Kickstarter ETA?

Hey, Just curious is there an ETA for Kick Starter Campaign?

The new year is almost here - So I am asking :smile:

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You will found out when we announce it :slight_smile:

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I just want to know because I want to pledge at-least 100.00 USD towards this project. I need to pencil that in my budget.
I currently have 140.00 USD free at the moment. So If you guys plan to launch prior to GDC 2014. Which is in March It could be anytime between January and early march.

If you can drop us a hint it would be appreciated :smile:

Thank you for your time,

Ben

We would like to, and yes, you should use a pencil and not a chisel.

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And here was me expecting a ā€œWhen itā€™s readyā€ or ā€œSoonā€ as an answer. :wink: Bravo for the originality.

GDC? Is that Greenwitch Diabolic Calender? March in a diabolic calender scares me. 8(

Game Developers Conference

Surely thatā€™s discriminating against stonemasons somewhat? :stuck_out_tongue:

Weā€™re aiming for GDC at the moment.

why not do a direct filing IPO to the OTCBB in conjunction with your Kickstarter? Iā€™ can give $50 as a kickstarter donation; or $50K if I can buy some limited ownership through common shares.

The crowd funding is an initial step for the company and Infinity, weā€™re not going to be going public with the company at the same time weā€™re taking our baby steps. Keith would have to chime in, but Iā€™m not sure what the timeframe is for a public IPO, if everā€¦

I wasnā€™t referring to a public IPO like FB and Twitter just went through. Iā€™m talking about a ā€œDirect-Filing IPOā€.

There are alternative, over-the-counter, publicly traded companies that trade on a quotation basis as opposed to being a ā€œlistedā€ company on a preferred exchange (NASDAQ). Itā€™s a mix of small businesses, many of which have no revenue, but issue shares as a means to raise capital in order to execute a business plan.

Before Kickstarter, there was the OTCBB. Itā€™s the wild west, but well suited for startup sized businesses, particularly those that are in need of flush capital.

I would at least do a little homework on the subject before shrugging the idea off. Thereā€™s a sizeable community that trades on over-the-counter looking for earnest, talented, well underfunded companies to invest in.

Just a thought.

I did read up a bit on OTCBB when you first posted it, it does indeed seem like the wild west. Iā€™m unsure of any possible negative ramifications to funding/failing a startup in such a manner, but sure, I think we can at least look into it. I will say, the crowd funding is our current plan of action, and donā€™t really see us augmenting that plan at this stage.

The primary issue with doing an IPO, crowd sourced or not, is the cost. We obviously canā€™t afford a regular IPO which involves investment bank underwriters like JP Morgan Chase and Goldman Sachs who charge millions of dollars. The alternative is a Direct Public Offering (DPO) which, while vastly cheaper than an IPO, still costs tens of thousands of dollars. On top of the initial lawyer fees we would be held to much more stringent accounting practices such as filing quarterly earnings reports with the SEC (among other things). Another issue is I myself would no longer be able to contribute as much to our product as a larger chunk of my time would be consumed with administrative responsibilities thus increasing the likelihood we have to hire an additional programmer which is expensive.

Lastly we would lose control of a chunk of our company to a whole bunch of random people whose goals may or may not be aligned with the direction we want to take the company. Share holders have legal rights and management is responsible for acting in the interest of share holders. Depending on how much of the company we decided to list on an exchange a fair amount of political overhead could be introduced depending on who buys shares, how many they purchase, and what their goals for our company are. For example if we decided to offer 60% of our company via DPO and for some reason EA decided to come in and buy up most of the shares they could, in one fell swoop, become the majority share holder and they would have a significant influence over the direction of the company from that point onward. Solving that problem isnā€™t as easy as only listing a lesser amount of shares as we have to figure out a valuation for our shares and the number of shares we make available for purchase is then dependent on the stock price and the amount of money we need to raise.

To summarize itā€™d take us at least a full year and ~$100k to do a DPO and then weā€™d be subject to additional overhead that we wouldnā€™t incur by staying private.

Keith, you can DPO your company for $25-$50K under the 504 Exemption (valuations less than $1M) -it excludes your company from registration with FINRA. You save a bundle. And Iā€™m not sure I agree that youā€™d lose control of a chunk of your company. Your Charter and Bylaws can be tailored to limit this and you can issue non-voting shares. And I have to say, based on my experience as a fanboy and as an Investor, I think youā€™d find that managing Investor expectations would be a little like managing follower expectations. You might actually feel right at home.

I also think your concern about hostile takeovers are a bit overstated. When FB went public, Zuckerberg came out with 28% of his shares intact, and 57% of the voting power through agreements structured during the IPO. Everything is tailorable, and can be negotiated.

Lastly, you have the JOBS Act which now allows unaccredited investors to buy into your company. Equity Crowdfunding will soon be an alternative to donation crowdfunding (Kickstarter); the legislationā€™s already passed and FINRA and the SEC are hammering out the regulatory rules as we speak. What this means for you is that now, finally, there is the option to take investment money from regular retail investors (people like me who work for a living -everyday average citizens), as opposed to investment bankers, fund managers and institutions (otherwise known as the wealthy) -really the orgs that would want to exert ā€œcontrolā€ over your business.

Like I said, Iā€™d put $50K down and Iā€™m just a small fry. I know several others that would be interested, that are more affluent and flexible.

Anyway, Iā€™m not here to sell you on the idea, I just want you to understand that youā€™re missing credible funding opportunities. I hope you get everything you want from Kickstarter but if not, a structured direct offering isnā€™t as bad as you may think.

Itā€™s true that there is some flexibility with structure there, in Zuckā€™s case each of his shares is worth 2 votes which I think gives him majority voting power.

Weā€™re well aware of the possibilities for funding through a DPO and the opportunities that would present for investors such as yourself. As I mentioned the single biggest issue is the ongoing legal/admin overhead along with the associated increase in costs. Even at $25k - $50k for laying the initial groundwork thatā€™s money we donā€™t currently have. That being said if our Kickstarter fails itā€™s certainly an option and I think we would have to more actively engage those who would be interested in investing if we were to go down that road. Thereā€™s also the possibility, even if the Kickstarter is successful, we could do a DPO at a later date to raise funds for a future endeavor such as the MMO which will likely have a significantly larger capital requirement.