Why I raised my series a using a RUV (roll-up vehicle)

A Conversation with EJ Lawless for the HR Tech GTM podcast

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EJ: One of the things you touched on that we had talked about was the RUV.

I think this plays into the growing ownership economy. The RUV is what's

called a roll-up vehicle. I think AngelList came out with it and it allows you

as a founder to set up a special purpose vehicle, or a way for smaller check

writers to invest in your company.

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Typically, before this minimums would have been $25k or someone else would

have set up an SPV and they would have charged carry and other fees. With

the RUV there's no carry. How has this been as a way to get either lawyers

or potential customers involved? I'm just curious how that creates a sense

of ownership of the stakeholders.

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Raad: It's an amazing tool. You don't really come across too many tools like

this invented specifically to help founders that combines with making the

fundraising process way more easier and seamless.

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You just go on there, you create an RUV- and you get this link so you can collect

checks directly from accredited investors for as low as a 1k. This way, you can

close your round from strategics and people that will really add value to the

company beyond just the initial check.

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We've had a bunch of our customers invest. We've had strategics that could intro

us to some of the bigger customers we want to work with invest. We've had a few

people on the supply side invest. It's totally different. It was a little bit scary at first,

and I questioned if I was doing the right thing.

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There's not a whole lot of materials out there. We're part of the same

RUV Alliance community and that's been super helpful to just navigate.

It's so new, but it feels so right. I think in the future, there's going to be

more and more companies raising money this way.

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This ties directly into our community discussion. If you're doing a good job of

building community within your product, and your company- then this lends

itself so well to the idea of raising money directly for them. You’ve already

built up the trust.

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I'm pretty transparent with the company as well. I'll post our revenue numbers

on Twitter. I'll show our users a half finished version of our iOS app. I think this

idea of building in public and being super transparent and acting like a public

company, even though you're a private company, and raising via an RUV is

the future of fundraising.

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Less and less founders will be at the mercy of a VC and will be able to have

a couple of closed door conversations and make a decision without the

fundraiser. I think more people will see that their customers are on board-

and they're the people that should be enriched in this process. With the RUV,

they can have full control over the entire process and set their own terms.

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It's revolutionary, and I hope more people leverage it.

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