Earlybird asks investors to pay for its EIS submissions. No - you didnt misread that.

This is a script that David Croft would have loved. You can just imagine Battery Sergeant Major "Shut Up" Williams' expression as Private Pugh explains that although investors have lost all their money - in order to claim their 30% tax rebate they have to fork out more cash because Pugh hasnt yet put through the paperwork with HMRC (loud snorts stage left).

This is the guy that many people trusted with a lot of cash. And you have to ask why, for instance, the Crowdcube 2015 raise has still not managed to file its EIS paperwork? This was Crowdcube's job, so clearly their EIS department have joined forces with the due diligence crew and are both down the local.

It is quite simply - amazing.

The good news, if you can call it that, is that Crowdcube have agreed to pay for their EIS paperwork, so Pugh only needs investors to cough up for the other two outstanding applications. Salt and wounds. 

Earlybird Envestors pitch is 'postponed'.

Envestors have postponed the Earlybird pitch that we highlighted here

Sensible move in our opinion. If Earlybird really do have sales of 2400 boxes per week (£10,800 revenue) as they claim, then they have enough cash coming in for now. Oliver may have to take a salary cut but hey who hasnt been there if you run your show.

Go away and get some real traction, like you promised you would in the Crowdcube projections and then maybe raising more cash will be easier.

Earlybird breaking all the rules

Earlybird have raised money on Crowdcube twice, tried to raise money on Angels Den and are now trying again on Envestors at £2m pre money. We have written many times about them on here.

We have been sent this plea for help from the CEO of Earlybird ( via a friend) -

From: Oliver EB <oliver@earlybirdsnacks.com>
Date: Sat, Jul 23, 2016 at 11:13 AM
Subject: URGENT - Requires Immediate attention. EarlyBird
To: .............................

Dear Shareholder,

EarlyBird requires urgent investment as our large funding round has been unexpectedly delayed.

The EarlyBird business is performing well: The product is loved by the market, customer retention is on target, and we have new board members joining the company in the autumn bringing expertise to help us grow - including the founder of ...............................  However we now face an urgent funding gap as the funds we are seeking will take longer than anticipated to come through.

We are asking our investors to help us bridge this gap in return for a significant stake in the company. Please note we are asking for initial indications by Friday July 29th.

Please read the attached letter and do not hesitate to get in contact with me if you have any questions.

Oliver Pugh

CEO/Founder

Below is the text from the letter - 

Dear Shareholder,    

We need your help.     

EarlyBird’s product is in a great position and is loved by the market, we have significant funding  lined up to grow the business and new board members bringing expertise to help us grow.  These funds will take longer than anticipated to come through and so EarlyBird faces ​ an urgent  funding gap​ .    We are asking our investors to help us bridge this gap in return for a significant stake in the  company. Please note due to the urgency of this gap we require indications by ​ Friday July 29th.    

As I’m sure you’re aware, we’ve been raising a significant funding round that will allow us to  scale our subscriber base and to launch the product into new markets both online and offline.  So far the funding round has been extremely successful with £150k of new money indicated,  and a further ­350k in the pipeline. However this money is insufficient to close the round  now.    

We have also lined up amazing new board members that will help us grow the business and  raise money in the future: .................................... and .................................... These board members are lined up to join ​ assuming  that we raise sufficient funds.    All that said, we are almost out of money and so we are asking our investors for urgent support  (investment). We planned to close our round before the summer July/August, but key investors  have held­off investing due to the current uncertainty in the UK market. This has pushed the  closing until after summer (September/October). In order to get there we need a bridge: We  need more funds now to give us the time to pursue this additional investment. This is why we  are asking our investors for urgent support.    

To reward our investors continued support and encourage investment now we’re lowering the  pre­money value of this round to £660,000. This represents the best value for investment in  EarlyBird. Current investors can buy shares up to their pro­rata investment level at this valuation  and ​ existing investments in this round will be converted to this valuation​ .    

Please see the pro­rata schedule for this round attached below (the number in the third column  means if you invest that amount your % holding will stay the same). For this round, for example, 

a £10,000 investment would yield a c. 0.9% stake in the company post­money. We expect (but  cannot guarantee) the round to be EIS eligible.    

Thank you for your support to date, it has allowed us to build what our customers are telling us  is a truly game changing product not just for the market but for the way people perceive and  consume healthy snacks.     If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact me on:  Email:​ oliver@earlybirdsnacks.com   Phone: +(44) (0) 7796 193 711    

Please send indications of interest by reply to this email.    

All the best,    Oliver Pugh

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

So Earlybird are offering two different deals at the same time - one here to existing shareholders and one at a much higher price to investors at Envestor. Im sure Envestor members will be delighted by this. Envestors have confirmed that they didnt know anything about this.  Ignoring this duplicity, the facts are that Earlybird do not and have never done well - see review here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vaW2SuYrvn0

Yet again equity crowdfunding shoots itself in the foot. This is totally unacceptable behaviour even if it is not illegal. And it all stems from the first two nonsensical raises which Crowdcube facilitated. 

WHY?? Early Bird regurgitates on Envestors

Earlybird is a snack best eaten cold. 

The company is like a bad lunch  - it keeps on repeating on you. 

They managed to raise twice on Crowdcube, the second time at a value of £1.5m only a few months ago. This raise was farcical, having had to change the end date several times and increase the equity to squirm over the line. Now they are back on Envestors with an increased valuation! They are apparently worth £2m. They have been on Crowdcube, Angels Den and now Envestors - see here . Where to next govner?

The revenues on Crowdcube were due to go from £11,000 to over £1m in 12 months. Need we say more. 

As they have changed all their dates, from the Crowdcube raise to now, its almost impossible to tell if their projections are realistic. Our bet is that they are worse than most, which means they are not great - CAVEAT IPSUM EMPTOR. 

We love the line in the pitch (again sent to us anon) about the Exit strategy. 'Exit is most likely via a trade sale'. In our opinion the exit is most likely out the back door. 

Hello from the Summer Isles

Hello from the Summer Isles

We were not going to post whilst on a short break in the most serene setting you could imagine and yes it really does look like this even on the 30 October. But needs must  -  a ludicrous Crowdcube fund launch and an even more ludicrous ending to the farce that has become the Early Bird pitch have demanded a response.

Crowdcube's new £500k EIS fund must be a piss take, right? With only 1 out of 300 funded companies returning anything to investors and at least 10 bust, Crowdcube have now embarked on a managed fund that will, over 5 years, make you loads of money. The £500k will be invested in 8 to 30 Crowdcube pitches - carefully selected by a group of independent and Crowdcube 'experts'. Good luck with that guys, you will be struggling to find 3 let alone 30. 

For the privilege of having this expert guidance, you will pay a fee equivalent to 10% over 5 years, on top of your investment. This is the good bit - if the company hasnt 'exited' after 5 years, the management will end and you will be left holding a worthless piece  of paper. A cynic might look at this as fairly desperate measure by Crowdcube to increase investment in their pool of increasingly poor pitches. The same guys selecting these pitches are the ones playing with your money. Enough said.

Earlybird have been sending out their latest SOS emails to entice investment in their Crowdcube pitch, which like some over ripe Agen prune, will finally fall and die today. Thank the Lord. The email starts - ''It is our plan to deliver an minimum of 13x ROI based on current performance / growth targets and with our new routes to market this could be upwards of 66x ROI in the next 3 to 5 years.'' We think this is a clear breach of FCA rules amongst other things. Crowdcube have moved the goal posts on this one so often the pitch has now been developed into a new supermarket. 

Maybe this would be good opener for the new fund?

PS - The ridiculous farce with Early Bird has just been extended for another 6 days!!

Earlybird now bribing punters to invest

Really Crowdcube cannot get any more ridiculous than this.

Early Bird are trying to raise money on Crowdcube for the second time. The pitch has gone poorly, mainly because the projections from the first raise have been missed and they are over valuing their company.

So the pitch reached time up today with under half the money raised but as usual with CC, it's been extended. Two days ago we posted that the company were offering free food for life if you invested, now they offering free tickets to Glastonbury and free food.

How can Crowdcube make any claim to be offering a serious grown up service with this type of pyjama business?  If this company wants to raise capital then it should offer investors a deal that makes sense and show that they can really build a solid business. Attaching tacky sales gimmicks to their shares is truly pathetic. Mind you, it rather sums up Crowdcube.

Investing through the Looking Glass

This is what passes for an accurate description at the Crowdcube T Party.

East Well play More Ltd was founded by Oliver Pugh in 2014. In that year it raised money on Crowdcube. Now it's back for more. All true so far.

On the front of the pitch Oliver describes himself as a ''Driven entrepreneur with a hunger for success. EarlyBird (the company pitching) is my life passion, I'm fully invested in its success and wont stop until we make it.''

That certainly sounds encouraging and one would expect, looking at his short career, to find some entrepreneurial activity, to back it up.

So Oliver has started 6 companies since 2012. Three of these have been closed within 16 months of opening, with no trading. Another one is still open but at the First Gazette stage, one has traded and made a £4,000 profit before trying to close. The final company is the one in the current pitch. As far as we can tell this one is still open.

So in terms of activity, if we say opening a company and closing it without it trading, is a gauge of entrepreneurship, then he scores highly. We dont think any sane person believes it is though. So you have to ask how did the DD department at Crowdcube manage to pass this description of Oliver for what is an FCA regulated and accredited pitch?

It all helps to explain the lack of continuity between the claims made in the pitch about customer retention etc and the facts as we know them.

This level of accuracy is the norm on this platform and it really is time that either they got their act together or the FCA stepped in. Not really much chance of either happening this side of the looking glass. More T vicar?