Mark Perlmutter has always been driven by radical action. In 1971, at age 20—long before plant-based diets became mainstream—he made the decision to stop eating meat just as he was about to be drafted to serve in the Vietnam War. Rejecting the norms around food became his form of peaceful protest—not just against violence toward humans but toward animals as well. “I read Gandhi,” Perlmutter tells VegNews. “He said that if you want to stop men killing men, you must first stop men killing animals.” A decade later, Perlmutter realized that eggs and cheese were just as exploitative, leading him to adopt a vegan lifestyle. “I had moved from protesting the Vietnam War to working toward living in a peaceful world,” he explains.
More than four decades later, building that peaceful world remains Perlmutter’s life mission. Today, his focus has shifted from personal actions to inspiring the collective efforts of others. As the founder of the Vegan Investing Club, an organization that connects plant-based companies with like-minded investors, Perlmutter now leads a community of more than 20,000 members.
The Vegan Investment Club helps to grow plant-based companies worldwide, such as Fabalish.
Growing a vegan, green economy
Perlmutter founded the club during the pandemic, a time when many vegan businesses faced major challenges. He also wasn’t immune to this period of strife—he had started a successful vegan meal delivery company, but global shutdowns disrupted the supply chain of ingredients, forcing him to pivot. During this time, he began imagining ways to act on his lifelong desire to connect ethically-minded people with ethical startups that are building a more just, sustainable economy. With his background as a stockbroker, he knew investors would need to have a potential windfall profit in order to take the risk associated with startup investing. Perlmutter’s solution was diversification into a large number of startups, just like what professional investors do. His experience lobbying for crowdfunding laws and his understanding of the public’s desire to see positive change converged. And so, the Vegan Investing Club was born.
The idea is to connect thousands of ordinary people who may have $100 or $1000 they want to invest in plant-based businesses. It’s kind of like ’Shark Tank’—but the members are the sharks. “If we get a million people, and 10 percent of them put just a hundred bucks in every month, that’s $10 million a month going into vegan and green companies,” says Perlmutter. “That’s the vision.”
He adds that it’s important to be aware that most startups are going to fail because that’s the nature of business. Indeed, research suggests that 90 percent of all startups don’t work out—regardless of their niche. But Perlmutter maintains the risk is worth it because the chances are, the ones that don’t fail are going to thrive.
“It’s all about diversifying, just like what professional venture capitalists do,” he says, adding that most investors don’t know which company is going to be the next Microsoft or Facebook. “They don’t know which one’s it’s going to be, but they invest in 10 deals. They expect one to be a big winner,” he says.
Some of the plant-based brands supported by the Vegan Investment Club community..
So far, some of the companies Perlmutter has announced to the Vegan Investing Club members include sustainable vegan vitamin company Terraseed, allergen-free vegan snack brand Rule Breaker, and solar energy company YouSolar. One particular success story is GTFO Its Vegan, who raised $65,000 with just a small test group. Dotsie Bausch, Olympic medalist and founder of the vegan non-profit Switch4Good, has called the Vegan Investing Club platform a “game changer” for vegan businesses. Eric Brent, founder of HappyCow—a worldwide vegan restaurant discovery app—has called it a “win-win” for everyone involved.
The idea is to transform the economy across multiple categories, from plant-based food to sustainable health and wellness to green energy. And despite the name, you don’t have to be vegan to join the club, either. “If you know it’s good for the environment, you can invest in vegan companies,” says Perlmutter.
Backing the Vegan Investing Club for a more ethical world
Perlmutter believes wholeheartedly in the power of crowdfunding. It’s why he’s not just helping other companies raise money this way, but he’s also turning to the financing method for his own company, too. The Vegan Investing Club has just announced its own Wefunder campaign, which will help add members and fund more green startups—all while increasing its own revenue and company value. It will grow its presence in the ethical investing space and, ultimately, propel it toward one goal: to grow the Vegan Investing Club to 1 million members.
Rule Breaker is one of the brands that the Vegan Investing Club has backed.
This huge goal will be easy, he maintains. After all, the club is free. Most of the work is simply getting the word out about joining. This is where the funds come in. More than $303,000 raised will help the Vegan Investing Club add more than 46,000 new members with targeted marketing and endorsement efforts. Raising more than $805,000 will help it add more than 186,500 members, and if it exceeds the $2.2 million mark, the Vegan Investing Club can expect to add more than 518,000 new members. It’s a heck of a lot of spending power to help build a more sustainable vegan economy.
“We want to help people make money by aligning their values with their money,” says Perlmutter. “We want them to be able to invest in companies they know and love and the products they know and love. When people invest in companies they love from the bottom up instead of the top down, we get a better company and a better society.”
Thank you to the Vegan Investing Club for partnering with VegNews on this story. Find out more about Vegan Investing Club’s crowdfunding campaign here and how you can become a member.
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Charlotte is a VegNews editor and writer based in sunny Southsea on England’s southern coast.
