The Power of Community in Fundraising | Elizabeth Eichhorn | Ampersand Way | Profits on Purpose

Episode Description

In this episode of the Profits on Purpose podcast, host Nate interviews Elizabeth Eichhorn, an expert in alternative financing. Elizabeth shares her entrepreneurial journey, highlighting the importance of community support and various funding options beyond traditional venture capital. The conversation delves into crowdfunding, the significance of preparing for campaigns, and the risks associated with fundraising. Elizabeth also discusses her new venture, an educational platform aimed at helping founders navigate the complex world of financing, emphasizing the need for education and community engagement in the entrepreneurial journey.

Key Takeaways

• Elizabeth's journey into entrepreneurship began with personal necessity.
• Alternative funding options are often overlooked by founders.
• Crowdfunding can be a powerful tool for raising capital.
• Community support is crucial for successful fundraising.
• Preparation is key for a successful crowdfunding campaign.
• Warming up your network can ease the funding request process.
• Local investments can strengthen community ties.
• Education on funding options is essential for founders.
• Risks are inherent in any fundraising effort.
• Metrics of success should focus on cash flow and customer engagement.

See More from Elizabeth and Ampersand Way

• Ampersand Way's Official Website
• LinkedIn
• Instagram 

Listen to the full episode to discover how Elizabeth's experiences can inspire and guide you on your entrepreneurial journey. Don't forget to subscribe for more insightful conversations!

I hope you enjoy this episode!

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– Nate and the Profits on Purpose podcast team

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Transcript

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00:00 Introduction to Alternative Financing
02:49 Elizabeth's Entrepreneurial Journey
05:35 Exploring Funding Options Beyond Venture Capital
08:12 Understanding Equity Crowdfunding
11:09 The Importance of Community in Fundraising
13:53 Preparing for a Successful Crowdfunding Campaign
16:42 Reconnecting with Your Network
19:25 Launching a Wine Bar with Community Support
22:05 The Benefits of Customer-Investors
24:59 Introducing Ampersand Way: Educating Founders on Funding
27:41 The Risks of Equity Crowdfunding
30:15 The Importance of Storytelling in Fundraising
32:45 Lessons from Crowdfunding Success and Failure
36:09 Building a Comprehensive Funding Platform
37:22 Metrics of Success Beyond Vanity
40:09 Understanding Distribution in CPG
42:33 Final Thoughts and Resources for Founders

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Nate (00:06)
Welcome to the Profits on Purpose podcast where we explore the journeys of purpose led founders and the financial strategies that have helped them survive and thrive. I'm your host, Nate Littlewood. Today's guest is Elizabeth Eichhorn, who is an expert in alternative financing. She's also a founder, an investor, a community organizer, and a business coach. Elizabeth and her team have worked with founders all over the world.

In September, 2025, they're launching a new platform aimed at helping entrepreneurs fund differently and build beautifully. Elizabeth, welcome to the show.

Elizabeth Eichhorn (00:47)
Thank you for having me, Nate. I'm excited to be here.

Nate (00:50)
Absolutely, and we're excited to have you. I think maybe a good place to start off here is just to tell us a little bit about your background, because you've worn a number of different hats and seen this industry from many, different angles and perspectives over the years. So maybe we could start off with just a quick background of your experience.

Elizabeth Eichhorn (01:09)
Yeah, absolutely. So my world of entrepreneurship has been something that was not coming up. I thought I was going to go into a very different world. However, it just so happened that I had been in seminary. My husband and I met there actually. So I graduated from seminary and while I was in school, I got diagnosed with severe food allergies. And at the time,

I was living in Los Angeles and thought, great, least I could be around LA where there are tons of options for me. Well, it turns out the food allergies that I was diagnosed with were not things that were readily available on the shelves at the supermarket. So that quickly led me into a world of what does it mean to fix a problem for like, to find a solution for a problem that not a lot of people were dealing with.

But I was dealing with it. So I ended up being in the world of entrepreneurship because out of my own necessity and realizing I had a knack for it, fell in love with it, understood that there were more people who needed help or access to something that I could provide. So the first thing that I began was actually a catering company specifically designed for people with food allergies.

And my goal was to actually help those have a beautiful catered meal for the least of these. So meaning I would find out all of the guests food allergies or dietary restrictions or sensitivities and I would provide a meal that was based on that and everyone would eat the entire thing.

Nate (02:49)
So interesting. So a lot of founders, when they think about financing for their business, they'll immediately have in their mind a venture capitalist or an angel investor. And I understand that one of your perspectives is that that's not necessarily the right place for a lot of these folks to be looking for financing.

So could you tell us maybe what are some of the other options that are actually out there and why are some of these potentially a better fit, especially for food founders?

Elizabeth Eichhorn (03:22)
Yeah, absolutely. So the thing is, is I think that venture capital has a reputation of being the sexy way of going about and finding funding for your business. And there have been a lot of people, stories written about this, where, you know, they talk about, well, I was backed by this person, or I had this person support me.

And I think for a long time, the reason we people have wanted to go after venture capital or VC is because they have felt like, well, then somebody else's money and I'm going to get richer faster. I'm going to be a success. I am going to have a whole lot of money in my back pocket.

But the other side to a VC backed company are things like, well, the VC has, will put particular return on their investment on you. Can you actually meet those demands? Are you able to actually give money back to the investor in a particular timeframe? And if not, then where are you going to go? And really, yes, they may want seats on the board. They may want shares. And so the reality of venture capital is that it's not necessarily the worst thing, but I will say, as an early stage founder,

somebody who really believes in the idea that they're creating, do you really wanna give all of that up early on? Or would you rather try and find other ways to fund your business and your idea? And so a couple of those other ways would be, you have crowdfunding. So crowdfunding does a couple different things and I can go into a lot of detail because that's basically a big huge majority of my time has been spent in the crowdfunding roles.

But before you into detail, will also say you have grants and opportunities for grants and possibilities there. Accelerator programs. oftentimes, you could also see loans as an option. You can see friends and family as something that you could go after. And even you could go after a line of credit or you could do your own self-support or bootstrapping. So those are kind of seven different alternatives.

And within those 7 different alternatives, other than venture capital, we can easily say that there's a variety of each of those topics that just goes in pretty deep. Like, I actually have a list right next to me and I think there's like 34 other types of funding that you can go.

Nate (05:58)
34 other types of funding. Wow. Am I correct to understand that the two or maybe three categories, like broad categories we're talking about here is we've got equity funding, which is basically where you're selling a portion of the ownership of your business. You mentioned a few options there, which are different types of debt funding, but then you've also got product crowdfunding, which could be interpreted as a form of pre-sales, I guess, which is I really...

just bringing revenue forward, I suppose. So could we maybe go through each of those buckets and talk about some of the main types of funding within each of them? particularly the equity crowdfunding, think is something we should spend a bit of time on here. And I'm curious why a founder might find themselves walking down the path towards equity crowdfunding like, under what circumstances would that be a good idea?

Elizabeth Eichhorn (07:00)
Yeah. So let's start with equity. Equity crowdfunding is... Let me describe what crowdfunding is for your audience. So crowdfunding is where you are going to be able to reach out to a lot of people to be able to get small or smaller investments.

And in turn, people will be able to get either a share or equity of your company or depending on the type of platform, could be a reward for your, like, in exchange for the funding. There always needs to be some sort of an exchange. So I know that people always believe that, yeah, everything is like, I should just be able to go to crowdfunding and everything is free.

Nothing is free, unfortunately, when it comes to fundraising. And so we can talk about that in detail later if we want to. But for this specifically, when you go to equity and why people would want to go down that route.

is that it allows for you to possibly test out your ideas at a larger scale, test it out with friends and family, and also get funds for it. You're able to go into a raise without actually having to have this really big return on the investment in a particular time frame. So it does give you some freedom to kind of shift and pivot if you need to.

Equity, there are some really good platforms that I really love working with. One in particular is WeFunder. They're great group of people who have really worked hard on understanding who should be on the platform, what it's for. But at the end of everything, it does not matter if it's rewards or equity, it will come down to your community, your network, the people you know. And this goes back to that previous question as to

Well, why VC versus, you know, other types of fundraise? Well, because often people do not like to ask the people who are their friends or family, close relatives for money. There's a lot of stipulation around that. We've been told, I know that I had for years, you don't mix family and money. It's a messy thing, but I've actually really would rather shift that conversation and say, well, why would you not?

give people who say that they are like your biggest supporters the opportunity to continue to support you and then this case do so financially.

Nate (09:35)
This is, guess, equity crowdfunding is really a lot about tapping your community and a network. How does a founder know if their community and network is strong enough to support this and for it to actually be a success?

Elizabeth Eichhorn (09:51)
People want to feel connected to who the founder is. They want to know something and they want to buy with intentionality. And I think they really also want to invest with intentionality.

Nate (10:03)
Absolutely. Absolutely. So I actually did a product crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter in 2017. It was how I got my old e-commerce business off the ground. And one of the biggest lessons I learned from that, one of the biggest mistakes that we made, I think was just starting too early. And we kind of went into it thinking, Hey, like if we have this amazing offer, people are just, you know, magically going to discover us somehow.

I've since learned that that's not the right way to go about it, but could you kind of take us back from that point a little bit? Like what sort of preparation is required to do this sort of thing successfully? How big should your audience or your email list be? What are some of maybe, I'm not sure if you're aware of this, I'm sorry, I'm putting it on the spot a little bit here, but what are some of the typical conversion rates that you would expect? Like if you've got 10,000 people on your email list, how many might you actually expect to participate in your Kickstarter or whatever?

Elizabeth Eichhorn (11:08)
Yeah, this is great. So I also did the Kickstarter and I think there's something you mentioned about yours that I really want to call out, which is you had the idea of going into your campaign and then it being this opportunity for you to just continue to build and using it for marketing. And it is a great marketing tool. 

If it was set up that way. Like if you go in and say, I'm ready to do this as a marketing instead of a fundraise, how do I get that kind of buzz attention around it? And that's a different way of building your crowdfunding versus if you do it from your fundraising perspective. Kickstarter is still set up in a very similar way. just for those listening, every single crowdfunding platform will have a different kind of

terms and conditions and you really need to make sure you read them and then understand what is the percentage that that platform is taking. Do you have to hit the goal to be able to get any of the funds? What is the amount, like the minimum amount you need to raise to be able to actually access any of the funds? And then how is it dispersed? How are you going to be receiving those funds? So just putting out that as a caveat. The next thing that you mentioned is what is the percentage? So you have this list of 10,000.

your list of 10,000 might be great from a numbers perspective, but if they're not an engaged 10,000 and are not actually purchasing something from you on a regular basis, they're probably not going to be the ones who are ready to go ahead and make some sort of an initial investment. So you need to be building up something that gets somebody who is going to convert for something like for what it is you need it for. So if that is a, you are

getting people to buy something on your own site, you're getting people to sign up for some sort of form, you need to start capturing some of that so you can understand your own reality from your conversion rates. So that's a large email list. That's what I would recommend there. If you are looking at more of a smaller list or maybe you don't have a list at all, you need to start really thinking about, those people in your phone,

Nate (13:28)
How do you do that? mean, I remember I this exact problem. It's like, okay, I got this name, phone number and email address here, but you know what? I haven't spoken to you for five years and I kind of feel bad about all of a sudden reaching out and asking you for money. So how do you go about warming up a list like that?

Elizabeth Eichhorn (13:46)
Yeah. I like voice notes. I do a lot of voice notes with people. So I will, I am known to leave five to 10 voice notes a day with people. And I would say, go through your list and leave a voice note and just start telling people that you're thinking of them because you are. And just say, Hey, haven't caught up in a while. Would love to see what's going on in your world. Hope you're well. Let's find the time. It can be as simple as that.

The other thing is, think about how you know them. Remember what that connection is. If you can remember how you've met this person or something that you had in common, maybe you went to a concert together and you saw that the concert you had, that artist has a new album out, reach out, hey, did you know that this person has a new album out? That's amazing, have you listened to it? mean, come on, let's talk about that. also, like that's another easy one is.

Okay, Taylor Swift is coming out and she's going on tour again. So did you get your tickets? Like there are ways to get around the hurdle of how do you reengage people you haven't talked to. And that is often the root of people's fear when it comes to fundraising. We don't want to ask those people because we have avoided them for a long time. We're not very, and I utilize the word we universally.

I don't think a lot of people have been taught, nor have we figured out ways to stay in touch when we moved or when we, and sometimes that's okay, it's seasonal. But just because it's seasonal doesn't mean that that is not somebody who should not be a part of what it is that you're raising for.

Nate (15:28)
Yeah, yeah, I love that. So when we caught up a few weeks ago, you updated me that you have actually opened a wine bar recently. And I understand that you actually had your neighbors help fund this wine bar and get it off the ground. Tell me a little bit more about that. And is that experience part of what has influenced the new idea or the new venture that you're working on?

Elizabeth Eichhorn (15:56)
Yeah, it has. So Copper Rose Wine is our wine bar. It's in San Antonio, Texas. And it is new to San Antonio, but it has been about two and a half years in the making. And my husband and I moved to San Antonio and moved into a neighborhood where we saw that there was a need, a missing element. And we just kept thinking, what could we do to help this community? Where can we go at night where

You know, you could go grab a drink, but there really wasn't anything that was open past, I think, two in the afternoon. And we're like, everyone leaves our neighborhood. So we realized a few things for us to kind of work towards saying, hey, we knew we wanted to have something that night. Then we also needed to get this neighborhood on board. And that is actually why we decided to go after them first and foremost for investment investing is because if we can get like

If once we identify the end user, once you identify who really is this customer and then they understand how they play a part in your product, it's so incredibly powerful. And so that's how we were able to raise for our bar. So we were able to raise, get funding and then being able to, we've now been open for almost eight months.

And it's exciting to see what happens. And that's exactly right to your second point is why are we, why am I going on this new venture is exactly because of that. I saw how when we are staying so focused and local into who our neighbors are or who our audiences are, who our friends and family are, and we start building for them or we really know who our customers are.

We are building really powerful products. And I think somewhere along the line, I have seen a lot of entrepreneurs have kind of lost the end user. So my new venture, Ampersand Way, is helping educate people on how do we build companies with intentionality and ensuring that you can also find the funding to be able to go after what it is you're building.

Nate (18:19)
That is so interesting. We're definitely going to come back to this new venture, but I want to talk a little bit more about the the wine bar and the neighbors, because you touched on some really interesting and super important parts of this whole equity crowdfunding model here. One of which is that I think you said and correct me if I'm wrong, but I think you said that it helped you, you know, better understand the customer. Your customers are effectively now shareholders.

Can you kind of elaborate on that and maybe talk a little bit more about some of the, you know, intangible and more qualitative benefits of having your customers and investors being the same people?

Elizabeth Eichhorn (19:05)
And our neighbors. And your neighbors. It can also get really messy. So this is all about how and why do you build relationships and why do you continue to stay connected to people? The conversations with my neighbors got easier throughout my entire time that I was pitching to them because it got stronger, it got better, but also I had to remember these. What it was that we were doing was to benefit them too.

So the way that it has worked is, and I'm very honest, is that we sold a quarter of a share for $5,000. And we were, my husband and I were able to, and we will always maintain majority stakeholder in the business. And we wanted to do that to say, honestly, for a few reasons, marketing.

It ensures that people in our neighborhood are willing to put in their own dollars, time, energy, and also getting their friends to come into that space. that was huge. That was huge for us. Their thing is you want to help make and shift this neighborhood. You believe in what we are doing. This is why you want to invest in us.

Nate (20:23)
Interesting, interesting. And so you've pivoted, or not pivoted, but evolved all this into a new business, which is, from what I understand, all about helping other founders take a similar approach to financing and fundraising. Tell me a little bit more about that. Who is the ideal customer for this business? What can they expect to learn or get from working with you? yeah.

Elizabeth Eichhorn (20:51)
So my team and I are building an edtech platform focused on helping understand different alternatives forms of funding that is out there. And not only is it just alternative forms, if we want to do the VC route, we're going to prepare for that. Education is vital for a founder to understand what are the best options for them.

I know the amount of times I was pitching and in front of people and I gave them my power and because I didn't fully understand what all the terminology was. And I also didn't know what my options were. And so when a person and when a founder doesn't know what all the options may be, it always makes me ask the question, are you building the best product and service that you really can? And so I have been really shifting and saying, well, what if instead,

we start with a more equal playing field. You don't have to be going to Wharton or you don't have to be going to all of the different amazing and getting your MBA because even then I know people who have an MBA who have no idea what crowdfunding really is. I've been on multiple panels with them. But what I want people to understand is that the we're all, if you are trying to start a business,

It's because you're trying to solve a pain point. If you're trying to fundraise for that business, it's because you know that it is worth getting funding for. The difficulty is where to find that funding and how do we do that? So this entire platform is going to be on helping educate people through webinars, downloadables and accessible spaces versus just being able to, you know, I know.

I know coaches who are charging 1800 to 2500 a session just to kind of say, I'll get you access into this person. And that doesn't, that's not an equal playing field to me.

Nate (22:49)
But to have to pay that bigger price tag for it to be that much of a pay to play type game.

Elizabeth Eichhorn (22:56)
And for not a guarantee. It might be a conversation that they can open a door for you, but that's not actually getting you the funding you need to help you actually grow and start, well, maybe even start your business. And then you ask the other piece of who is this for? Well, early stage to probably three years in founders, you can come back at times that you're wanting to, you know, let's say you want to start fundraising. What are the other options out there?

Nate (23:24)
What are some of the cons of this? What are some of the risks or downsides? And have you had any personal experience with some of these things maybe not going as planned?

Elizabeth Eichhorn (23:36)
Yeah. A couple things. So depending on the platform, I think most of them now, but they'll roll up your any sort of contributions into one line on your cap table. Previously, it used to be any give was like their its own line item. And so when you're going for a more traditional round of investing and people want to ask, they ask for your cap table and you have

3,000 names on there and kind of dilutes what it is you're trying to fundraise for. So I will say platforms notice that. They do roll up all of the investments into one line item. That's positive. That's both negative and positive, but pay attention to the platform. The other is what if you don't get it and you put yourself out there and you have then, you've become really vulnerable. How do you continue to keep growing your business?

when the world knows that you didn't get the raise that you were looking for. That I think is the number one thing. And I have a client right now who is going through something like that. And I am continuously reminding them of the reason they did this was to continue to get funding. And even though other people didn't show up, other people came through the back door and were able to invest in her in a different way.

Just because it might not work publicly doesn't mean it doesn't always work for you. And if it doesn't work publicly, then there's an opportunity to be able to say, okay, this didn't happen and start shifting your language and the narrative around that. But fundraising is a risk. does not matter which avenue you take. If it is even a grant.

Nate (25:34)
When can we, when can we expect to see the first peaks of this or is it a little bit premature to be asking you that?

Elizabeth Eichhorn (25:41)
No, that's good. Our waitlist is open. Our waitlist is live. So ampersandway.com. So just go on and head over there to join the waitlist. So that's, and then we are looking towards middle to late September on kind of the first iteration and going to continue from there.

Nate (26:02)
Okay, perfect. I'll include a link to that below. But we've talked a lot about fundraising and the different options and you're certainly a wealth of knowledge on this. I wanted to change gears a little bit for the last couple of questions as we look to round things out here. You've said that, know, CPG is a pretty crowded space and the...

growth doesn't always equal success. And I guess my interpretation of that is that a lot of times founders and people in the startup world can be focused on things which we could kind of put into a bucket called vanity metrics, that doesn't really matter. I'd love to understand, mean, as a founder and someone who's worked with a lot of founders now, how do you think about balancing revenue, profitability, personal well-being and what are some of the metrics of success that you personally like to focus on?

Elizabeth Eichhorn (27:00)
So I no longer care about my marketing numbers as much as I once did. I cared a lot about my social media numbers when I first started out as a CPG. That's not something I play around with as much because I want to make sure that I have enough money in my bank account to do two things. One, continue to ensure all my costs are covered, including my inventory.

I'm in the wine business now, in the state of Texas, which is where our wine store is, we need to be able to pay for cash or we have to utilize cash to pay for our wine. That is a lot of money that you need to be able to have. Plus you need cash for employees and for payroll. So wanting to have enough cash in the bank at all times. that's a big number I pay attention to. And then I'm going to start paying attention to my daily sales.

And I want to start paying very close awareness as to what are the things that are happening? When do people come in and why do they come in at certain places? I live in a place where it's very hot and it really shifts and affects different people's, just their way of doing things in business and going outside. So I had to shift, what is it that we will be providing so that people will want to come?

What is that thing? And so you need to be very creative. And those are two things and elements that I think are really important when you're thinking about a product. Now.

Nate (28:37)
Elaborate on that a little bit, that you have to shift the things that people with want. So it's more than just drinking wine.

Elizabeth Eichhorn (28:45)
Okay. Atmosphere, do they come and stay for food? Or do they leave? Because we don't have a full on food menu. Do they bring food in? How do you shift to be able to say, okay, are we going to be able to bring in food based off of our licensing? Do we need to shift the way that our design is? Or do we need to have different signage?

Those are things that are constantly at play and you don't always know everything. So you don't want to shift everything at one time. You kind of want to test it out. I also know the difficulty is trying to convince a person to buy it from you. So there's these two sides. And so let's talk about distribution is the best way to put it.

You as a CPG brand has to be good enough to stay on a shelf for long enough and your story has to be creative and able to capture a customer's attention without you being there in period. is it. And if it cannot do that, then go back to a designer who knows how to.

Make sure it can help you. It's really a... That's what's it. If a business, a product cannot work without you, then you haven't gotten to... You don't have everything, all the things and pieces in place yet for you to probably enter into a larger distribution.

Nate (30:20)
Mm So true. So true. So what are some of the ways that a brand can do that? I mean, before you actually get on the retail shelf and realize that you're not effective in achieving the thing that you just described, how do people actually determine if they're ready for that?

Elizabeth Eichhorn (30:35)
Yeah, mean, think working with brand strategists, specifically in CPG, that's one. Don't just work for one that is say, they're really good at the wine industry. Sorry, speaking from my own space. Have a more broad professional who understands the entirety of the CPG space.

Nate (30:57)
So true, so true. Well, Elizabeth, this has been a fascinating conversation. I am really impressed by the way you've taken all this experience over the years of funding and helping other people with funding and being able to now funnel or channel it into this platform that I'm eagerly waiting to check out. I am going to join your wait list after we end the call here.

No, I think it sounds like an amazing resource and something that a lot of founders need. So very, very excited to see that get off the ground. Where should people go if they would like to learn more about you or the business or what you're up to? I'll include all the links below in the show notes, by the way.

Elizabeth Eichhorn (31:41)
Easy. So once again, sign up for ampersandway.com. Best way to learn about me, LinkedIn has a lot about me. You can just go over to LinkedIn and it's Elizabeth Eichhorn. And if you want to learn more about our shop and what we're building in Texas, it's called Copper Rose Wine.

Nate (31:59)
Perfect. Cool. Well, thank you again for joining us. This has been a fantastic conversation. Really grateful to that you joined us today and we'll catch you next time.

Elizabeth Eichhorn (32:08)
Okay.