Don't Underestimate What $100 Means When It Changes Your Status From Consumer to Potential Owner
FOUNDER NOTE — EQUITY CROWDFUNDING
There is something interesting about $100.
It is enough money that most of us notice when we spend it. But it is also small enough that we routinely spend it without expecting it to have any lasting economic significance.
A dinner for two.
A pair of shoes.
A few grocery runs.
Entertainment.
A monthly subscription or two.
A collection of things we buy, consume, use, and eventually replace. And when the $100 is gone, the transaction is over.
But equity crowdfunding introduced another possibility for that same $100.
Instead of only using your money to buy from a company, you may have the opportunity to use it to own an interest in the company behind the product.
That distinction is much bigger than the dollar amount.
THINK ABOUT WATER
Water may be one of the best examples.
Millions of people buy packaged water every day without giving much thought to the business behind it.
You walk into a grocery store. You grab a bottle, carton, or can. You pay. You drink it. You throw the container away or recycle it. Then you buy another one.
You are a customer.
There is nothing wrong with that. Customers are what every company needs.
But consider what happened with Liquid Death.
In January 2019, Liquid Death began publicly selling its canned water. It was still an early company trying to prove that consumers would embrace an unconventional brand built around one of the most ordinary products imaginable.
Water.
Five years later, in March 2024, Liquid Death raised another $67 million from investors at a reported valuation of approximately $1.4 billion. Its reported sales for 2023 had reached approximately $263 million.
I am not mentioning those numbers because I believe every water company will become Liquid Death.
They won't.
I am not suggesting that an investment in another beverage company will produce the same result.
It may not.
And I am certainly not suggesting that someone can put $100 into an early-stage company today and know what that $100 will eventually be worth.
Nobody can responsibly make that promise.
THAT ISN'T THE LESSON
The lesson is much simpler.
There was a very significant difference between the people who merely bought Liquid Death water and the investors who owned part of the company being built behind that water.
One participated as a consumer.
The other participated as an owner.
That is why I believe people sometimes underestimate what $100 can represent.
IT ISN'T ABOUT TURNING $100 INTO $5,000
When people hear about early-stage investing, the conversation too often jumps immediately to the biggest possible outcome.
“What if $100 became $1,000?”
“What if it became $5,000?”
“What if the company became worth a billion dollars?”
I think that misses the more important point.
The significance of a $100 minimum isn't that somebody can tell you what the investment will eventually become.
They can't.
Early-stage investing involves risk. The value can increase. It can decrease. An investor can lose the entire investment. Liquidity may not exist for years, if it exists at all.
What makes $100 interesting is access.
For generations, many of the most interesting early investment opportunities were largely the territory of venture capital firms, institutions, wealthy individuals and people with access to private investment networks.
Ordinary consumers usually entered the story much later.
We bought the products.
We helped companies build their revenues.
We told our friends about brands we liked.
We made products part of our daily lives.
And sometimes we watched those companies become extraordinarily valuable.
But we were still customers.
Regulation Crowdfunding changed that equation. It created a regulated framework through which everyday people can participate in certain private-company offerings at investment levels that can be dramatically more accessible than traditional private investing.
And suddenly $100 can mean something different.
$100 SPENT AND $100 INVESTED ARE NOT THE SAME THING
Suppose I spend $100 buying products from a company I love.
I receive $100 worth of products. The company receives my money. The transaction has done exactly what it was supposed to do.
But suppose instead that I make a $100 investment in a company under the terms of a securities offering.
I haven't simply purchased its product.
I have acquired an investment interest whose future value is tied in some way to what happens to that company, according to the terms of the security.
Maybe the company grows.
Maybe it doesn’t.
Maybe the investment eventually becomes worth considerably more.
Maybe it becomes worth less.
Maybe it becomes worthless.
But the relationship has fundamentally changed.
I am no longer only consuming what the company makes.
I have become a participant in its ownership story.
WHAT $100 CAN REPRESENT
When I look at that number, I don't see it as insignificant.
I see what it can represent.
Access.
The possibility that someone who has watched a company develop doesn't necessarily have to remain only a spectator.
Someone who buys its products doesn't necessarily have to remain only a customer.
Someone who believes in what is being built may have an opportunity to participate in its next stage.
That doesn't eliminate investment risk. It doesn't guarantee a return.
But it changes the question.
Instead of asking:
“What could $100 become?”
Maybe the better question is:
“What could $100 allow me to participate in?”
That is the part of equity crowdfunding I think deserves more attention.
Because once you understand that distinction, $100 doesn't look quite as small anymore.
FROM CONSUMER TO POTENTIAL OWNER
You already drink water. You already buy water.
Every time you make that purchase, you participate in somebody's business.
The company makes the product.
The retailer sells it.
You buy it.
And the cycle continues.
What equity crowdfunding changes is the possibility of occupying another position in that cycle.
Not simply the person buying the product.
But potentially someone with an ownership interest in the company behind it.
That is why the $100 matters.
Not because I can tell you what it will become.
I can't.
It matters because of what it can allow you to become:
Not just a consumer. A potential owner.
And those are two very different positions from which to watch a company grow.
WHY I'VE BEEN THINKING ABOUT $100
I've been thinking about this because Caribbean Water Technologies, the company behind SHORES Premium Water, is currently testing the waters for a Regulation Crowdfunding offering with a contemplated $100 minimum (https://wefunder.com/caribbean.water.technologies)
Building the campaign made me stop and think about what that number actually represents—not what $100 invested in our company might someday be worth, but what changes when an ordinary customer has the opportunity to become a potential owner.
That's the idea I think is bigger than SHORES—and bigger than any single crowdfunding campaign.
Liquid Death is an independent company and is not affiliated with Caribbean Water Technologies or SHORES. References to Liquid Death are provided solely as a historical example and are not intended to imply that Caribbean Water Technologies will achieve similar operating results, valuations, investment returns, or outcomes.
Sources for Liquid Death historical information: TechCrunch reporting dated January 24, 2019 and March 23, 2024.
Testing-the-Waters Disclosure: We are “testing the waters” to gauge investor interest in an offering under Regulation Crowdfunding. No money or other consideration is being solicited. If sent, it will not be accepted. No offer to buy securities will be accepted. No part of the purchase price will be received until a Form C is filed and only through Wefunder’s platform. Any indication of interest involves no obligation or commitment of any kind.
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