calmfund.com

Calm Company Fund (formerly Earnest Capital) is a distinctively positioned early-stage investment fund focused on backing “calm companies”—businesses that prioritize profitability and sustainable growth over reckless growth at the expense of survival. Founded by Tyler Tringas, the team operates fully remotely.

Core Dimensions

• Service type: Early-stage venture investment. Its key innovation is the proprietary SEAL (Shared Earnings Agreement). This is not debt financing: there is no fixed repayment schedule and no personal guarantee. Instead, it is a profit-sharing mechanism. The fund only shares in earnings after the founders’ income exceeds a predefined threshold, ensuring founders are doing well before they share profits.
• Supported countries/regions: Currently supports the United States, Canada, most EU countries, Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore. It prefers U.S. C-Corp entities, but also accepts LLCs and non-U.S. entities.
• Rates and fees: It does not use traditional equity pricing. Instead, returns are based on profit sharing under the SEAL. Typical investment amounts range from $75,000 to $250,000, and the fund can lead rounds of $500,000 to $1 million.
• Risk control: Highly selective. It does not invest in idea-stage companies, and requires businesses to have an MVP and paying customers. Its main focus is on high-gross-margin recurring-revenue models such as B2B SaaS and developer tools. Deal sourcing and due diligence are supported by a network of 150+ experienced mentors and its open-source Scout program.
• API and integrations: No public API is offered, but it has a custom application portal.

Pricing

For founders, pricing takes the form of the profit-sharing percentage and founder earnings threshold defined in the SEAL agreement. For Scouts, successful referrals can earn $2,000-$5,000 in cash or 10% of the fund’s Carry.

Pros and Cons

Pros: 1. Extremely founder-friendly, allowing founders to retain 100% control with no salary cap; 2. The SEAL model avoids the growth pressure of traditional VC and the revenue-share pressure of RBF; 3. Strong community and mentor support, including Slack groups, dedicated workshops, and perks from AWS/Notion and others.
Cons: 1. Relatively strict geographic restrictions, requiring incorporation in specific countries; 2. Strong preference for B2B SaaS, making it harder for other sectors to get traction; 3. The website indicates the fund is currently “taking a break,” so new investments may be paused.

Who It’s For

Bootstrappers who already have a product and revenue, and who want steady profitability rather than cash-burning expansion—especially founders in B2B SaaS and remote-work tools.

Access from China

At the network level, the website is directly accessible. At the business level, however, the fund does not currently support direct applications from mainland China entities. Chinese founders would need to register a U.S. C-Corp through platforms such as FirstBase to qualify. Domestic alternatives may include early-stage funds focused on SaaS or local revenue-based financing (RBF) providers.