Frequently Asked Questions can be found here.
A couple of other notes/updates: due to various technical "back office" reasons with the people I'm working with to get started (along with the large upswing in pledged dollars) I can put a more probable time frame on launch of the actual fund; at this time it is looking like a range of November 2008 through January 2009 is where we are aiming for. Again, wonderful to see (and in some fashion surreal) - part of this lag is due to SEC review which is an open ended process but should run from 90 to 120 days.
Next, I guess I am old school but I didn't realize how many people buy mutual funds through their online brokers now. I myself have been devoted solely to stocks for so long, I just assumed almost everyone was doing it the old fashioned way (see example here), like I used to buy funds in the late 80s or early 90s - where you get the prospectus, fill out an application and then mail it in, and have a stand alone account. Just to make sure everyone is on the same page since I've gotten some email questions about this, the fund won't be available via brokerages at the beginning - one it needs to be up and running, and two it needs a history of some length before it would even be accepted on such a platform (with extra fees of course to be on said platform). So at the beginning we'll have a website with .pdf files for applications, prospectus and the like and/or you will have a 800 number to call to request such documentation mailed to you, but it will be a stand alone account. This is a standard practice for all funds. Hopefully within a year it will be able to be launched on brokerage platforms. As I wrote in my FAQ, the fund supermarkets from Fidelity and Schwab or an entirely different animal as well - with a substantial fee attached to get started there, so that will come in time but not at the beginning.
I'll start updating things on a state by state basis each month, as I outlined in [Investment Pledges by State] As we wrote, to make it cost effective to register in any state we need about $40-$45K coming in from that state. The good news is if you are not in a registered state, once the amount is breached, its a matter of 24 hours, and a fund can be open for business in any state. So if someone shows up in 6 months from a state that is not registered, they can be added almost instantly.
So far we have 12 states where threshold is met and we'll be registered if we started today: WA, CA, MI, AR, NJ, TX, GA, IL, NY, MA, OH, and FL
Another 8 states we are well on the way and hopefully get a bit more before end of the year to get them registered ($20K+ pledged): CT, NE, KS, AZ, TN, MD, IA, NC
Just getting started in these states with first pledges: MN, WI, LA, OR, NH, PA, AL
SC, ID I need to double check on since it's based on 1 large investor, and other states nothing in yet
As for countries we landed investors from Canada, Costa Rica, Germany, and New Zealand (nice)
As for web traffic we are now averaging 2400-2600 visits on most weekdays (every 30 days this seems to go up by 300-400 visits), and about 600 readers via email (not sure if its the same people or not who come to the actual site).
Again as I always say - thank you for the trust; it's quite an adventure on this side to learn all the mechanics of launching but it's exciting. As always any questions shoot me an email but I hope I addressed most via the FAQ.
Any time day or night, 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. Thanks.
The original post on the purpose of the blog can be found here [Jan 7: Readers 'Pledges' Towards Mutual Fund Launch] Feel free to add a comment to that post or send an email if you'd like to join in.
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 (click here for full post): $1.61M raised
June 17, 2008 $2.51M raised
| 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 | Birmingham, AL |
| $5,000 | Brooks R | Baton Rouge, LA |
| $50,000 | Zlatanscores | New Jersey |
| $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) |
| $15,000 | 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) |
| $37,500 | Art H | Auburn, CA (email) |
| $5,000 | Dan D | Augusta, GA (email) |
| $5,000 | Jeffrey H | Greensboro, NC (email) |
| $37,500 | 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" | TX |
| $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 | Atchison, KS |
| $25,000 | Robert D | Niantic, CT (email - IRA) |
| $25,000 | Scott R | Longbranch, WA (email) |
| $7,500 | Roy S | Knoxville, TN (email) |
| $50,000 | Douglas D | Atlanta, GA (email) |
| $10,000 | Mahender B | Crofton, MD (email) |
| $15,000 | Joon K | NYC (email) |
| $15,000 | Linda A | Houston, TX (email) |
| $5,000 | Bob M | Atlanta, GA |
| $3,000 | Kiran A | Atlanta, GA (email) |
| $5,000 | Alven | LA, CA (email) |
| $75,000 | Vijay K | New Jersey (email) |
| $3,000 | Tyler | CA (email) |
| $20,000 | Jeff M | Cedar Rapids, IA (email) |
| $50,000 | Will W | CA (email) |
| $10,000 | Burt B | Venica, CA (email) |
| $4,000 | Kathy A | Deland, FL (email) |
| $10,000 | Nate W | Novi, MI |
| $5,000 | Tom R | Canada (email) |
| $20,000 | Anurag V | Germany (email) |
| $200,000 | S D | Costa Rica (email) |
| $5,000 | Behrouz F | Ottawa, Canada (email) |
| $20,000 | Hong H | Hamilton, Canada |
| $15,000 | Jeff F | Calgary, Canada (email) |
| $2,500 | Hamish E | Queenstown, New Zealand |
| $25,000 | George L | North Carolina (email) |
| $4,500 | Satyakee S | Houston, TX |
| $2,500 | "madhatter" | TX (email) |
| $30,000 | Rich P | Concord, CA (email) |
| $50,000 | Rich T | S. Yarmouth, MA (email) |
| $5,000 | Xiang X | Salem, MA |
| $25,000 | Shane V | Houston, TX |
| $100,000 | Dave K | Downey, CA (email) |
| $10,000 | Bill H | Boston, MA (email) |
| $20,000 | Kurt C | LA, CA (email) |
| $20,000 | Charles L | San Mateo, CA (email) |
| $5,000 | Troyhouse | Chicago, IL |
| $10,000 | Darin P | Corvallis, OR |
| $10,000 | Adam M | Columbus, OH (email) |
| $15,000 | Justin K | Columbus, OH |
| $5,000 | Adam S | CA (email) |
| $5,000 | Mike M | Atlanta, GA |
| $2,512,750 | Total |
13 comments:
No one from Virginia?
Then sign me up for $25,000. I'll also send you an separate e-mail directly...
Nice work!!!
Why you dont want my money!! I have pledged atleast 2-3 times but still dont see my name :) Again Arun, 20K, Sunnyvale. Last chance or I am going to Ken Weebner.
once you launch your fund, will your transactions be transparent again, via this blog.. or will you not prefer disclosing them?
Hi arun,
Did you send me an email or an earlier comment? If its a comment, sorry I must of missed it. If its an email I assume Yahoo eats half my emails since I always get people saying "did you get my email?" I try to respond to as many as I can. Consider yourself counted now and thanks for not going to "Weebner"
Jhantu, I am going to be as transparent as the SEC allows. I have to talk to my lawyer about what exactly I can and cannot do but I'll be the most transparent fund that is allowed.
congrats! strong month in terms of pledges. hopefully that accelerating trend continues.
i'll post over on my blog referencing this. every bit helps.
Not the best to hear about not being able to use my Fidelity account to invest in your fund. Interested to see if that will prohibit me from investing in the fund (my employer has some tough trading restrictions). I'll work around it.
Oh and congrats with the readers/pledges
TM,
Congrats on raising the money so far. You do deserve it. Guess its time for all of us to pick your brain as much as possible now before you go corporate. :)
Also, I have to admit it was very clever and devious of you to use the TM designation. Who wouldn't want to invest in a mutual fund that has a 'Trade Mark' before it even begins?
These subliminal messages might work very well for you... hey it's worked beautifully for the Cheney... I mean Bush... administration...
On a much heavier note (not really)
did you listen to the last ANR conference call. Interspersed with their awesome results was a question about acquistions. They said they were wary because (I'm paraphrasing) "valuations in the industry were high right now and they expected significant money to drain out of the stock market as the rich investors seek to get out while the 15% capital gains tax is still in tact."
That is one reason I like to listen to conference calls of very successful companies where the wealthy have their money. This tells me that the market may stay afloat as long as the Cheney Administration is in power but "watch out below" towards the end of this year or in 09... the long side could get very very ugly and the horrible fundamentals of our economy may reveal itself in all its ugliness then... (remember an America without credit is like a Hummer without cheap hydrocarbons).
Also very informative take on the food crisis in the Midwest. I think your right on the Street not picking up on this yet... The mentality in New York is just like that in California... There's the East Coast, the West Coast, and "I heard there is actually something in between"...
Thanks for your insight and congrats again,
Jon
folly, thanks
jp,
the charges at fidelity alone would equate to over 1/3rd of all other operating expenses I have. Its just untenable as a small fund.
roses,
thats an interesting comment by them about the stock market. I can understand them saying acquisition costs are rich because the entire sector has doubled in a quarter, but strange to see them commenting about capital gains taxes
If Obama wins as expected probably it goes to 20-22% up from 15%.
Sign me up for 10K.
Trieu, Texas
Mark - excellent monthly progress! how many hats are you wearing now? researcher, analyst, manager, web administrator, fund raiser, and public relations? good thing you don't have employees or we would have to add HR.
on a more serious note - since THE FUND is now 2.5 million of the way toward the $4.0 million initial start goal, if everyone just increased their commitment by 60% we could launch earlier [early next year, perhaps?]
by separate email I have increased my commitment
hrs, I have not received an email (and I did check in my spam folder as well)
Well all those hats will continue except the web part. That I can outsource to someone who actually enjoys it. This website is crude but functional for now.
We are launching at the end of 08 either way. Even with a run rate of $200-$225K which is what I assume we'll get near $4M by late 09. Just crossed $3M.
Post a Comment