For companies backed by a community of investors.
What else could your investors make possible?
We find out what matters to them and how they could help, from customer introductions to product feedback. Then we build a program that makes participation worthwhile.
Investor Activation Plan
Find out what your investor community could do for your business next.
We start with your business priorities. Then we review your investor community and listen to the people in it to understand why they invested and how they want to be involved.
Investor data, a focused survey and selected interviews help us identify the best places to start.
You leave with:
Community insights: Who your investors are and what matters to them.
Priority opportunities: The 2–3 most promising ways they can help your business.
A participation approach: Whom to invite, how they could contribute and what makes involvement worthwhile.
A 90-day action plan: Next steps, responsibilities and measures of progress.
Possible opportunities include:
Customers · Referrals · Introductions · Product Feedback · Stories · Advocacy
HIGHLIGHTS
We’ve seen what an activated community can do.
Aptera Motors
17,000+ investors
Sarah and Quincy helped lead Aptera’s crowdfunding and community programs, including investor communications and events. The campaigns raised more than $140 million.
Geoship
200+ ambassadors
The Crowd built Geoship’s ambassador program to more than 200 members and helped organize regional meetups across the country.
Doroni Aerospace
We helped raised over $1.4M to bring Doroni’s revolutionary eVTOL, the H1-X, closer to commercial launch. This momentum has contributed to securing additional investment totaling $10M+ in crowdfunding.
People do more for companies they believe in.
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Build the story, audience strategy and plan behind the raise.
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Understand who is in your investor community, why they care and where they could contribute. The Investor Activation Plan identifies the strongest opportunities and gives you a practical roadmap for what to do next.
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Keep investors informed and connected through thoughtful updates, emails, briefings and ongoing communication during and between raises.
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Turn strategy into execution through content, outreach, paid media and community participation, with a focus on expanding reach and improving conversion.
HOW WE HELP
Everything we do starts with understanding why people care. From there, we build the strategy, messaging and programs that turn belief into participation.
Why The Crowd?
We’ve built these communities from the inside.
Sarah Hardwick and Quincy Salazar worked together at Aptera, helping lead its crowdfunding and community programs. They founded The Crowd to help other companies build lasting relationships with their investors and create useful ways for those communities to participate.
Our Team
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Chris is a creative director, designer, and educator based in Boulder, Colorado.
Chris’ practice is shaped by principles of human-centered design, and his process is informed by a diverse background in agency and in-house environments. He currently works as a fractional design leader through his consulting firm and teaches as an adjunct design professor at University of Colorado Boulder.
For over twenty years, Chris has leveraged the power of design to help smart teams create positive cultural impact. As a product designer, Chris helped create the first social dating profiles on Match.com, launched an NBA themed basketball game for Disney, and worked as a design lead crafting well-loved digital products like Apple Music, Adobe Marketing Cloud, Airbnb Trips, Playstation Video, and more.
Chris’ career has followed the rise of social and digital products, the deregulation of cannabis and fintech markets, and the emergence of artificial intelligence as a game-changing design tool. His highlights include building a from-scratch marketing department for a $100M+ cannabis company, founding a human-centered startup studio, and creating curriculum for a post-grad design accelerator program.
Chris Znerold
CHIEF INNOVATION OFFICER —
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Sarah is a dynamic entrepreneur, agency owner and digital marketer. She blazed her own trail for 20+ years as the founder and CEO of Zenzi Communications, a groundbreaking firm that reshaped the way brands connect with audiences. Under her leadership, Zenzi became synonymous with creative disruption, pushing the boundaries of traditional marketing to build authentic and engaging values-based connections. She developed a proprietary method of using psychological insights to improve effectiveness of advertising campaigns. Among the well-known companies that Zenzi represented include Nestle, Chiquita, and Crystal Geyser Water. After selling Zenzi in 2022, Sarah was hired as Chief Marketing Officer at Aptera Motors, where her unwavering passion and strategic expertise brought her to the forefront of the solar mobility revolution. She was integral in helping the company to raise $140 million from 19,000 investors and generating nearly 50,000 reservations valued at $1.6 billion. Through compelling narratives and engaging brand stories, she orchestrated a multi-faceted fundraising campaign that resonated deeply with investors. Now, Sarah is bringing that same playbook to values-driven founders through The Crowd. Fueled by her belief in the power of storytelling, strategy, and values-aligned investing, Sarah launched The Crowd to democratize access to capital — and to support the next generation of changemakers by helping them turn their big visions into movements.
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER —
Sarah Hardwick
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Quincy brings deep experience in campaign execution, brand storytelling, and growth marketing to The Crowd’s advisory team. With a background leading multi-channel marketing campaigns for startups and mission-driven brands, Quincy specializes in transforming big vision into actionable plans that raise capital and build community. Previously, Quincy served as Head of Digital Marketing and PR at Aptera Motors, where she played a critical role in one of the most successful equity crowdfunding campaigns in history — helping the company raise over $140M and generate $1.7B in pre-orders. Her expertise spans content strategy, paid media, investor communications, media relations & influencer marketing, and lifecycle marketing. At The Crowd, she serves as the driving force behind campaign execution for the agency’s diverse clients — translating strategy into momentum, managing deliverables, and making sure every campaign hits its mark.
CHIEF GROWTH OFFICER —
Quincy Salazar
OUR PARTNERS
OUR APPROACH
Start with why people care.
We look at what motivates your investors, what they want from the company, and where their interests overlap with your business goals. From there, we shape the strategy, messaging and programs that give them meaningful ways to participate, during a raise and long after it closes.
What else could your investors make possible?
Get in Touch
