Wefunder Expands San Francisco Team as Equity Crowdfunding Scales
Wefunder is recruiting for leadership, design, and engineering talent at its San Francisco headquarters as it manages broader campaign activity across its retail investment portal. The 35-person fintech company, launched through Y Combinator's W13 batch, operates an equity crowdfunding marketplace where unaccredited and accredited retail backers can invest as little as $100 into early-stage ventures.
Over the past several years, the public benefit corporation has facilitated funding for over 900 startups with $500 million, spanning sectors from aerospace and biotechnology to local breweries and consumer hardware. To support its current operations and campaign pipeline, the company is adding key personnel, including a Chief Operating Officer and a Head of Sales, Syndicates.
Equity Crowdfunding Mechanics and Technical Stack
Wefunder's core platform runs on Heroku, Ruby on Rails, and React. Its infrastructure connects everyday investors to private startup offerings under U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission regulations, notably Regulation Crowdfunding (Reg CF). Under modernized SEC rules, startups can consolidate retail investors into single-entity vehicles and raise larger sums, removing the friction of managing thousands of individual shareholders on cap tables.
The business model combines transaction and ongoing administrative charges. For investor payments, Wefunder charges a 2% fee on bank ACH, wire, and check transfers, or 5.5% on card and mobile wallet transactions, alongside a 10% carry on profits generated over the initial principal. On the issuer side, successful raises carry a 7.9% platform fee.
Beyond domestic operations, the company secured regulatory approval to extend its crowdfunding services to the European Union, operating under a unified 30-country European framework. As reported by TechCrunch, this license lets international founders conduct concurrent raises across both jurisdictions.
Leadership and Origins
Wefunder was founded in 2011 by Nick Tommarello, Michael Norman, and Greg Belote.
CEO Nick Tommarello, who holds an MBA in Entrepreneurship from Babson College and previously ran Sparkcloud, spent years directly advocating for legal revisions in Washington, D.C. He organized grassroots petitions to help pass Title III of the 2012 JOBS Act, which established the regulatory foundation for unaccredited equity investing when it took effect in 2016. As covered by the San Francisco Chronicle, Tommarello built early prototypes of Wefunder specifically to counter the historical system where private venture equity was limited to accredited individuals.
CTO Greg Belote oversees software engineering. He earned his bachelor's and completed graduate coursework in computer science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, having previously co-founded tutorial site TutorialTab. President Michael Norman manages business development and organizational direction.
Recent Campaign Volume
Wefunder hosts community rounds for companies at varying stages of maturity, ranging from seed-stage consumer goods to venture-backed growth companies.
In early-stage hardware and healthcare, medical device maker TibaRay launched a Reg CF campaign on the portal to advance its linear accelerator technology, according to Yahoo Finance. In consumer food and beverage, alcohol-filled boba manufacturer Unifying Spirits closed a $2.238 million community campaign from 462 investors on Wefunder, as reported by PR Newswire.
Late-stage firms have also tapped the platform for customer community rounds. As noted by Business Insider, digital banking startup Mercury previously opened a $5 million community allocation on Wefunder shortly after securing a $120 million venture round at a $1.6 billion valuation, receiving $22.6 million in reservations from retail users within weeks.
Hiring Across Engineering, Design, and Operations
Wefunder is recruiting for nine full-time and intern positions, all based onsite at its San Francisco office.
On the technical side, the team is hiring a Full Stack Product Engineer paying $160,000 to $250,000 to build features for the Rails and React platform. The design department is bringing on an entry-level Lead Designer ($160,000 to $250,000) and a Visual & Micro-Interaction Designer ($130,000 to $200,000) to polish the user experience across issuer campaign pages and investor dashboards.
For operational leadership, Wefunder is seeking a Chief Operating Officer ($160,000 to $250,000), a Head of Sales, Syndicates ($160,000 to $250,000), and a Founder-in-Residence ($160,000 to $250,000). The company is also hiring a Curator of Gatherings ($120,000 to $150,000), alongside hourly interns in customer success and business operations at $25 per hour.
Open Roles at Wefunder
| Role | Location | Work Mode | Compensation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chief Operating Officer | San Francisco, CA, US | Onsite | $160,000 – $250,000 / year |
| Head of Sales, Syndicates | San Francisco, CA, US | Onsite | $160,000 – $250,000 / year |
| Full Stack Product Engineer | San Francisco, CA, US | Onsite | $160,000 – $250,000 / year |
| Lead Designer | San Francisco, CA, US | Onsite | $160,000 – $250,000 / year |
| Founder-in-Residence | San Francisco, CA, US | Onsite | $160,000 – $250,000 / year |
| Visual & Micro-Interaction Designer | San Francisco, CA, US | Onsite | $130,000 – $200,000 / year |
| Curator of Gatherings | San Francisco, CA, US | Onsite | $120,000 – $150,000 / year |
| Internship - Customer Success | San Francisco, CA, US | Onsite | $25 / hour |
| Internships | San Francisco, CA, US | Onsite | $25 / hour |