What could your investor community make possible?
The Crowd helps companies raise capital and activate their investor communities to support growth during and between raises.
HIGHLIGHTS
Our experience includes some of equity crowdfunding’s most notable campaigns: Aptera, Pacaso, Geoship, Doroni Aerospace and Kingscrowd.
The Crowd executed a multi-channel campaign for the solar EV maker that generated $140 million from 20,000 investors, 50,000 reservations and over $1 billion in booked sales. Aptera went public through a direct listing in 2025.
We teamed up with Geoship to bring together a passionate group of 200+ ambassadors supporting the company’s first crowdfunding campaign and furthering its mission of regenerative housing. To date, they’ve raised over $10M to bring the company’s bioceramic domes closer to market.
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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Clarify the investment story, audience, message and campaign plan before asking people to act.
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Understand who is in your investor community, why they care and where they could contribute to the business. For companies with established investor bases, we start with an Activation Blueprint tied to the priorities ahead.
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Create the updates, emails, briefings and follow-up that build trust before, during and after the raise.
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Coordinate content, outreach and paid media to support fundraising and customer conversion. When community stories can help, identify the right voices and use them across email, landing pages and advertising.
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.
Meet the Founders
For nearly a decade, Sarah and Quincy have built brands side by side. Together, they have led marketing strategy for consumer brands including Nestlé, Martha Stewart, Chiquita, Crystal Geyser, and DIRECTV.
In 2019, they helped relaunch Aptera Motors and build the community around the brand. The campaign generated $1.7 billion in vehicle pre-orders and raised more than $140 million from nearly 20,000 investors.
Since then, they have helped founders shape their stories, grow their communities, and raise capital. Through The Crowd, they bring that experience to companies ready to turn belief into participation.
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.
Ready to turn belief into participation?
Get in Touch
