturally transformative companies. Here we zoom in on one business concept in the healthcare sector that could make a huge difference for animals, people, and the planet.

Uber, Proposition 22, Masa Son - How do they relate to scaling the vegan economy?
Vegans can learn a lot about solving large-scale challenges by closely examining Uber and other firms that seek to transform culture on an epic scale. Uber has grown to an $80 billion+ market cap without ever having a profitable quarter or even generating a gross profit on sales. Instead, their growth was fueled by extraordinary amounts of venture capital led by famous financier and SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son. The company recently poured millions into winning California Proposition 22, defeating the state's efforts to categorize drivers as employees instead of contractors. Each chapter of this saga is rich in meaning for vegans hoping to change the world.

How is Vegan Launch different from Goldman Sachs, BlackRock, and Tesla?
Big finance firms like Goldman Sachs and BlackRock have a huge impact on world culture. Vegan Launch's work to transform the finance sector can be more readily understood by comparing it to Tesla's strategy in the automotive and energy sectors.

Accomplishing huge results - 2 main steps
Here are two tricks I've learned that help make accomplishing large scale results fun and a lot easier than we might think. Saving the animals and the planet can seem like hard work. I like to say, "If it isn't fun, it won't get done."
The two main steps are:
1. Clearly visualize the future condition you wish to create. Realize that in that future, there will be an economy that supports the new condition. Start building the businesses and institutions that will thrive in that future economy today.
2. Movements create markets, but movements often default to an "us vs. them" mentality. Work on your personal perspective until you can honestly feel loving to all humans, not just the ones you like. From that perspective you'll see how to create lasting change.

Raising first capital, deal structures and governance
SAFE's, convertible notes, and straight equity are the most common deal structures for startups raising their first round of capital. How does each one work? How do you choose the right structure? And, how do you keep control of your company while taking in outside investments? Let's get some answers!

Being ready to receive investment capital, valuation math and more
When selling a securities offer, investors want to know what they are getting in return for their money. What is the right valuation for your company? What are the terms? What are you really selling? Once you understand how to answer these questions, raising capital becomes much easier.

How can I get money from investors?
Most entrepreneurs have sold goods or services. Few have raised capital. Raising capital involves making an unusual kind of sale. The investor gives you a bunch of words called money, and you give back a different bunch of words called a "securities offer". Today we'll discuss some foundational skills that will help you raise capital to scale up your business.

Raising Capital - Your story in words and numbers
Raising capital happens in words, your story in text and pictures, and your story in numbers. In this short podcast, we take a playful look at these two different stories in preparation for a deeper look at creating pitch decks and investment offers.

Creating agreement - The power of your words
Building the vegan economy means creating agreements with people. In this podcast, you'll learn key elements of creating agreements via peaceful yet powerful use of your words.

Building a peace-based vegan economy - key understandings and action steps
Recent updates to financial laws in the US and other countries offer new opportunities to build a peace-based economy that can address climate change, improve human health, and expand rights for animals.