Built by the people · not the gatekeepers
Where startups get built, packaged, and launched.
Timber is the place where founders, operators, and everyday packagers assemble real businesses in public view — attaching audits, operators, capital, and proof to a listing until it's a fundable, executable deal. No accelerator, no fund, no gatekeeper deciding who's allowed to build.
01
Built by the people
Anyone can package a deal. No pitch nights, no partner meeting, no permission required.
02
The packaged deal is the product
Not slides. Assembled deals — real people, real proof, enforceable structure.
03
Value stays in the place
Every attachment logs permanently and survives any single buyer walking away.
Local businesses
Handed off with revenue intact.
Startups & tech
Prototype → packaged → launched.
Franchisable concepts
Licensed to operators, not sold to funds.
Nonprofit & ministry
Models that spread, not empires.
127
Deals packaged
41
Operators attached
18
Paid audits on file
$4.8M
Option volume · TTM
04 · The Core Transaction
One loop, five steps. Click through the whole thing.
Step 01 · List
List — founder.
Founder uploads business or idea. Provenance certificate issues immediately — a hash + timestamp that anchors the listing. Founder sets the ask, the option fee, and the license terms.
Money & log
Founder pays: $0. Timber pays: nothing. Provenance is minted.
Deal-log entry
list · Founder · 0xa73f…af3c9
The mechanic worth repeating
The packaged deal stays on the platform. Whatever got attached to it doesn't disappear if a buyer walks. Value accumulates in the place itself.
03 · The Packaged Deal Is the Product
Timber doesn't sell ideas. It sells packaged deals.
An idea alone has one level of value, and it's low. The same idea, once it has a paid audit attached, an operator recruited, a soft-circled investor already interested, a customer list validated, and an enforceable option agreement sitting on top of it, is a different asset entirely. That assembled thing is what actually trades hands.
Paid audit
Third-party CPA verifies financials.
Recruited operator
Willing to run day-to-day at execution.
Soft-circled capital
Angel or family office indicating interest.
Working prototype
Live demo, MVP, or first product cut.
Validated customer list
Signed LOIs or double-opt-in waitlist.
Signed vendor contract
Fulfillment, lease, or supply agreement.
A dossier full of documents says this could work. A dossier with a named operator and a soft-circled investor attached says people are already lining up to make it work.
Prototype · concierge cohort
A working prototype of the marketplace.
Wildflour Custom Cakes
14 months of sales, repeat clientele, ready to hand off.
Listed value
$45,000
Option fee $4,500
Anchored Coffee
Neighborhood coffee concept, validated waitlist, no doors open yet.
Listed value
$8,500
Option fee $850
Ledger
SaaS for solo bookkeepers — plan, prototype, no team yet.
Listed value
$12,000
Option fee $1,200
Sanctuary
A church-plant model built for towns under 20,000.
Listed value
$3,500
Option fee $350
GraniteEdge Home Services
Revenue-verified home-services roll-up candidate.
Listed value
$65,000
Option fee $6,500
Postcard
DTC subscription for handwritten letters.
Listed value
$6,000
Option fee $600
Built on Timber
Real founders. Real packaged deals. Real outcomes.
Every business here got built, packaged, and launched by the people closest to it — not by a gatekeeper deciding who's allowed through the door.
"I had 14 months of real revenue and no way to hand it off. Timber let me package the whole thing — audit, pastry lead, brand — and an operator optioned it inside eight weeks. I got paid first, and the business I built didn't die when I stepped out."
Optioned in 8 weeks · founder paid 80% at signing
Nora Bellweather
Founder, Wildflour Custom Cakes · Asheville, NC
"Every accelerator wanted me to raise a round. Timber let me license my curriculum to two new cities instead — I kept the school, kept ownership, and the royalties come back monthly. That was the deal that fit."
Two licensed territories · founder retained ownership
Marcus Delaney
Founder, Northline Trades Academy · Cleveland, OH
"I'm a designer, not an engineer. I built a working prototype, ran an 18-user pilot, and Timber packaged it with a technical co-founder and soft-circled capital before anyone wrote a check. The dossier did the selling."
Packaged with technical co-founder + $150K soft-circled
Priya Ramanathan
Founder, Ledger · Remote
"I was quietly building a home-services roll-up and needed a way to attract operator-partners without giving the whole thing away. Staged disclosure and the option structure meant serious buyers showed up serious. That changed everything."
PE family office attached · two territories under LOI
Ari Woodson
Founder, GraniteEdge Home Services · Denver, CO
"The gallery world wanted a percentage. VCs said I was too small. Timber didn't ask me to be either. A design-forward operator optioned Hearthline in six weeks — and I got to keep making pots for the first drop under new hands."
Optioned by design-forward operator · brand intact
Isla Renfrew
Founder, Hearthline Ceramics · Portland, OR
"I had a validated waitlist and a lease LOI but no interest in running a café again. Timber was the only place I could package the concept as an asset — brand, waitlist, lease — and let an operator take it from there. I stayed advisor, not owner-operator."
Packaged as a launch-ready asset · advisor role secured
Deacon Rhee
Concept originator, Anchored Coffee · Charleston, SC
09 · Four Ways Value Moves
Option, package, license, resell — all live at launch.
Option
A buyer pays for a 6, 12, or 18-month exclusive window — priced around 10% of listed value. The founder is paid first, keeping roughly 80% of the fee immediately while still owning the business.
Package
The engine of the platform. Anyone — founder, packager, operator, investor — attaches something real. Talent and proof, logged permanently to the Deal Log.
License
Founder grants the buyer the right to run the business for an agreed term and territory. Founder keeps ownership and earns ongoing royalties. Operates outside securities regulation.
Resell
A buyer who can't or won't execute resells the packaged deal — attachments and all — to a better-positioned buyer, without the deal ever leaving the platform.
Try the prototype
Pick a listing. Sign the NDA. Lock the option. Package the deal.
The whole loop runs live in this preview. Every action writes to the Deal Log so you can see how value accumulates in the place itself, not in any single buyer.
02 · Why Timber
The literal level.
Timber is the raw material you need before you can build anything. A screenplay needs actors and financing to become a movie. A house needs timber before it's a house. A business idea needs the same thing — real material added to it — before it's a business.
The deeper level.
Acacia wood built the Ark of the Covenant. Solomon imported cedar and cypress from Lebanon to build the Temple. Noah was given a material and a set of instructions, and the ark that resulted was what carried everything worth saving through the flood. In each case, timber isn't just wood. It's the thing that turns a plan into a structure that holds.
4
Ways value moves
Option · package · license · resell
5
Steps in the core loop
List · gate · option · package · outcome
1
Hard gate
The Investor layer stays closed until securities counsel clears it
06 · The Hollywood Model
The Shark Tank inversion — the entrepreneur becomes their own shark.
In Hollywood, an agency's real business isn't negotiating a fee — it's packaging. Timber does the same job for a business, with one deliberate change: it removes the agency as gatekeeper. Anyone can package their own deal.
07 · Buyer Circumvention, Answered Directly
What stops a well-funded buyer from browsing then walking away?
Legally, ideas cannot be copyrighted or owned. There are four structural answers, not one clause.
Answer 01
Make the packaged deal worth more than the idea alone
Public listings show only an executive summary — not enough to build from. What has value is the assembled dossier.
Answer 02
Release information in stages, not all at once
The most copyable material (SOPs, vendor lists, granular models) unlocks only after real milestones are hit.
Answer 03
Make the NDA actually bite
Liquidated damages clause plus advance consent to expedited injunctive relief. Fast, financially painful.
Answer 04
Watch the pattern
Dormancy flags on options with zero Deal Log activity. Short terms with visible extensions instead of long silent windows.
11 · Revenue Model
Four streams, all tied to activity happening on the platform itself.
20%
Option fees
Of every option fee and extension paid to lock a window
10–15%
Transaction commissions
On every completed deal when a buyer executes
3–5% + 1–2%
Licensing origination + royalty share
Origination fee + share of ongoing royalty payments
6–8%
Secondary marketplace fees
On every resale of an already-packaged deal
Every stream is a fee on a service Timber actually performs — hosting a listing, executing an NDA, holding escrow, facilitating a license, processing a resale. Streams involving pooled capital or a promised return (the Investor layer) intersect securities law and are deliberately not built.
12 · Legal Foundation
A deliberately small legal stack.
Fewer moving legal parts, fewer places the business can break. Every document requires a licensed attorney to draft and finalize — the plan describes what each document needs to accomplish, not the language itself.
01 · Terms of Use
Platform rules, 'not an offering' disclaimers, mandatory arbitration, broad liability release.
02 · Privacy Policy
Data collection, storage, and use practices.
03 · NDA (single template)
Executed before any core document is released. Liquidated damages + injunctive-relief consent.
04 · Option Agreement
Parties, listed value, option fee, term (6/12/18), reversion, extension, staged disclosure, resale, and license-election clauses.
05 · Escrow Terms
Third-party escrow processor. Timber integrates rather than builds from scratch.
14 · Deliberately not built yet
The Investor layer stays hard-gated behind securities counsel.
Any structure where a person contributes capital and expects a payout from the efforts of others risks classification as a security under Howey. Keeping that line clear is what keeps Timber's regulatory footprint small.
13 · Trust & verification
Removing gatekeepers isn't the same as removing standards.
- · Identity confirmation on buyer and seller
- · Ownership + IP attestation with timestamp at upload
- · Viability review against a scoring rubric
- · Financial verification for the revenue-verified badge
- · Escrow holdback with a dispute window
20 · Financial Projections · illustrative
Core-loop revenue only. Investor-layer upside deliberately excluded.
| Metric | Yr 1 | Yr 2 | Yr 3 | Yr 4 | Yr 5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Active listings | 400 | 1,200 | 3,500 | 8,000 | 18,000 |
| Completed transactions | 60 | 240 | 875 | 2,400 | 6,300 |
| Transaction + option revenue | $297K | $1.18M | $4.29M | $11.8M | $30.9M |
| Licensing origination + royalty | $9K | $52K | $205K | $610K | $1.68M |
| Secondary marketplace fees | $14K | $68K | $247K | $690K | $1.85M |
| Membership + featured + escrow | $129K | $431K | $1.28M | $3.3M | $8.3M |
| Total revenue | $449K | $1.73M | $6.02M | $16.4M | $42.7M |
| Gross margin | 72% | 74% | 76% | 78% | 80% |
Investor-layer features, if and when cleared by securities counsel, represent significant additional upside not modeled here — a conservative, evidence-first posture consistent with the validation-gated approach.
22 · Investment Opportunity
$1.5M seed, deployed in two evidence-gated stages.
The majority of capital spends only after paid demand is demonstrated.
Months 1–4
Stage 1 · Validation & Foundations
$250K
Gate to Stage 2: demonstrated paid transactions, observed unit economics, and at least one closed license.
Months 5–20
Stage 2 · Build & Launch
$1.25M
Public launch, secondary marketplace and licensing live, milestone: $500K+ in transaction value across 25–50 curated listings.
23 · About the Founder
Founder
Allan Meade, Jr.
Miami, FL · designchurch.co
Timber is what happens when a builder gets tired of watching good ideas rot in a slide deck.
Allan Meade, Jr. is a designer, brand-builder, and church planter based in Miami. For more than a decade he's worked at the intersection of creative direction and operating strategy — designing the identity systems, launch playbooks, and organizational structures behind startups, ministries, and packaged concepts across the country.
Through Design Church, his creative practice, he's shipped brand and product work for founders in hospitality, education, and faith-driven ventures. That work surfaced a pattern he couldn't stop noticing: the people with the sharpest ideas rarely had access to the packaging — the audit, the operator, the soft-circled capital — that turns an idea into a fundable, executable deal. Gatekeepers held the packaging. Founders held the risk.
Timber is his answer to that asymmetry. A place, not a gatekeeper. A structure that lets founders, operators, and packagers assemble the deal in public view, on record, without asking anyone's permission.
Background
Creative director, brand strategist, church planter
Prior work
Design Church — identity and launch systems for founders
Based in
Miami, FL
Contact
allan@designchurch.co
24 · The Short Version
A founder lists. A buyer options. Anyone packages. The buyer executes, resells, or walks. The deal stays.
That's the whole point.