WaterWorks Founder Lon Johnson Talks Crowdfunded Water

WaterWorks seeks to advance potential water solutions by introducing investors to opportunities in technology companies and projects through our online investment platform: waterworksfund.com.

On our platform, investors may find opportunities, companies or projects may find capital, and potential water solutions may be accelerated. WaterWorks will be a place for people to learn about water challenges and become partners on potential water solutions by investing and owning a piece of the project or company.  

We’re providing motivated water- or environmentally-conscious investors access to early-stage investment opportunities. In the past decade, water crises have popped up in the U.S. and around the world. We believe there’s an opportunity to capture the public’s interest in the water sector and use it to help fund investments in impactful but overlooked innovative water technologies and projects.

We believe that water problems are coming at a pace and scale that we’re too often not ready for. Because of climate change, population growth, limited public funds, and aging infrastructure, these problems are going to get worse. Interestingly, many innovative technologies and projects exist to help solve our water problems, but too often finding investment capital for these solutions is difficult. Venture capitalists, private equity funds, and philanthropic financiers just aren’t always built to source, finance, and manage thousands of small investments in water solutions.  

Water technology is in need of extensive innovation and disruption. Start-ups are answering the call and developing new technologies to help solve our water crises. However TechCrunch disclosed that water and wastewater companies only receive about 1% of angel and VC funding, making it incredibly difficult for water companies to secure the capital they need.

We believe the time is now to invest in and support new water technologies and potential solutions.

The WaterWorks community seeks to help fix water problems that never get solved, with approaches that might have never been tried. If technology and new solutions can revolutionize how water can be protected and used, then we believe that a new way to finance and invest in those opportunities needs to be built. 

Our core competency and strongest skill set is bringing people together to help finance big goals.   

We’ve done it successfully for decades and at the highest levels in one of the most competitive environments there is — politics. Now, we’re ready to do it again for water.  

We helped transition political fundraising from a chicken-dinner-lobbyist-insider process to a more open, inclusive digital process — forever changing both politics and government.  Specifically, co-founder Julianna Smoot was President Obama’s national finance director in 2008 and deputy campaign manager in 2012.

Within public stock markets, charitable causes and political donations, the internet continues to significantly disrupt the way capital is raised and deployed. We expect online investing to continue to grow, and we see value in serving and becoming experts in one important niche market — water.

We seek to build an ever-expanding community of innovators and investors that can help drive potential water solutions at scale by democratizing both water investment opportunities for the investor and access to capital for the potential solution provider.

We’re building a community that believes:

•     Delivering clean water and sanitation to all people is attainable.
•     Healthy waters from stream to sea are achievable. 
•     Potential solutions exist which can help our oceans, watersheds and communities.
•     Investors can drive change.
•     Water problems are local and can be solved locally.

Our team’s network spans various industries, including numerous connections in the public and private sectors. Some past positions held by WaterWorks leaders and advisors are:

•     Director, Michigan Office of the Great Lakes
•     Administrator for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) 
•     National Finance Director, U.S. Presidential Campaign
•     Chair, California State Water Resources Control Board
•     External Online Director, U.S. Presidential Campaign
•     White House Liaison, U.S. Small Business Administration
•     Assistant Secretary of the Army (Civil Works)
•     National Director, Climate Action Campaign
•     Communications Director for Water, U.S. EPA
•     Committee Member, FINRA
•     Director & Practice Leader: Water Strategy, Social Impact Practice; Deloitte Consulting 

WaterWorks has also established partnerships with key water organizations across the country which will serve as a potential pipeline for offerings on our portal. These partnerships include the Cleveland Water Alliance, The Water Council, TMA BlueTech, Accelerate H2O and WaterStart.

WaterWorks is currently the only online Reg CF investing platform dedicated exclusively to water-related innovations and technologies. As we present new investment opportunities, we help investors understand the risks associated with investing in early stage companies, including the risk of loss and liquidity risk. We encourage investors to review each offering’s documentation for risks specific to the offering.

With each new investment offering listed, we’re building a community of water investors that may consider additional offerings.

When companies list their offering with WaterWorks and successfully raise funds, we earn cash and securities fees. We charge no fees to investors.  

As we grow a digital water investment community, we hope to diversify our listings by creating and listing place-based funds (think Great Lakes or Chesapeake Bay Funds) and technology-focused funds (think Water Data or Desalination Funds).

Our team has years of experience digitally targeting, messaging, and successfully transacting with individuals at all levels. We think online investing is uniquely positioned to help bring capital to the often small, private and fragmented water technology & project investment space. We will primarily use the funds raised this round to bring on additional personnel, conduct marketing, and scale our operations to take on more companies seeking capital and investors at scale.

We’ve built a strong and experienced national team with partnerships and process that allows us to merge: 1) online investing; 2) impact investing; and 3) water finance demand. We can’t wait — not for government spending, banks, or philanthropy. And water can’t wait. We’re building a community of change, now.

Our long-term goals are: 1) create and cultivate a 100,000+ water investor community; 2) develop and offer place-based and tech-based funds; and 3) become the collaborative, digital platform where water problems are presented, solutions created, and operations financed. Potential exits include selling the business to our own community of investors; being merged with a larger investment or banking firm that seeks to expand their water, impact or ESG exposure; or going public.