Reader Investment Pledges mid May Update

Time to do our monthly check in on the real function of this blog (aside from the daily entertainment, the laughs, the crys, and the money making ideas). This month we have some good news and some really good news.

Let's start with the good news... I've spent some time the past month speaking to a gentlemen who runs a small fund he started from scratch, and through resources he put me in contact with (who specialize in smaller independent funds), the 'launch costs' and 'break even costs' are going to be lower than I first anticipated. So this was very fortunate and due to this development I'm going to change my headline title from "need to raise $12M" to "need to raise $7M", although somewhere in the mid $3M to mid $4M range I will begin to get serious about actually taking the next steps.

Now on to the really good news - the past month was a bonanza in terms of pledges - we've been at a run rate of $200-$225K a month or so, but we doubled that this month and $421K was pledged. This came from both new (future) investors and a lot of people who made an initial pledge earlier in the year but have come back after watching the progress and reading the blog, and feel more comfortable committing more. So once again, as always, thanks for that trust.

I often get emails of "when will you actually start" and my answer is "I don't know, it is not up to me"; when I get to a pledged asset base where I feel comfortable I won't be taking a huge bath in year 1, than we'll move to the next steps of launch. I've pegged that at roughly $3.5-$4M so we are almost half way there. The good news is, if the pace continues at +$200-$225K/month, we'll be talking about an early 2009 launch instead of 2011 as first estimated (or hoped). But how much is pledged each month is a variable that is impossible to project.

Web traffic continues to increase and now we are averaging about 2000-2100 visits on most weekdays; and we've broken into the top 200K on Alexa rankings. Still gunning for Google at #2 ;) As always more readers should lead to more future investors as long as I do my part.

As always, you can see how I am doing by verified independent 3rd party metric here: 'Rising Tide Growth' performance

To future investors, as always, if you change your mind and want to rescind an investment pledge and/or change (up or down) the amount, please let me know since I simply want know where I stand in this process. Also if you see your name below but no location, please drop me an email or comment on this blog entry of your city, state. Thanks.

The original post on the purpose of the blog can be found here [Jan 7: Readers 'Pledges' Towards Mutual Fund Launch]

Totals
January 7, 2008 = $75K total raised
February 19, 2008 (click here for full post): $766K total raised
March 18, 2008 (click here for full post): $994K raised
April 16, 2008 (click here for full post): $1.19M raised
May 15, 2008: $1.61M raised

Important info since I get this question a lot via email:
One question asked is the process once the fund is up and running - it would be no different than any other mutual fund out there - you'd get an application, prospectus, send the check to a 3rd party clearing house and away you go. Retirement and normal accounts both available, it is no load, etc - nothing different than all the other mutual funds out there, other than the most transparency in terms of manager decisions and daily feedback. So that's down the road once the fund is created - for now I just need a clear amount of commitments/pledges so I can hit the ground running.

Amount	Who	Where
$75,000	Self	MI
$2,500	Michael D	Oceanside, CA
$7,500	Oth	Parts Unknown
$10,000	Dean D	San Jose, CA
$2,500	Oza P	MA
$20,000	Oren L	Chicago
$10,000	Rob T	NYC
$5,000	Ryan	Seattle, WA
$7,500	Ted	Sunnyvale, CA
$2,500	Brian P	Cerritos, CA
$50,000	David B	Middlesex, NJ
$50,000	Ian M	San Antonio, TX
$40,000	"LiquidWindows"	Deep in heart of TX
$5,000	Jonson	LA, CA
$5,000	Jimidean	Parts Unknown
$3,000	Brooks R	Baton Rouge, LA
$5,000	Zlatanscores	Parts Unknown
$3,000	Ben S	Portland, OR
$20,000	Sheng S	Omaha, NE
$10,000	msuberri	NJ
$5,000	David W	Houston, TX
$10,000	Ryan T	NJ
$3,000	NandaK	Nashua, NH
$10,000	WaltF	Louisberg, KS
$2,500	Joe	Scranton, PA (email)
$2,500	Todd	Nashville, TN (email)
$250,000	David R	South Carolina (email)
$100,000	A.F.	Los Altos, CA (email)
$50,000	Satya	Temple City, CA (email)
$10,000	Bobby L	San Jose, CA
$200,000	Ganesh S	Bellevue, WA
$2,500	Michael A	Charleston, SC (email)
$2,500	TJP	Sterling, IL (email)
$75,000	Bob B	VanBuren, AR (email)
$10,000	Pat L	Tuscon, AZ (email)
$25,000	Art H	Auburn, CA (email)
$5,000	Dan D	Augusta, GA (email)
$5,000	Jeffrey H	Greensboro, NC (email)
$50,000	Tom L	San Fran, CA (email)
$10,000	Wesley W	San Jose, CA (email)
$10,000	Tom S (daKat)	Minneapolis, MN
$5,000	Dan W	Mentor, OH (email)
$10,000	Jim G	Marana, AZ (email)
$5,000	Andrey G	Baltimore, MD
$20,000	Doug M	San Fran, CA (email)
$75,000	"Skooker"	Boise, ID (email)
$3,750	Brian C	Milwaukee, WI (email)
$2,500	Jason F	Big Apple, NY
$3,000	Chung W	San Jose, CA (email)
$3,000	Mac	Bellevue, WA
$10,000	BMW	Bay Area, CA (email)
$10,000	"steelelana"	NY
$10,000	"Jpassana"	Parts Unknown
$5,000	Brian J	Racine, WI (email)
$5,000	Ceferino J	Parts Unknown (email)
$10,000	Link M	Knoxville, TN
$5,000	Pankaj	Forest Park, OH
$20,000	Alex A	Big Apple, NY
$100,000	D.K.	Los Altos Hills, CA (email)
$20,000	Roger B	Arlington TX
$20,000	Rohit S	Chicago, IL
$5,000	Praveen K	Somewhere in Kansas
$25,000	Robert D	Niantic, CT (email - IRA)
$25,000	Scott R	Longbranch, WA (email)
$7,500	Roy S	Knoxville, TN (email)
$25,000	Douglas D	Atlanta, GA (email)
$10,000	Mahender B	Crofton, MD (email)
$1,611,250