Our Criteria

Investors' Circle seeks early-stage companies whose businesses address significant social or environmental issues.

Watch video now: Nick Flores, Director of Entrepreneur Services & Investments responds to these questions:

• What is your sweet spot, in what kinds of businesses do you like to invest?
• What does an entrepreneur need to have that would make you interested in their business?
• What ingredients makes for a great pitch?

Please NOTE: We no longer accept applications for investment into venture funds.

Target Industries
Typically these companies are focused in the following sectors:

• Energy & Environmental Solutions
• Sustainable Consumer Products
• Sustainable Agriculture
• Community & Economic Development
• Healthcare, Biotech & Wellness
• Digital Media and Software
• Education

We also accept and encourage minority and women-led companies to apply, so long as the underlying business does not detract from the sustainability and socially responsible values of Investors' Circle. Because our members invest primarily in companies in the seven industries listed above, a minority- or women-led company in one of these sectors would be particularly attractive to our members.

Deal Stage
We consider private companies in many different deal stages including early, expansion and growth. We do not consider individuals or technologies, only fully-formed companies. We do not consider businesses that are in concept-stage only, and strongly prefer companies that have gone to market and achieved some degree of traction (e.g. revenues, contracts, strategic partnerships, retail distribution, etc.).  Finally, we seek companies that hope to scale and ultimately pursue some sort of exit strategy.  As a result, we seek companies that expect to achieve $5 million in annual revenues within the next five years.

Financing Needs
We do not accept companies with capital needs greater than $3 million, as that amount is beyond the means of our membership of primarily angel investors. Companies with capital needs under $3 million are most likely to find interest among our members.  Of those companies that have received investment in the past from IC members, the average investment amount has been roughly $500,000.

Scalability
Investors’ Circle members are interested in maximizing social and environmental impact as well as financial return. For this reason, companies that have a potential for national growth tend to find more interest within our network than companies that do not have such potential. For example, we will consider a submission from a company that sells organic coffee to retailers across the country but not from a company that is launching a single, local, organic coffee shop.

Other Criteria

• We are focused exclusively on companies whose primary operations and/or distribution is based in North America.  International companies should now consult our partners, such as Toniic and ClearlySo.
• We do not accept companies that are religion-based.
• We do not accept applications from purely non-profit organizations. We will accept for-profit subsidiaries or partners of non-profits.

Key Characteristics
Companies that are most likely to find interest within our membership will have a combination of the following characteristics:

• Clear commitment to a social and/or environmental mission
• A strong management team
• A clear understanding of their market(s)
• Legally defensible technology or IP
• Proof of concept demonstrated by contracts, revenues, strategic partnerships, etc.