StartEngine is an equity crowdfunding platform that allows everyday people to invest and own shares in startups and early-stage companies. StartEngine has helped over 300 entrepreneurs raise over $125M in capital.
StartEngine (startengine.com) has 531 customer reviews on Five Star Index, with an average rating of 4.1 out of 5.
Also known as
startengine.com
Website
startengine.com
Category
Investments & Wealth
Location
Burbank, California
Listed on Five Star Index
2026
About these reviews
Replies
The company replied to 89% of reviews.
Latest
Most recent review: October 2026.
Edits
Reviews are shown as their authors wrote them. The company can reply, but cannot edit them.
Score
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This company gives a glowing speech about how great it is to invest with them and you find out later it's all sales talk. The speech was given to me by, Mr Wonderful, a TV star. He laid it on so heavily that I went for it before getting my glasses to read the super fine print that had disclaimer after disclaimer. This is an awful investment for average Americans trying to grow their wealth.
I stand by the above review. There was absolutely no highlight of multiple disclaimers, stated in nearly unreadable print, at the very end of the agreement.
Response from StartEngineMar 17, 2025
StartEngine offers opportunities to invest in early-stage startups, which are inherently risky. We highlight these risks throughout our platform and encourage responsible investing. Please feel free to reach out to us directly should you need any other clarification!
HH
H H.
SCAM
SCAM!
They contacted me several times and wasted a lot of my time and then told me that we should bring the investors! THEY DON'T HAVE ANY INVESTOR!!!!
Stupid scammers
Response from StartEngineFeb 10, 2025
Hello! Thanks for your concerns, we have requested more information through the review to help resolve your issue immediately, however, no information was provided and we cannot contact you directly. Please contact us at [email protected] so that we can investigate and assist with this issue.
RI
Richard
I’ve been a looser with this company…
I’ve been a looser with this company for years now. I fail to see the benefit of being an investor here, however StartEngine and every other company here has benefited. Graze cancelled all shares I had invested in and sent me a check in return for my investment. TwinUP or something er other told it’s investors that they are the reason they have failed and we are the ones to blame for their failure and filed bankruptcy. Monogram was worthless. The credit card startup company I sent $1000 for dropped off the face of the earth. KnightScope screwed me royally and did a reverse stock split and gave me 5 shares worth $50 for the thousands I invested as well as XTI who just took the thousand or so for 79 shares and gave me 1 whole share in return valued at $4! What a SCAM StartEngine has rolled out here with Mr Wonderful. Nice job 👍
UPDATE: This morning I received an update from another StartEngine client Monetran a crypto start up. Apparently they are not following through on the crypto thing as they lost the backing of a licensed investor/partner and now they have “no path forward” which is an exact quote. I asked for my investment back 2x without any response so far. Others were “cc’d and “bcc’d” and another person asked as well. Still waiting an update. I’d never invest in a start up company again knowing now what I know and the legal loopholes they use to SCAM you out of the investment by doing reverse splits etc. I had $30k in over 15-20 companies and zero have kept their part of the bargain up so far. You think you’re investing early and are being rewarded with shares that will grow in value, yet the truth is as I’ve experienced they take your money, go public and find a way to pay you pennies for your thousands invested.
MY REPLY TO STARTENGINES REPLY:
Yada yada yada… yep we know the risks of purchasing stock only to have the companies reverse split and give us pennies on our dollars. This isn’t posted anywhere on your site yet it continues to happen to each of my investments with you. I’ve lost thousands of dollars and not because the company failed. It’s because of legal loopholes and wording in all your agreements. So I’ll agree to disagree with the company that swindled me… StartEngine. I love their response “many often fail without any element of fraud or misconduct.”, which says there are definitely some within their community that are fraudulent companies within their community and they acknowledge this.
Response from StartEngineFeb 4, 2025
Hello Richard! Thank you for raising your concern and being a member of our community.
StartEngine provides investors an opportunity to invest in early-stage start-ups. What this means is that you are often investing in early-stage companies. Investments in these types of companies are risky by their nature, and many often fail without any element of fraud or misconduct.
As we try to remind you in various places throughout the website, including in the educational materials which all users agree to when creating an account, the universal website footer, and every investment agreement used in conjunction with any offering on our platform, these investments are speculative, illiquid, and involve a high degree of risk including the possible loss of your entire investment.
Even if a company is successful, it takes some time, often years, before an investor can have an opportunity to realize any returns on these types of investments. While we wish all the companies who raise our platform the best of success, we also encourage investors to remember when making any investments through the platform that all investments are speculative, illiquid, and involve a high degree of risk including the possible loss of your entire investment, and to take this risk under consideration and invest responsibly.
If a company that raised on our platform previously makes the decision to go public, it is out of our hands and we have no control over the situation.
StartEngine assists start-up companies in raising capital for their business and helps facilitate investments from investors but once an offering has ended, we are not involved in the IPO process other than providing information to the company’s Transfer Agent and trying to assist investors in the process to the best of our abilities.
To learn more about investing with StartEngine, please check out our Help Guide: https://help.startengine.com
Should you have any further questions or concerns, please reach out to us directly at [email protected].
EW
Eleanor W.
Zero out of thirteen payoffs
This is about my overall experience. Several of these reviews look bogus either due to bad grammar/spelling or unlikely premise. For instance, great website is not my experience. I can’t tell how many years I have been investing in StartEngine startups. Information not on the site. I know startups are high risk. That’s the reason I have 13, hoping one would eventually pay off. Over a period of about five years plus (can’t tell on the site), not one investment has gone public. There are daily email updates on low impact developments. Customer service is very slow. Still waiting to hear back after several days. Once invested you can’t sell until the company goes public, if it ever does. Looks like a good idea but for people who don’t have thousands to burn I recommend regular investments in public companies or else a savings account.
Response from StartEngineJan 29, 2025
Hi Eleanor! We have responded to your concerns directly. Please let us know if you have further questions or concerns. Looking forward to assisting you!
RP
Ronnie P.
No info about my investment for over 1 year…
No info about my investment over 1 year ago,
Can Not sell, No Interest or increased value as of yet.
Stuck in Limbo
Response from StartEngineJan 29, 2025
Hello! We apologize for any difficulties you have encountered. Can you please respond to our request for further information so that we can better assist you? We look forward to assisting you!
RE
Rafat E.
A total Scam!!
A total Scam!!! dont fall for them!
IThey wouldent even delete my account after 5 Emails now. Send me advertising emails without me allowing it. Forget any support from them if you have any problems.
Response from StartEngineJan 29, 2025
Hello! We apologize for any difficulties you have encountered. Can you please respond to our request for further information so that we can better assist you? We look forward to assisting you!
JQ
Jesper Quottrup T.
No feedback from customer support
When StartEngine acquired Seedinvest my investment was transfered to StartEngine.
The problem is that there is a problem with my profile, and I get a message regarding missing verification, and that I need to contact customer support to get it solved.
I contacted them the first time a couple of months ago and again two times during the last couple of weeks.
I receive zero feedback, and have no access to my portfolio and cant participate in the upcoming emission.
Very bad customer support.
Response from StartEngineJan 22, 2025
Hello! We apologize for any difficulties you have encountered. Can you please respond to our request for further information so that we can better assist you? We look forward to assisting you!
JL
J L.
get the feeling this company is a scam?
a friend of a friend suggested I look into startengine and he actually invested in their company, but when I reached out to startengine and set up a meeting with one of their reps, I was shocked by the experience. the rep did not show up to the meeting and when I emailed asking about rescheduling I received an email back saying "not a fit". suffice it to say I was shocked by the poor customer support and poor business practices and I subsequently let my friend of a friend know that he should investigate this company to de-risk his investment. im getting some big time "scam" vibes from them overall.
Response from StartEngineNov 25, 2024
Thank you for sharing your experience. We’re truly sorry to hear about the miscommunication and the negative impression it left. This isn’t the level of service we strive to provide, and we’d appreciate the opportunity to make things right. If you're open to it, please reach out to us directly at [email protected], so we can address your concerns and learn how to improve. Your feedback is valuable to us.