We use cookies and similar technologies to analyze traffic, improve our service, and power marketing. You can accept all or continue with only essential cookies. Read our Privacy Policy.
Ravi Lalchandani, known professionally as Ravi DeRossi, spent two decades building some of New York’s most recognized venues, including co-founding Death & Co, one of the most influential cocktail bars in the country. In 2020, he did something no growth consultant would have advised: he converted every venue in his portfolio to fully plant-based dining and rebuilt the group around a mission of animal welfare and sustainability.
By 2024, Overthrow Hospitality operated 10 venues with $8.5 million in annual revenue and a community of more than 300,000 followers. When it needed expansion capital, it skipped the banks and asked the people already filling its tables.
DeRossi had been opening venues in the East Village since 2006, including Death & Co in 2007, a bar that helped define the modern craft cocktail movement. In 2020, he reorganized his portfolio as Overthrow Hospitality, formerly DeRossi Global, co-founded with partners Drew Brady and Sother Teague, and committed every venue to...
Planet Wealth works with founders to structure raises that attract real capital from aligned investors.
Total raised
$1.94M
Across two Reg CF campaigns
Combined investors
881
Two campaigns
Revenue growth
59%
Between 2021 and 2023
Annual revenue
$8.5M
At time of first campaign
Banks underwrite restaurants against leases and cash flows. Private equity underwrites unit economics and roll-up potential. Neither framework knows how to best leverage a 300,000-person mission-aligned community, a loyalty platform in development, or a consumer packaged goods line that doesn’t exist yet. Overthrow’s most valuable asset was invisible to every conventional capital structure in hospitality, which is why the company took its raise directly to the people who already understood it.
An established operator with 10 venues, $8.5M in revenue, award-winning brands, and a 300,000-person community. No institutional backing. No need to prove the concept.
Overthrow did not need investors to believe in an unproven idea. It needed a structure that let the people already eating at its tables own part of the business. Reg CF was the only instrument that aligned the investor with the customer they already were.
Overthrow ran two Regulation Crowdfunding campaigns between October 2024 and May 2025. The second raised nearly three times the capital from nearly three times the investors.
| Round | Close Date | Amount Raised | Valuation | Investors | Key Evidence at Time of Raise |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Round 1 | Oct–Dec 2024 | $513,661 | $21.7M | 230 | 10 venues, $8.5M revenue, 59% growth, World's 100 Best Bars, James Beard nomination |
| Round 2 | Jan–May 2025 | $1,422,043 | $24.85M | 651 | First campaign's investor base as proof of demand; valuation step-up on continued performance |
The second campaign raised nearly 3x the capital from 2.8x the investors, at a higher valuation. People who had watched or joined the first campaign came back with more conviction the second time. The community was compounding, not just accumulating.
The most telling number in Overthrow’s offering materials is this: 85% of its customers are not vegan. The company’s audience is not a self-selecting ideological niche. It is a mainstream dining public choosing plant-based food because the food stands on its own.
The campaigns reflected that. Overthrow did not ask investors to bet on the future of veganism. It showed them a decade of operating history in the most competitive restaurant market in the world, with the mission acting as a filter for which community members would convert into investors.
The investor perks were experiential, not decorative: dining discounts, hospitality experiences, cooking and cocktail classes, and bonus shares. A stockholder with a dining discount becomes a recurring customer with a financial reason to advocate for the brand. Overthrow did not bolt crowdfunding onto its business. It embedded the investor community into the operating model.
The community was the capital thesis. Overthrow had spent years building something people were willing to pay to be part of, then gave them the option to own a piece of it.
2020
DeRossi Global becomes Overthrow Hospitality, co-founded by Ravi Lalchandani, Drew Brady, and Sother Teague, with a formalized mission around plant-based dining, sustainability, and animal welfare.
REBRAND
DeRossi Global becomes Overthrow Hospitality, co-founded by Ravi Lalchandani, Drew Brady, and Sother Teague, with a formalized mission around plant-based dining, sustainability, and animal welfare.
December 31, 2024
The first Reg CF campaign closes with $513,661 raised from 230 investors at a $21.7M valuation. The campaign establishes the investor community that becomes the foundation of the second raise.
CAMPAIGN 1 CLOSES
The first Reg CF campaign closes with $513,661 raised from 230 investors at a $21.7M valuation. The campaign establishes the investor community that becomes the foundation of the second raise.
May 1, 2025
The follow-on campaign closes with $1,422,043 from 651 investors at a $24.85M valuation. Combined across both raises: approximately $1.94M from 881 investors in roughly six months.
CAMPAIGN 2 CLOSES
The follow-on campaign closes with $1,422,043 from 651 investors at a $24.85M valuation. Combined across both raises: approximately $1.94M from 881 investors in roughly six months.
Post-Raise
Proceeds fund new restaurant openings beyond New York, a membership and loyalty platform, consumer packaged goods, and team growth, part of a stated strategy to evolve from restaurant operator into a broader consumer brand platform.
CAPITAL DEPLOYMENT
Proceeds fund new restaurant openings beyond New York, a membership and loyalty platform, consumer packaged goods, and team growth, part of a stated strategy to evolve from restaurant operator into a broader consumer brand platform.
Overthrow’s case is worth studying because the structure is unusually clean: an established business with real revenue used Reg CF twice in six months and succeeded both times. That is what happens when the instrument matches the asset.
The company built an investor base that doubles as a customer base, a word-of-mouth network, and a source of repeat capital, and it did so without surrendering a board seat or liquidation preferences.
Overthrow entered its raises with $8.5M in revenue, 59% growth, and a decade of awards. The evidence base at the point of raise determined the quality of capital formation. The second campaign’s valuation step-up to $24.85M was earned by performance, not promised by projection.
The first campaign’s $514K and 230 investors became the proof of demand that justified the second raise at a higher valuation. Each round’s evidence was built on the previous round’s outcome. That is the structural logic of this approach.
Dining discounts, classes, and experiences turned stockholders into recurring customers with a financial stake in advocating for the brand. Community-building and capital-raising were the same activity.
No bank or fund was built to value a 300,000-person community or a brand loved by customers who don’t even share its ideology. Reg CF was the first structure that let Overthrow monetize what it had actually built. The real question is how many established hospitality brands are sitting on the same unpriced asset.
