KickfurtherReviews of kickfurther.com

I would say to companies seeking investment that there are better asset-backed lenders out there, and you should consider more established and mature players. The process to get funded is unnecessarily complex, and if you raise questions about whether their business model is legal or why certain steps are necessary, they get offended. In my case, they called the President of my company to say that I was mean and they didn't want to work with me. I do have questions about whether taking investments from individuals without verifying that they are accredited investors complies with SEC regulations. Raising this question is completely legitimate, and I would say that it is immature and childish for Kickfurther to respond by saying that they don't want to work with me because I am mean. As another example, they require that you complete a quiz before they will send you your money. But fortunately, they tell you the answers afterwards, so if you write them down, you can pass it the second time. Definitely the first time I've been required to pass a quiz before engaging in a business relationship. The website is quite buggy, and at one point I was unable to complete several of the many steps they require before funding. You will also be required to submit monthly updates or risk unspecified penalties. The interest rates are rather high, and they also require personal guarantees from the founder, although to be fair most bank loan facilities do as well. They require a large annual subscription fee that adds to the interest rate, making the overall financing rather expensive. I don't think this loan (although it apparently isn't a loan they say) can be prepaid, which is another negative. I hope this is useful for companies. I understand you might need a loan, but the amount they give you, and the cumbersome, expensive, sometimes insulting and overly complex process will make me look elsewhere. There are after all a lot of lenders. Bluevine was quite professional and straightforward, and they compare favorably. I wish Kickfurther luck with their model. They should start by explaining the legal basis for the financing.

I love the idea of Kickfurther, but they seem to have pretty terrible management, minimal funding, poor planning and - worst yet - a poor understanding of and appreciation for a very integral part of their business - the "investors." They don't properly vet the businesses, and have no ended up with a TON of failed investments. These can range for legitimate failures (a company goes out of business) and totally sketchy ones (a business is clearly fake and just took Kickfurther's money and ran). I have invested a small amount compared to many on this platform (around $200) and will be shocked if I get even close to all of it back. While the idea is really fun, without Kickfurther acually being the middle man who confirms these businesses are real, and actually have purchase orders and/or inventory, I HIGHLY suggest you don't put even $1 of your hard earned money into this platform. The reason I give 2 starts instead of 1, though, is because I love the idea. And I know that some real businesses have benefited from raising funds with KF, and that in those instances the "investors" were paid back properly and did earn a decent return. But right now, as things stand, the risk is nowhere near worth the reward.

The underlying concept is fantastic, and I think I have been able to make some decent returns on the ~$6,000 or so I have invested. The online platform still feels like it is in its infancy with lots of little glitches and reporting errors. some are addressed by kickfurther staff, and some go unresolved for a while. This does not instill enough confidence in me to add more of my funds to the platform.

A lot of offerings are not able to complete their obligations and kickfurther only "try" to sell the inventory to recover your money. A great idea that needs maturation and execution.

I started investing via Kickfurther because I liked the idea that our investment was secured by inventory, as opposed to Lending Club or Prosper, which were unsecured. Since that time I have learned that the value of that "security" is almost nothing. Companies were not properly vetted and KF only recently began filing UCCs on the inventory we backed. They have no way of tracking sales and companies seem to pay at will rather than by contract. I have enjoyed helping many young businesses and have lost some money when products didn't sell as hoped, which was the risk I assumed when I invested. However, I have also lost money because vendors refused to pay, and the KF contracts had no teeth.

First of all I want to say I am a larger contributor to kf, having backed more than 100k worth of offers so far. I think the idea for the site is great but the tech part of the site needs a lot of work. As a software developer, I really believe the web developers for the site are incompetent. There are frequent bugs introduced and useful features that are removed for no reason. For some examples 1. the payout graph, which never actually worked properly but was useful anyway, was removed without notice. 2. newlines don't work in comments or company updates which makes it really hard to read 3. when kf provides an update on an offer page no notification email is sent 4. calendar showed wrong dates (fixed) 5. contributed/paid back amounts in dashboard show as 0 (fixed) 6. co-ops being taken down because new features are broken 7. balances in accounts being incorrect and then fixed silently Maybe a system where larger contributors (eg, someone who has more than 20k in the site at the time, or top 100 contributors overall, etc) can take a look at the current task board to give suggestions on how to prioritize and maybe even suggest new tasks/bugs for the site. I have a lot of feature ideas that would be easy to implement and could add value to the site. I know a lot of the community also complains about improper vetting but I don't really have much opinion about that. But I would say KF needs to be more proactive in giving updates when offers are behind. Even an update like "we're currently in contact with xx and looking to make an arrangement by yy" would be good. I think this has been improved recently but I still think it needs work.

Too many companies that got their investors money vanish and then there becomes lack of communication from Kickfurther on the progress of recovering the inventory/money. It would be better if they gave us an honost time line on the recovery, even if its a harsh truth as in 6-12 months. Think the profit experience so far is in the negative.

Good customer support but the site has numerous glitches and there seem to be some fundamental problems with how the site works. For instance, how difficult it is to get a 50% no-confidence vote for companies that are clearly deserving it, most likely because investors are not paying attention to their consignments. I think after a certain amount of time there should be a 50% CONFIDENCE vote, otherwise KF will take action. Whether or not that could be a solution, KF needs to do more with troubled consignments.