Alberto here,

Hope your week’s off to a great start!

This is your weekly dose of insight from the private markets — where billionaires used to play alone… but not anymore.

We’re building the newsletter we wish we had when we were getting started — one that breaks down the private market game and brings you the most interesting, early, and hidden investment opportunities out there.

And today's story? It's about a brand new way to invest in startups.

But first...

Read Time: 3 min 14

💥 The Startup Investing Game Just Changed — Again

VentureStaking: A New Model That Puts You First

If you’ve ever felt like startup investing is only for VCs and insiders, you’re not alone. The game has always been rigged toward those with big checks and elite access.

But this week, we discovered a new structure that flips that script:
It’s called VentureStaking™, and it might just be the future of early-stage investing.

Let’s break it down.

💡 Traditional Venture = Built for Funds, Not Founders (or You)

Venture capital is a power law game:
Most startups fail.
But the top 1%? They return 100x.

So, how do VCs win?
Simple: volume. They back hundreds of startups, knowing most will flop , but betting that one will explode.

But here's the problem:
You and I don’t have $10M to spray across 100 startups.

So unless you get lucky or rich, you’re boxed out.

Venture investing is built for VCs

Take a look at the chart below.

This is the current year-to-date performance of all the stocks in the S&P 500.

You might notice that this looks close to a normal distribution. And that’s no accident.

 🧠 What is VentureStaking?

Created by VC veteran Gerry Hays, VentureStaking is a pre-equity investing model that gives everyday investors the right (but not obligation) to invest in future startup rounds — at a discount.

It’s like startup options… for the rest of us.

Here’s how it works:

1. Founders pitch early ideas (R&D stage)

2. You invest $10 to earn rights to invest $100 later

3. Founders build & update you

4. When they raise officially, you get the first shot at investing

And if it doesn’t pan out? No pressure. You’re not locked into anything.n

What are the benefits of VentureStaking?

Benefits for investors

For investors, the fundamental advantage of VentureStaking is allowing a small initial bet on a speculative idea to turn into a huge follow-on investment in a viable project.

Earlier, I discussed how assembling a large portfolio of startups can be challenging for individual investors.

VentureStaking helps mitigate that issue in two clever ways:

• Quantity: Investors can get 10x leverage on their limited capital to maximize their total exposure. In other words, you can build a portfolio with $10,000 in equity potential for $1,000.

• Quality: Investors can wait to commit formal equity capital until founders have validated and tested their idea, increasing the likelihood of future returns.

Gerry calls this the "90/90 approach" – reducing the upfront costs of venture investing by up to 90% and the risk of investment failure by up to 90%.

And for founders, the benefits of VentureStaking are potentially just as enticing. There are three key reasons a founder might opt to raise a VentureStaking round.

Benefits for founders

1) Better access for "non-traditional founders"

Silicon Valley likes to emphasize its meritocratic culture. But money does not always flow to startups with the best potential!

• It’s no secret that raising money on Sand Hill Road is easier if you fit the traditional founder model (i.e., young, male, STEM dropout).

• Meanwhile, raising a “friends & family round” can be nearly impossible for founders who don’t come from wealthy communities.

• And for many developing countries across the world, venture capital infrastructure is woefully inadequate.

The beauty of VentureStaking is that it’s open to almost anyone with a great idea and the drive to execute.

The global community of stakers, not a single gatekeeper, decides which projects to fund.

With that said, Doriot thoroughly vets and screens potential founders (background check, references, and interviews.)

Critically, this process is to filter out those with bad intentions or inadequate preparation – not to decide which projects are worth funding.

2) Simplified early capital raising

In order to legally raise capital, startups typically need to conduct an exempt security offering.

You’ve probably heard of the different exemption pathways, like Reg D, Reg CF, and Reg A. (Contrary to popular belief, there is no friends & family exemption.)

These exemptions impose numerous burdens. In addition to legal & admin costs, there are often restrictions on investment marketing or investor accreditation status.

VentureStaking helps sidestep that issue entirely. How?

Because a VentureStake is not a security.

Thus, no exemption is necessary to sell one.

I’ll explore this point in finer detail later on. But for founders, the ability to raise capital without selling a security is more straightforward, less expensive, and opens up a wider investor base.

3) Invested, committed community

Community is one of the most valuable attributes that any business can have.

Having a community fosters access to a ready-made group of potential customers, investors, marketers, beta-testers, and contributors.

In fact, companies like Substack have even raised community investment rounds to build a greater connection with stakeholders, even though they almost certainly didn’t need to.

VentureStaking helps build a committed community from the very earliest days of a startup, connecting founders with stakers through investment, passion, and accountability.

🧭 This Is What Founderscrowd Is All About

We started Founderscrowd to fix exactly this problem:

For decades, private markets were locked away.
Startups? Pre-IPO shares? Secondary deals?
You needed to know someone who knew someone.

Not anymore.

Every week, we bring you the most interesting new opportunities — like VentureStaking — before they hit the mainstream.

That’s our mission.

And if you want to bring someone along for the ride...

👉 Share the newsletter with a friend
They’ll thank you later.

See you Sunday with our next deal,

Alberto

Founder & Head of Content
Founderscrowd 🚀