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Wednesday 2 May 2018

Who is next in line to come unstuck in the Crowdcube Hall of Fame



We cant tell you right now, but it is a BIG ONE. So if you have shares in this company, sell them now!


We wold love to give SHs the chance not to lose all their money but its just not possible. We are sworn to silence. We havent been wrong in 7 years, so you can take it from us this sh!t will hit the fan.

Multiple raises taking in multiple millions. But the company just wasnt ready to expand at that sort of pace. It has over traded and caput. We warn of this the whole time but the likes of Crowdcube and its two owners have zero experience in business. All they want is completions with your cash. 

To be honest this one is a great shame  - as you will see. It will still be great but you investors wont see any of that. Sorry. 

40 comments:

  1. A company who funded on CC?

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    1. Could be Crowdcube itself

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    1. Brewdog might not be everyone's cup of tea, or even schooner of triple hopped guava IPA, but they've got £80m cash on their balance sheet. Not going bust anytime soon. Also I know they did bonds on CC but they are not really a CC raiser are they.

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  3. How do you sell shares on a cc brokered investment?

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  4. when will you be able to go public?

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  5. When do you expect this to become public?

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  6. Just as soon as the deal is done or I hear about it - I dont want to publish the name and damage the deal which may then make things even worse for investors.

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  7. Your bitterness toward Crowdcube (the world's most prolific equity crowdfunding platform) is interesting. Are you familiar with the warning on every page of their website, capital at risk? No one is obliged to invest; when joining, everyone has to pass a Q&A section that makes them demonstrate that they understand that there is a significant chance they will lose the capital invested. It is also a market place - investors don't have to invest. Your comments such as 'Crowdcube took £XXX from punters' are unhelpful and inaccurate at best. You should use your voice positively and honestly.

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  8. Bitter moi? Non. You have tried this line before - can I suggest you get some new phrases so at least I might feel obliged to take you seriously. The posts are not made up - they are based on facts - why do you think CC havent sued me? Of course investors dont have to invest but they are being coerced into doing so with false information on an FCA regulated platform. I dont know anyone who thinks that is a good idea but the world is full of allsorts. IMO Crowdcube do take money off punters - it's a far more accurate way to describe what is happening than using the word investment; as the evidence shows. So please either come back with some facts to argue over or go away.

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  9. I'm glad you allowed this comment to be posted (as you moderate them all before posting). Why not have an open forum like the platforms do? What content do you need to filter? Surely the community does that itself....

    "False information"? That's interesting.

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  10. "the world's most prolific equity crowdfunding platform"
    WTF?

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  11. Assuming you are the same anon - its quite difficult for us to know - I really think you might switch your brain to on. We have to moderate to stop bots posting hundreds of adverts for STD and the like. We only bin posts if they are insulting or add nothing to the argument. If you think the platforms run free for all forums then you are wrong. I would happy to supply you with the false information given to investors on the Crowdcube platform if you get in touch via email - but you wont.

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    1. I would be happy to follow your suggestion. Why wouldn’t I? Having said that, I expect you would be happy to share information that you are offering to me privately with the community publicly. So I would ask again for you to tell me (and everyone else) what information Crowdcube has presented which is false - but you won’t.

      If you can’t, then I await your apology.

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    2. Hi Anon - a few things with regards to your comments here.referencing to directors' backgrounds.

      1. Most of the information that is false is on the posts - read them. This information includes wrongly filed accounts, wrongly described contracts or contracts promoted that never existed. Misleading numbers with regards to subscribers/client numbers. Falsely filed historic financial data. If you are really interested you could easily have looked all of this up for yourself. We dont offer a hand holding service I am afraid.

      3. I do also have information that is not published and remains ours until we decide to release it. So no, you are wrong , this is not information I would share with anyone or publicly. If you want to see it you will have to get in touch in such a way that I can verify who you are and what you want. Seems very reasonable to me.

      You seem quite childlike in your responses so I suspect you are just not a serious investor - maybe you are one Crowdcube's interns.

      So if you nothing interesting to add to this debate I would politely suggest you be on your way and bother some other poor blogger.

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    3. PS I suppose it is only fair for me to give at least one example of the false info Im talking about. Here are 3.

      So Solar Cloth Co was run by a guy who had used different versions of his name at CH - one version was even spelt differently. Because the system at CH is so old, its difficult to pick up on this unless you are willing to put in a little leg work, which CC dont do. One of the companies one version of this guy had set up had gone into liquidation and he had been personally bankruputed. None of this information was in the Crowdcube pitch - in fact he was written up as some SME start up guru. It resulted in investors loosing all their money but worse, creditors losing a lot more. All facilitated by Crowdcube's lack of Due Diligence.

      Another example is Red Advertising stating that they definitely wouldnt be raising again - in their second or third go. They have now raised 6 times.

      Another example is Early Bird using figures for subscribers that were inflated and turned out to be one of discount purchasers.

      All under the umbrella of Crowdcube's FCA licence and all used to take money off punters which in all of these cases has resulted in total loss - even if Red are still limping along.

      Plenty more but I will leave you to find them.

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    4. Oh and just to bring this right up to date Crowdcube are currently running a campaign - Moove - where the company and or its director is not licensed under Irish law to deal with property. I dont how Crowdcube could achieve a more misleading representation if they actually tried.

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  12. Sounds a bit like Sugru......sad.

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  13. I think the problem is that you quite like to sensationalise every story, which can become irritating. You seem to enjoy seeing companies go down, and investors like me, lose their money. You appear to have a very dim view of people like me who have taken a punt on start up companies that they like the look of and could do well. There are a load of companies that are working exceptionally hard to make a go of it with limited funds. That said, your website is excellent and a mine of information, but less of the sarcasm would make it better still.

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    1. Sorry you see it that way. We are a lone voice amongst a sea of irresponsible PR and Gov negligence. If you want to amuse yourself by investing on Crowdcube, so be it. But dont expect any ROI. What we are trying to achieve is an ECF sector that really has a chance of adding value to the UKplc by picking and promoting businesses that have at least a good chance of achieving something. This is the opposite of what Crowdcube do - any business gets on their platform and they now avoid all responsibility for the rubbish they promote by telling investors they do not check the business or its plans. This is contrary to the FCA guidelines - only CC are too well connected to be brought to heel.

      My whole career has been in SMEs and start ups - so I take very little pleasure in this mess. That doesnt mean that Im going to sit by and let it roll on. Im afraid the sarcasm is part of my style - maybe take your advice and tone it down. I do find this whole thing rather depressing!

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  14. Either that stupid rubber glue one of the veggie rice

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  15. I can attest to the above. During a live campaign I asked the one of the companies to answer questions raised on this forum.
    Now this to an open forum would be reasonable but crowdcube removed my post and sent me an email saying the post was inflammatory.
    After a bit of back and fourth I said to the person from crowdcube, that I love the concept but we need properly vetted information vetted by the platform for it to become the place common investors need it to be.
    Severely disappointed by their response and shows they are not open forums.

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  16. Let me give you list of whom it might be - actually there isnt room. A selection then - Kokoon, Red Advertising, One Rebel, River Cottage, Chilangos, Sugru, Cauli Rice, Mara Seaweed etc etc.

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    1. I could say all of the above and eventually win a prize

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    2. Can we assume 'multiple raises' means more than two, or do you use that word just as inflationary as CC when it comes to the return on their few exits?

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    3. Oops - sorry it was in fact 2 not 3 as I thought. Apologies for misleading you. Multiple millions of pounds still stands tho.

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  17. I'd say river cottage as none of the others would cause much of stir in the wider world and the implication is that this is going to be big news, but the article talks about shareholders and I think RC is just bonds isn't it? Plus I am not sure you can have the business continuing having toasted bondholders in quite the same way as you can with equity.I don't think any of the others would get more than a footnote on page 25 of the business pages.

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    1. Maybe maybe not. i might has misled you as the story isnt another TSB or RBS. It's only big in terms of ECF and Crowdcube. But that is what we tend to write about. RC is just bonds as you say.

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  18. Casual dining seems obvious, but there has been some restructuring and LLs currently seem keen to work with businesses. My money is on 1Rebel. Capex and site development must be astro, cost base is high, competition is fierce and they don't have the same clout as Barry's.

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  19. Rob, you fail to appreciate that most businesses that raise capital on CC have to find the bulk of investors themselves, in addition it's not rocket science, many start ups will over estimate revenues and under estimate cost to market. I would say that applies to 95% if not all Start ups in CC. So why are you surprised that a business might need multiple raises? A small amount may be all they can raise at that point if their development. All the pitches you mention are bootstrap businesses raising low levels of capital, levels so low that they fall outside of what a VC might look at.
    Anyhow, to be blunt, you are hardly expert yourself Rob, what happened to that business that paid you a fee to promote it, Appetite ltd or something was it? You have even taken the thread down from this site on that one! I rest my case.

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    1. No I dont - 'I would say' is not a fact it is just your opinion, whoever you are. We are never surprised that they need more than one raise, just surprised they dont say that in their plans and even deny it when asked during the pitch. I have 35 years experience in SME start ups and growth, so I know how all this works. Appetise didnt pay us to promote them. They paid us to help with their attempt to raise money on Crowdcube. Unfortunately they had already signed up to CC and set most of the parameters including the valuation so I wasnt able to do much. Left to me, a lower valuation and different platform would have seen this business funded. The post was taken down, as all posts are that refer back to pitches we have helped that are no longer live. Conspiracy that if you wish.

      When making accusations it helps to know your facts. If you dont like what we do here - why waste your time and mine - just ignore it. Alternatively make some appropriate, well founded criticism for me to respond to. Thanks for trying.

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  20. Where's your integrity Rob? If you really feel that Crowdcube are such an awful platform and the valuation of the business is wrong, why would you support them to raise capital? I wouldn't do this with the companies I support in equity raises and regularly walk away.

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  21. Firstly if you wish to argue over my integrity, which I take a great pride in, then use a name. Other than that I have no idea to what you are referring? What company are you talking about? If it is Crowdcube, you are clearly misinformed. Ask them if they would take my advice, let alone pay for it!!

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  22. The company referred to above that you worked with, on Crowdcube. You seem to be either confused, or contradicting yourself. Glad to see others highlighting this too.

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  23. Ah sorry my mistake - i thought you were refering back to the post not a answer to another Q. You are refering to Appetise - why not just say so? Why would I turn away good business with an established VC fund when they approached me for help? I looked at the business and thought, as did many others during the pitch, that it had legs. It already had serious backers, it was disruptive and it had a clear exit plan. What I wasnt told before I signed them up was that the HQ in the USA had no intention of lowering the valuation until the very last minute - not a great plan. But out of my hands. Crowdcube investors simply couldnt understand what was on offer - too complicated for them. So it bombed and is now in hibernation while they decide what to with it. I dont have any problems helping them and as part of that help, telling people I have helped them and its worth a look. What is the issue with that please? When I took this on I believed it made a sensible investment, ok it was slightly over valued and it was on Crowdcube but they needed help. I have passed up on over 20 businesses in the past 12 months who have asked for help - my criteria are - one can it be funded, two if is funded will it make it for investors and three is all the DD ok. Appetise was a tick on all 3. Now I dont know if you are Anon 1, 2 or 3 but as I said to the other anon, there will be no more postings on this issue if you cant man up and give me your name. This is not a shooting gallery at some poxy fairground and I am not a coconut.

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  24. Now announced that it is sugru. Glad I only invested a tenner. Sorry to those who lost more.

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  25. Well, an email has gone out to the investors, I look forward to your blog post on it Rob!

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