Thought Leader in Financial Technology: DealMaker CEO Rebecca Kacaba (Part 1)

Equity Crowdfunding is evolving. This conversation highlights some of the trends.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s start by introducing our audience to yourself as well as to DealMaker.

Rebecca Kacaba: I was a capital market attorney for over a decade before founding DealMaker. The idea for DealMaker was born out of the problems my clients were having in trying to raise capital. It was too expensive and it was taking too long. I wanted to solve these problems for them.

I saw the concept of crowdfunding portals introduced. I knew that all of this capital-raising activity with companies staying private longer and democratization would bring capital-raising online. I set out to build the technology suite that would power that. As you power a movement like that and bring something from offline to online, it’s interesting how you can transform an industry.

Sramana Mitra: Equity crowdfunding is your sweet spot. Are you an equity crowdfunding platform or are you empowering other platforms?

Rebecca Kacaba: I call it version two of the equity crowdfunding model. There is a portal and we have a lot of clients who build portals on top of DealMaker. You can also post your own offering on DealMaker. We put the power in the hands of our users and we give them the analytics relating to their offering and allow them to make better choices and raise better, faster, and cheaper.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s do some case studies. What are some of the best businesses you’ve built using DealMaker?

Rebecca Kacaba: The easiest for people to understand is the Green Bay Packers. They wanted to raise money for their new stadium. We set up an online store and an online community for them. Supporters of the Packers came in and invested over $65 million in total. It’s the only NFL team that is partially owned by the fans. This is the 6th time in their history that they’ve done an offering to the fans.

Sramana Mitra: How do these fans make money?

Rebecca Kacaba: Green Bay is unique in that it is really proud of ownership and building the team rather than liquidity. If you look at other companies and success cases, there is Miso Robotics. They’re helping enable technology in restaurants. They’ve done raises with us. That will be a more traditional liquidity path.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s take that example – the robotics company. Who is bringing the investors?

Rebecca Kacaba: They’re coming from a host of different resources. We have a marketing arm that will help us reach out and brand your messaging. The concept, in and of itself, is from the community. Businesses have a mailing list, a customer base, or an Amazon store.

The idea is to convert that to capital. They already love your brand. Why not make them an owner and allow them to really champion? They champion it in a different way. They’re much more committed. For Miso, some of their biggest contracts were driven by the folks from their community who invested.

Sramana Mitra: What’s in your platform in terms of functionality?

Rebecca Kacaba: The key is to provide something different that is of value to the customers. We’ve worked really closely with our customers in terms of what they need. The main value that DealMaker provides is to convert that community into investors. That’s a complex process. We provide all the backend, compliance, and payment rails in a cutting-edge way that no one else is doing. At the end of the day, what’s important to founders is how to take those people and convert them into owners.

This segment is part 1 in the series : Thought Leader in Financial Technology: DealMaker CEO Rebecca Kacaba
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