Clarifying How Our Business Plan Works

This week I’m writing to clarify how our business plan works, why this moment is important, and how your membership powers it.

The honest challenge

We’ve built the farm incrementally as Founding Members have joined over the past 2 years. That’s kept control with the community, but it also makes planning, forecasting, and hitting breakeven harder, because core infrastructure (tunnels, cold chain, livestock systems) needs to be built before steady weekly sales can flow.

The simple solution

A values-aligned impact investor is potentially prepared to pre-purchase a block of Founding Membership spaces. This lets us finish the build and reach stable production/sales sooner. As new members join over the next 12–24 months, their memberships “buy back” those pre-sold spaces, returning the investor’s capital.

What changes:

• We unlock capital now to complete build items and reach consistent output.
• We can offer flexible financing to new/existing members who want to join or move up a tier.

What doesn’t change

• People-owned, not investor-owned. No loss of control or change to member governance.
• Membership cap for the flagship farm remains.
• Same mission: food sovereignty providing nutrient-dense food to our members nationwide.

How the business becomes viable

• Recurring revenue: weekly harvest boxes, farm shop, hospitality/events.
• Near-term operating target: break-even at ~100 boxes/week (still the first milestone we’re building toward).
• Investor pre-purchase lets us finish the missing pieces (production capacity, storage, fulfilment) so we can actually hit and maintain those volumes.

Quick Q&A

Is this debt or giving up control?

Neither. It’s a pre-purchase of membership inventory. As new members join, their memberships repay the investor. Member ownership and governance remain intact.

Is this a Ponzi scheme?

No. A Ponzi pays old participants with new participants’ money and has no productive engine. My Little Farm funds land, infrastructure and people that produce real food. Ongoing revenue comes from harvest boxes, farm shop and hospitality. Any member rewards are paid from operating surplus, not from new members’ fees. Our optional impact investor pre-purchases a block of memberships to accelerate the build and is repaid as those memberships are sold, not via yield from later joiners.

Where does the capital go?

• Build that unlocks revenue: production capacity, polytunnels/tunnels, cold storage & pack barn, fulfilment systems, livestock housing & water, and basic IT/dispatch.
• 6-month operating runway (to reach sustainability): core team wages, seed/stock/packaging, animal feed & vet/herbal pasture establishment, utilities/insurance, delivery/fuel, so we can hit and hold weekly volumes (incl. the ~100 boxes/week milestone) without stop-start delays.
• Working capital & light contingency: to keep operations smooth as volumes ramp.

What’s the timeline?

Use capital now → complete core build over next 6 months → hit stable weekly output (incl. ~100 boxes/week milestone) → ongoing sales + new members buy back the pre-sold spaces.