Megathread - Crowdfunding

Thanks for sharing! Interesting to get to know that scene more. I realize heā€™s oversubscribed so demand is definitly there, but Iā€™m a bit bothered by the 20% carry fee. In my industry (PE) syndication is generally done on no fees, no carry terms (this is rapidly changing for the worst though). Weā€™re obviously not an institutional investor, but these terms seem very steep for whats essentially also a win for the Syndicate lead to have more capital. Iā€™m wondering whether risk/return with these terms this is superior to alternative terms such as simply VWRL, listed PE trusts (Hg, Harborvest) or even Moonfare FoF given the limited diversification of individual investments within the Syndicate.

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Another one of my Seedrs companies is going for an IPO - Hydro Wind Energy.

Maybe some crowd funding is finally going to pay off :slight_smile:

We have great news to share. Recently we secured a commitment with an institutional investor, GEM Group, for a share subscription agreement of ā‚¬50 million, to list on an exchange. We are moving towards a listing on a European or American stock exchange with potential also for dual listing in other jurisdictions. In parallel we are preparing an interim equity round on republic.co and potentially also Seedrs for Jan 2022. We are currently working on the conversion of the advanced subscription agreement to equity with the Seedrs team. This should be concluded in the next few weeks.

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20% carry plus 2% mgmt fee is standard for VCs and I appreciate this is not a VC. A lot of LPs are complaining about the fees in the industry in general. I see it as the cost of doing business, I wouldnā€™t be able to get close to those deals without this vehicle tbh. Outsize returns are the thing that will make this work and thereā€™s no guarantee there. I think they call it ā€œswinging for the fencesā€, hoping for a 100 bagger or aboveā€¦

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Check out https://unicornhunters.com/ as someone in this space already. Think Shark Tank/Dragons Den but the public can invest too.

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@Chrislewisuk I hadnā€™t seen this before, thanks for sharing :ok_hand: Are you planning to invest or have you already done so? Very high risk, but highly vetted, and spread across multiple previously ā€œhiddenā€ opportunities (to the smaller investor) makes sense.

This model (syndicate / fund) is defo going to gain significant traction and investor $. Higher fees sure but potentially much bigger chance or seriously outsized results versus direct company selection. Iā€™ve selected some good ones but some absolute shockers as well, especially some of my early ones :see_no_evil: Hard earned that could have been allocated far better, but you learnā€¦.

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Looks interesting, thank you for the info :+1:
I see thereā€™s an online Q&A this Thursday, Iā€™ll give it a listen.

I invested in the underlying business about 18-24 months ago. They have pivoted from remote management tools to this private equity fund raising + entertainment model. It was definitely one of my moonshot investments but on paper has been positive. Their plan is to go public this year (no promises obviously) to raise funds to invest in more businesses and to scale the show globally.

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Thanks Andrew

@Andrewpclark Just signed up to The Syndicate. Look forward to seeing the upcoming opportunities. Thanks for the heads up. Iā€™m ok with the carry/fees as keeping ~80% of potentially huge profits is just fine with me :pray:t3: :rocket:

You arenā€™t allowed to invest for the first month to avoid being too hot headed. You will be very frustratedā€¦

I saw that. Thatā€™s just nasty :rofl::ok_hand:t3:

JCal 100xā€™d on Robinhood if I heard correctly.

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He reckons Calm.com is his biggest. Given Uber and Robinhood thatā€™s going to be interestingā€¦

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Investor Jason Calacanis invests in Alex Tew of Calm.com (Before Calm was a unicorn) - YouTube This is the episode Jason offered an angel investment on the spot for Calm

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Heā€™ll be glad he sold looking at HOOD over the past 5 months. Brutal. Is it a buying opp? It does show the importance of taking at least some profit off the table as you go and will defo be my approach when there is the appropriate opportunity re my FT holdingā€¦.

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He was taking about what to do with the shares on All in Podcast a few weeks after as he wanted to hold, Chamath & Sachs just told him to distribute and leave it to fund investors. I donā€™t know what he did though.

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Thanks for that, incredible given whatā€™s happened since. Just when you think theyā€™ve grown as much as they can they do Calm for business and Calm for education. Brilliant ideas. Youā€™re probably too young to remember but Alex Tew was behind the million dollar homepage, an absolute phenomenon back in the mid nineties.

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I remember that - it was in the mid 2000ā€™s. Tried to replicate it shortly afterwards, but bottled out when the figures started to creep up. Genius idea at the time though.

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Youā€™re right. 2005. Jeez, Iā€™m oldā€¦

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:face_with_raised_eyebrow: idea seems good, but this is valued at $2.4bn and its advertising makes all my alarms go offā€¦

ā€œPre-IPO financing can result in a ROI up to 30,000,000% but, until recently, it was largely closed to individual investors.ā€

" TransparentBusiness is in the process of becoming a public reporting company under the SEC rules, with the objective of exceeding the $58B valuation achieved by Robinhood."

" A 1,000% Return on Investment Opportunity?"