Cornbread Hemp's Website

Louisville's Cornbread Hemp just scored a local fundraising first. They're the first company to receive Render Capital's $20,000 investment in their WeFunder Match Fund.

They're also the first local company to raise funds using Regulation CF equity crowdfunding through WeFunder, one of the nation's top equity crowdfunding portals.

Equity crowdfunding is the way of the future for startup companies, and Cornbread Hemp is blazing the trail in the Louisville area.

In this episode of the MetroStart podcast, learn:

--- how Cornbread hemp got started;

--- what they learned about equity crowdfunding;

--- the pros and cons of equity crowdfunding;

--- pitfalls to avoid; and

--- how to make equity crowdfunding successful.

 

 

Transcript (This has been machine transcribed, so there may be some typos.)

Alan (00:02):
Welcome everybody to the MetroStart podcast. I'm Alan Grosheider, and today I'm talking to Jim Higdon. He's a cofounder of Cornbread Hemp Company, and we've been talking about raising capital and what he did to get his company started for a little while. And I've been trying to give him any experience that I could and what I've learned in raising capital. And he is hot in the middle of doing a regulation CF crowdfunding capital raise on Wefunder. So we thought it was a good, a good time for us to talk, to help others learn the process that he went through to get his company started and, and what he's doing to raise capital. Hey Jim?

Jim (00:47):
Uh, Hey. Thanks for, thanks for having me. It's really, this is really great.

Alan (00:51):
Yeah. So just, just for recording our thoughts right now, we're, we're right in the middle of all the coronavirus stuff and everybody's on lockdown and staying home. So it's, it's a really weird, interesting time.

Jim (01:07):
Yeah. It's a strange time to be running a business and raising capital. It really kind of afraid about, uh, you know, how this was, you know, obviously you and I had been talking about Cornbread Hemp and us raising capital for six months now or so. Um, and so this is not an, not a new thing for us, but as we finally got our legs under us and finally figured out the path forward and how to do a reg CF crowd fund and, and, and, and to find the right platform for our crowd fund, uh, all these things took a little time and as soon as we got everything lined up ready to go, that here here comes a global pandemic, you know, not something that we anticipated dealing with obviously. Um, but you know, doing a quick heat check on ourselves and our company, we really feel like we're a company of the moment. Uh, we were getting reviews from customers saying that our products help them with the anxiety they're feeling as a result of social distancing, uh, related to the coronavirus. And it's just a really, um, it's a really good time too to be, I'm trying to grow a company that is helpful in this situation.

Alan (02:18):
Yeah, I think there's, there, there are a few industries that are going to do pretty well. You know, my day job is a company called Bluetooth 22 that helps companies manage remote employees and manage remote contractors. And it looks like it's actually going to be something that is a good thing in this weird economy where people can't travel.

Jim (02:42):
So we're, or the travel is certainly going to be deemphasized and all alternatives are going to, are going to be looked at first.

Alan (02:49):
Right. So let's talk about how you got the company started and maybe maybe a little bit of back about your background first. Where did you grow up in the Louisville area?

Jim (02:59):