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| | 06/30/2012
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| | Scoop
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| | [Actually 6/6/2012]: The May Report: 6/6/2012: "The time has come," the Walrus said,"To talk of many things: Of shoes--and ships--and sealing-wax-- Of cabbages--and kings-- And why the sea is boiling hot-- And whether pigs have wings." "But wait a bit," the Oysters cried, "Before we have our chat; For some of us are out of breath, And all of us are fat!" "No hurry!" said the Carpenter. They thanked him much for that; Eight years, four months, and two days! -- that's how long I've been reporting on the strange case of Efoora, a Gabonese word, by the way; As of today, June 6, 2012, it would appear to be over for any of the 4,200 investors; I have very mixed emotions -- on the one hand, I was hoping against hope that somehow the shareholders would see at least a few pennies back out of their $57MM invested; after all Subhash Varshney did pay $1MM in cash for the right to manufacture the glucose test kits and the HIV test kit, so he must have thought there was some chance it would work out, and if his testimony is to be believed (which I don't) he was spending $60K a month to keep Applied Biomedical afloat; and on the other hand, we have the inexorable steam engine of the American judicial system which always pays the lawyers even when others are left holding the bag, and we have regression toward the mean, a fancy way of saying what else was Judge Goldgar going to do?: He denied the motion to dismiss and granted the modification to the asset purchase agreement which means that now, for $50K, Subhash Varshney owns all the Efoora IP, equipment, etc. (it's a 12 page opinion which I'll have typed up for you, or better yet, scan it) and any money that Varshney generates from it is free and clear -- the shareholders have no claim on any revenues in exchange for the $50K; this was just too easy, and my suspicion is that Dr. Varshney may be sandbagging, or why else would he want to pay to get out of a deal that putatively has no prospects to make money?; there is always the money that in theory Grosky, Rappin and Dokich will pay on their life earnings when they get out of prison; but anyone interested in crowd funding would do well to study the Efoora story, a company funded largely by unsophisticated investors like car dealers, farmers, hot dog stand owners, carpenters, plumbers, painters, etc.; in so many ways, just another story of a stock scam, but with a twist, and the twist was the high level of emotion and involvement on the part of the investors (that bulletin board was going 24x7) -- in some ways, David Grosky was like Jim Jones, and yes, there were cult-like qualities to the dynamics of this firm; the other twist is this question: Was the IP ever viable or was this not just a stock fraud, but a complete fraud from the get-go, including the IP?; I think it may have started with legitimate intentions, but it became a fraud of opportunity as they realized that they did not have to deliver anything except promises; now for those interested in the little details, Judge Goldgar revealed before he issued his ruling and his decision, that yesterday a messenger delivered an unsigned letter with no envelope from "this fellow Peterson" (referring to Curt Peterson, a former CEO of Efoora) but he hastened to add that while such last minute letters are common, he does not take them so we don't know the contents of the letter from Peterson; another factor that might have influenced Goldgar's thinking was that Catherine Steege, the trustee, revealed that Doug Jaeger, the investor who brought the motion to block Varshney's $50K buy-out proposal, had tried to cut a side deal with Varshney which would have, if true, undermined Jaeger's credibility, but at the end of the day, no matter where we place the king on chess board, the end game results in mate in three; I would feel better if Goldgar had told Steege to take $25K, hire a scientific expert, fly to California, demand to see the bank deposits and checks, demand that Varshney prove he is spending $60K a month as he claimed he was, and report back to him in detail on her findings, but sadly, that would be too much like work, and the system is set up to minimize work and maximize legal fees; btw, thanks to Brian Connolly for having a grudge against Howard Solomon, to Howard Solomon of Ruder Finn for having Efoora as a client, to Howard Wolinsky for being suckered into writing the trifecta article, to Dan Miller for backing him, to Larry Irwin for providing education and perspective, to many others who made my reporting on this story possible, and let's not forget the hours talking to Grosky and Rappin and the two hundred plus calls from investors; Here's a pdf of the opinion, http://tinyurl.com/c7helcr
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| | June 6, 2012
The May Report: 6/6/2012: "The time has come," the Walrus said,"To talk of many things: Of shoes--and ships--and sealing-wax-- Of cabbages--and kings-- And why the sea is boiling hot-- And whether pigs have wings." "But wait a bit," the Oysters cried,
"Before we have our chat; For some of us are out of breath, And all of us are fat!" "No hurry!" said the Carpenter. They thanked him much for that; Eight years, four months, and two days! -- that's how long I've been reporting on the strange case of Efoora, a Gabonese word, by the way; As of today, June 6, 2012, it would appear to be over for any of the 4,200 investors; I have very mixed emotions -- on the one hand, I was hoping against hope that somehow the shareholders would see at least a few pennies back out of their $57MM invested; after all Subhash Varshney did pay $1MM in cash for the right to manufacture the glucose test kits and the HIV test kit, so he must have thought there was some chance it would work out, and if his testimony is to be believed (which I don't) he was spending $60K a month to keep Applied Biomedical afloat; and on the other hand, we have the inexorable steam engine of the American judicial system which always pays the lawyers even when others are left holding the bag, and we have regression toward the mean, a fancy way of saying what else was Judge Goldgar going to do?: He denied the motion to dismiss and granted the modification to the asset purchase agreement which means that now, for $50K, Subhash Varshney owns all the Efoora IP, equipment, etc. (it's a 12 page opinion which I'll have typed up for you, or better yet, scan it) and any money that Varshney generates from it is free and clear -- the shareholders have no claim on any revenues in exchange for the $50K; this was just too easy, and my suspicion is that Dr. Varshney may be sandbagging, or why else would he want to pay to get out of a deal that putatively has no prospects to make money?; there is always the money that in theory Grosky, Rappin and Dokich will pay on their life earnings when they get out of prison; but anyone interested in crowd funding would do well to study the Efoora story, a company funded largely by unsophisticated investors like car dealers, farmers, hot dog stand owners, carpenters, plumbers, painters, etc.; in so many ways, just another story of a stock scam, but with a twist, and the twist was the high level of emotion and involvement on the part of the investors (that bulletin board was going 24x7) -- in some ways, David Grosky was like Jim Jones, and yes, there were cult-like qualities to the dynamics of this firm; the other twist is this question: Was the IP ever viable or was this not just a stock fraud, but a complete fraud from the get-go, including the IP?; I think it may have started with legitimate intentions, but it became a fraud of opportunity as they realized that they did not have to deliver anything except promises; now for those interested in the little details, Judge Goldgar revealed before he issued his ruling and his decision, that yesterday a messenger delivered an unsigned letter with no envelope from "this fellow Peterson" (referring to Curt Peterson, a former CEO of Efoora) but he hastened to add that while such last minute letters are common, he does not take them so we don't know the contents of the letter from Peterson; another factor that might have influenced Goldgar's thinking was that Catherine Steege, the trustee, revealed that Doug Jaeger, the investor who brought the motion to block Varshney's $50K buy-out proposal, had tried to cut a side deal with Varshney which would have, if true, undermined Jaeger's credibility, but at the end of the day, no matter where we place the king on chess board, the end game results in mate in three; I would feel better if Goldgar had told Steege to take $25K, hire a scientific expert, fly to California, demand to see the bank deposits and checks, demand that Varshney prove he is spending $60K a month as he claimed he was, and report back to him in detail on her findings, but sadly, that would be too much like work, and the system is set up to minimize work and maximize legal fees; btw, thanks to Brian Connolly for having a grudge against Howard Solomon, to Howard Solomon of Ruder Finn for having Efoora as a client, to Howard Wolinsky for being s
uckered into writing the trifecta article, to Dan Miller for backing him, to Larry Irwin for providing education and perspective, to many others who made my reporting on this story possible, and let's not forget the hours talking to Grosky and Rappin and the two hundred plus calls from investors; Here's a pdf of the opinion, http://tinyurl.com/c7helcr
Editor and publisher: Ron May, ron@themayreport.com, ronaldmay@aol.com,www.themayreport.com, 773-525-3944.
If you missed an article, go here:
www.tmronline.com/A55951/tmrarticles.nsf/vwFullNewsletter
_____________________________
TABLE OF CONTENTS
The Scoop section:
-- Software firm Salesforce.com nears big River North lease - News - Crain's Chicago Business
-- Nick Rosa: Clarifies "crap" comment
-- Mark Wilhelms: Len Bland funded him :-)
-- Jessica Zweig: CheekyChicago will have party at Techweek on the 23rd
-- Brian Stanish from www.ffocal.com
-- Phil Dziedzic: Answers Ron's question and also moved from Evanston incubator to 1871 -- hence I'm starting work on my 1871 cannibalization index
-- Phil Tadros, what's this? It's all very nice but JB does not mention you
-- Anna Bilinska: looking for "crowd funding" :-)
____________________________
The Scoop section:
______________________
Software firm Salesforce.com nears big River North lease - News - Crain's Chicago Business
Subject: Software firm Salesforce.com nears big River North lease - News - Crain's Chicago Business
Date: 6/6/2012 8:22:58 A.M. Central Daylight Time
From: bconnolly@furthermore.com
To: RONALDMAY@aol.com
http://www.chicagorealestatedaily.com/article/20120606/CRED03/120609901/software-firm-salesforce-com-nears-big-river-north-lease
__________________________________
Nick Rosa: Clarifies "crap" comment
Subject: Re: Nick, by crap" do you mean that startups are not good for VC or more generally?
Date: 6/6/2012 7:34:26 A.M. Central Daylight Time
From: nick@sandboxindustries.com
Reply To:
To: RONALDMAY@aol.com
Hi Ron, I mean more generally...the beauty of today's technology is that it is so easy to start a project, app, sometimes even a business...the downside is that this ease of starting something coupled with some wild success stories makes a lot of people delusional and they ignore or sidestep many business fundamentals.
Best
Nick
NICK E. ROSA
Managing Director
----------------------------------------------
m. (312) 375-0723
sandboxindustries.com
On Wed, Jun 6, 2012 at 3:20 AM, <RONALDMAY@aol.com> wrote:
_____________________________
Mark Wilhelms: Len Bland funded him :-)
Subject: Re: Mark, how did you do at the BNC? How many votes did you get?
Date: 6/6/2012 9:22:55 A.M. Central Daylight Time
From: mark@redmeatmarket.com
To: RONALDMAY@aol.com
Hey Ron!
Well TigerTracks and Red Meat Market both got funded! Len paid us $9 dollars for 9 votes and TigerTracks got $8. I will tell you, B. Tad and Simon made a fantastic pitch with a solid business model. We're just getting our offering started and for our first outing, I was told my passion paid off. We have some work to do to tighten up our pitch and get it to the level of TigerTracks.
With that said, why don't I meet you for lunch soon and give you the low down on everything we're doing. I'll buy you a Local, sustainable, all natural Steak!
Our Launch party is next Thursday at Goose Island and you are most welcome to attend! Red Meat Market is more than just a dotCom and we're very excited to have Black Earth Meats as a partner with over 100 local grass-fed, organic and all natural meat providers as delivery partners. You'll meet Bartlett Durand, BEM owner and co-founder of Red Meat Market. He has been one of the true leaders in the Locavore movement in the midwest and drives our overall values of delivering Local, Sustainable, All-Natural Meat that is better for the environment, the animals and the health of the population. "Good Meat from Good People."
Bet I made you hungry? Let me know about a lunch date!
Mark
Sent from my iPad
On Jun 6, 2012, at 3:10 AM, RONALDMAY@aol.com wrote:
_____________________________
Jessica Zweig: CheekyChicago will have party at Techweek on the 23rd
Subject: Re: Jessica, what are you doing at Techweek? Do you guys plan to have a party?
Date: 6/6/2012 7:00:52 A.M. Central Daylight Time
From: jessica@cheekychicago.com
To: RONALDMAY@aol.com
Yep, June 23!
On Wed, Jun 6, 2012 at 3:41 AM, <RONALDMAY@aol.com> wrote:
--
Jessica Zweig
Co-Founder and Director of Sales & Marketing, CheekyChicago.com
NBC 5 Contributor
c: 847.530.7651
h: 312.643.1950
www.cheekychicago.com
follow Cheeky and its amazingness: @cheekychicago
follow me and my randomness: @cheekyjessica
To learn more about me and read my articles on Cheeky, click here.
http://cheekychicago.com/author/jessica-zweig/
__________________________
Brian Stanish from www.ffocal.com
Subject: Re: Brian, we met on May 2nd @ 1871. You mentioned $250K, 2 people, & FB?
Date: 6/6/2012 7:58:56 A.M. Central Daylight Time
From: brian@ffocal.com
To: RONALDMAY@aol.com
I did meet you on May 2 but that doesn't sound like our conversation. I haven't received any funding yet.
Sent from my iPad
On Jun 6, 2012, at 3:28 AM, RONALDMAY@aol.com wrote:
__________________________
Phil Dziedzic: Answers Ron's question and also moved from Evanston incubator to 1871 -- hence I'm starting work on my 1871 cannibalization index
Subject: Re: Phil, I read your mission statement below. Can you say this in English for me?
Date: 6/6/2012 9:49:37 A.M. Central Daylight Time
From: phil@sweetperk.com
To: RONALDMAY@aol.com
Hi Ron, thanks for sending us a message. SweetPerk enables small businesses to do digital marketing, and in our case, that means reaching local consumers on their smartphones.
We build locally branded mobile apps for downtown shopping districts and malls. The apps feature content (offers and loyalty cards, events, personal messages) that shoppers can use. The content, events, messaging, and marketing is all managed by the local organization SweetPerk partners with. That organization can be a chamber of commerce, a "business improvement district," or even a city itself. That group has an existing relationship with the network of small businesses in the area, so they can be more effective at reaching them and working with them to get them to participate.
At the end of the day, SweetPerk makes it easy for communities to have a personalized, locally managed mobile app, which allows people who live and work in that area save a little money and support the small businesses around them. I hope that helps, let me know if there's anything I can further explain!
__________________________________
Phil Dziedzic | 847.345.8686
Marketing & UI/UX Lead, SweetPerk Inc.
www.sweetperk.com
Follow the SweetPerk blog!
__________________________________
On Wed, Jun 6, 2012 at 3:49 AM, <RONALDMAY@aol.com> wrote:
http://www.sweetperk.com/us.html
Our mission is to build an effective digital marketing platform for small businesses
The team met in January of 2011 as part of the NUvention: Web entrepreneurial course at Northwestern University. We launched our first LiveLocal™ app, Passport to Downtown Evanston, in June of that year, and incorporated shortly thereafter.
Working out of the Northwestern Incubator in Evanston, we built and launched six additional mobile apps on the LiveLocal™ platform, representing over 15,000 users and 1700 small businesses.
In April 2012, we joined the 1871 community and moved our offices to the Merchandise Mart Plaza downtown Chicago!
While building a strong customer base with LiveLocal™, we identified the need for a simple, private feedback system for businesses and began working on the prototype for Salt™. We continue to learn about the ideal customer for Salt™ and are adding to its functionality.
Send us feedback, we want to hear from you!
Use Salt™ by texting to: 520-366-8174 or email us at support [at] sweetperk.com
____________________________
Phil Tadros, what's this? It's all very nice but JB does not mention you
Subject: New World Ventures with J.B. Pritzker | Doejo - We fuel ideas that grow
Date: 6/6/2012 9:34:59 A.M. Central Daylight Time
From: phil@doejo.com
To: RONALDMAY@aol.com
http://doejo.com/project/video/new-world-ventures-with-jb-pritzker
Philip Tadros
708.655.6753
doejo.com
__________________________
Anna Bilinska: looking for "crowd funding" :-)
Subject: Hi Friend and Family! You love movies, right?
Date: 6/6/2012 10:30:09 A.M. Central Daylight Time
From: annaabilinska@gmail.com
To: ewaradwanska62@msn.com, roxanneskender@rcn.com, ronaldmay@aol.com, priest.matt@gmail.com, phil@doejo.com, aniafraley@aol.com, joebaran.info@mac.com, zbanas@yahoo.com, zoedamacela@yahoo.com, Zukpaul@yahoo.com, Liza.Massingberd@mattel.com, dwinkler01@yahoo.com, deannwood2000@yahoo.com, mirusia26@interia.pl, polak-69@hotmail.fr, felini815@yahoo.com
Hi everyone,
I am writing to you with great news. Over the past several months, my friends and I have been putting our hearts into the creation of a short film called For Someone Else. Written, produced, directed, shot, and edited by us, the film is an entirely independent, virtually zero budget project in which I acted and contributed some cinematography. And it's almost complete!
Once it is, we would love to be able to send it out to festivals, spread the word, hopefully get noticed...but we need your help.
Festivals are costly and so is filmmaking. Thus, the team has set up a fundraiser page on a website called Indiegogo, where you can help our dream by donating whatever you can offer. Really, any little bit helps, and whether you donate one dollar or a hundred, you get something in return, too!
Here is the link to our film's page, where you can view a trailer, read about the project, and donate.
http://www.indiegogo.com/forsomeoneelse
Please help however you can! Spread the word! Share the link! Help us make it to the next step in realizing our passion as filmmakers.
Cheers!!!
--
A. Bilinska
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