StartEngineReviews of startengine.com

I am new to investing and I do not feel there is anyone I can ask questions.. state my concerns .. and other whatnots. Each time I have emailed for help I get this standard emails that ever one receives and my questions are not answered within that email. As far as the date of my experience I can not remember. Last year 2022 .. As I invested in different companies I would send emails...

Slow with transactions and fees exorbitantly high

I ‘invested’ a few K about a year ago. I don’t like it at all. You send your money and you can see ‘digital certificate’ and get bunch of emails in return. Pretty sure I been scammed.

They have informed me that my account has been closed after 2 years. No issues ever. They will not communicate a reason and I dont know where my money has gone as I have investments in several companies....Nonexistent communications other than form letters. Next stop...Federal Trade commission.

Security, or lack of it is a red flag! Check bbb.org before investing. There are many red flags here, but two things StartEngine could to to reassure investors that this FINTECH site cares about investor security: 1) add multifactor authentication. Yep, it's a pain, but can save you from financial ruin if a scammer gets hold of your login credentials! 2) change the financial account management of ACH or Credit card information to allow customer to delete accounts. At present, StartEngine won't even delete ACH or Credit Card info used when requested! Hard to believe a FINTECH company can do business without at least this minimum level of security. I am concerned that their internal processes are no better.

If you don’t care how morally reprehensible a company is, investing via StartEngine may be right for you. Until of course, they screw you over as well. I tried to raise money via StartEngine. They told me it would take 1 month to go live, and that it was imperative to “sign up now” if I wanted to benefit from the end of year rush of funds they saw in November and December. When they didn’t make the November and December cutoff date due to a variety of incompetent mistakes, they said “don’t worry,” the salesperson who told you that was misleading you anyway. Many months later, I had spent over $15k at StartEngine’s direction, and we still had not launched. StartEngine tried to push me into signing documents several times, without allowing me time for my lawyer to review. When I asked for a review with my lawyer, they took several days to respond and then stated that they could not “adequately provide the service and attention that your business and campaign demand” and while they would not reimburse me for my fees, they would charge me an additional $10k if I did not sign a waiver and release agreement. Yup, you read that right. These immoral bags of scum understood my wife was suffering from Stage IV cancer, and that the 7 months of wasted time and money I spent with them had cost my business, my wife and I dearly. They were also aware that I did not owe them an additional $10k, but it did not stop them from trying to walk all over the same honest man that they had been screwing over for half a year. I finally got in touch with their founder and CEO, Howard Marks, whose personality reminded me of a combination between Gordon Gekko and an actual reptilian lizard of the same name which crawls around on all fours stalking its prey. I explained to Howard the impacts that StartEngine’s incompetence, lies and mistakes had on my wife and me. He did not bat an eyelash. He said that he thought “raising capital is the right thing to do,” as if nothing else mattered. He also stated that “sometimes we have to pass on mistakes to customers.” My Zoom call with Howard from his home, which he could not resist to tell me was in Beverly Hills, ended with a mutual understanding that moving forward with StartEngine would require eliminating all future StartEngine fees. Howard then followed up with an email where he lied about this understanding, and that is when I knew I simply could not move forward with this business, within which Howard’s complete lack of a moral compass has become the business standard at every level. I am now moving forward with WeFunder, and thus far the difference is night and day. They are more honest with me, and have not tried to push me into taking advantage of my customers, like StartEngine did no matter how often I told them it was unacceptable. Time will tell, but I’m confident that my relationship with WeFunder will continue to be a better and more honest experience, with founders who have a conscious and do not attempt to take advantage of those dealing with life’s most significant hardships. StartEngine’s Howard Marks and Kevin O’Leary do not care about their customers. They are most focused on raising money for themselves, as evidenced by the fact that the prime real estate on their website has been dedicated to StartEngine’s own fundraising effort for months. These people do not have the morality that God gave a tadpole. Take a look at their ‘F’ rating with the Better Business Bureau and make a decision for yourself whether or not you want to work with StartEngine. By the way, I have logged a complaint against this company with the Better Business Bureau, and I suggest others who have been taken advantage of by this company do the same, as it is one of the best ways to create change.

Knight scope goes public our shares are not issued till after they go public. The stock surges to 24.00 and then drops like a rock. We should of been able to sell the stock in the surge but we get screwed because it was not issued to us till after. Now we own stock at half of our value and no chance to break even in the future. This is not right the way the did it. The IPO is what we wanted and is what start engine is for. Instead are money is locked in and lost when it goes public. When I emailed them I get a gobbled up reply not addressing the issue of stock. which tells me in the future it will happen again on another investment. Why invest if we can not make money when a stock goes public. The only one who made money in this deal is the owner of knightscope.

There is no way to speak to a person, so you're at the mercy of their contact email....which they never reply to. I am getting an error message on the investment screen with zero guidance explaining how to correct the entry. What good is an on-line investment page if you can't invest using it!! They need to start responding to their customer's--I'm ready to move onto a new investment company.