No change of tide as Mara Seaweeds' losses keep piling up

Mara Seaweed is a classic Crowdcube tale and investors would do well to learn from it. We warned you all at the time they were raising money. 

Where to begin - you could start by reading these previous posts - here

Mara had promised gold and has delivered shale. They have lost all of their key directors and the company is now back to the two women who started it. It is only afloat (albeit with a large hole in the keel) because the two remaining directors have used their own money to keep it there. 

This is the sort of business that could have made a few people a good living -  a lifestyle business. Healthy outdoor life and great product. But the demand for this product was never going to take them to the levels they sold to investors. A fact now clearly evidenced by their own departing business gurus.

The company is loss making and has run out of cash. The whole Crowdcube pitch business model was flawed from the start. This is a product to be sold online and at events, to grow organically to a stage where it is self sustainable then and only then, to possibly launch into mainstream retail. Their plan turned this on its head with glamorous accounts at Morrisons and M&S - who on earth puts those two together? 

It is a great shame but it is one we have warned about many times. Wrong channel, too hasty, no traction and bang. What was a perfectly good small business employing people in a local community becomes a large pile of loss making mush. 

The only thing that allows this to happen is ECF or more accurately Crowdcube. They take no view on a business proposition's sustainability - because they do not have the skills to do so. Of course they pretend they do but when one of the founders has to exaggerate his own past 'success', you know what you know. 

Where Mara goes from here is anyone guess. They took £500k off investors in a campaign that had several issues. Maybe they will find a way out but what investment will that take? Now their business guru backers have jumped ship, will their credibility have any standing?

Personally I liked their original name Sea Weed and Eat it. And the back story. But they have been ill advised.