Why we built this
Two things everyone accepts, and neither of them had to be true
Private capital asks people to accept two things. That money will be locked away for years, with no way out but to wait or to sell at a discount to someone with more patience. And that most of what gets backed will return little or nothing, because that is simply how the odds work.
Both are treated as facts of nature. Neither is. They are design choices, made a long time ago and rarely revisited, and the whole industry has since built workarounds rather than question them — an entire resale market exists for no other reason than to undo a lock-up that investors never wanted in the first place.
What it costs the entrepreneur
Capital priced for the possibility of total loss is expensive capital, and it is not paid for in interest. It is paid for in ownership, in control, in board seats, round after round. The founder who does not break out has given all of it up for nothing. The one who does has often given away so much of the company along the way that the win belongs mostly to other people.
What it costs the investor
Waiting. Years of it, with the outcome unknowable until the end, and with the quiet expectation that most positions will be written off so that a few can carry everything. It is an uncomfortable way to invest, and it has become more uncomfortable as exits have slowed.
Where we started
Three decades in institutional investment management, banking, credit and technology-driven lending teach you one thing above all: in every serious corner of finance, protection and upside are engineered separately and then deliberately combined. Only in backing entrepreneurs are they fused into a single all-or-nothing bet — and then everybody treats the result as though it were the weather.
Treasuries have always been able to do the protecting. Nobody had put them to work on behalf of entrepreneurs.
So we built the instrument we thought should already exist. A dollar in it has two jobs: one part protects the money, the other part goes to work in the company. Liquidity is built into the instrument rather than bolted on afterwards, so an investor never has to find a buyer or accept a discount to get out. And the upside sits in a single warrant, so a founder gives up one instrument instead of a decade of priced rounds.
It changes what each side has to accept. The investor is designed to get its money back whether the company succeeds or fails, which means it does not need to be paid for the risk of losing everything — and the founder does not have to pay for it. That is the whole idea. Everything else on this site is the mechanics.
We are not trying to pick more winners. We are trying to change what happens when there isn't one.
Growth Capital, Structured Differently.
Capital for established companies with real businesses, real customers and a clear opportunity to grow — structured around Treasury collateral, growth capital and warrant upside.
Every $100 has two jobs. One job is to protect the investor's money. The other is to grow it.
Job 1 — Stay safe
$77.00 buys U.S. Treasury STRIPS.
Nothing can touch them. They just sit there and grow.
Job 2 — Help the company grow
$14.94 goes to the company to build the business.
In exchange, the investor gets 20% of it.
(the last $8.06 pre-funds the coupon reserve and the fees, so there are no surprises later)
At year 5, only two things can happen
The company does well
The investor gets the $100 back AND the 20% warrant, which is now worth a lot more.
The company does not
The investor still gets the $100 back from the Treasury bonds — and keeps the 20% warrant anyway.
Above 2.4% annual growth the Note returns more than simply holding Treasuries — 129.87 per $100. Below it, the principal still comes back.
The investor gets the money back either way.
The only question is how much the 20% warrant ends up being worth.
Returns shown describe the investment unit itself and are before any advisory fee charged by an investor's own adviser, which is paid by the investor outside the structure.
The same thing, in the language of the term sheet
- The safe part
- $77.00 per $100 of face buys U.S. Treasury STRIPS that accrete to par, bought to mature 45 to 90 days after the Note so the two settlements cannot coincide.
- The growing part
- $14.94 per $100 is advanced to the Project as growth capital, in two equal tranches.
- The prepaid part
- $8.06 per $100 pre-funds the coupon reserve, the diligence and appraisal fee, the Vehicle and the combined Administrator and Custodian fee, so no later cash call arises.
- Downside
- The Note carries an irrevocable right to require prepayment in kind at any time, satisfied out of pledged collateral; delivered STRIPS satisfy the Note at full maturity value.
- Upside
- A 20% warrant at closing, nominal strike, carrying no anti-dilution protection.
These figures are for the taxable investor class; an account that pays no US tax on interest carries no coupon and no reserve, and $21.68 of every $100 reaches the company. See the two investor classes →
A different part of the market is being overlooked.
Capital markets naturally concentrate attention around certain sectors, narratives and company types. Leading Edge looks beyond those narratives, toward established companies with demonstrated businesses and identifiable opportunities to grow.
We are flipping the script on entrepreneurship
The financial system was built around an old idea: entrepreneurs need capital, investors control it, founders make the trade. We believe that model has been outgrown.
Leading Edge Note is rewriting the protocol for how people, companies and capital grow together. We are not building a better version of the old system. We are building what comes next.
This is human evolution through entrepreneurship.
Entrepreneurship is about more than building companies. It is about taking an idea and turning it into something real — taking uncertainty and turning it into possibility. When an entrepreneur grows, the company grows. When the company grows, people grow with it. Given the right capital, guidance and structure, the impact compounds.
Leave them better than we found them.
This is our standard. Every entrepreneur, every company, every partnership should be stronger for having encountered Leading Edge — more capable, more strategic, more capital-efficient, more connected. We do not simply want to help you raise money. We want to help you become more of the entrepreneur you are capable of becoming, and build more of the company you are capable of building.
Capital is only the beginning.
Traditional venture capital often begins and ends with a transaction: here is the money, go build. We see capital as a catalyst. We do not only ask how much a company can raise. We ask what it could become — and what it would take to get there.
A different protocol.
For decades the rules stayed the same: raise, dilute, give up control, raise again. We are pioneering an approach designed around the long-term interests of the entrepreneur and the company. The entrepreneur should not have to become smaller to make the company bigger.
Scale the company. Expand the human.
We bring structure to complexity, capital to opportunity, and perspective when you are too close to the problem. Our job is not to tell you what your ceiling is. Our job is to help you discover that you may not have one.
Don't just build a company. Build what's possible.
Leading Edge Note