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?