I am an investor in @Wunder (full disclosure!), but I invested because this is a rare business where every stakeholder wins. Less reliance on oil, more renewable energy and self-sufficiency, businesses save money, investors make money. What's not to love? Bryan, really proud of what you and the whole Wunder team have done.
Wish I was accredited so I could use this product and support this kick ass team. Such an awesome company making the world a better place while also making $$$$$!
@beaud signed up on mobile web, entered phone no., got activation code, went back to enter it and got the enter phone no. screen again, endless loop :D was able to log in but can't see where to enter that code, is it necessary>? also not sure what the ratings mean on the two options I had for investment. Looks interesting but I gave up and didn't try to invest - just thought I would let you know my onboarding experience.
@duanewilsonsf@beaud Thanks so much for the report, it's much appreciated. I'll look into this but for now you should see a "Skip For Now" button that lets you bypass the two factor setup if you just want to peruse the site.
The ratings are a reflection of each funds relative risk/return profile. An A rating is lower risk, lower return, an E rating represents higher levels of risk and return. There's some more info on this in our FAQ: https://www.wundercapital.com/su...
Thanks @tschellenbach! I've been working on it with our engineers -- it's a work in progress but it's getting there ;D What do you think works best and what needs some more work? Basically, what areas could we improve on?
Hi @ilyasny! Seems like you offer pretty solid returns given current market. Is the investment an equity instrument? Is it asset-backed?
And, on a separate note, do you quantify the environmental impact of the money invested? Any way to promote new solar over coal or natural gas is a win in my book :)
@andrew_dietrich@ilyasny Great questions Andrew! The investment is actually a debt instrument, and is in fact asset backed. For one of our funds, the debt instrument is backed by an operating solar system built for a quality U.S. business. For the other fund, the instrument is backed by the equipment used to build the solar system.
@andrew_dietrich@ilyasny Fortunately our environmental impact is the direct result of our work: new solar capacity being built! Each dollar goes to build new solar in the U.S., and we certainly do quantify how much solar each fund builds. We agree on the win-win over coal or natural gas!
Here are my initial questions, @birsic@wunder:
-At first glance, a financial tech company with no CFO seems weird. How does that work?
-How is the shorter term fund (24months, 11% annual) yielding twice as much as the longer term fund (120 months, 6% annual)?
-Do you plan to bring on IRIS, GIIN, and B Corporation as partners? I think most serious impact investors would want to see your involvement with those metrics/measurement/reporting standards.
@ryanalam@wunder Thanks so much for the upvote! On your great questions...
- I bring a strong finance background to my role as CEO, so I handle most CFO duties, and we also utilize industry-leading service providers on more esoteric dynamics of the CFO role, including tax treatment, securities structure, and compliance.
- The short term fund finances the construction of solar projects, using only the equipment purchased as collateral, while the long term fund finances working solar systems, a very strong cash flow stream that serves as collateral for that fund's loans. Because the risk associated with the first fund is considerably higher than the second fund, we are able to offer our investors a higher return.
- We issue an impact report to every investor are working to incorporate existing standards, however a unique aspect of our work is that the impact measurement and reporting is very straight forward: we use every single dollar invested to build solar projects in the U.S. We then measure those projects in $, kWh generated, jobs created, and economic savings to the business.
Does that answer your questions and can I help with anything else?
I worked with this team while they were at Techstars Boulder 14' and Bryan, Dave & Sam are some of the smartest and most driven guys I've met and work as a cohesive team. It is a Win-Win-Win-Win business model (sorry for the cliche); Investors win (ROI), Investee's win (funded projects), the world wins (because it's Solar) and Wunder wins (because they are awesome)!
+1 @fletchrichman - "I wish I was accredited so I could use this product and support this kick ass team."
Reminds me of https://neighborly.com/how-it-works, a bit. Interesting that it's so focused on solar on the website, yet the presentation here on PH is much more generic. I imagine there are other target areas in Wunder's future?
@ryanjamurphy Hey Ryan, solid comparison. Yes, we're focused on solar currently because financing in commercial solar is underserved. In the future we might consider other renewable energy sectors as well.
Of course @beaud
Parts that were useful :
-The video was very informative and fun to watch.
-Helpful to see the min investment and targeted return for the two funds.
-The six tiles at the bottom of the page were a good way to give me a quick overview of how Wunder works, maybe move them up higher?
Parts that were confusing:
-The video mentions crowd-funding solar projects, but the landing page says “fully-managed funds” on the left hand side directly above the fold. Initially I was a bit confused as to whether I would be picking an individual project to “crowd-fund” or if it’s a portfolio play.
-I didn’t like that underneath the two fund tiles the learn more button triggered a signup form. That felt to quick. Perhaps this is something you’ve A/B tested…removing steps in the signup flow typically helps 😀, but for me it was too quick.
I have an interview with Bryan Birsic coming out on The Impact Investing Podcast in the coming weeks. I'll post the link on here when it comes out for all of Wunder's new fans to check out.
Hello Hunters!!
Say hello to Wunder Capital.
Wunder connects individual, institutional and corporate investors with great solar projects.
Watch our product video on wundercapital.com to learn more.
Let us know if you have any questions!
Happy hunting :)
- Team Wunder