When Soshi Games went bust recently, SR's CEO, Goncalo de Vasconcelos, had the CEO perform in front of a camera to explain what had gone wrong. All in the spirit of openness you understand.
The video actually told us very little apart from the fact that the CEO didnt seem to understand some basic facts about how his market functioned. We thought at the time that if you wanted to cover something up, this would certainly be a good smoke screen.
As we pointed out elsewhere here, there is something rather odd about this company. All Syndicate Room pitches have Lead Investors. This one was no exception. The Early Advantage fund, run by Midven, were according to SR the Lead here.
Certainly if you check the ARs for the company, they are a substantial shareholder. That is until just before the business' collapse. In the final AR their holding has vanished - it's simply not there on the list of shareholders. So whilst all the other investors and creditors are sitting licking their wounds, it would appear that Midven got out in the nick of time. That's what you call leading from the front. Of course it could be an error with the AR.
So we asked both Midven and SR what had happened. Midven never replied but Goncalo has. SR do not see anything amiss with what has happened and it seems likely that the information is privileged. Door shuts.
Ours wasnt a difficult query - what has happened to the large shareholding that SR's the Lead investor had in this company?
Given that the holding disappeared just before the company went bust, owing investors and creditors well over £1m, it seems a fair ask. Of course it is possible to hide behind client confidentiality - it always is. However it says a lot for SR's openness claim that they would even consider trying that one.
We'll keep digging, it may all be perfectly innocent and above board. Only the facts will tell us that. At the moment, the facts show the Lead investor had left the building before it fell on everyone else.
Hi Rob. Cliff Dennett here, the ex-CEO of Soshi. I'm more than happy to have as much of an in-depth interview with you as you wish on any aspect of Soshi - you can PM me through LinkedIn if you like and we can have a chat. In terms of the main point made in your blog here, no one got out early/the last minute, least of all EALP/Midven. The whole shareholder base remained extremely supportive through Soshi's history and understood and appreciated the incredible efforts the staff put in to try and make it work, right until the end. No one had any preferential treatment. Hope this helps to clarify this point, but as I say, happy to talk further. Regards, Cliff.
ReplyDeleteThanks for commenting. All we would like to know is why the Early Advantage fund, one of your main shareholders and the 'Lead' for the SR campaign is not listed a s shareholder in your final AR. It's not a difficult to give a straight answer to. What happened to their shareholding and when did this happen?
DeleteDid we ever get an answer to this?
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