Desperate Darren's Friday Comic

This made our Friday - http://www.crowdfundinsider.com/2016/02/81909-crowdcubes-darren-westlake-debunks-some-crowdfunding-myths/

No mention anywhere of the losses incurred by investors or the large number of zombie companies Crowdcube have funded that will never give their investors a return. Or of course the collateral damage that isn't their fault.

Love the stuff about the FCA. We all know that back in 2011 when this all kicked off the Lib/Con government were desperate for good news and decided under Vince Cable's shaky hand to give ECf a clear passage. We also all know, or do now after we pointed it, that the stats banded about, about how few businesses have gone bust after funding this way, are all nonsense. The time lag is ignored by those wishing to create the mirage - Westlake included.

The returns issue just wont go away Dareen because you try to confuse people about bond returns and  the lack of equity investment returns -the two are like chalk and cheese. In reality no one was expecting returns this early despite the ridiculous claims made in the Crowdcube pitches about 3 year exits. Claims sanctioned and some might think encouraged by Westlake and his team.

What people might have been expecting is that the funded companies had a good chance of getting somewhere near to their Crowdcube vetted projections. The failure of so many to do so and scale of this failure is something that the press have shied away from. We have been banging on about it for since we started this blog last summer. It is a real and present catastrophe which needs highlighting.

Why?

Well simply because companies that sell equity with 'promises' of performance need to be held partly responsible for these 'promises' or we just end with a large pile of nonsense. How do we know - well quite simply we have the records for a large number of the 300 Crowdcube pitches that have funded. It takes time but eventually filed accounts and web searches reveal whether these companies are on track.

Sadly most are on a totally different line heading in the opposite direction.

The real myth is that Crowdcube give a fig.