First-cheque capital
We write the first cheque, help you build, then get out early.
Investor-operators, not fund managers. Pre-seed investment in early stage ClimateTech companies.
The position
Real exposure to the blue and green economies, without a ten-year commitment
Douglas Day is a first-cheque ClimateTech investor-operator who assembles co-investors for the first round, then works with you to achieve product market fit and go-to-market readiness.
We like to take minority stakes and exit early before your cap table gets cluttered.
$100k–$500k
Round assembled with co-investors
Pre-seed
Occasionally seed
The Capital Stack
We blend & stack capital. Four kinds.
Very few early stage investors can deliver first cheques, co-investment, grant funding and brand sponsorships. It takes a commercial operating business next door that does the third and fourth day in day out, and we have one in The Salamander Co.
Equity
Douglas Day
The first cheque
Dilutive
Co-investor Equity
Douglas Day
Assembly of Co-investors.
Dilutive
Grant funding
via The Salamander Co.
SDG/impact and/or Go-to-Market.
Non-dilutive
Corporate sponsorship
via The Salamander Co.
Sponsored deployment programmes.
Non-dilutive
Into
Your company
Two of the four never touch the cap table. That is the part a passive equity investor on its own cannot do.
We don'tBecause
No fund wrapperNo blind pool, no management fee, no LPs. Co-investors go direct into your company.
No passive chequesIf we cannot help build it, we do not write it.
No controlMinority stakes, and we stay out from under the your feet.
No late stagePre-seed in, out at seed or first liquidity.
No philanthropyWe invest for a return. Impact is what makes your business worth more, not a reason to accept less.
No sectors outside the blue and green economiesOur focus is ClimateTech where we seek to make the greatest impact.
First cheque, assemble the round, build together
At pre-seed the scarce thing is not the money. It's what follows on the road to your first liquidity event. That is the work we do.