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.