Highlights
- Type: 🌍 Real case study
- Country: USA
- Project type: Community platform / Digital town square for services
- Team size: 6 (Founder + part-time contractors and advisors )
- Associates: Founder, investors, part-time contractors, advisors
- Legal structure: Delaware C-Corp (first US company to use the FlexUp model)
Context
Lara Pienaar had a bold vision: to create a hyperlocal platform where individuals and small businesses – called Heroes – could showcase their talents and services, while Neighbors could easily find trusted help in their community. A modern-day town square, rebuilt for the digital age.
For nearly three years, Lara bootstrapped the project — investing her own time, skills, and personal savings. She pulled together a small team of designers, developers, and advisors. But eventually, her funds ran dry.
Her projections showed she would need around $300,000 to complete the platform and launch publicly — a number that felt out of reach for her network, and too slow to pursue via venture capital.
That’s when Lara discovered FlexUp.
By using the FlexUp system, Lara was able to restructure her financing needs — allowing the team and early investors to co-invest in the project with a shared framework of fairness and transparency.
The FlexUp payment model
The FlexUp economic model allows for different payment terms, as follows:
- Firm payments must be paid monthly in all cases, regardless of profitability –otherwise, the project is in default.
- Flex payment are paid monthly if there is enough available cash, otherwise, they are converted into Credits.
- Credit are invested in the company, and paid back later if surplus cash is available at the end of the year.
Flex and Credit payments carry financial risk, since we don't know when that money will actually be paid. In the FlexUp model, we assign a flat-rate risk factor of 50% for Flex and 80% for Credit.
To compensate for this risk, each associate receives a number of tokens whose nominal value is equal to the calculated risk.
For example, 1,000 $ of Credits has a risk value of 1,000 $ x 80% = 800 €. If the token index is 10 $/token, you would get 80 tokens.
Tokens grant voting rights and a share of any profit distributions.
"Equity" is the generic term used to designate both Credits and Tokens.
Deal Structure
Instead of raising all the funds upfront from investors, Lara use the FlexUp economic model, as follows:
- Founder (Lara):
- Continued to invest her time, and additional funds, in the company, and was being remunerated entirely in Equity.
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Team (contractors and advisors):
- Everyone agreed to work with a mix of Firm, Flex, and Credits, depending on their personal situation and financial needs.
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For example:
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One developer opted for 40% Firm / 60% Credit.
- A senior team member joined on a 100% Credit basis.
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One developer opted for 40% Firm / 60% Credit.
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For example:
-
Investors (friends, family, and angels):
- Provided $75,000 in cash, structured as investments in Credits
All participants (founder, team and investors) received Tokens proportionate to their risk, granting them both voting rights and a share in future profits.
The result: Instead of raising $300K, Lara managed to keep her team running for a whole year with just $75K - her team covered the rest through co-investment.
Outcome
The FlexUp model allowed True Local Heroes to:
- Keep the core team together during the critical pre-launch stage.
- Avoid excessive dilution or loss of control.
- Maintain fairness by aligning all contributors with the same rules and visibility.
Today, TLH is preparing its next round to fuel launch and growth. Lara believes so strongly in the FlexUp model that she’s raising again on the platform — this time inviting both existing and new investors to participate.
Conclusion
True Local Heroes shows how FlexUp can keep a startup not just alive — but thriving — when traditional funding options fall short.
By allowing the team and investors to share risk and reward equally, FlexUp turned a near-impossible $300K requirement into a manageable $75K raise — and gave the startup the runway to launch.
As Lara says:
“FlexUp let me raise just what I needed, not what I feared. It kept my team motivated, made investors feel secure, and gave us a way to launch without compromise. I’m doing my next round on FlexUp too — because it works.”
🔗 Explore further
- 📖 Read Lara's story in the full interview in our blog – From Cash-Strapped to Community-Backed
- 📈 Learn More and Invest in True Local Heroes
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🚀 Launch or Grow Your Own Project with FlexUp: Join our Trailblazer Program
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True Local Heroes