AngelList / Axial
Connect outside investors to companies. Investor-to-company only — no peer investment.
Our edge: a true peer-to-peer model.
Our Mission
The backbone of the economy deserves better access.
The companies in the $250K–$5M revenue tier employ tens of millions of people and generate over $2 trillion a year. Their founders have proven the hardest thing — that their idea is worth paying for. What they lack is not ambition or skill. It is access.
The Missing Middle
Too big for startup money. Too small for institutional capital.
The People's Fund serves what we call the Missing Middle of American business — companies that have proven their concept with real revenue but remain too small for institutional capital and too established for startup-focused resources.
The funding gap between seed rounds and Series A kills more companies than bad products. A business graduates from early-stage money, revenue climbs, the team expands — but it isn't mature enough for traditional private equity, and venture capital wants hypergrowth metrics most companies can't deliver.
The Addressable Market
The Missing Middle by the numbers
- U.S. employer small businesses ($250K–$5M) 6 million
- Americans employed 35 million
- Annual revenue $2 trillion+
- Ever receive outside equity <5%
- Potential members at just 0.1% 6,000
Our Edge
Capital and community — together.
Others do one or the other. None combine them for this tier.
EO / YPO
Peer networks for entrepreneurs. No investment component; expensive; requires $1M+ revenue.
Our edge: capital and community in one.
SCORE / SBDCs
Free mentorship and education. No capital, no peer network, generic advice.
Our edge: mentors with skin in the game.
Traditional PE
Buyouts and growth equity. Minimum deal size $5M–$10M+; require control.
Our edge: built for the ignored tier.
The Mechanism
Aligned interests, not charity.
The People's Fund closes the access gap — not through charity, not through government programs, but through the most powerful force in business: aligned financial interests. When companies own pieces of each other, they stop being competitors and start being collaborators. They share customers, talent, knowledge, and networks not because it feels good, but because it is financially rational. That is the network effect that makes this defensible, and the community bond that makes it sticky.
The Vision
What if the $500K company had the same ecosystem as the $500M company?
Capital. Networks. Talent. Technology. Partnerships. Community. That is the mission that makes it worth building.
— Building the infrastructure for the companies that build America.
Join the founding cohort.
Be part of building the ecosystem the Missing Middle has always deserved — capital, community, and aligned interests in one network.