On April 15, 2021, Mainstem became the first malt company to launch an equity crowdfund campaign. The goal is to onboard a diverse new wave of folks as owners and grow together through our most exciting chapter yet. We call it Mainstem For All.
The campaign is off to a wonderful start and will continue to run for months to come. Follow along for a deeper perspective into Mainstem as an industry-leading craft maltster, and to learn why we’re so darn excited about equity crowdfunding as a way to raise growth capital. But for starters, you’re probably asking yourself this very basic question:
“Why should I invest?”
Please, allow us to elaborate!
1. Your investment is a bet that our company will grow and earn you a respectable financial return.
When we say investment, we mean we’re offering a good chunk of stock in our company to help fund immediate growth opportunities. This stock allows you to join our current shareholders and option holders (founders, employees, and other equity investors), and share in the prospective upside of the Mainstem Malt brand.
2. Your investment is a statement about the importance of craft malt.
Despite the proliferation of craft brewers and distillers in the US and around the world, the vast majority of malt is still big, industrial, globalized, commodity-based, and not out to change any time soon. Craft-scale maltsters like Mainstem play a critical role in challenging the incumbent players in our industry in support of community, innovation, the hugely complex process of becoming more sustainable, and having a damn good time along the way. We invite you to show the world that these activities have a value to you, and that you’re willing to bet on a brighter malt future.
3. Your investment helps us change the world for the better.
We started Mainstem Malt as a market-based way to support conservation projects on family farms. Along the way, we realized we were in a unique position to inspire much broader change, so we’re pushing to be the beverage industry's model for agricultural supply chain sustainability.
From its start, Mainstem committed to producing malt that’s dry farmed, family farmed, Salmon-Safe certified, and grown with minimum tillage practices. We also became the first-ever Certified B Corp maltster, as a way to hold ourselves to a much broader, loftier set of standards for social and environmental progress. These claims aren’t a marketing ploy or a perk for our customers— they’re why we’re here in the first place and we’d love for you to join us.
4. Your investment can be as large or small as you want it to be.
Investing in startups shouldn’t be an exclusive game for the supremely wealthy, and everyday people shouldn’t be limited to pumping their money into Wall Street. Equity crowdfunding campaigns like Mainstem For All provide a much more democratic framework for anyone to support the entrepreneurs, companies, and future they believe in.
With Mainstem For All, we made a very intentional decision to set our minimum investment to $100. Our hope is that a large number of everyday people will each make a small investment that won’t break their bank, but still allows them to be part of a much bigger collective impact. These micro-investors will all have the same kind of stock as our larger investors, and in turn have the same access to Mainstem’s growth potential.
We’re also inviting individuals and entities with greater means to join in for larger investments, impactful collaborations, and overall willingness to help kick Mainstem’s growth into overdrive.
5. Your investment supports much needed diversity, equity, and inclusion work in craft beverage & agriculture.
When raising capital from investors, conventional wisdom says “keep the number of investors to a minimum.” The idea is to reduce the potential for future conflict and to keep the upside benefits concentrated to a very fortunate few. Well, we're taking pretty much the exact opposite approach with Mainstem. Our idea is to invite an unprecedented diversity of people into our company as bonafide owners, and work hard to incorporate their perspectives into its management. Not just because we think it's the more equitable and inclusive thing to do, but because we think these new owners will significantly improve the way our company thinks, behaves, and performs financially in a complex world.
Mainstem For All isn’t just the name of our equity crowdfund campaign— it’s a value system on which we’re building Mainstem Malt. And we hope it deeply influences the industries we’re a part of.