I don’t recall my questions being read to Simon. Someone else asked a similar question with a lot less words and that was the one presented to Simon. Nevertheless, in his answer Simon addressed the specifics listed in my post. For that reason I think Simon took the time to read this thread before the AMA. I appreciate that. The way I see it that shows Simon respects the forum members. I may be wrong of course. It may happen he didn’t read the questions prior to the AMA and that shows his awareness of crowdfunding sentiment. Worst case scenario Simon is smart. Best case scenario Simon is wise. Take your pick.
Paraphrasing Simon’s answer:
Draper Esprit talked with Freetrade’s management about participating in the crowdfunding Round 6 (some non specified time before launch). From Draper’s perspective joining the round with £1M and leaving £6M for the crowd wouldn’t make sense. £1M would be a small commitment that wouldn’t make sense because £1M is too small an amount to move the needle on their portfolio. For Draper, in order to make sense to invest in Round 6 they would have to invest the full £7M. In order to make financial sense in terms of moving the needle for their returns on investment. But in their perspective, investing the full £7M allowed for the Round 6 would upset the crowd because the crowd would then be left out of the Round. Thus they decided not to take part. And by not taking part that would allow another 1000 people to join the Freetrade story and that would be beneficial.
Regarding follow up investments in Freetrade Simon says (I’m not sure if the pun is intended or not, I mean I wasn’t thinking about but it came out so… just enjoy it)… so, Simon says
In other words, if Freetrade performs Draper Esprit will be happy to invest more in Freetrade.
In case I offer a misrepresentation of Simon’s words please feel free to point it out so I can edit it.
Thanks for asking @Dueprincipati. Hope your curiosity is satisfied.