What if your most passionate customers became your most valuable co-owners?

In Episode 12 of The Morning p!ng, we sit down with Sherwood Neiss, Managing Partner at D3VC, author of Investomers, and a true industry trailblazer who literally helped write the legislative playbook for modern investment crowdfunding.

As a data-driven venture capitalist, Sherwood’s firm evaluates thousands of startups. In this episode, we pull back the curtain on the exact metrics that caught his eye, and why he believes the companies that embrace their community have a structural advantage that legacy giants simply cannot replicate.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

• The Rise of the "Investomer": Why customers who own a piece of the company become far more than shareholders and in fact, become your local real estate scouts, franchise leads, and vocal brand advocates.

• The VC Diligence Checklist: What D3VC looks for when analyzing predictive growth signals and data in early-stage tech.

• The p!ng Network Effect: How customer ownership is actively fueling our licensee pipeline and sharpening our real-world feedback loops.

• Beyond Silicon Valley: How community rounds are democratizing access to capital for hardware and automation startups building on real asphalt.

"Customers who invest become far more than shareholders. They become advocates. They introduce new opportunities... and help spread the message."