We are offering entrepreneurs a free equity crowdfunding capital raising advice service.

Over 60% of pitches that try to raise crucial funding on sites like Crowdcube fail. This effects personal morale, the business and wastes a lot of valuable time and effort. We believe we can help.

We have intimate experience in the UK equity crowdfunding market since its inception in 2011. We have invested in, studied and followed over 200 businesses that have pitched on Crowdcube and other platforms  - some successful and some not. We know how to create a successful pitch and more importantly we know how to create a successful and honest pitch. We don't use gizmos and slight of hand - we just present the case in the best possible way for the Crowd to want to be enthused and for the investment to be a success for both entrepreneur and investors.

Equity Crowdfunding will only work long term if both entrepreneurs and investors win. The current wisdom as expounded by the likes of Crowdcube, is that the entrepreneurs should do all they can to con the Crowd into investing - read the blogs to find out how. We dont believe this is sustainable and it will eventually lead to ECF's demise. Its obvious why this has come about - the platforms only make money out of successful pitches, irrelevant of the likely success of the businesses. So help us change it.

Our experience covers successfully founding a retail chain in 1980s and 90's, running a national events company in the trade and consumer markets and consulting for a variety of SMEs and start ups. A Cranfield MBA completes the icing on the cake.

So any would-be entrepreneurs wishing to raise money via equity crowdfunding should contact us for a free discussion and if you wish, free review of your business. From this we can assess if you are ready to ECF ie will it have a good chance of success. If we help with the creation of the ECF campaign and it is successful, only then do we take a small % of the money raised.

Simply go to the contact us page and let us know that you are thinking of using this route for funding and we will be able to help you. 

E Sign UK Ltd return to Crowdcube for more cash at a simply crazy valuation

Yet another Crowdcube ''success'' is back for more money. This one is a cracker.

Only a few months ago at the end of 2014 E-Sign UK Ltd raised £50k to get going. At a valuation of around £500k it was probably a punt. Now the company is back asking for £200k for 4.88%. So since the end of last year they must have made some great progress.

No. They appear to have made little real progress, lots pf talk but little action. Sales of next to zero. A major competitor is out there so how on earth can they now value themselves at over £4m - or 8 times the value of a few months ago.

So according to comments from Darren Westlake, CEO of Crowdcube, first round investors have done incredibly well and have seen a ROI of 8X.  

Come on guys. Please.

Powered Now - a typical Crowdcube fudge up

Powered Now raised £580k in September 2014 - so only 9 months ago. This first raise is not mentioned in their new pitch on Crowdcube. The stated target then was only £350k - same as the new raise.

So why are they raising more money so soon when their plans to raise £350k were so oversubscribed? Simple - the projections used in the first raise were the usual Crowdcube nonsense. They spent far more on marketing and made far fewer sales. This is not to say that it wont eventually succeed but it is typical of the naive approach used by pitches and encouraged by Crowdcube, which is verging on the ignorant.

Of course the first round investors will now be diluted and then diluted again when this round proves to be over optimistic. They have not filed accounts since September so there is no way of verifying the numbers used in this second pitch. If they are anything like the first one, then they can be binned.

People are still piling in though - why are we so surprised. Once a gambler starts losing, thats when he spends most of his money.

Proof that Crowdcube are scamming the Crowd

A friend of ours who is Crowdcube 'member' was so concerned about this that they contacted us.

A newish pitch on the platform is asking for £X for Y%. All good so far. However on inspection of the pitch financials, the company showed an inward investment from this round of £X plus 40%. When asked how this tallied with the figure of X as promoted in the pitch, they said they needed £X plus the 40% to pay for their plans and that 'overfunding' would cover the difference.

So here we have a company being advised by the platform to ask for less than they really need and to use the overfunding option to get to where they need to be to execute the plans they have pitched. How open and honest is that? Crowdcube know from experience that overfunding tends to add a minimum of £20% to the published figure and can add as much as ten times that sum. They also know that asking for smaller sums, especially with start ups, is more likely to succeed.

The Crowd deserves a better service than this surely?

Mind the Gap's latest players

More Crowdcube 'successes' miss their financial targets.

East End Manufacturing has just reported a £152,000 loss against projected £50,000 profits. These were the projections used for their second raise as they ran out of money from the first - which needless to say had even more ridiculous projected profit levels.

Sole Trader Websites made a loss for the year of £118,000 and is way off its projected targets.

Playrcart has a website still in Beta and is due to file accounts shortly - it doest appear to have any clients so it will most likely be making very little money. It funded two years ago.

Purple Harry reported a loss that is 5X larger than the one projected in its Crowdcube pitch.

Pip and Nut are now 2 months late with their accounts. Interestingly they have taken on board one Fleur Emery - the person behind Green and Pleasant Lager which recently closed having raised money on Crowdcube. The 'brand' is still around as she appears to have sold this to someone who is now operating it as Green and Pleasant London. We understand the original company, 28 Broadwick St, which has closed, did not pay anything to its Crowdcube shareholders - if we are wrong please let us know.

.............27 Aug..... Pip and Nut have now let Fleur Emery go, filed both return and the smallest accounts you ever likely to see and are seemingly back in business. Squirrels eh, I dont know!

Finally Atlantic Kitchen's filed accounts show that the historic data they presented on Crowdcube when they raised £150,000 was inaccurate. It showed a positive balance sheet for the 'previous period' where the accounts show a deficit. Someone clearly cannot count. They have changed their filing date so we will have to wait until September to find out if they have managed to make up this deficit.

This is all just run of the mill when it comes to Crowdcube pitches. The best option is to assume that all the information you are supplied with is inaccurate and go from there. Good luck.

PRing that back fires.

Daris Zand, the entrepreneur behind telecoms company OVIVO raised two rounds of funding with us during 2013 and stormed both of them. He raised a total of £564,000 from 178 investors who believed in him.

The judges said; “Darius was totally focused on his fundraising, he was committed, organised and this showed in his pitch and his business. His pitch was executed perfectly both times, making him the perfect entrepreneur to work with.”

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

So reads the Crowdcube 2013 Hall of Fame.

We thought this was of interest as Darius' business Ovivo went bust very suddenly shortly after the awards were handed out. Who you might ask are the judges!! It also shows just how easy it is to fool 178 investors. 

Some good news

Righteous have just filed accounts to Oct 2014 showing a £67k profit. That is ahead of the second set of projections they used to raise their second round on Crowdcube. That in terms of Crowdcube is close to a miracle.

Although they are a long way from making money for the investors who have funded them to the tune of £250k to date, at a value in 2012 £500k and again in 2013 of £750k, it is at least progress.

We had serious doubts but are delighted to be proved wrong. Luckily for investors, this pitch funded at a time when valuations were more realistic than the stratospheric ones used today on the platform.