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Saturday 30 September 2017

Kokoon offer their Kickstarter backers refund using Crowdcube equity finance



This is a first - although we trailed the possibilty in our last post on Kokoon. They 'owe' KS pledgers either a fully finished product (not currently available) or $1.9m as they have now agreed to refund them. 


The Crowdcube campaign was led on the premise that these sales were bagged - accounted for and in the revenue pot. We pointed out that as the number of complaints on KS mounts and people demand refunds, this was crazy. It is in fact a massive liability. 

Just 3 days ago the founders posted this message on KS -

Thank you for your messages. We’re currently working on our next update, which we’ll be sending out when Richard returns with the latest news from the factory in China. 
If anyone would like to request a refund, please send us a direct message on Kickstarter or an email (with your backer number) to support@kokoon.io and we will arrange it. 

There is no product - design yes but finished item after 2 years - no. More delays were announced a few days ago.

Do CC investors know that the KS cash has been offered back? Cash that is described by the company as sales revenue even though it isnt. Where would the cash for refunds come from exactly? And why isnt any of this mentioned in the CC campaign?


Friday 29 September 2017

Will Crowdcube make it to Christmas?


We took a look at Crowdcube's billings for June to September. It really doesnt make for happy reading if you are a shareholder.


(We wrote this before Crowdcube published their misleading Q3 figures. Can it be possible that their investment figure of £25.4m includes all the money pledged in failed campaigns? Surely not?)

As we already know, Crowdcube burn in excess of £7.5m (2015/16 accounts) just to keep the office and PR running. That means that they need to be grossing in excess of £200m in completed campaigns, at their stated average commission rate of 4%, to reach BE.

So for the four months we looked at, we found the following - 

June 17 -      £4.25m raised from 7 campaigns

July 17 -      £4.5m rasied from 12 campaigns

August 17 - £4.5m raised from 9 campaigns

Sept -          £1.58m raised from 5 campaigns

Averaged over the 4 months, £3.7m equates to an annual gross of £44m - or half what they achieved in the previous year which included ''£10m'' with Brewdog. At 4% that leads to a revenue of £1.76m. So lets assume they have other revenue streams which we dont know about  - last years accounts showed revenues of £4m. Assuming even the best case, they are not going to be making more than they did last year, leading to another loss of over £5m. At least. And dont forget we havent taken into account their habit of including, in these totals, amounts that are not raised on platform and therefore not entitled to any commission.

Somewhere in that paragraph is a little share holder screaming blue murder. With falling gross completions, increased competition, first mover advantage gone and a whole raft of failures from 2014/15 and 16 queuing up round the block - there is no way out. 

The Crowdcube model doesnt work - you know we know this. So why would anyone want to buy them? 

Looking at the site now, they have an increasing number of half completed pitches, drifting around until their deadline date - with no interest from investors. Why? Well because Crowdcube couldnt pick a winner from a one horse race. Investors have taken 6 years to wake up but now they are on the move. Claims of 34000 'members' includes a vast amount of dead wood. Egos have exploded along with the cost base and have reached levels that were never realistically going to be covered by their revenues. In fact they now resemble so many of their own platform's pitches - poor business models, poorly executed. There are of course exceptions but not enough.

Compare their figures with the recently released ones from Funding Circle and you can see the difference between a well run business and a mess. FC is still making considerable losses but the key figures are heading in the right direction. 

So UKplc could have some good news for Christmas.




Is Ethos Global Crowdcube's worst comedy ever?



Ethos Global raised £709k on Crowdcube in 2016. In 2017 having failed to file any new accounts, it was forced into liquidation by creditors. Now new evidence we have seen suggests that this isnt simply a business failure but something far more serious.

We knew this one would end in tears as soon as we read the Crowdcube campaign's opening line

ETHOS is a chain of boutique Yoga & Fitness hybrid studios with headquarters in Cambridge..........

How can a one unit operation be a chain? We tried to give them the benefit of the doubt - after all landlords can be very unhelpful. But this evidence makes it pretty clear what has happened.

The case in to the liquidation is on going and nothing has been filed yet by CH post the Court's liquidation notice. But we have been in touch with shareholders.

We have written about Ethos many times, here but this evidence is new. A timeline from the point of the Crowdcube campaign shows that some people must have known about the problems the company had before they raised the £709k. And that these facts were not shared, even though they were materially important. They also reveal that Crowdcube have been involved in trying to persuade shareholders to take shares in newco Soma - even though it seems likely to us that Soma doesnt own the assets in the business it is running. These were paid for by Ethos Gobal and its shareholders and they have O/S liabilities. 

The most dramatic revelation is that Ethos Global sent an email to shareholders, requesting more funding, in which they blatantly used information about the company's situation that was false. And they did raise money according to filings at CH.

Lets look at the timeline - 

January 2016 Crowdcube campaign for £500k completes at a total of £709k. This campaign was centred on the success of the Cambridge studio, its future and the future growth on the London Spitalfields' site, which was already under construction. No mention was made of any problems with the Cambridge landlord. Shares were issued under a Crowdcube Nominee account.

June/July 2016 London Ethos Opens - we dont have a date but an article in The Standard in July and Ethos's own revenue figures show it must have been open at the start of July 2016. So this studio in Spitalfields was opened by Ethos Global not Ethos London England or SOMA London England.

September 2016 Ethos Accounts YE Dec2105 become over due - remember these accounts are in fact for an historical period with regard to the Crowdcube pitch - ie Crowdcube DD needed to be on this.

November 2016 Ethos Global email. This email is asking shareholders for more money. It is very upbeat about the company. It does not mention the fact that the 2015 accounts have not been filed. These accounts would have revealed the gap between the Crowdcube projections for 2015 and reality. It mentions that a VC has looked over the company's DD and has approved it and is on the cusp of investing. Remember no accounts filed! It gives the following figures for real turnover - for 2016 -

Feb - £3k
Mar - £7k
Apr - £9k
May- £10k
June- £11k
July - £16k
Aug - £21k
Sept - £36k
Oct -  £52k
(NB - these sales include over half from the use of Classpass. They charge a high comm rate and no longer deal with SOMA) 

In the Crowdcube pitch the figures for 2015 showed a gross revenue of over £550k for this period and these figures were historic - Crowdcube raise completed January 2016. You can see how wrong this was. That is if you can believe these figures produced by the company. Did CC bother to check anything? It seems very unlikely that the problems that caused the Petition to be filed in February 2017 or 3 months later, were not known to the Ethos management when this email was sent.

This email goes on to say -

·  Cambridge operations are being concluded efficiently by our management team demonstrating excellent customer care skills, while legal matters are progressing fast with our solicitors. Timing of Cambridge closure was beyond our control; however, all other developments indicate that exit from Cambridge is accelerating the short-term profitability of the London studio heading towards the January period, as well as the long-term growth of the company focusing head office resources in London and further expansion.

Well we all know this is tripe. Within a few months the company had been closed by court order by petition by its Cambridge landlord. The full details are, as yet, unclear. Again Dr Theo clearly has no idea about who owns the company assets.

The email, sent by the company's Development Officer who has since left, concludes with this message -

We would be thrilled to have your further participation in this special opportunity to increase significantly your stake-holding in ETHOS.

You bet! We tried to talk to her on behalf of shareholders but she refused.



Dec 2016 - First Gazette filed against Ethos and co founder Hersche resigns

Jan 2017 - £300k investement filed at CH and another allotment of 3m shares issued for no consideration.

Feb 2017 - Ethos London England incorporated with Dr Theo as sole director and SH.
Feb 2017 - Hersche joins board. Maybe rejoins would be more apt.

Feb2017 - Petition to liquidate Ethos Global presented by The London Borough of Tower Hamlets and The Prudential - both of whom are creditors.

April 2017 - Name change to Soma London England. So why change the name from Ethos London England? Why rub out all of that brand awareness? Well...... You are not allowed to use a liquidated trading name to establish a newco whilst the process is still ongoing. The name may have value which is owned by the company. Of course we know that the process wasnt yet on going and it is illegal for company directors to 'plan' these things if it impinges on the outcome for creditors.

2 July 2017 - Ethos Global  - Court Order filed to wind up the company as result of February petition.

8 July 2017 - Dr Theo writes to shareholders - This is how he opened the email -

We are writing to update you on the status of Ethos Global Ltd (EGL) and our move to a new company structure. We invite you to own an equal amount of shares in a new company that includes the London location and expansion plans for new studios.

He goes on  - 

To protect the original vision we had to separate the operations that initiated in Cambridge under EGL and the current London operations. EGL will now be liquidated while the new company structure has been set up under a new trade, lease and assets in the same London location, owing to the contributions of our unwavering supporters including the London landlord. Following the Cambridge studio closure and months of increasingly expensive legal proceedings defending our position against multiple claims against the Cambridge landlord’s contractual breaches, we decided to not spend further resources in that direction and focus on larger opportunities in hand.

And on............

we are combining forces once again with Crowdcube to involve you in the new company structure. Crowdcube will play a purely administrative role holding shares in the new company for the crowd as nominee.

So CC are actively involved in this. There is no mention of the legality of running Ethos Global into liquidation, leaving creditors hung out to dry. The fact that the money invested in Ethos Global was used to invest in the new London studio, seems to have been missed by Dr Theo's logic. He clearly believes that he owns all the IP and assets and he seems confused about the closure of Ethos and opening of a new legal entity with no ties to Ethos, Soma. As the CEO of a company, you dont get to choose who to pay as creditors and who to ignore and you cannot reallocate assets via a liquidation. If the liquidation was a choice, planned by the founders (ie by refusing to pay the landlord they knew he would be forced to take this action, as the timings might suggest), as opposed to enforced on them as the filings suggest, then they are surely in breech of some company laws?  Maybe they are anyway? We are treading carefully as the liquidator's report is still awaited.

Why would investors want to follow the new Soma London England, seeing what they see here? Are Crowdcube really going to be the nominees holding shares in this newco after all they have been involved with in allowing Ethos Global take £700k plus off investors? What would the FCA say about that, given they license Crowdcube's activity? There are creditors here - it is not a straight share swap.

Meanwhile in the midst of this, Ethos Global have the balls to ask for new funding from investors, using highly contentious information.

Crowdcube have a knack of creating godawful messes. In the end the losers are the creditors and investors. Investors should know better - it's the creditors who get most of our sympathy. In this case both seem to have been treated with total contempt by the company and Crowdcube. Just for amusement, Ethos Global's Crowdcube financials had them with revenues of £4m and NP of £1.8m for 2017.

We have some correspondence from Crowdcube's XXXXXXX - answering some very serious accusations from some very worried Ethos shareholders. This is not to denigrate XXXXXX's efforts but you would really expect an FCA regulated platform, holding a nominee account with this mess on their hands, to have someone with just a jot of experience in something related to ECF, to be handling these matters. XXXXXX has none of the above, is mid twenties, read arts at uni, and clearly from the replies knows absolutely nothing about share ownership, liquidations and the mess Crowdcube are in. Shareholders may as well ask the lady at Tesco's check out - maybe they did!  That isnt XXXX's fault per se but it is further proof that Crowdcube isnt fit for purpose.

Finally - we received an email just now from SOMA. They are selling more future monthly memberships in their new business - the one that may or may not be legal. You get a discount from £250 to £150. All of this after the SOMA opening party was cancelled a couple of weeks ago. No reason given. The email claims that the offer sent out only two days ago, is fully subscribed - funny that we never received that offer?? And funny that the same offer was sent out on the 3rd August. Are people really being taken in by this?

And yes, you did just read all of that here!








Are Crowdcube delusional?


Crowdcube have produced their latest quarter's report for July to Sept 2017. Read it and see if you can make sense of it.


This is a report on the quarter for the activity of their ECF business - ie what has happened on the platform. It's a little downbeat for the CC Glitz Dept. But then they have their reasons.

They open with a very unimpressive statement that they had revenues of £1m. As their costs are around £2m that's not great. The cover infographic is honest enough to include the scandal ridden Ethos Global, now Soma, logo right next to the C for Crowdcube. 

They go to say that they have a record number of new pitches - which is a bit like a car dealer saying they have had a record number of new cars on sale. It tells you nothing about performance. 

Then they say that £25.6m was invested into pitches on the platform with 31 business raising £14.4m between July and September. That is exactly what they state. What is the extra £10.2m? They only have one platform in the UK so it would be misleading to include their satellite businesses in Spain and Ireland and in any event this turnover is insignificant. Is this misleading?

They are happy to announce that their average commission has gone from well under 5% to over 5%. You do the math with the revenue at £1m on sales of £25.4m.  

If you count the number of signed off pitches that have raised money (from the company's own site), you get a total of under £12m for the period. So for example this doesnt include the new food pitch which raised over £1m (its target) yesterday but is still due to run for another 28 days. CC do include this. It also doesnt include the US 'partnership' which brought Keen Homes to our shores and has 'raised' over £2.8m but most of it in the US on another platform. But knowing CC they probably will include this.

The big news is apparently that their app has been a success. It took over £5m of investment, What they dont ask is if this £5m is new or just would have been put through the website? Our guess is that the app is a diversion and total waste of time. Since when did serious investors need to book a table for two and invest in a newco whilst enjoying the meal?

That all seems as clear as mud. 

What is clear is that with revenues of £1m, Crowdcube are heading for more large losses, with the probability of them being larger than 2015 or 2016. This whilst their closest rivals disappear in the opposite direction. 

Tuesday 26 September 2017

Brewdog launches equity crowdfunding Punk round 5?



What are Brewdog up to? A new £90m round has just been announced with much of this supposedly coming from Punk Round No.5. No.4 flopped.


We will start with our usual caveat when discussing BD. It is a great company that has grown very quickly.

So that aside, the US Punk Campaign only managed to raise $7m of its $50m target and was closed this year. Then BD sold around 23% of itself to a West Coast PE firm; we at the time said this was a direct result of the failure of Punk 4. Now their plan is to raise a total of $180m, with half of this coming from ECF. Are they short of cash? Has the Ohio operation overstretched them?

We will just have to wait and see. It has certainly been in the news, which is what wags this dog's tail.

Monday 25 September 2017

Zero Carbon Foods win Future Food award from the Beeb.


In some good news for a Crowdcube funded company, underground salad grower Zero CF have won this year's Future Award at the BBC's Food and Farming Awards.

Congratulations.

Investors will now have to hope there is no more dilution and that the company can at some stage make a profit. Recent listings at M&S should help, if they keep them.

Tell me is Michele Roux Jn, one of Zero's main high profile backers, signed up to the Beeb?

Are Kokoon or Crowdcube listening?


We think this is a first. Having not delivered to 8500 Kickstarter backers, Kokoon are valuing themselves at £6m and raising £750k on Crowdcube, using the 'sales' on KS.


Well in fact that isnt true as they have pre raised (off CC) £625k of this from two existing shareholders already. You know, the usual Crowdcube games.

What's quite astonishing, are the 2100 comments on their Kickstarter campaign, which enabled them to raise just short of $2m in 2015, to develop their headphones. More than 2 years later, despite numerous false dawns; they have not delivered an item. You can imagine what the comments say but here's a link  - https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1861630723/take-control-of-your-sleep-with-kokoon-eeg-headpho/description

We never thought anyone would have the balls to try this on. In fact we recently advised a company wanting to raise £2m via ECF, that until they had fulfilled their KS obligations in full, we wouldnt deal with them. And in our opinion nor would investors. And they had delivered half of their commitment.

It makes the recent Retro Computers Kickstarter fiasco look insignificant. Maybe they will be Crowdcube's next tempting offer?

So the Crowdcube pitch states - 'Last year (to the 30th of June), we had £1,114,618 in sales through our Kickstarter campaign'. 

This poses an interesting Q. What is a sale? Surely a completed sale has to include both sides of the deal. Cash going one way, which we have here and product delivered satisfactorily, the other. This second half has not taken place and in fact it turns out the product isnt even ready to ship. It is still undergoing testing according to the KS updates dated 7 Sept 2017 and promised delivery dates continue to slip. Reading the updates and from our considerable knowledge about how badly these things can turn out, we would be highly suspicious of these promises. Refunds have already been demanded - so you could be looking at a debt of over £1m rather the trumpeted sales above.

The bottom line is  - Kokoon are claiming that the cash they are raising is mainly for product development ie forward looking. It's our guess most of it will be to produce the pre sales already accounted for. Or to put it another way, to fill in the large black hole.


It is embarrasing



Crowdcube's 'partnership' attempt with US platform Seedinvest is an embarrassment. Crowdcube are now degrading the UK in the international market place using Government, or rather our funds. 


Hailed as Crowdcube's breakthrough moment by the Crowdcube PR dispensing machine, the Keen Home pitch is a joke, accompanied by joke questions on the forum which only prove how sophisticated their punters are.

Ignoring whether the loss making home systems company is worth anything like its $15m price tag, the whole set up at Crowdcube confirms the platform's amateurism.

This is not a partnership; it's an attention seeking mess. Keen's real target is $8m in this raise (which is not made clear by CC) - of which they have only achieved $3.7m to date. So they state they need $8m but the min raise level for completion is set at $750k. How on earth can that work? That gap is too large - it means that if they only raised say a $4m they can only put in place half of their stated plans before running out of cash. Who would invest in that? The whole basis of ECF, as we run it in the UK, is that the company plan needs £X to make it work, so if the company doesnt get to £X, the transaction is cancelled. It's common sense. 

On the CC forum there is a Q which illustrates a total ignorance of the way these things work. Keen never wanted $570k for 19% of the company as this punter says - he is simply ill informed and confused. He goes on to suggest that the company is selling 80% of its equity!! It is alarming that such people have access. 

The whole thing has, anyway, been a total flop - for everyone. This of course may be a  blessing. UK investors have only put £60k out of the $3.7m current total and the pitch seems to have died in its second week on this side of the pond. But why did the management at Crowdcube ever think this was a good idea? Apparently the dispenser says that it gives UK investors a unique opportunity toown part of a great USA business. Enough said. From Desperation comes desperation.

Unfortunately for the rest of us, it makes the UK look bereft of any business sense. 

 

Friday 22 September 2017

Crowdcube's bad haircvt success fails


Haircvt raised £190k on Crowdcube in 2015. Now they have closed. They failed to raise their required £1.5m, so thats it.


Sound familiar? Well that's because it is. If a company's projections show a future cash requirement of £1.5m and this evapourates, you can be pretty sure the company will close. It happens on Crowdcube rather too often.

What happened to the £190k is anyone's guess - few trips, few nights out...it all adds up you know. It's not a bad wheeze. Unless you were one of the 122 Crowdcube punters.

Facewatch looks the other way


More target practice needed for Crowdcube funded Facewatch


Taking £500k off Crowdcube punters was easy compared with aligning the real world with the projected one.

Facewatch i admits to being a long term journey - well they did in the accounts. However they didnt in their Crowdcube pitch. Filed accounts for YE March 17 show losses of £800k against the fantasy version AKA Crowdcube  - of just £129k. For YE Mar 2018, this company sold equity using a projected profit of £2.9m.

I will definitely eat my hat if that's true.

Whats up at Superjam and Beer52?



Fraser Doherty has run Superjam or Eat Super for many years. They raised around £300k on Crowdcube a few years ago. He is also a hands on director Beer52, an Edinburgh based beer subscription site which raised £100k on Angels Den  in 2014 and then another £800k privately via HNW individuals last year.


We have written about both here and here. 

It is difficult to understand the figures as related to both companies. Superjam should, according to the Crowdcube vision, be making over £1.5m profit but instead made £3k on what appears to be a modest turnover. They seem to have lost all of their major UK listings apart from a one jam , heavily discounted offer in Waitrose. They were everywhere.

Beer52 have done better but articles that appeared after the 2016 funding stated that their 2015 turnover was £2.6m and in 2016 it was going to be £8m. Nothing in the accounts filed (to June 17) suggests figures of this size. Losses have become breakeven over the period. Not the vision that Angels Den promoted. 

Anyone any ideas?

Luxtripper goes to the US as a success story



Luxtripper is a Crowdcube double success - it has taken £750k in two piles. Now it has burnt both loads and filed losses of £500k for YE March 17. New investment is promised and a Government grant of £150k has come to rescue.

We have written then before here - the last time they faked a solicitor's letter that they sent us. In May the founder, Nena Chaletzos, was taken to the US as one of the UKs 15 leading female start ups according to City AM. 

For their YE Dec17, this company projected profits of £4.5m. Accumulated losses are now over £1m whereas projections show them at a profit of £300k plus. 

How any of this makes sense is anyone's guess. Clearly investors and the Government know things we dont.

Thursday 21 September 2017

Workabode is idling after taking £270k off Crowdcube


Workabode sums up so many of Crowdcube's flaws. More than 36 months after its initial raise, in a business sense it's still inactive, unproductive and empty.


Workabode is the brainchild of Trevor O'Hara. He was kind enough to respond to our recent invitation to discuss Workabode's progress. His response - we dont want to talk.

He has used Crowdcube twice to pull out almost £300k of investment for the company. Clear intentions made in the first raise in 2014, melted away and the balance sheet in the second raise in 2015, was simply wrong. It had missed out over £200k of accumulated losses(filed in the real accounts) - which is a material omission. It also illustrates an alarming ineptitude for figures and a far too common ineptitude from the CC Broom Cupboard, for DD. They had after all sanctioned the first raise in 2014 with the right figures!

In the second pitch in the summer of 2015, the company claimed it had completed the eCommerce platform  - well you have wonder if you look at the site in 2017.

Trevor has other companies - One City Innovation which does very little and Blueventus Ltd which was dissolved and for which we could find no records and no accounts even though it was listed. He has also written a book which only seems to have been published on Linkedin. A pattern?

The idea is not a bad one - putting people with spare office space together with people who use flexible work space. However it seems this must be a very difficult fit as by his own admission the website and 'operatons' are still in Beta. Beta is now code for nothing's happening. It looks very much like an idea born of the internet which is simply not required or even possible. The website here is smart enough but is entirely hollow; despite those 2015 claims. Another pattern?

To give you some idea of the gap between Trevor's predictions and reality, we can share the company's 2015 Crowdcube projections. For their year 17/18 which is now well underway, they projected a turnover of £10.7m and a NP of £7.4m. Remember this is for a company that is now, still in Beta and pre revenue with no visible eCommerce platform. 

One point he did make in his response is that the company might move operations to Canada because of Brexit. When we asked him to expand on how moving to Canada would alleviate any of the implications of Brexit, he chose not to. Im still trying to figure that one out.

So this particular business had materially inaccurate finances and unfulfilled intentions - both birthmarks on the body Crowdcube. 

We would have liked to put his point of view. You will just have to make up your own minds.

   

Monday 18 September 2017

A typical Crowdcube story

Are you comfortable, then we will begin, said the bwitch. Once upon a time people told the truth...no really they did.


Then they forgot how to. Now nobody seems to know what the word means anymore.

The Do Nation Enterprise funded via Crowdcube in 2014 - just £167k with SEIS. 

Their projections were not exactly accurate - were they guys?

Claims of large clients may have been exaggerated? Or maybe they were just unlucky. Dont suppose anyone checked.

The upshot is that for 2015 and 2016 the company has sustained substantial losses, when it claimed it would be making substantial profits. As at December 2016, it was technically insolvent. It recently raised £30k. 2017 projections seem somewhat optimistic.

Where in all of this is there any sustainable benefit to anyone in using SEIS. Please tell me or shoot me.

Of course this is not to belittle the voluntary not for profit work the company's NFP wing does. 


The Good the Bad and the downright Ugly


Three companies recent filings and reviews reflect the diverse nature of the Crowdcube portfolio.


First lets start with Clint - AKA Curpis Health and  also Go Henry

Curpis Health - It's a little early to be hanging out the bunting, but these guys appear to be ahead of their financial targets although they still appear to need to raise cash this year. Breaking into the NHS is a very had task, especially with the budgets stertched to breaking point but they seem to be getting there.

Go Henry - progess has been spot on and providing they can refuel their gas guzzling plan, they look set to make some serious impact in the future - when is anyone's guess. But certainly not a lemon. 

Then there is the Bad - well you can really take your pick. One we like Is Water to Go - seemingly gone or Psonar which has been liquidated.

We have reserved the Ugly for the worst set of reviews we have ever seen. This goes to Chupamobile - which took over £500k off Crowdcube punters. Here are some of the reviews - Sites vary on theor average but from the 3 we looked at, it's around 1.5 out of 5. - 

''Seriously folks, if you're reading this... They dont care. And if you doubt me at all, use your favorite search engine to find tons of other complaints just like mine. Don't fall victim to these guys. Avoid at all costs.''

''They are scammers do not use that website, dont buy or sell, if you paid for something that does not work please report here, choose internet fraud:
https://www.usa.gov/online-safety''

''After buying a source code that was far older than stated, they continued to literally patronize me. Theyre customer service is one person, who refuses to offer any real help or refunds. They say they updated code, which they didnt. Made me waste even more time, only for them to tell me politely that I'm screwed. Now I have no product that i can work with, ive wasted two weeks in trying, and I'm insulted. DO NOT DO BUSINESS. I dont care how good it may sound. I wish I would have read the reviews on this company first.''

We are not saying these reviewers are right but as business is hard enough to get going, running into a headlong gale like this makes if pretty well impossible. Accounts due out this month. 

Sunday 17 September 2017

Is Twenty Something London yet another Crowdcube nothing?



Hello again - another serving of poor business for you. Twenty Something London, an online referral business, has Twitter and FB accounts that have been dormant for many months.

They do have a website, but it is diabolical - something from the 2000's. Their twitter account is here - https://twitter.com/search?f=tweets&vertical=default&q=twntysmthngldn and hasnt posted since February. Their accounts are well overdue and they are sitting under a CH strike off notice. We suspect they dont look at that page.

TSL took £150k off Crowdcube punters in 2015 claiming to have a business plan to link small businesses via their portal, providing efficient and effective promotion. The pitch valued the company at around £2m based on a lot of PRing. They projected large losses (accurate) backed up by new investment of over £1m (inaccurate). Of course this new investment never appeared - which professional would invest in this? It is possible they never intended the new investment to come through?

What would be interesting for all to see is where the £150k has gone - but due to the accounting system we run in this country that will not happen. You can make your own guess. We have seen this particular 'problem' often on Crowdcube - raise a smallish amount and project to raise more in the next two years. There are several live pitches making the same promise. Why cant people see this for what it is? 

Of the two key founders, one resigned last year; once the money was getting a little tight. 

It hasnt gone yet but we'd put our money on it.


Friday 15 September 2017

Crowdcube's Water To Go may have gone


Water to Go pushes on with further heavy losses and reaches out to China for a life line.


WTG raised just shy of £200k on Crowdcube in 2014. Since then you might say its results have been a little disappointing. 

Accounts for YE Dec16, just filed, show further losses of £200k for the year, on a turnover that halved from 2015. The Crowdcube version showed the company making net profits for 2016 of £2.5m. Just by way of an explanation, this £2.5m profit was on the back of sales of over £10m, whereas reality shows sales of just over £300k. The balance sheet is looking a little flushed.

When we looked at the product in a climbing shop in Scotland, firstly it was covered is dust, which is never a good sign, secondly it was very expensive.

They have put together a deal with a Chinese distributor just this month - nothing to do with torture we understand; that's been left for investors It may be their last straw. 

It is really quite pathetic


Crowdcube at it again. Totally blatant misuse of information to big themselves up on the newest pitch for Keen Home Inc.

Firstly I will make clear that this is not a criticism of this business - we have not looked at.

So it's not enough to pile up the dross, now CC are so desperate they have taken to mass manipulation of the figures.

You might be as surprised as we were on reading about the new pitch by USA based firm Keen Home. They had, on day 3 of their CC pitch, completed 493% of their £570k target. The figure on the CC site stated as funded is £2.8m.

But wait this is CC after all so there has to be some trick in there.

Yup there is - only £27k of that money has been raised by Crowdcube. Not £2,800,000 - just £27,000. So less than 1% of the headline claim. The rest comes from a raise (called a joint raise pitch, whatever that is) in the USA by Seedinvest, a US ECF platform.

So why the hell do they have promote what is nothing more than a simple and very misleading lie? Well they just dont seem able to help themselves. The information above is all there if you look at the pitch but it isnt what you see in the headline home page.

Why would they do that? Well they know the FCA never does a thing about any of their nonsense, so they are clear there. It makes the platform look fantastic and helps to bury the rest of the dross they are promoting, all of which are struggling to get to 50%.

It taint right , taint honest, taint proper.  It's Crowdcube.

Soma, So ma, So far or doe ray me far.............


In what has to be one of Crowdcube's worst ever investment shenanigans, ex Ethos Global, ex Ethos London England, soon to be ex Soma(?), have postponed their opening launch party in London. The announcement was made today, the party was tomorrow.


It's no surprise really. The management of Soma are the same two from Ethos, who took lots of money of lots of Crowdcube investors and were then forced into liquidation by the Court. The results have not yet been filed. We flagged this all up here

The funds from Ethos seem to have been used to fund the newco. Its all very messy and must have been planned well before they pitched on Crowdcube. Lets hope the liquidator has a mind to find the facts and not do the usual sweeping under the carpet job. All this phoenix needs is a strong fire extinguisher.

So now what am I going to do this Saturday  - they havent exactly given me much time to re arrange my diary. I think a trip to the beach at Antibes is called for - Jester, get my jet ready! 

Ideasquares is not what you think it is


A contact asked us about Ideasquares - https://www.ideasquares.co.uk/more-about-crowdcube/. We were surprised by what we found.


Ideasquares purports to be an equity crowdfunding consultancy - helping businesses wishing to use this channel to complete a successful round. 

However it is not that really. Its just a conduit for Seedrs and Crowdcube to promote their own platforms. In fact those are the only plaforms that offer ECF in the UK, if you read their website. Reading the link above you might think you were on the Crowdcube website. 

It does declare that it is partnered with the two, but this is more of an appendage than a partnership. 

Nothing wrong with any of this really and the girl who runs it gets great reviews - although she has absolutely no experience in anything. Or is there?

We offer a completely independent service - covering all platforms and will recommend the right platform for the right offer. And you can be sure that there are many more excellent platforms out there with a large variety of expertise in many different sectors. Choosing the wrong one will not help.

So use them by all means but just know that they are not independent and they are peddling wares for both Crowdcube and Seedrs ONLY - is there a finders fee? What they tell about both platforms will not be the whole truth - read the link above to see that. It's all a little too cosy and it yet again asks questions about the openness and honesty of the whole ECF sector.


Thursday 14 September 2017

How Desperte can Crowdcube be?




We were sent this today - Crowdcube asking investors to push businesses their way for a finders fee of £2k each. What about all the PRing from Luke Lang over the past 3 years that the platform is inundated with applications and that they turn away well over 50% of them?

Are we now entering the final stages? Having tried a £1000 fee, they are now doubling it  - so clearly £1k didnt work? I will certainly be inventing a few companies to get my £10k for next Christmas. No wonder they get such dross. Cash in while you can. 


.................................................................................

Hello XXXXXXXXX, 

As a valued member of Crowdcube, we’d like to invite you to Crowdcube’s referral scheme. Not only that, during September we’re doubling the incentive we offer for each business you refer to us.

Spread the word about raising finance on Crowdcube and you’ll receive £2,000* for every business (that’s new to Crowdcube) that you refer to us in September, which goes on to successfully fund on the platform. 

How do I refer a business to Crowdcube?
If you know a business that may be interested in raising finance on Crowdcube, you can refer them to us quickly and easily here

All you need to provide is your Crowdcube username, your name and contact details, as well as the name, contact details, and website of the company you want to refer to us - it’s that simple.

What can I earn?
For just a couple of minutes of your time, you’ll then receive £2,000 for every business you refer to us that successfully raises finance on Crowdcube.

If you have any queries, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

As always, thank you for your continued support.

Best wishes,
The Crowdcube Team

Since we asked where Big Sofa had gone, we have dredged up some unpleasant information


Big Sofa raised money on Crowdcube  - we dont know how much as some of it was withdrawn. But a good slug anyway. 

Big Sofa is now on AIM but most CC investors missed out (we believe all B shareholders missed the boat) and the company forced them to sell up before the IPO, at a price that meant they lost money - according to Crowdcube. We have written about them before here

During all of this, BS was involved in a RTO along with a company called New World Oil and Gas  - its all complicated but is explained in a fashion here along with the possible money laundering and other shenanigans that may have been part of all of this. Even if only some of it's true, you have to wonder why Crowdcube's broom cupboard didnt pick up a whiff?

New World Oil and Gas was suspended on AIM whilst all of this was investigated and remains so today. The RTO was put on hold and meanwhile BS IPO'd. Those who know things about Crowdcube will be interested to see that Hargreaves Lansdown are listed as a significant shareholder in New Oil and Gas.

All in all it paints quite a fishy picture. 




Wednesday 13 September 2017

What happened to Ideas Britain - no idea?



We couldnt make this up. Yet another Crowdcube success seems to have gone down the tubes. Ideas Britain raised £270k on Crowdcube in 2015 from 138 'investors'. Results suggest none of them had a clue.


So here we are again - sorry we only report the facts so if they are getting a little boring we apologise.

Ideas Britain had some really pukka team peeps and masses of super plans  - overall valuing themselves at around £6m in 2015.

Most of those pukkas have now jumped overboard, leaving just 2. Unfortunately they dont seem capable of running much.

Projected profits for 2016 were £1.16m. Accounts just filed show losses of £160k and a BS with a negative number. No new money has been raised this year. Twitter hasnt tweeted for 12 months, Vimeo and Linkedin have had no ideas for the last year. 

Its not closed yet, but it might be the only good idea they ever had. 

Tuesday 12 September 2017

Mindgenius prove our point - Congratulations!




Mindgenius employed us to help run their Crowdcube campaign. We recommended another platform but they had already signed with CC. The campaign failed but now Mindgenius is looking to take great leaps forward.


Mindgenius, a Scottish based B2B software company, employed ECF Solutions to run their 2016 ECF campaign. Unfortunately by the time they came to us, they had already signed to CC as we would not recommend a company in this sector for this platform. 

Despite a convincing pitch, the Crowdcube investors didnt see glossy rewards and were blind to the possibilities. We could, but as we work on commission based on a successful campaign, it doesnt help much!

The company has just announced future growth prospects, based on its new product Barvas, over the next 5 years, that make the Crowdcube valuation of £5m pre money look like a bargain. Anticipated revenues are to grow to £10m by 2022, which is way ahead of the Crowdcube projections. The Crowdcube pitch was based on the future growth of Barvas, so we were spot on there.

That's what you get with credible product development and an experienced team - real growth. It is just a shame that the Crowdcube investors prefer to cash in their chips for cases full of beer and empty promises. 

Still we believed in them and that does us some credit. One to watch.

Crowdcube's My Mate Your Date is annulled - no really


My Mate Your Date - another Aussie run effort, has closed just 2 years after raising £145k on Crowdcube from 132 imbeciles. 

Yet another total farce promoted by Crowdcube has met its end. A VL seems to suggest that at least here there were no creditors. 

The two founders, Jared Mooring and Dan Joyce are names to watch out for. Both made claims related to start ups/business activities in Australia, that now look highly dubious. Both made claims to over 6000 signed up members etc etc. Of course none of this would have been checked by the guys in the Exeter broom cupboard.

Scam - my dear old thing, we couldnt possibly comment.

Around about now the company was supposed to completing a year with revenues of £1.7m and net profits of over £200k. It failed to raise further substantial funding - you cant fool all the people all of the time - hence its demise.

We warned about this outfit recently - here - who said reviews were worthless?

Sorry to say there is plenty more slurry on the way. 

Our interview with Hop Stuff Brewery; a real Crowdcube success story

We wanted to bring you an original story about a start up company, using equity crowdfunding, that has genuinely grown as a result. From Crowdcube's portfolio.

As you can imagine that wasn’t easy. But we did find one and it offers many lessons to investors, platforms and companies alike, on how things should be done. This company has shown how ECF should be utilised for the benefit of all stakeholders. Its success is real; not imagined, as in so many of the stories you read in the ECF press.

………………………………………………….

Hop Stuff is a London based craft brewery. It was founded in 2013. We are grateful to the founders for giving up their time to share their story with us.

Hop Stuff was a brainchild of ex City couple James and Emma Yeomans. Fed up with life the City offered post 2008, they took a massive leap in dark in 2013 and set up Hop Stuff, from scratch with only an idea, a location and some experience in home brewing.

The first step was to raise funding and Crowdcube then, offered the perfect location – it was on a ride in the news and had not yet been hampered by massive overheads and negative returns. However, what was crucial to the success of Hop Stuff’s first CC raise, was the sensible approach taken by the founders. By offering 35% for £58k on an SEIS scheme, they made the bet a win win. Rewards would cover most downsides along with SEIS and if by chance the business was a success, investors were surely going to be quids in at that valuation.

James also points out that unlike Crowdcube now, where valuations have got to silly levels for businesses not tried and tested, the £58k they raised was for trials and the pitch was put to investors in this way – there was no stretching of the truth to obtain funding – it was simple initial proof of concept, seed round. If the trial worked they would ask for more and if it didn’t, they would close or look at other avenues.

Again, as James commented in the pitch and also when he spoke to us – this wasn’t all fingers into the wind. They knew where their initial market was, Woolwich and they had done their local research. In his own words -

‘In 2013 it was a pipe dream, and we launched a crowdfunding offer to basically validate our dream – if other people invested, it wasn’t just a crazy pipe dream! Fortunately, 71 people joined us in backing Hop Stuff Brewery, and I guess the rest is history’.

That pipe dream has gone on to raise more funding via CC in 2017 - £745k from over 600 investors at a valuation of £5.5m. It certainly hasn’t been plain sailing but the resolve is evident from the very fact that until this second raise, Hop Stuff had survived hand to mouth on the initial capital injection. By proving the concept, stress testing the systems and building genuine demand – not fancy superstore trial orders as so many do – the second raise was a massive success.

Here is the Q&A we had with them – as you can see the main issues that we are concerned about with ECF – valuations, lack of help from platforms, access to help from investors, lack of model testing etc are all evident in their experience. It also shows the advantage of using a service like ours, where we can help you to avoid the more obvious pitfalls.

..............................................................


Q  From your first raise in 2013, do you think your ideas of running a start up have changed significantly and are the plans you have now roughly the vision you had then? Any advice to likeminded people who wish to go it alone?

Yes, things snowballed beyond our wildest imagination. In 2013 it was our intention to open a small, local micro-brewery. We were always set on brewing “craft beer” (i.e. hoppy fresh little numbers) but it was our intention to do it locally, but always with the same ethos which is ‘craft beer ought to be for everyone’. This idea has carried us through the last 3 years; trying to remove some of the unwelcoming stigma of craft beer. We’re grateful that this has resonated with people, as demand has kept growing and growing. In business, you’re constantly re-evaluating what you’re doing, and you can only work with what you have. Fortunately, we have a very successful and popular formula for what we think craft beer ought to be.

In terms of advice; research and ask questions. We were so naïve when we first started. That is, to a certain extent, unavoidable, but I wish I’d worked a little harder to ask for more information.

Q  Can you give me some numbers? How you have progressed over the years since 2013, if that was all in line with the projections. Has there been a moment when you thought  - no this isn’t going to work?

We’re averaging about 136% growth year on year since we launched. We actually doubled our financial projections in 2016 versus the original crowdfunding targets.

There have been plenty of times where we could have given up – the financial pressures on a small company growing as quickly as we have with such limited capital is incredibly difficult. I owe a lot to my wife (Emma) who kept me sane throughout, and we always found a way to make it work. I think that dogged determination is key – a single minded stubbornness to say, “this will work”. 

Q  Have you gained any help from your Crowdcube shareholders? Have you gained any help from Crowdcube apart from in the funding? Do you think you could have achieved this without Crowdcube if you had another source of funding?

We have a lot of incredibly talented individuals within our investor base, many of whom have offered their services at times in our journey. We’re incredibly grateful to our investors for all the support, not just financial, since we opened.

I think we would have done something similar without crowdfunding, but access to funding is incredibly tight at the moment, and there aren’t many people willing to take risks on small companies. Crowdfunding is an incredible tool if used correctly. I think there are too many companies out there abusing it at the moment, and it’s for the funding platforms to catch and monitor this to ensure the platforms stay available for many years to come.


Q  A number of start up artisan breweries have used equity crowdfunding but to date we haven’t seen any real progress from them. What is it that makes Hop Stuff different in your opinion? What are your top 3 qualities that make Hop Stuff as a company stand out?

There have been a number of crowdfunding success stories, I guess the most notable is Brewdog. There have been other, smaller companies that have flown under the radar a little but are doing incredibly well. I think the approachability is the differentiating factor for Hop Stuff Brewery. We don’t go chasing the highest ABV, or sourest sour, we focus on making big flavoured beers for the new-to-craft drinker. That’s our market, and we focus very hard on making sure we’re that brewery.

3 things: Team, Brand, Ethos.

Team: High quality sales and production teams making and distributing our lovely beer.
Brand: Make craft beer accessible
Ethos: Craft beer ought to be for everyone.

Q  What advice would you give start ups looking to raise funding using equity crowdfunding? Do you think that the way the UK operates equity Crowdfunding will work in the longer term?

I think the system will need to change and adapt over the coming years to ensure its successful future. As I said, there are some companies that are inappropriate for crowdfunding that are unfortunately successfully getting through. I think a glossy brochure and good rhetoric isn’t enough, you have to demonstrate sound financial knowledge and a viable business proposition. I think there are a few high profile funds that I believe have the potential to fail, which may in turn hurt the market.
I’d advise anyone looking at it to do as I just said, make sure your business stacks up on all fronts before launching, it’ll make the Q&A a lot easier.

Q  What has been your biggest mistake and your greatest moment since 2013?

Biggest mistake: Capacity issues. Since we opened we’ve been chasing capacity in order to keep up. The new brewhouse is completely overspec’d, but it allows us the capacity to grow quickly.

Greatest moment: Successfully closing funding V2. Every time you fund you take a gamble: Is the valuation right? Will people back the idea? Are people interested? Do they get it? The funding of round 2 was done over, what I would argue to be, the toughest time of year (Christmas), and still only took 18 days to hit target 1, and a further 3 days to surpass our upper limit. Having another 600 people backing the idea is mind blowing, and incredibly complimentary.

Q  Have you had or applied for any help from UK DTI for your efforts in exporting your beers? If not do you understand why not and if you have, was it helpful? Do you have any advice for similar SMEs trying to export?

Yes, we have a good relationship with our counterparts at UKDTI – they’re extremely helpful when exporting to a new country, and valuable partners to know.

Q  What do you think would have happened to your company if you had not managed to raise the second time on Crowdcube?

We’d have continued in the same way as before, with the same ambitions. It would have likely just taken us quite a lot longer to get there.


Q  What are the plans for the next 3 years?

Firstly, we need to make good on all the promises we made when crowdfunding. We need to make sure Hop Stuff brewery is a successful brand, business and investment in the next 3 years. How do we do that? More of the same I think. We’ll continue to spread our message, invite people on board and promote craft beer wherever we can.

……………………………………………………………………………………..

Sure things are not yet complete – in fact this expansion phase is as dangerous as most. But the determination of the founders gives us hope that they will see this through and that the initial investors at a valuation of around £160k will be rewarded – as they should be.

It is also the case that we here had been highly critical of the first round and consequent performance  - 2015 accounts showed the company technically insolvent. We are happy to hold our hands up and say we got this wrong – we had never spoken to or met the founders and there lies the difference between giving up and forging on. They have been successful to date by focusing on – knowing their customers, serving their customers, running a very tight ship, proving their model, working their socks off and presenting investors with a genuine opportunity.

We wish them well for the future and will watch with anticipation as they grow.

Finally we cant help pointing out that they have never won any of Crowdcube’s self aggrandising, pointless awards.

Saturday 9 September 2017

Where is the sense in this?



Fishy Filaments have an interesting product in a growing market. All as yet untested. They are now overfunding on Crowdcube - WHY? Why sell off your company equity at this price when you will need it later?


We dont usually comment on live pitches - we dont like to influence. But in this case the pitch has flown past its very modest target in just a few days. So it's safe to do so.

FF solves a variety of very topical problems and in the model, makes money. Its still at a pre revenue stage  - in fact its a pre production stage. Sensibly the company was offering 25% of it shares for £150k. People loved it and bought in. So much so, that as of now, they have sold 30% of the company at this value. Now the plans we have seen, do not show any extra funding - it survives from now  - zero income, zero product and zero market position, to a turnover of £500k in 2018/19  -ie next year. For some reason the turnover only increases to £700k in 2019/20. So drops from 500% to under 50% annual growth. Capex is £120k over the next two years, leaving very little free cash for running the operation.

The cash flow for 2018/19 is derived entirely from the sale of the products (remember still untested in a real sense) on a very high GPM. Fall in projected sales would be fatal.

So guess what, they will need to raise more funding or borrow in 2018 and 2019. This reality is not shown in the Crowdcube pitch. Year 2018/19 starts with a very small bank balance.

But hang on, they are currently giving away their equity at a company value of around £600k and overfunding. So what will they have left? Surely one key element of seed funding is to raise enough capital, at a price that will attract risk takers, to prove the concept and get to revenue sales. Then you can up the value and raise more capital. If you have, as seems to be the case here, used up your equity, then you may well have shot yourself in the foot. You can only have so much equity and founders do tend to want to keep a solid block. So assuming they go on in this pitch but wish to keep 50% for founders, you have not got a play with in rounds 2/3/4/5/6.

The financials suggest a lack of attention to detail - dates are wrong, GPM is wrong etc. So be careful out there. Great idea but has anyone actually worked any of this out? Why wasnt there any mentoring? And if there was, you should be ashamed.

Thursday 7 September 2017

Innis and Gunn sell 28% for £15m


Innis and Gunn - the Scottish brewer and pub operator has sold 26% of its company to a US PE firm, valuing the business at a little over £50m.


We are not quite sure what to make of this. Sure it verifies the Crowdcube valuation of £50m in 2016 but doesnt it also dilute those shareholders and place them at the mercy of some US corporate?

Around 20% of the £15m is going into buying management shares and rest into operations with no liquidity offered to ordinary shareholders - according to unconfirmed reports.

I&G were making losses before raising £3m on a 7.5% bond via Code Investing in 2015, to build a new brewery. The money ended up being used to buy and expand the Inveralmond Brewery in 2016. Revenues rose by 22% and the company was in profit for the last year.

Needless to say the profit for 2016 of just over £300k doesn't come close to the Crowdcube projected profit (from the pitch in the same year) of £717k.  

It will interesting to see if this, like the sale by Brewdog of part of their company to a US corporate, makes for changes in the companies' fundamental ethos and what happens to the wee shareholder at the bottom of the barrell. 

Wednesday 6 September 2017

Idelman lose another £1.4m

Idleman has raised ECF on both Crowdcube and Syndicate Room. It tried to raise more recently on CC but failed. Recent, late accounts may give a clue as to why.

It all boils down to continuous promises and continuous excuses for not delivering on them. Credibility does have a limit. We have written about them before - here.

Their followers have put in another £1m this year but unless things have turned around since August 16, that wont last long. 2016 comes on the back of a £1.8m loss for 2015. Whilst both 15 and 16 projected losses, they were not in this region. The overshoot is around £1m for both years. The founder even admitted in a answer to us that the Crowdcube projections had been 'overly bullish'. 

On the Crowdcube website, the original 2015 pitch, which raised £718k, has been erased. That should give you a clue. It's also worth noting that Idleman used a favourite CC trick in their first pitch. They raised £450k of the £750k target off line with Foresight. This appeared in the progress bar at opening. Foresight also appear to have provided the new funding this year. 

The problem here is the same one that comes up time and time again with Crowdcube. Companies promise things they know they cant deliver. Crowdcube only care about the initial completion so they let excessive forecasts go or encourage them - their source of income coming from completions. Idleman may yet make it; it takes time. By promising undelivered figures, companies are putting themselves under enormous strains for all the wrong reasons. We all know this. Yet it continues. 

We recently interviewed a genuine Crowdcube success - post will be out shortly. Their initial projections were over egged but not by the usual amounts. On their second CC raise, which they had planned in the first raise, they were far more realistic and have now exceeded these figures. Sure they are not a ROI yet but their progress from very small to small/medium has been encouraging. They wholly agree that over hyped financials are the main problem with ECF and whilst careful not to say so directly, they blame CC for this. Who else is there? 

Surely time for a change?