KickfurtherReviews of kickfurther.com

I'll give Kickfurther the benefit of the doubt because it's trying to do something new. It needs some time to work the kinks out of the system especially when it's lending criteria appear to be based on social metrics rather than traditional financial standards. The website needs improvement but Kickfurther knows this and I trust that they will address and remedy the website issues over time. Finally, no matter how you look at it, there are people who are loaning money to a business. Kickfurther doesn't style itself as a traditional lender because it is not. But I am. So, I'd like Kickfurther to 1) obtain basic financial information from a borrower such as a balance sheet and income statement, 2) provide information as to how gains are calculated so I don't have a problem with the IRS, 3) run a defaulting borrower into the ground. I don't want the business community to see Kickfurther as an easy way to get money from suckers.

I love the opportunities Kickfurther offers for income, as part of my overall portfolio of investments. I love the idea of playing a small part in the growth of a young business. Is there risk? Of course. You need to do your due diligence on every co-op before investing. Overall, the platform works well, and my experiences so far have been positive. The most important thing missing is a forum on the site where buyers can post questions and provide feedback to management. I have seen posts from Kickfurther employees that the company is short-staffed and doesn't have the ability to "moderate" comments posted. Sorry, but this is a sign of poor customer service. Now there are reddit forums popping up, where KF users ask questions and share concerns privately with each other. This is ridiculous. In the interest of making Kickfurther better, such a forum on the KF site (accessible to buyers only) is critical. Second issue is contact information. The site points to a single e-mail address: contact @kickfurther.com. No phone number is provided, no address is provided. I recently had a technical issue on the site that prevented me from purchasing into a co-op. The site allowed me to make a reservation and showed a countdown timer, but every time I clicked "Submit" I got various error messages. I tried repeatedly to contact Kickfurther and was in need of urgent help, but had no way to contact anyone other than through the generic contact @kickfurther.com e-mail address. I missed out on the co-op. Later that day, I got a note of apology from KF, explaining that the site was overwhelmed when that particular co-op went live. So really what the KF buyer community is sorely missing is a way to connect with KF - to provide feedback and to get help, urgently on the rare days when that's needed. This is a big shortfall. What defines great companies is their open solicitation and active use of customer feedback, as well as quick access to a live person when there's a problem. As a result, I can only give a rating of 3 stars. If the above requested changes are made, my rating will improve.

I love the platform and the opportunities it gives us. I have done very well so far but all it will take is one investment (out of 2 dozen) to fail and I will lose all profits. The problem is that there are too many high risk investments that are not properly vetted, nor followed up legally, nor handled well from a communications perspective by KF. This is not an FDIC insured platform so the risk is further enhanced. The company has been moving in the right direction however and is aware of these issues. Hopefully things will improve.