I'm looking to start a business. I'd be making raw material for manufacturing and have a guaranteed buyer from the jump and there a number of very large (huge) manufacturers within 60 miles that would be interested in buying the product once I reach a production benchmark. I've developed a new way to make the material that is many times more generative and profitable than anything that is being done in this nascent industry, (We're talking 40 times more profitable) but I don't have to funds to hit the ground running.

I want to lay out the social benefits and see if anyone has any advice or think we would be able to get funding from a social venture group, so if you'll indulge me, I'm going to explain why I think it would fit and please tell me what you think. I have no experience in this.

It will create a number of very low skilled positions, more than half of the workforce needed and a few positions that could train any willing/eager person to do. The plight faced by the formerly incarcerated has been an big personal concern of mine and not being able to find a job paying a living wage is the main cause of recidivism in the US. Mine area has a pretty high crime rate and I specifically want to employ as many formerly incarcerated individuals as possible, thus reducing recidivism.

The process also cleans our dirty river. I live in the rust belt and our river is shit. The chemicals leaching from farms upstream make it worse and my process cleans nitrates and heavy metals as a by product, so it acts as a river cleanup project while making a bunch of money.

We can use this to save (some) small farmers. Small farmers are losing their asses all over the US and being able to do this same process on their land would allow them to keep their farms, a number of which have been in their family for a long time. The suicide rate of small farmers is the fastest growing demographic right now because of this. So, we could actually save lives. It would only really work with farms that are on waterways. We're considering using the profits from these partners to create a fund to help other small farms though that aren't on waterways.

This raw material is something that the US currently imports effectively all of what we need and we need a lot. My process could eliminate our dependance on foreign powers for this raw material.

Lastly, I and my other two founders aren't interested in becoming rich, we want to make a thriving wage and nothing more, we're all pretty anti-greed. I have a few other really great and impactful ideas that we would be able to fund with the profits from this venture.

Is this enough to make a social venture fund interested in investing? What would be a fair return on equity shares (I think that's the term. Capped return?) We only need like $300k to get started, more is better, but we can get rolling with that. That amount wouldn't give us a paycheck for the first year but we can make that work. A lot of available funding, from government grants at least, that I've been able to find are specifically not available to cis-het, white men which I and one other founder are, the other is a cis, closeted bi white woman. Does anyone know if social venture funds are going this same route? Are the things I've listed enough to overcome the desire (which I support) to focus on funding businesses of bipoc and LGBTQ entrepreneurs? I also have a very big concern about IP. I've figured out this process but do not have a patent yet. If I lay everything out for an investor, it would be pretty easy for them to pass and then just run with it. I've read that investors won't sign NDAs before hearing you out, so how can I protect my IP from that? I'm feeling very paranoid about this because when I say this is profitable I'm saying that for $300k I'll be able to bring in over $600k in revenue the first year using only an acre of land and with enough investment, the revenue will double and the cost drops precipitously after first year, that's all infrastructure. The infrastructure continues to be usable and then all the cost becomes labor. That would be incredibly tempting for anyone with the funds to resist pulling this out from under me. I mentioned we're anti-greed but I want to use that money to help people and really don't want that ability taken from us.

Alright I think that's enough. TIA.