Birdsong are about to complete their £75k Crowdcube campaign - Congratulations.
If you look into their pitch you have to wonder why people are investing - maybe just love the luuv this ethically correct company are spreading.
A headline claim is that they have Bethnall Green Ventures behind them. Now this is true but if you check just how far behind them, they are using just one thumb to assist. Two tranches of £15k each to be precise - although to get this information you have to do some digging at CH. Why not just be up front guys? Do venture companies really invest that little??
Then there is the confusion over the number of 'customers' the business has/has had. In the pitch it states that they have 300 customers which for an on line retailer over 18 months is small. This fits with the equally small turnover for the period - they call this traction but we wouldnt. An avarage spend of £33 is not exciting. Also why is the financial projection using projected figures for YE March 2016? That'll be the Crowdcube OTL Dept.
Back to those customer figures - in a post by the founder, she states 'We have attracted over 35,000 users to the site since November 2015, and customers in 14 different countries.' Hmmm. This number is then used to verify the company valuation. What is a 'user'? Whats more, the founder then goes on to compare her company to Wool and the Gang, which if you remember was featured here for exiting at a 1% ROI or more if you accepted gift tokens instead of cash!
Yet they have run a successful Crowdcube campaign valuing their company at £850k. Stop the world, I need to get off.
