Guess Jetsons didn't work out.

Funding platform plus "Invest" as the first word = red flags all the way to the horizon.

The guy and his partner are great at marketing, hope they understand what running a business with other people’s money.

I see zero up side to a pinball sales company.
No high margins ? High over head for sure.
If he thinks he’s going to open 10 offices and make money delivering and on set up he’s crazy.

O my.....

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Sooo they blew all their money on Jetsons and are now thinking they will grow into a nationwide pinball dealer LMFAO.

They can’t even control Missouri or even St. Louis, how could they possibly hope to compete in Chicago and Seattle.

Amini has been trying this for how many years?

Dead on arrival. Moving on...

Hey you know what, if guys like GAP and trent and CoinTaker and Gexchange invest then so will I

Coming to Chicago.... Forget about it! G.A.P. for the win around here.

Wonder how this will turn out.

I don't care if you did 7 million in sales last year. How much profit did you make? If you are profitable and sitting on such a gold mine, why can't you achieve funding through conventional means (like a BANK)? An MBA, a fancy suit, slick advertising, 200k Facebook followers and an expensive haircut does not make you a good businessperson.

Can't blame a guy for trying but for $10,000, I get this?

"Get a personal meeting with owners, Nic and Brooke Parks, via Skype or in person at our headquarters in Columbia, MO."

Insane to me that this is a question before people pony up their cash.

There are investors out there, wanting returns on money, so why not go after them (Deeproot did)? Why this passing the hat style?

I guess I just don't get it and it's not for me.

WTF. Just looking at this wefundme info.

Hand over your money and just wait for updates on the site, ala Paperflock? Good luck.

Screen Shot 2018-11-14 at 8.40.05 AM (resized).png

Hey I heard this guy JPop tried this sort of thing. Anybody know how that turned out?

I would so love to see this on an episode of Shark Tank.

I’m starting a go fund me to pay for my donation to their go fund me

I didn't catch that...thanks. But again, why wouldn't he be able to get bank financing if everything is so rosy? Money is cheap right now.

I agree. I am not sure what his logic is or if he thinks he needs strategical partners. I personally would never do this but I dont knock those that do. Totally not my approach. I've grown my own business by my own efforts but I guess that's old fashioned. There is a competitor in my line of business that uses GoFundMe to gain capital to then profit and people go for it so what do I know. Haha

Sorry, but a company is worth what a company is worth right now. Projected sales and growth is never guaranteed.

Another Joke

No tickey no Laundry

Your business model is tits, IMO. I was exploring doing something like that in my area...but I haven't found a local brewery interested in having operator-owned machines yet.

I wish them luck! I have dealt with both Nic and Brooke and they are great. My concern here is they are biting off more than they can chew. If the economy goes south, then things would change. They have a good business going. Dont mess with it. Pay off the debt. Christ, 500k a year is a pretty good income.

i need to start a go fund me. best of luck...

I've had nothing but fair dealings with these guys, they've hired me a few times for deliveries or repairs.

This is just weird though.

I think there are several potential problems, and they need to be more open, to avoid pitfalls for both themselves and any would be investors.

They should disclose information about the seemingly not particularly successful Jetsons (run reported to be less than half planned), and discuss what happened. How much did it cost to develop? How much did built inventory cost? How much did it sell for (average - i.e. margin)? What were total sales figures ultimately? If they lost money, or it tied up a lot of capital, how much or how far did it set back the business or impact the rest of their operations, if at all? You could say that was sensitive information, and it was possibly a one-off. But it's something you'd need to disclose to potential investors, IMO, and as this is crowd sourced, it ought to be public.

What is being presented is a pure sales and dealerships pitch. What has been reported from several different sources is that they are trying again with their own machines, having acquired the license for Scooby Doo. How much did the license cost and what are the terms? What are development cost projections? What are sales numbers and margin projections? After everything is accounted for, what do they expect to make net? How does that compare with projections vs reality for Jetsons? If the reporting is not errant, then they must address this.

Per their response to one of the questions on the page, they do have debt. When or where did this date from? What was it used to fund? Did the Jetsons project incur some or a large portion of this debt? If this is the case, is this why they are not tapping loan markets at a time when money remains extremely cheap still, because it didn't work out last time? With their sales growth forecasts and healthy margins, with *relatively* modest stated costs for their expansion plans, loans would seem like a better idea, all else being equal.

Storm clouds are gathering, economically. Several large economies globally are in trouble. The US economy will cool significantly next year and in 2020, whilst interest rates have to go up to combat inflation, and ensure that the ballooning public deficit can be financed, even if it increases the cost of doing so. Things could be ok, but on the other hand they might not be. Valuation seems generous, and sales growth pretty optimistic. If there are significant economic headwinds, they could stagnate or grow only modestly. If there's another crisis, their sales might crater.

The pinball market is close to saturation now. If DeepRoot manage to deliver on their promises, it is going to be absolutely flooded with machines from early next year. If this comes to pass, a combination of the agony of choice and declining values of games on the secondary market may lead to significantly less than expected revenue from existing product lines that sell well at the moment, and are expected to in future, and / or force margins downwards.

What contingency plans do they have if either scenario happens? How badly effected would the business need to be before servicing their existing loans became difficult?

im sending 10k right now just to get the personal skype call yay

From the Form C:

24. Describe the material terms of any indebtedness of the issuer:
Loan
Lender Central Bank
Issue date 06/21/15
Amount $300,000.00
Outstanding principal plus interest $300,000.00 as of 11/08/18
Interest rate 5.0% per annum
Maturity date 09/09/18
Current with payments Yes

This loan has been extended at will by the Company and is collateralized by the Company’s inventory
Loan
Lender Central Bank
Issue date 09/21/15
Amount $250,000.00
Outstanding principal plus interest $160,000.00 as of 11/08/18
Interest rate 5.0% per annum
Maturity date 09/09/18
Current with payments Yes

This loan has been extended at will by the company and is collateralized by the Company’s inventory

So are they soliciting funds to expand their retail locations, or to finance another pinball machine project? The 460k outstanding debt isn't a huge deal. They may be keeping that ongoing for tax reasons.

He seems to be selling their qualitative abilities in a commodity market. Is there a break down of new machine sales vs refurbished? “Having the best website” and knowing “they do it best” doesn’t mean a ton.

If everyone sells new machines at a similar price and it makes up a ton of their revenue is there growth potential or is this just an operation hoping to scale and add national services/retail locations?

Anyone can say “they’re the best”

This is a really bad idea by anybody.
I can call and get a pinball machine from anyone I want, Pinballstar, JJ game exchange, Shane, Evan, Marco....

It's not GAP.

Fixed, Thanks!

It's not about selling pinball machines. It's about opening barcades around the US. The first one would be in Chicago. Listen to Nic's seminar at Expo. He explains most of it.

I think there is value in creating a national network of showrooms and regional technicians available for service calls, but based off the Jetsons I question their business choices and overall trajectory. Their biggest asset seems to be their domain name and SEO, which is a fickle thing. Who cares about facebook likes, you can buy likes and twitter followers for nothing.

I also just question what the point is of this investment for the investor. It doesn't seem like you get much for investing, unless it's a substantial investment, and even then it's not much. I don't blame them for trying to pass the hat around to get a few easy bucks, but I would want assurance that they have more sources of investment than online panhandling.

"My goal is to have the Chicago office open by November. I believe we will sell between 100 and 200 pinball machines in Chicago next year. We can easily add over $1 million in sales by having a showroom in Chicago. At a minimum, we'll cover our costs of opening an office there and be able to provide a high level of service."

That's not a barcade (which is good because a barcade is a worse investment than a retail showfloor IMO)

If so, that's another detail they seem to have not mentioned in their pitch (aside from Scooby Doo - if real).

If I’m seeing this right, they raised over $500k so far?!! SMH

GoFundMe = Donate your money and say goodbye. Not an investment company. No guarantees on any investment, but this is them asking to borrow money with zero obligation to pay it back. If we make a lot we might pay you back and then some, but we don't have to...I dealt with them before and it was a great experience but for this yeah I'm out...

You're reading it wrong. They've raised $11,500 on this (barely enough for a Skype meeting). The $550,000 in debt is counted as the starting point. Click on the little "Funding History" bubble.

Also, it looks like the time left has been reset. It was less than a day, now it's almost two days.

If you click on Funding History, it shows that they have raised $11,500. They have also secured loans of $250k and $300k, which is what gets them to the $562.5 number

Crossed in the ether!

Haha, yeah no thank you!