WebStreet is an online investment platform that matches accredited investors with established online business Portfolio Managers (PM’s). It’s a completely passive investment opportunity.
Investors select which Funds they want to invest in based on the Portfolio Managers’ track records, acquisition criteria and strategies. After fundraising, the PM’s acquire assets which are then held and managed within the Fund. Several Funds are launched every year and investors receive quarterly distributions and reports until the assets are sold (expected hold is 2-4 years).
Returns from online businesses can be massive but buying online businesses has always required active management. Investors may have the money but lack the skill and technical expertise, have too many other projects on the go, have the need for more diversification or just lack the free time. WebStreet is designed to solve these problems by turning active digital asset investing on its head by making the process completely hands-off for investors like yourself.
With WebStreet, you can start investing in high-growth digital assets in the content/affiliate marketing, Amazon FBA, SaaS, and Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) niches. More monetization models will be added as we increase our Portfolio Managers and funds. These business models have different approaches and strategies for growth. Please refer to the funds pages (https://app.webstreet.co/current-funds) for more information on the individual Portfolio Managers’ strategies.
10% carry on the profits.
Payouts to all parties are based exclusively on profits creating a win-win-win scenario. There are no Portfolio Manager salaries meaning they only get paid when our investors get paid. Additionally, each Portfolio Manager’s track record and performance will be public, incentivizing them to perform and to be able to raise funds on future rounds.
Some businesses will grow, some will drop (or even fail) and others will stay the same. The goal is to reduce any single point of failure.
The short answer: you don’t. The truth is that digital assets are a high-risk, high-reward investment. Online businesses are volatile by nature. You should not invest any of your net worth that you’re not okay with potentially losing (see Investment Disclosures). While there is no guarantee of success, there are some key metrics to consider. Over the last decade, we’ve built a network of Portfolio Managers with successful track records. We also have strict vetting guidelines developed from the extensive industry expertise within our team. These guidelines extend not only to how we choose our Portfolio Managers but also to the businesses we allow them to acquire.
We are very pleased with the way Round 1 and 2 have both gone to this point. In 2022, Round 1 funds delivered 15% cash distributions to investors and are on track for over 20% annualized returns over the lifetime of asset ownership. Of course there were many things we are improving on, and at WebStreet we always want to be extremely transparent. Here is a detailed blog post breaking down all of the details.
WebStreet’s Performance in 2022
WebStreet wants to maintain arms length distance from the funds. Generally speaking, WebStreet has strict conflict of interest policies and no one at WebStreet can invest in any funds listed on WebStreet.
Investors put in 95% of the capital while Portfolio Managers put in 5% cash on every acquisition deal. There are no additional capital calls that require investors to put in more money than their original investment. Repeat Portfolio Managers will invest a lower percentage of cash resulting in higher leverage.
Investors receive 2/3rds of the profits and 1/3rd goes towards operating the investment (33.3% carry). This distribution structure incentivizes Portfolio Managers to acquire and manage these funds. Investors are giving up 1/3 of the profits to turn online business investing into a passive investment.
The 33.3% carry consists of the following:
– 20% to Portfolio Managers
– 10% to WebStreet
– 3.3% to outside advisors (if there are no advisors, this will be retained by WebStreet bringing total carry for WebStreet up to 13.3%)
When a business is sold, investors are paid back first and then any profits from the sale are split at the same percentages.
WebStreet receives 10% to help manage the relationship between the investor and the Portfolio Manager and to provide you with a hands-off experience that turns active investing into passive yield.
For each fund there is a one-time Admin Fee of 1%, capped on the first $100k invested and an annual Management Fee of 1.5% of deployed capital.
Please refer to legal fund documents for full details of terms. These can be viewed and downloaded from the WebStreet fund pages.
Minimum investment is currently $60K per Fund. This minimum investment is subject to change so please consult your investment advisor if there is any doubt.
You don’t need to have an ITIN in order to invest. Instead you can enter a “Foreign Tax Identification Number”. The name of this number will vary from country to country but it’s a number that’s used by your local government (usually related to taxes).
WebStreet may bring on 3rd party advisors to help with acquisitions, operations or other activity that will help maximize investor returns. 3.3% carry may be allocated to the advisor(s). WebStreet may also hire in-house staff to complete this activity. If outside advisors are not brought on, part or all of the 3.3% carry will be retained by WebStreet.
A business making $20,000 net profit per month with a 30x multiple would sell for $600,000. If you bought this business and did nothing except maintain it “as-is,” you would receive a 40% annual ROI. This example isn’t an outlier either; instead, these metrics are pretty standard for online businesses.
With that said, this is a risky investment and we strongly recommend doing multiple funds to properly diversify. In a basket of 5 assets using very conservative estimates, one may fail with earnings decreasing 50%, one may grow doubling earnings, and the rest remain unchanged, giving 20%+ in annual returns.
Apart from investing your capital and choosing which Funds you want to work with, this investment will be completely passive. You will not have access to the portfolio managers to ask questions or give your input on how to run the business. You will simply receive a quarterly report and a quarterly distribution for each deal you invest in.
Please note we are allocating investments based on when wires are received. If your wire arrives after an Fund is fully funded, you will be refunded and the agreements will be voided. In other words, no commitment can be made without sending funds.
If using the wire memo reference code correctly, funds are available in the WebStreet wallet within 1 hour after they are received by our bank.
US wire transfers take 1-3 business days. International wire transfers typically take 2-3 business days but could be longer depending on the international bank.
We will send confirmation emails to investors once their wires are received.
Simply cut off whatever characters don’t fit at the end of the beneficiary line.
We do accept ACH transfers. You will need to initiate the ACH through your bank and use our same bank information, routing (ABA) number, other details, and memo provided in the wire transfer instructions.
Portfolio Managers do not have access to the funds. You are sending money to the bank account controlled by WebStreet. Once the Fund is closed, the Portfolio Manager will search for a business to buy. Once identified, funds will be transferred from WebStreet to the seller to complete the purchase. If the Portfolio Manager does not find a business, funds will be refunded back to investors.
Yes, it is easy to change. You can add a new distribution account by clicking “Add Payout Details” within your WebStreet wallet and entering the relevant bank account information.
This is required as a part of our due diligence and KYC check for foreign investors. Without this formal disclosure of the investor’s legal recognition from their country, in the form of their tax ID number from that country, we are unable to accept the investor into any investment and the funds will be rejected by the bank.
Yes, you can invest with your company as long as all company owners meet the accreditation requirements.
Yes, the process is almost identical. Note that you must still meet the SEC’s definition of an accredited investor.
At the moment, you cannot invest with crypto-currencies. Please contact our team if this is something that is of interest to you.
With digital assets, the risk and reward profile is high. That’s why you should look to diversify across multiple monetization types, strategies, and Portfolio Managers. If one of these businesses fails, the Portfolio Manager will make all efforts to recover the asset to get it back on track using funds currently available as there are no additional capital calls. After all efforts, the Portfolio Manager will determine whether it is recoverable or if the asset needs to be divested completely.
Keep in mind that the model assumes a percentage of businesses will fail. The yield from digital assets allows for some level of failure across your portfolio while still achieving strong returns.
There will be no additional capital calls for investors, meaning you’ll never be required to contribute additional capital into any funds.
In the case that a fund is not fully funded, we will first check with the Portfolio Manager(s) to see if they can still operate their strategy with the amount raised. If so, we will give investors the option to stay invested or have their money sent back.
The official SEC criteria for accredited investors is outlined below.
Income can be from any source including your own business. The only exception is income from your primary residence.
We truly believe there are smart and sophisticated people who can judge their own risk appetite and we want to open it up to non-accredited investors at a later stage. However, we must comply with all U.S. and SEC laws and right now are only accepting accredited investors. We will look at options to open it up to non-accredited investors in the future because we want this to be available to everyone.
Accreditation happens instantly when you choose your accreditation type, complete and sign the documents (Once you click “Invest” on the deal page you will get instructions). It is a self-certification process, but there may be follow-up asking for additional verification.
Please fill out our Portfolio Manager interest form (PM Interest Form) including your experience, strategy, current and past portfolio performance. We will inform you of our vetting process and be in touch to discuss next steps. Please wait to hear back from us after you submit your form.
It is critical for WebStreet to have the best Portfolio Managers involved in the program. We are diligent in vetting and making sure that our Portfolio Managers are qualified.
Check out our in depth blog post on our Portfolio Manager selection process.
We are looking for a recent and relevant track record executing on the strategy they want to employ with us. If they want to run FBA businesses, they need to have a track record of doing exactly that.
Many Portfolio Managers have bought and sold businesses with Empire Flippers. If they have, we are very familiar with their track record and in fact Empire Flippers were the ones who put together their P&L, vetted them and did business with them previously.
Regardless, we will vet / review their track records of buying / selling business elsewhere in the industry and verify the numbers that they have provided to WebStreet.
Also, we will run a background check, criminal check and credit check on all potential Portfolio Managers.
Portfolio Managers put cash into every portfolio they manage. This may vary from Fund to Fund but will typically be 5% of the fund value.
Portfolio Managers do not receive a salary. All compensation comes from their share of the profits. Also, all operating expenses are at cost such as team, contractor services, etc., which WebStreet will audit.
During the fundraising period, WebStreet raises funds from investors on behalf of the prescribed portfolio managers for the current fund. All investment funds are held in a segregated account. After the fundraising period, the portfolio managers enter a 90 day acquisition period when they can make offers and acquire assets. WebStreet ensures that funds are only deployed to purchase assets that match the portfolio managers’ predetermined criteria.
Note: If the money is not deployed within 90 days from the acquisition of full funding, it will be refunded to the investors. If the portfolio managers deploy less than the amount raised (including money set aside for growth) the difference will be refunded to investors proportionally.
The portfolio managers will acquire assets that match their acquisition criteria and growth plans. Once the funds are deployed and the businesses have been acquired, the portfolio managers may reinvest some of the monthly profits into growth. Some portfolio managers may set aside some of the raised money to be used for growth, and if they do, the amount will vary for each portfolio and will be outlined on the individual portfolio page.
The decision as to whether to sell or hold a business is up to the Portfolio Manager, but they’ve agreed to hold any acquired business for at least one year. We expect the average hold time to be somewhere between two to four years in most cases to maximize investor returns. Portfolio Managers will work with a brokerage and will go through the regular brokerage processes to prepare the business for sale and maximize sale proceeds. When a business is sold, investors recoup their initial investment first from the sales proceeds. Investors receive 2/3rds profit on any increase in sales price. Investors will receive their final distribution at that time.
If there are multiple assets in a fund, the business sales will not necessarily happen at the same time. The money from any sold business will be returned to the investors proportionally to their ownership stake. Any business sale proceeds are not reinvested for growth or into buying other businesses. Once you invest your money, no additional requests for investments and no additional capital is required.
Businesses will be sold through brokerages like Empire Flippers. We want to make sure that exits happen at market value and there are no related-party transactions. We may allow a Portfolio Manager to sell a business outside of a brokerage at our discretion (ex. a strategic buyer willing to pay above market value).
WebStreet will not charge a commission on business sale and will follow the Profit Split and Carried Interest breakdown as shown in the Summary of Terms.
It is industry standard, however, for a commission to be paid to a brokerage. When a business is sold through a brokerage, it is typical for the business to achieve a higher sale price due to the competition that increased visibility brings. So even with the commission, sales prices are generally better off than selling privately.
Investors will receive a quarterly report on their deals with financials and written commentary. Financials will be put together by a 3rd party accounting firm, who will have direct access to the monetizations and bank accounts. They will pull the numbers and put the reports together. WebStreet will audit the reports for any questions or anything unusual and ask the Portfolio Managers to explain in detail. Portfolio Managers will put together commentary on the performance of each fund, what happened in the last quarter and their plan for the coming quarter.
Each fund is a separate legal entity consisting of several portfolios of assets, each run by it’s respective portfolio manager. Raised funds are deployed on the most promising assets which meet the portfolio managers’ strategies, and held within the fund until exit.
Portfolio managers and investors own the LP equivalent to the cash they put in (95% Investors, 5% Portfolio Manager). The Portfolio Managers, WebStreet and Advisors receive an additional carried interest based on the profits but no additional ownership.
Past performance is no guarantee of future results and any expected returns on investment disclosed through the investor platform are hypothetical and may not reflect actual future performance. All investments made through the investor platform may result in partial or total loss. All fund performance information disclosed through the Investor Platform is presented prior to the removal of all management fees and expenses unless otherwise disclosed. Some of the statements made on the Investor Platform constitute forward-looking statements and should not be relied upon as predictors of future events. These statements may fail to account for both known and unknown risks, market or other uncertainty, changes in the economy as a whole, or changes outside of the control of the Portfolio Manager.
Nothing contained within the Investor Platform or the Services should be considered investment advice and you should obtain investment and tax advice from independent investment professionals prior to investing in any offering provided through the Investor Platform or the Services. All information provided through the Investor Platform and the Services, including information in private placement memorandums, have been prepared without knowledge of or concern for each Investor’s individual financial situation or risk tolerance.
Nothing contained within the Investor Platform or the Services should be considered to constitute tax, legal, or investment advice.
A subscription agreement is an agreement that defines the terms for a party’s investment into a private placement offering or a limited partnership (LP). Rules for subscription agreements are generally defined in SEC Rule 506(b) and 506(c) of Regulation D.
The Private Placement Memorandum (PPM)– is the document that discloses everything the investor needs to know to make an informed investment decision prior to investing in a Regulation D Offering. Unlike a Business Plan the PPM details the investment opportunity, disclaims legal liabilities and explains the risk of losses.
An operating agreement is a key document used by LPs because it outlines the business’ financial and functional decisions including rules, regulations and provisions. The purpose of the document is to govern the internal operations of the business in a way that suits the specific needs of the business owners.
All documents are available on the individual fund pages, and signed copies will be sent to your email address.
Once documents are countersigned by us we’ll send another copy to you, and they can also be retrieved through HelloSign.
We countersign the documents after the Portfolio Managers are done with their acquisitions or their 90 day window for acquisitions expires. It’s done this way because once we countersign documents we have a limited amount of time to file securities registrations. However we can’t file the securities registrations until we know how much capital the Portfolio Managers have deployed.
Each LP is a passthrough entity. You will get a K-1 that shows the income of the LP and your percentage ownership. Any income and any eligible depreciation will pass through. Please consult with your tax accountant for planning advice.
15 year straight line method.
Yes, you can invest with an IRA. It will generate UBIT. WebStreet’s preferred IRA custodians are Alto IRA and Rocket Dollar. They make investing through an IRA a seamless process. You will find us as an investment partner on their websites.
Some IRA custodians do not allow for what is commonly referred to as “check writing” ability and may not be able to invest. At this time, WebStreet will not be able to provide additional fund documents beyond what is provided on the individual deal pages for IRA investment purposes.
Yes, the setup is standard. If you’re a non-American and have invested internationally it will be exactly the same. Tax withholding on non-American companies is 21%. Tax withholding on foreign individuals is 37%. Please note that foreign trusts are taxed at the individual rate of 37% as well.
The US has tax treaties with many other countries so you should not be double taxed even if they withhold a higher amount you may be able to file a tax return and claim some of it back. Please consult with your tax accountant for planning advice.
You don’t need to have an ITIN in order to invest. Instead you can enter a “Foreign Tax Identification Number”. The name of this number will vary from country to country but It’s a number that’s used by your local government (usually related to taxes).
Round 1 portfolios have completed their first year of operations. They have provided investors with 14.6% annual cash returns in 2022 and are on track to achieving over 20% in passive returns annually considering the lifetime value of the funds.
Additionally, here is an in-depth blog post describing Round 1 in Review.
WebStreet launches several Funds every year and there is usually at least one Fund open for investment. Feel free to fill out this form to be notified about future rounds: Notify me for Upcoming Rounds!
When we first started EF Capital, we had one goal in mind: to create a win-win business that would find common ground between experienced online business portfolio managers and accredited investors.
Initially, we had little choice but to incubate the business under the Empire Flippers brand. Establishing a fund without a track record is an uphill battle. Being de-facto pioneers in this alternative investment segment made it even more challenging.
Empire Flippers operates as a broker. It attracts clients who want to showcase the quality of their business and sell it at the best possible fair value. Although EF Capital eventually sells businesses, it first has to buy them and wants to do so at the lowest price possible to maximize returns for its investors.
While we mitigated that by using external advisors, we still knew that, eventually, we would need a clean split as we will have to work with other brokers. Regardless of Empire Flipper’s leading position, not all online businesses are sold there. Our duty to investors is to find the best fit for the proposed strategy at the best price, wherever that is.
As such, we are excited to announce that we have completed our rebranding process and are now WebStreet!
Although it wasn’t an easy process, we felt that this was the right next step in our journey to providing exposure to this asset class for the mainstreet investor.
We remain committed to the highest standards of excellence as the best place to invest in quality online businesses, with a plan to gradually scale up to our goal of deploying $100 million in funds per year while delivering excellent returns.