First Leaf Capital

As an investment firm in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, we invest capital in startup companies, make loans to small business owners, and do micro-private-equity transactions. We are backed by capital from the Mark Aardsma family office and outside capital via our FLC II institutional fund. We have broad flexibility to offer a range of investment structures, including convertible notes, venture equity, venture debt, partnership interests, revenue-based financing, bridge notes, term loans, or business lines of credit. We love hardworking entrepreneurs, products that solve substantive problems, hard-to-imitate advantages, lean market validation, and realistic goals. To the companies we back, we offer quick decisions, simple and fair terms, credible introductions to our trusted network, strategic input from a winning founder, and all the encouragement we can send your way. We like: ▪Early stage startups, first-money-in up to Series A. ▪Businesses based in Central Illinois and the Midwest. ▪Hard-to-imitate technology, including lab-originated and/or IP-protected hardware, chemistry, and other tangible inventions. ▪SaaS businesses have significant advantages over their competitors. ▪Businesses that make the world a better place in big or small ways. Could be practical improvements or life-saving technologies. ▪Founders/CEO’s who relentlessly lean into reality and tell themselves and us the truth about the good, bad, and ugly. Here are a few things we typically don’t invest in: ▪Round sizes greater than $5M at the time of our initial investment. ▪Drug development or other therapeutic interventions for use in humans. (Medical device and healthcare IT are ok.) ▪Crypto. (We never did.) ▪Cannabis. ▪Businesses headquartered on the West Coast, or outside the U.S. ▪Consumer-facing retail/ad tech such as promotional apps. (Back-end Ad Tech is ok.) ▪Businesses that harm their customers, such as providers of gambling or tobacco products.