I wont reveal the casino directly but for context it's based in the Caribbean and is owned by some Chinese conglomerate of sorts. It ranks highly online and multiple sources claim it's safe so I didn't question it's legitimacy especially since it's a professional looking site with nice graphics and live dealers and all. It wasn't until I deposited more money than I'd like to admit in increments and finally checked my bank account in despair after losing it all that I realized the payment processing was handled by multiple third party ecommerce businesses and the like. Not only that but a few of the charges were labeled as being sent to individuals directly with common sounding almost stereotypical Chinese names instead of businesses like "Zhou Wei" or "Hui Chang" One charge in particular was labeled as a website address for an Alibaba looking site that sells "mobile signal boosters" and was identified by google as "not secure" and warned me that I shouldn't enter any personal info as it could be compromised.
So this leads me to the inevitable question: Would it be safe for me to request chargebacks and claim partial fraud or even complete ignorance and let it play out? (Which would be ideal so i can recoup) Moral judgement and gambling addiction advice aside if it is the case that this casino is disguising itself from banks and using third party fronts in what I'm assuming to be a money laundering operation, would they risk revealing themselves and countering my banks investigation? And yes technically I did in fact authorize the payments to the casino and they have my name, home address, and ip if they do choose to counter but I never agreed to have my card details covertly ran through shell corporations and front businesses especially ones deemed illegitimate by google and not only that but i was charged a 5%-15% hidden fee on every transaction by the third parties. So for example what should of been a flat $500 deposit in exchange for the equivalent in casino credit came out to $547.32 unbeknownst to me and I was charged a foreign transaction fee on top of that. I don't want to get busted for chargeback fraud but if the casino itself is fraudulent (And also operated outside the USA on some small sketchy island nation run by criminals based in china) can I get away with it, moreover would it even be getting away with anything if I'm the victim here at least in part.
edit: From Oklahoma USA
submitted by Go ahead and type “I lost all my money at the casino” on a random search engine. You will see hundreds of results – this is one of the common search phrases of all gamblers. We all play, we all win, but we also all lose: Lost money at casino is a situation that will happen to you too sooner or later.
Since we cannot escape from it, let’s try to look at this problem from different angles: Why did we lost a lot of money at casino? How can we cope with lost money at casino situation? And more importantly, how to get back money lost at casino, is it possible? In this article, you will find the answers to these questions and more.
Why You Lose Money at the Casino Casinos can be a great pastime. They have something for everyone. If the thrill of spinning slots isn’t your thing, maybe you’d prefer doubling down at the blackjack table. When you win, it feels awesome; that’s the appeal that brings people to the casinos in the first place.
While it’s fun to win, we all have our losing streaks. Sometimes we lose a lot. I once lost $100 in 10 minutes at a video poker machine. We’ve all heard of the house edge, but is it possible to increase your own edge? We’re about to shed some light on the situation. With a little luck, you’ll be able to turn your fortune around. Here’s why you lose money at the casino.
Your Bankroll Management Isn’t What It Should Be: Managing your bankroll is the most important thing you can do at the casino. We all want to bet big on the games. After all, the bigger the bet, the bigger the win. The problem is you can’t guarantee a win every time. You can’t even guarantee a win every dozen games. If you have a bankroll of $60 and lose three $20 bets, you just blew through your whole budget in two minutes.
Take into consideration how long you want to play. If you’ve got a bankroll of $60, why not split it into smaller bets of $1 per hand? At least this way, you’ll get to play 60 rounds and stand a stronger chance of winning. The rewards may be smaller, but you’ll get a lot more entertainment playing two hours than two minutes.
You’re Playing the Wrong Games: This may seem like a silly thing to say, but you might be playing the wrong games. If you’re losing every time, you might want to try something new.
When you’re selecting a casino game, it’s important to consider the house edge. In general, finding a game with a lower house edge gives you better chance of winning. If you’re used to luck-based games like slots or roulette, you might want to try skill-based games like blackjack or video poker.
In fact, video poker is a really good choice for machine players. Slot machines can vary in regard to house edge, ranging between a low of 5% and a high of 30%. With Jacks or Better video poker, you will recover 99.54% of your money throughout your lifetime. Add in a lifetime of comped drinks, and you’ve made out like a bandit.
You’re Using a Failing Strategy: Many people search for casino game strategies. You’ve probably done it yourself at one time or another. The problem with a lot of strategies is that you either have to be an expert player with a spreadsheet of numbers in your head, or you need a massive bankroll.
Don’t fall into the mindset of thinking, “Well, if I use this system, it’s bound to work in the end.” We do not recommend counting cards or increasing your bet after every loss. Unless you’re a billionaire with a near-unlimited bankroll, those are losing strategies. Unless you have unlimited money, you cannot beat the house, period.
Casinos know these strategies don’t work. You can almost see the curt smile on the dealer’s face as you double your bet again and again. Instead of using a strategy like this, manage your bankroll in the ways noted earlier. Be smart about it.
You’re Trying Too Hard to Regain Losses: While there are some skill-based games, casinos are all about luck. You’re going to suffer losses along the way. Even professional gamblers cannot guarantee they’ll always win, because gambling relies on a certain amount of luck. Don’t let a loss or a losing streak get to you.
It’s common for players to suffer a loss and then start throwing out higher bets without thinking. You need to remain logical and, again, manage your bankroll effectively. Casino gaming should be fun. If you get angry or stressed, it’s time to stop. Don’t throw away everything you have left in an attempt to get even. It’s not going to work. Never has, never will.
Cope With Gambling and Casino Loss Coping with gambling loss can be challenging, especially if you are a beginner. Believe it or not, this can be as hard as grieving for the loss of a relative. In order to cope with your gambling losses, you must first accept that losing is perfectly normal while gambling. Everybody loses, even professional players. So accepting that losing money gambling is not the end of the world is important: This happens to every player out there. But if this is especially hard for you and you feel an urge to keep gambling, you may have an addiction problem. In this case:
Stop gambling immediately. There is no such thing as “less gambling” for addicts. You must stop gambling, period. Take advantage of the responsible gaming practices of online casinos. You can put self-exclusions on your account and limit your budget, game time, and even the game categories you can play. Use these tools to limit yourself.
Do not try to cover your losses by playing more games. We said “stop gambling” for a reason. The majority of addicts keep gambling because they think that “playing one more game will cover all of their losses”. This is wrong and a dangerous approach. If you continue to gamble, you may lose more: There is no guarantee that you will win this time. And continuing the same habit will just make the problem bigger.
Face the consequences. Losing money at gambling will have lots of consequences, especially if you surpassed your budget. Your stress levels will increase and you will have problems in relations with your loved ones. Almost 99% of addicts try to hide their losses but this will just make everything worse. Talk to your loved ones, make sure they know about the situation, and face the consequences. Yes, it will be hard but it is mandatory: Recognizing your problem and sharing it with your loved ones is the first (and most important) step of coping with gambling losses.
Get professional help if needed. No matter where you live, you can find an organization that is ready to help you with your problem. It can be Gamblers Anonymous, Gam Care, or Problem Gambling CA – there are professionals out there who are ready to help you, free of charge. Join one of these programs and don’t hesitate to ask for help.
Once again, the suggestions above apply to addicts – not casual gamblers. If you are fine with the fact that losing is a part of gambling and there is no way to avoid it, there is no problem: As long as you respect your budget and control yourself, gambling can be a fun hobby.
Will A Casino Give Your Money Back? And now, let’s continue with the obvious question: How to recover lost money from casino? Is this possible? Can you still take something back for lost money at casino?
The short answer is no. And you already know this: No casino (or online casino) will refund your money just because you lost. Remember that these are called “games of chance” for a reason. The operators do not guarantee any winnings and you cannot take your losses back. Do you go to the betting booth after losing a sports bet and ask for your money back? It is the same principle: Lost money online casino (or land-based casino) won’t be refunded, period.
There is only one scenario in which the answer to how to recover lost money in casino question is yes: Fraud. If your account is hacked and a third party used your balance to play games, then yes, the casino may choose to refund your losses. However:
This is not mandatory. The casino may not choose to refund your losses even if you can prove that your account is hacked. Proving a hack is harder than you think. The majority of players who lost try to use this excuse, and we do not know even a single case where the casino accepted a hack really happened.
Hire a Funds Recovery Expert: Best Way to Recover Lost Money At Casino You may be tempted to use a chargeback. But you know how chargeback option works: If you used a credit card to pay for something, you can always put a chargeback order and get your money back – as long as you did not receive the goods. In this case, the refund is done by the bank itself, not the merchant. So, is this a way to recover lost money at casino?
Simply put, no. Chargeback feature is useful, but only if you did not receive something for the payment you made. When such a claim is issued, the payment provider asks the merchant to send the proof of delivery. If you purchase a PC, for example, and the seller cannot prove that the delivery is made, sure, you can get your money back. Only a funds recovery expert will be able to help you recover money lost in casino.
Only a Funds Recovery Expert Can Help You Recover Your Money The same thing goes for e-wallet payments too. They are even pickier than the banks, and we do not know of a single case where the e-wallet provider accepted the chargeback claim for gambling losses.
Overall, the best method that works everytime is hiring a Funds Recovery Expert, and the funds recovery expert we have personally used and recommend is -
[email protected]. The answer to how to recover lost money in casino question is still “you can’t”. Use the chargeback bonus if you want constant refunds – that’s the only thing you can do. So send your request via email to - [
[email protected]](mailto:
[email protected])
submitted by note: today is the final sale for the Eve V, so here's my review If you are a big fan of 2-in-1 tablets, you may have heard of the Eve V, the device that promised to be a "Surface Killer". If you haven't heard of it, then it's pretty clear how well
that claim played out. The specs and features were voted on by the community, so it was looking to be the perfect device. But then launch came and went, and news came out about backers not receiving any device. It was a pretty big controversy at the time, but it wasn't long before the news died down, and the Eve V was forgotten.....
Well, unless you kept up with the email newsletter, where they continued to post sales for their device. About 3 months ago, when I finally had the money, I pulled the trigger, and much to my surprise, it actually came. Here is my review, and my thoughts on the controversy.
Why am I posting this now? Well because I was a bit of a lazy p*ece of sh*t for the past few months and never got around to it. But also because the Eve V is having [their last sale](
https://evedevices.com/pages/eve-v) today, the i7 512GB model for $779 (which happens to be the same model I got), and if you are thinking about getting it, this is probably your last chance. and hopefully my review will help aid your decision.
The gist of it is below, but I posted a full review further down that I recommend reading before actually pulling the trigger.
Summary
For reference, this is for the i7, 16GB ram, 512GB SSD model (the same one that's on sale today). My previous computer was the Surface Pro 3 (i7 with 8GB Ram, 256GB SSD), so I will be comparing against that throughout the review.
Pros
- fingerprint scanner
- wireless keyboard, amazing for using keyboard shortcuts while it's detached (eg while drawing)
- 2 USB C ports (one with thunderbolt)
- 2 USB A ports
- doesn't overheat as much (as Surface Pro 3)
Cons
- poor battery life (I got 4-5 hours, but some people say it can be optimized to 7-8? I haven't tried yet, since I just use a power bank)
- keyboard lags in wireless mode
- hinge doesn't go as far (as Surface Pro 3)
- lower screen resolution
Verdict
If you are a college student looking for a reliable device, don't take the risk. But if you have cash on hand, you care about the extra ports and the wireless keyboard, you don't mind carrying a power bank, and are maybe a bit of a geek when it comes to 2-in-1 laptops, then this is extremely good value for the money (I got it for $899, but it's selling for $779 right now, which includes the keyboard). But make the purchase with a credit card and be prepared to ask for a chargeback just in case. I will admit it's a bit of a gamble, Unbox Therapy covers the controversy [here](
https://youtu.be/3GuJBolxAwk), and I cover it at the end of my full review. But for me, the chance of getting my dream 2-in-1 device, was worth the risk, and it seems like Eve Tech has gotten a lot better since then.
I also heard that they are releasing a new version of the device at the end of the year, it might be worth waiting for that one, but don't expect to get a deal like one going on right now.
Full Review
Performance
I didn't really rigorously benchmark my computer as you can find benchmarks in any other review online. However, I have used it as my main computer for the past 3 months and have had no issues with performance. For reference, I mainly use Chrome and VSCode, along with Clip Studio Paint. So nothing really heavy (aside from Chrome where I might have up to 200 tabs open, but I use the Great Suspender extension which helps a lot).
According to [user benchmarks](
https://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Core-i7-7Y75-vs-Intel-Core-i7-4650U/m211988vsm6364), the i7-7Y75 chip inside the Eve V is actually slightly slower than the i7-4650U chip in the Surface Pro 3 (yeah that surprised me as well). However, from what I remember alot of the improvements to the ivy-bridge chips after the Surface Pro 3 focused on thermal efficiency. And that is definitely noticeable to me. My Surface Pro 3 runs so hot that I pretty much always have to point a fan at the back, otherwise it will start throttling after 30 min. The Eve V has never had that problem and runs very cool.
Display
I don't have many opinions here. The display is extremely bright, a good amount brighter than the Surface Pro 3. Direct sunlight is not a problem. I have it pretty much always at 50%, and it's about the same as the Surface Pro at 75-80% brightness.
Color and resolution seem fine (spec-wise it's a lower resolution than the surface but I never noticed. I watch a lot of videos but rarely above 1080p. perhaps would matter more if you were a gamer).
Hinge and Construction
The construction of the device is very solid. Honestly looks and feels great, as good if not better than the Surface Pro 3. Matte black metal chassis with very little branding.
The hinge doesn't bend as far as the Surface Pro 3. It bends to about 140 degrees, whereas the Surface bends to around 160 (I'm just eyeballing these measurements). Here's a comparison: [Eve V](
https://i.imgur.com/87lgDKa.jpg) vs [Surface Pro 3](
https://i.imgur.com/ayBXzD6.jpg). Hinge feels very sturdy though.
Battery
The battery life is probably the worst part of this device. Personally I've never been able to squeeze out more than 4.5-5 hours, though perhaps that's more a problem with how I'm using it, because I've read on some forums that people have been able to optimize it to 7 or 8 hours of continuous usage.
However, what probably makes the battery life seem way worse, is the keyboard has a bad habit of sending stray mouse touches while the computer is asleep, and it will wake the computer up and drain the battery. So sometimes the Eve V will be completely dead by the time I wake up. I've gotten around this by either disconnecting the keyboard after putting the keyboard to sleep, or forcing the computer into hibernation (via the cmd line).
I'm willing to forgive the issues with battery though because, unlike the Surface Pro, I can charge my Eve V using an external power bank, and I have a 20,000mAH battery bank that should give me at least 8 more hours.
Pen and Digital Art
I am a beginner digital artist so I did test the pen out (though I'll be honest, I've been on a bit of a hiatus so I never got to use it that much). The design is pretty much exactly the same as the original Surface Pro 3 pen: it has 2 buttons on the side and uses a plastic nib. I have one of the newer Surface pen and I prefer to use that one since the felt-tip nibs give a bit more friction and control. However the newer Surface pens, for whatever reason, removed one of the side buttons, so now you have to flip the pen around and use the back to erase, very unwieldy.
This isn't a problem anymore though with the wireless keyboard. Now I can detach the keyboard and use it with my left hand for keyboard shortcuts, while I draw with my right hand. This is nothing short of a
MIRACLE. Being able to quickly undo-redo strokes is so amazing, and I've only just begun to dive into keyboard shortcuts now that I can finally use them while drawing (I never had an external keyboard since I'm on the move so much).
As mentioned previously, the hinge doesn't bend as far on the Eve, so for drawing, I can't get that flatter angle that I can get with the Surface. Instead I'll fold the hinge back in and use a pencil box to prop it up or something, hopefully they fix this in the next revision.
Keyboard
The keyboard felt like it could use a lot of improvement. The typing and trackpad experience is great, but outside of that there are a lot of minor annoyances. The magnets attaching the keyboard to the screen are weak (compared to the weight of the keyboard), so picking up the device by the screen will cause the keyboard to fall off. In addition, when flipping the keyboard backwards to use the Eve in tablet mode, the keyboard isn't disabled, so now I just detach it completely.
In wireless mode, the keyboard is laggy and sometimes drops keystrokes. The mousepad is just as buggy, it's slow and will cause unintentional drags while moving around, or clicks won't register, etc. Really only good for light use (eg browsing or using keyboard shortcuts), don't expect to be writing essays or something.
On waking up from sleep, often the mousepad is laggy, not sure why. Detaching and reattaching keyboard fixes this, so just another mild annoyance.
On the plus side, I love the backlight, and it's small details like this that make me the Eve over the Surface. You'll never be able to convince Microsoft to add an RGB backlight to the keyboard. Sure, it's not essential, but quirks like this turn the device from just a tool, to a fun experience.
In addition, as I said in the previous section, my main use case for the wireless mode is for keyboard shortcuts, and that works like a charm. I think it's only when you start streaming multiple keystrokes and mouse events, that it starts getting overwhelmed. (if you want to get technical, my guess is that they are trying to send each keystroke in separate packets, instead of batching them or using a continuous data stream. This can easily be fixed in the next iteration imo).
Peripherals
The speakers are surprisingly good, louder and sound better than the ones on my Surface Pro 3. Not a big deal for me but a pleasant surprise nonetheless.
Fingerprint scanner is fast and works well, I love it. Really wish the Surface pro had this. Worth noting that the Eve V camera doesn't support facial recognition, but I never used Windows Hello anyways, and I prefer fingerprint over facial recognition.
My device came with a slightly loose USB C port (the top one). So anything plugged into there tends to fall out with very little movement. However, luckily the bottom one works perfectly, and that's the one with thunderbolt.
And I think it's worth mentioning, only one working thunderbolt port is STILL better than the Surface Pro 7, which only has one USB C port with no thunderbolt support. And this is two years after the Eve V was released. Plus, the Eve V has an additional USB A port. This is another big annoyance I had with the Surface. I would always have to unplug my mouse to be able to plug in a flash drive or camera, and be forced to use the trackpad while I backup files. (I had a dongle but was often too lazy to look for it). With the Eve I can just plug both of them in.
In addition, with the Thunderbolt port, I can use one of [those adapters](
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07G44M4S3/) that allows me to plug in my monitor, usb hub, and power cable all into a single port. This makes it super easy for me to "dock" my Eve into my desktop setup, without using the overpriced Surface dock.
I also never got to test the eGPU support, which is a pretty crazy thing to have considering how few people will use it, but it at least gives me respect that Eve would even bother to include it.
Extras
Mine came with a screen protector already applied, not sure if that was intentional. Saved me a lot of trouble since I'm pretty bad at applying them myself.
Also I never ordered a stylus (they were "out of stock") but mine came with one anyways. Thanks Eve! Hope I didn't get somebody else's stylus lol.
The Controversy, and My Personal Thoughts
I started following the Eve V from pretty early on. However at the time I didn't have enough money to back the campaign, but that was probably a blessing since I heard a [lot of people never got their devices](
https://liliputing.com/2018/07/after-making-a-terrific-tablet-in-2017-eve-tech-is-having-trouble-shipping-units-and-supporting-customers.html). Unbox therapy covers the controversy pretty well [here](
https://youtu.be/3GuJBolxAwk).
And that really is where Eve failed to deliver, literally. Hard to support a device when you never even get to see it. From what I heard, it seems like the people that were most impacted were the kickstarter backers, and the people who bought it in the huge 2017 christmas sale. I guess the two events with the largest volume of orders. And then there was the bad communication, and the [failure to refund](
https://www.reddit.com/Surface/comments/8ufvv5/my_awful_experience_trying_to_refund_an_eve_v_and/), and just overall sketchy management. There were rumors abound that they were a scam, or that [Paypal froze all their funds](
https://eve.community/t/latest-updates-from-china-on-prototypes-deliveries-and-more/5705), problems with the manufacturer, etc etc. Ironically, I remember that in the kickstarter, Eve Tech said they wanted to cut out the middle man to save money. Maybe that wasn't such a good idea after all. What I know for sure is that a lot of people didn't get their device, which is undeniably sh*tty.
On the other hand..... I actually did receive a device. I made sure to purchase it on my credit card and after a week of silence, I emailed support. I got no response, and was fully prepared to request a chargeback, but one week later they emailed me saying my tracking number would come in a few days. I was doubtful, but lo and behold, a few days later my tracking number came, and within a week my device was at my front door.
And the thing is, after using the device for a few months, and seeing how well it stacks up against the Surface Pro. I am really starting to believe in Eve Tech. This is a small new company that has managed to make a device that is on par with a mature device from one of the biggest companies in the world. That's insane to me. If they were just trying to scam customers, it just wouldn't make sense to put this much work into making a good product. Sure, I think they were woefully mismanaged, and handled things badly with some merchants and manufacturers, but I also think they were honestly trying to create a good product. And if the rumors about Paypal blocking their funds were true...it wouldn't be the first time Paypal has f*cked over a small company. And it would also explain why people couldn't get a refund: the company literally couldn't get the money out of PayPal. (Edit: I also recently heard that in their December 2018 sale, they got screwed over by one of their distributers, "Fortress", so they have since cut ties with them)
With a company this small trying to sell a product this ambitious, I think a risk is to be expected. I was fully prepared to attempt a chargeback, and
even to lose that money, but I was willing to bank it on the chance of getting my dream device. Because I am honestly pissed at Microsoft for sitting on their laurels for 7 years and barely lifting a finger to improve the Surface Pro. And I think it's about time for another competitor to step up to the plate.
So I guess what I'm trying to say, is that while Eve V definitely struggled to deliver, I still believe that they are an honest company and will strive to do better in the future. They don't have the resources or experience that Microsoft has, they are going to mess up here and there. But I don't think those failures are out of malice, and they'll get better and learn from those mistakes. Already, their Facebook page is pretty active at responding to users, and they have reportedly cut ties with their previous merchant.
Hopefully they continue to improve and the release of the next device will be much cleaner. But until then, I know that I personally will support them, and probably purchase their next device, since I am sick and tired of Microsoft sitting on the Surface Pro without improving it, and I am happy with my Eve V.
submitted by Hey - Pat from
StarterStory.com here with another interview.
Today's interview is with Michael Reznik of
Upcart, a brand that sells stair climbing folding cart/dolly.
Michael laid out some super nice tips for sales and entrepreneurs early in their journey - so hope you enjoy this one. Some stats: - Product: Stair climbing folding cart/dolly.
- Revenue/mo: $583,000
- Started: May 2015
- Location: Columbus, Ohio
- Founders: 2
- Employees: 4
Hello! Who are you and what business did you start?
Hello, my name is Michael Reznik and I am the Co-Founder and CEO of TriFold LLC, the company that invented the
UpCart ® line of products. We are dedicated to revolutionizing mobility with innovative products that give people the freedom to do what they love by enhancing their mobility. When people have greater mobility, they can do more and be more productive.
Let’s be real, carrying stuff up & down stairs is the worst. The UpCart ® line of products solve this problem with a unique line of all-terrain folding carts and hand trucks that have been engineered to reduce effort while going up and down stairs and over irregular terrain. Our patented technology also allows all of our products to fold completely flat for easy storage or transportation.
Our newest product the
UpCart Versa Trolley (renamed from the UpCart City), the most compact stair climbing cart, won the Retailer’s Choice Award at the 2018 National Hardware Show and was successfully funded on Kickstarter. The UpCart Versa is the only folding hand cart to ever be offered with a LIFETIME warranty!
Our first product, the UpCart Original, became available in August 2015 and promptly sold out of stock within 10 days of going viral on Facebook after Thanksgiving. We did $385,000 in sales from August – December 2015. Revenue continued to grow with $3.2M in 2016, $5.4M in 2017, and we are on track to exceed $7M in sales this year. We are excited to note that UpCart ® products are for sale in Costco, Bed Bath & Beyond, Home Depot, Lowe’s and other major retailers.
What our product looks like What's your backstory and how did you come up with the idea?
Some great companies are started by very unlikely business partners.
I was at my Dad’s birthday party and was sitting next to a long-time family friend, Leonid Khodor (my Dad’s age), an engineer and patent agent. During the course of the evening, after a few libations, Leonid shared that he had invented this new product but wasn’t sure how to turn it into a business.
He had a rough Frankenstein prototype (made from baby stroller wheels, cannibalized part and some custom fabricated pieces) and showed me a little video of it in action. A light bulb went off in my head, immediately I saw so many applications/uses for this right away. We exchanged contact information that evening.
Early prototype 1 Early prototype 2 After conducting some research, performing some due diligence and convincing my wife to let me make the investment of both time and money, I agreed to go into business with Leonid. I applied for our tax ID and trade name and TriFold officially became a company in February 2013. At that time, I had spent most of my career in the Fortune 500 as a Management / Operations Consultant.
I already had a pretty demanding job but always had a passion for entrepreneurship. I had attempted to start a company in the mid-2000’s right before the 2nd stock market crash, but I wasn’t able to get it off the ground before the economy imploded. This time, however, I wasn’t going to let anything stand in the way. I believed wholeheartedly that this idea was going to be successful, we just needed to figure out how to make that a reality.
TriFold started as a “side hustle” while I continued to work my corporate job, but it quickly became much more than that. 100+ work weeks became my new normal. During the day I was the good corporate steward, but evenings and weekends were dedicated to TriFold.
Many people write/advise that you must be “All-In” to make a business successful… that’s easy to say if you don’t have a wife, two kids, car payments and a mortgage. I wasn’t in a position to just quit my day job and commit 100% to the business, and I wouldn’t be until December 2016 (3.5 years later).
Describe the process of designing, prototyping, and manufacturing the product.
Our first challenge was taking Leonid’s Frankenstein-cart prototype and turning it into a real finished product.
Design We hired a good local design firm that conducted some market research and worked with us on several design iterations. While their designs were beautiful, we had concerns about their practicality and feasibility of manufacturing those designs at a reasonable cost.
We parted ways with the design firm but learned enough through the process to finish the product design on our own. Leonid is a gifted engineer and designer and developed all of our 3D models and industrial designs on his own using CAD software (and still does to this day).
Prototyping The second major challenge was how to turn the designs into a working prototype. We explored many options ranging from 3D printing to full custom fabrication.
The challenge was the exorbitant cost associated with all of these options. Due to the nature and complexity of our product design, the prototyping process would cost about 33% - 50% of the cost of the actual production tooling.
So after much deliberation, and 3D modeling in CAD software, we decided to take a huge gamble and move forward with the production tooling without going through the prototype process first. Our logic was actually very sound. The cost of modifying and adjusting tooling would actually be less expensive than the cost of developing a working prototype.
Moreover, by working directly from the production tooling, our samples would be real load-bearing fully functional samples. This also had the benefit of saving us months of time and allowed us to bring the actual product to market sooner.
Finding a factory Once the decision was made, we set out to find a factory to help make our vision a reality. With the aid of an experienced sourcing consultant (who later became our sales manager), we visited many factories in China, asked for quotes from three and selected one to work with.
Note: we did explore manufacturing in the USA but found the cost would have been at least 3-times higher to produce in the USA. One big advantage to the factory we selected was a very low minimum order qty, provided that we paid 100% for the tooling and assembly fixtures.
Describe the process of launching the online store/business.
Our plan was to get working samples from the factory and present them at the largest hardware show held annually in Las Vegas. There was one small problem, we were quickly running out of money.
Despite countless pitches and meetings, at this point, we had very little success in raising capital. Everyone wanted to invest in tech, biotech, SaaS or mobile. In late 2014 we attempted to go to Kickstarter to raise capital. We rushed in and didn’t do it the right way. Our funding goal was too high and while we did raise over $27K we didn’t hit our funding goal, so no funds were received. We were quickly running out of operating capital.
Fortunately, I cultivated a relationship with one of our backers who later became one of our angel investors. After closing our angel round, we had enough capital to pay for the remainder of the tooling, stand up a basic website, pay for a trip to the factory to finalize the samples (and pack them to take home as our check luggage) and pay the costs to attend the
National Hardware Show in a tiny 5x7 booth in the Inventor’s Spotlight Area.
We were the bells of the ball!
From the moment the show opened, we had a crowd at least two deep at our booth almost the entire time. The UpCart won the “Most Innovative New Concept” award at the show and I was invited to a pitch contest hosted by QVC. I won the pitch contest and was live on the air three weeks later doing a live-sell on the
QVC Sprouts program.
Please note, these were still production samples – no actual product had been produced yet.
This was May and we told QVC that we would not have actual product in the USA until August of that year. QVC was good with that and noted “Will Ship August 22” during the program.
The UpCart sold out in 5 minutes and started taking wait-list orders! This was immediate validation that we had something customers wanted.
Me on QVC Later that same year, I made product video on my MacBook and posted to Facebook. I boosted the post for $20/day and it ended up going viral. The video ended up getting 7.5M views and over 15.4M organic reach.
This all occurred in about 10 days between Thanksgiving and Christmas. The UpCart completely sold out, we had zero inventory left with a couple weeks of Christmas shopping left. We weren’t complaining too loud, we were out of cash and purchased as much inventory as we could afford to head into the holidays. We were able to take the revenue from those sales and reinvest back into the business.
We have bootstrapped this business from day one. After our initial angel investment round, we never did another funding round. We have been fiscally conservative and managed the business well. Due to our early profitability, I was able to work with small micro-lenders at first and then consolidate our debt with Huntington Bank through the SBA lending program. As we grew, Huntington continued to be a fantastic partner to us with additional lending when we needed.
The faster we grew, the harder it was to manage cash flow. I never realized that being a manufacturer of a physical product meant that you would also act as a bank for your customers. Everyone takes payment terms ranging from NET 30 to NET 120! We have to pay for the inventory before it leaves the factory while the clock doesn’t start on payment terms until the customer physically receives the goods so in some instances (such as with QVC), we wouldn’t receive payment on the goods for up to 6 months!
Our early success on QVC was both a blessing and a curse:
The blessing I can’t think of a better way for a new product to get market validation than selling out on the air your first 5 out of 6 times Even better, once it sells out on QVC, your sales on your direct channels spike as customers look to buy it elsewhere.
Also, when talking with prospective buyers or retailers, no one wants to be ‘first’, they want validation that your product can sell. Having the ability to tell our story about our sales on QVC was a big advantage for a small startup. It also helped keep our factory happy to be getting large orders at once.
The curse Curse – QVC is VERY slow to pay. The larger their order, the longer you have to float the cost of the inventory, and cash is king for a growing startup.
QVC has MUCH higher than average customer returns and all the returns come back to you. In most cases (especially for new vendors) everything they buy is consignment, meaning that at any point in time they can return the goods to you.
However, the greatest curse is the visibility your success gets to the wrong audience. The vultures who make their fortunes by stealing the ideas of others and making cheap knock-off As-Seen-On-TV items.
Since launch, what has worked to attract and retain customers?
As with many new products, the biggest challenge is educating the customers about your product and how it is different. While a picture is worth 1,000 words, a video is priceless. Without question the best platform for that is online. Ever since going viral on Facebook in late 2015, we have relied heavily on Facebook paid ads.
No other platform provided a lower customer acquisition cost. Equally important, Facebook allows you to engage with potential customers and address questions, concerns, and complaints. However, it’s not as simple as boosting a post and sitting back to watch the customers come in.
We made a lot of mistakes along the way and learned a great deal about managing audiences, optimizing ads, and refreshing creative to keep relevance scores up.
We followed a 3-tiered strategy for advertising on Facebook comprised of Prospecting for new audiences, managing the core through lookalike audiences and retargeting. Each tier is allocated a percentage of our budget:
1. Prospecting: 10% - 25% of ad spend Prospecting is the process of searching for potential customers in order to develop new business.
You should always allocate a percentage of your budget to Prospecting for new audiences/customer groups. We try to think through what specific group of individuals would benefit most from our product.
A strategy that works for us is to think of specific audiences that we believe we can be #1 in that market. Then we test it with targeted ads. There will be a lower conversion rate and higher acquisition cost on these ads, but that is by design because not all audiences will convert. The goal is to find a new core audience.
This assumes of course that you know and understand your core customer demographic, otherwise, ALL of your advertising will be prospecting ;-)
2. Core Advertising: 60% - 70% of ad spend Advertising to your core audience should be where the bulk of your ad spend goes and should have the best conversion rates and lowest acquisition costs. We handle these two ways. The first is to create ads that target the specific demographics (age, gender, geography, income, etc.). The second is to leverage information from existing customers to create “lookalike audiences”.
Lookalike audiences are arguably one of the most powerful tools that Facebook offers advertisers. Facebook will take a list of your current customers and analyze their demographic information to find new potential customers that look like the list you provided them. So, if your customers are 25-35 year old’s living in apartments and very active in outdoor activities, Facebook will create a population of potential customers with the same interests and demographics.
It is important to monitor and optimize these ads on a regular basis. Also, refresh the creative on these ads to keep them current and relevant.
3. Retargeting: 10% - 20% of ad spend Retargeting, also known as remarketing, is basically getting your ads in front of potential customers who visited your site but did not make a purchase. For most websites, only 2% of traffic converts to a sale on the first visit. Retargeting is a way to try and reach customers who don’t convert right away. Many people don’t make the buying decision the first time they see something new, they need to see it several times before they are ready to make a purchase. For this reason, retargeting is very important. This should have a better conversion rate and acquisition cost than prospecting and ideally better than core advertising.
A cautionary note on SEO (Search Engine Optimization) SEO is basically the process of getting traffic from the “free,” “organic,” “editorial” or “natural” search results on search engines.
There are many ways to improve your SEO results and many companies/consultants that will offer you paid services for improving your SEO results. We hired a very good SEO firm and they did everything they promised they would. However, we realized too late we would have a very hard time monetizing the results sufficient to justify the cost of the services.
It takes a very long time (12-18 months) to move up ranking on competitive keywords/search terms. You end up paying every month for SEO services but there just wasn’t a good enough ROI on the investment. Moreover, by trying to ‘game’ the results, you are locked into paying for SEO services forever. Once you stop paying for the SEO activities, your rankings will start to fall off.
The best advice I can give someone about SEO is to focus on having good, meaningful and relevant content on your website. Follow the basic design rules for good SEO (submitting your schema, appropriate use of H1/H2 tags, alt text,
sections, etc.).
Partner with good sites to get high-quality backlinks through blogs, articles, etc. Don’t waste your money on paid SEO services.
Amazon - a knife that cuts both ways If you are selling online, you MUST be on Amazon.
It’s hard to attribute actual sales, but without question every time we increase our ad spend on Facebook/Google we see a corresponding spike in sales on Amazon. Many customers just feel more comfortable making a purchase through Amazon vs. [your name].com. For that reason alone, it is important to have your product listed on the platform… on Seller Central.
With that said, I would STRONGLY discourage anyone from moving to Vendor Central and signing Amazon up as a direct wholesale account. If you have good sales volume on Amazon through Seller Central, you will most likely be approached by Amazon to let them buy direct from you and have your items listed as “Sold by Amazon” on their platform.
They will sell you on all the benefits and claim that your sales volume will go up dramatically. Here is what they won’t tell you:
You lose all control of pricing Amazon will not be undersold. If your product is listed anywhere on the internet for less, their automated bots will find it and automatically lower the price on Amazon. So if you have a MAP policy and ever do a sale with one customer or on your website, Amazon will find it and match it. Worse yet, if any of your distributors/retailers lower the price on their own, that will also trigger a price drop. On Seller Central, you control the pricing, on Vendor Central you don’t
You lose control of your product We sell internationally and have exclusive agreements with distributors in other countries. We told Amazon that they could only sell in the USA, so you can imagine our shock when we found Amazon selling our product in Canada, Mexica and Europe?!?
Good luck ever making sense of your billing and figuring out if you are actually maintaining margin. Pretty much from day one, we were buried in paperwork, false chargebacks and shortage claims, obnoxiously inefficient processes, and general frustration. It was almost a full-time job trying to stay on top of the amazon process and paperwork… and DO NOT fall behind else you will never get caught up and they will never pay you fully. They claimed shortages on so many orders that we had to submit documentation to try and prove that we actually shipped the full amount. Heaven forbid if the trucker didn’t sign the bill of lading and give you a photo copy, because that would be grounds for denying payment.
How are you doing today and what does the future look like?
As noted above, we went from $385K our first year to $5.4M our 3rd year and are on track to close around $7M this year with our highest margin thus far.
We had always hoped but never expected this type of rapid growth. We have released several new models and are getting ready to re-launch our new UpCart.com website before Thanksgiving with a renewed focus on growing our direct channel. Additionally, for 2019 we are looking to increase our international sales by growing presence in Europe.
Historical ad spend has only been about 10% of revenue because a lot of our revenue comes from retail accounts vs. direct to customer e-commerce. When we first started, our direct vs. retail was about 50%/50% because QVC was such a large part of our revenue. As we continued to grow, each year a larger part of our total revenue shifted to retail. Today, our direct channel only comprises about 10% of total revenue.
Direct to customer channel has seen a steady increase in acquisition costs. We started around $18-$20 per acquisition and have stabilized around $34-$38 acquisition cost, but at the same time, our average ticket value has also increased from $80 to about $105.
When we entered the market, we created a segment that didn’t exist, and the acquisition costs were very low. Over time, as competitors entered the market, the cost to acquire a new customer has gone up.
Additionally, as we increased the number of retailers selling our product, we found that we were competing with our own retailers for ad space. We would see ads from Home Depot, Lowe’s and others bidding on the same keywords.
So, while Facebook remains the largest part of our advertising spend, the increasing acquisition costs have led us to start exploring additional avenues of advertising that won’t have us bidding against the same ad space as our retailers and distributors.
Additionally, as we re-launch our new e-commerce site, we have made a strategic decision that all new products will be launched exclusively on UpCart.com first for at least 6 months before they are released to retail. This will allow us to continue to grow our direct channel without competing with our retailers and distributors.
As we look to the future, we will stay true to our mission and vision. We will continue to innovate and develop new products that make people more productive through improved mobility. Our product roadmap includes expansion of our products into different industries.
Through starting the business, have you learned anything particularly helpful or advantageous
It would be impossible to summarize all the lessons learned in a couple of paragraphs, so I will share what I believe to be two of the most important characteristics of a successful entrepreneur.
Be a “Life-long Learner”. You will be required to make countless decisions almost daily on things you are not properly qualified to answer. You will never have all the information or knowledge necessary to address the various topics and challenges you face.
Get good at finding information quickly and qualifying the relevant facts. You must be able to learn quickly and never stop learning. At every stage of growth of your business, you will encounter new challenges and dynamics. What you thought you knew may no longer be relevant or apply to your current situation.
I find that I'm reading a lot more about entrepreneurship after I started a company!? I'm learning how much I don't know about starting a company, LOL
Manage to your vision and convictions. Opinions are like rectums, everyone has one and they don’t usually smell too good.
Early on, my natural inclination was to seek advice and guidance from the "entrepreneurial community" and people who have been down this road before. Sadly, most of the advice I received was 'wrong for me' and my company. To be clear, I don't believe people were intentionally providing bad advice. With rare exceptions the reality is no two companies are the same, no matter how similar. Therefore, one person's experiences will rarely translate the exact same way to your unique circumstances and situation.
For your company to be truly successful you have to do something unique or different… otherwise why are you staring a business?! Your strategy must be uniquely your own. You are solving a problem for your customers in a new and special way. Your vision for your company must guide the decisions you make and the approach you take. No one else has ever had to balance the specific set of circumstances, constraints and variables you are required to contend with.
By no means am I advocating anything other than trying to seek out as much advice and guidance as you can. HOWEVER, it is your responsibility to evaluate any and all "advice" you receive as a data point. Each data point must be analyzed and evaluated taking into consideration the source and context surrounding the data. What is the fundamental message or lesson behind the advice? Distill the advice down to the cause and effect and see how closely, if at all, those lessons apply to your actual situation. Further, you should never make your decision from just one data point… even a trusted source. It is your responsibility to seek out multiple data points and gather sufficient information before making a critical business decision.
I've seen colleagues spend countless hours researching what TV to buy. They will go to multiple websites, watch YouTube reviews, go into the store and look at different sets, then ask everyone they know about what TV they have and why they purchased it, then return to online reviews again before making a final decision. Ironically, I've then seen those same individuals make significant financial business decisions based on 'advice' from one source or based on only one data point.
Whatever your vision for your company may be, ultimately you have to live with the consequences of the choices you make. It's easy to get bullied down one particular path or cling to what seems like reasonable advice when it's the only source of information you have. I strongly encourage you to always evaluate the advice against how well the underlying lessons apply to your particular situation and if it aligns with your vision of the future.
What platform/tools do you use for your business?
My absolute favorite tool has been
Microsoft OneNote. This is ironic since I am a die-hard Apple/Mac fanboy (note, there is OneNote for Mac and web-based).
What’s so great about this tool is that it allows me to organize the most critical information necessary to run my business and be able to find/access it quickly and from anywhere in the world. I have also found that it is a remarkable tool for organizing the creative process, anything from writing blog posts to brainstorming marketing plans or user personas. Another good alternative is
Evernote.
A close second is
Dropbox. I live on Dropbox. I keep every important file, picture, video out there. We have a Team account and all of my team members share the same team folders. This has been one of the best productivity tools for us.
I am able to instantly create shareable links of files or folders and send them to retailers, reps or distributors. I also use Dropbox links to send files to my factories and partners overseas. We work remote very often and being tied to network drive only accessible at the office would not have worked for us.
Honorable mention is
QuickBooks Online. It is a fantastic accounting tool that is easy to use, integrates with our banks, credit cards, etc. and is reasonably priced for small-medium sized businesses. It allows me to grant access to different users for maintaining PO’s, Invoices, Inventory, and payroll.
For most of our operations:
What have been the most influential books, podcasts, or other resources?
Books The Lean Startup by Eric Ries – my background was in management consulting and operations. I am a certified Lean Six Sigma Black Belt, so the concept of applying Lean principals and Lean thinking to innovation and startup was extremely interesting to me. While the book was slanted towards IT/Tech innovation, the principals are applicable to any startup.
Zero to One by Peter Thiel – As one of the best known and most successful venture capitalists and co-founder of PayPal, Peter knows a few things about entrepreneurship. The lesson that resonated most with me was competition is a looser, monopolies are the path to success.
The 4 Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss – While a lot of the suggestions/tools in this book are a little dated and many of the principals are extremely difficult to implement in a practical setting, the core message is spot on and aspirational. There are countless nuggets of brilliance and valuable insights that I took from this book that I put into practice every day. More importantly, it allowed me to discover the best IMHO Podcast on the planet…
Podcasts Tim Ferriss – I started listening to his podcast after reading his book and I’ve been hooked ever since. Topics covered are not only relevant to my professional life but to my personal life. Tim has interviewed top performers in every discipline and profession and I have learned more from these podcasts than I ever imagined possible.
Business Wars – If you are an entrepreneur then you love this podcast. It tells the backstory of some epic business battles such as Coke vs. Pepsi, Nike vs. Adidas, Marvel Comics vs. DC, etc. Just a fantastic and entertaining series.
Advice for other entrepreneurs who want to get started or are just starting out?
Run a good business first and foremost.
I speak with many new entrepreneurs that have grand aspirations of raising lots of capital and hiring their ‘dream team’. A disproportionate amount of their efforts is tied to pitch decks and selling their vision. Trust me, I understand the importance of raising capital and cash flow more than most. But I never understood why so many people were so eager to give away equity in their company, take on investors and relinquish partial control.
The best way to raise capital is to show that you can generate cash flow. Investors and lenders alike are interested in a return on their investment, not doing charity work. They want to make sure you have a sound business based on strong fundamentals. An impassioned pitch with a beautiful vision of the future might keep them awake, but it won’t open their checkbooks. A solid business plan with accurate figures and projections and real cash flow will.
Everyone needs an angel, so did we. But after our angel round, we focused on running a good business first. We watched every penny spent. We looked for creative ways to be more productive and efficient without throwing capital at things. We didn’t take salaries, paid our own cell phone bills and cut costs wherever we could. We outsourced things that didn’t make financial sense to own and put sweat-equity in instead of hiring extra help. We kept the ego out of it and managed our Balance Sheet and P&L… and when we couldn’t go any further without extra capital, we were able to borrow the funds instead of giving up equity.
The funny thing is that once we no longer needed outside investment, we kept getting approached by people wanting to invest. As long as you continue to grow, there will always be a need for additional capital. If you are running a good business with strong balance sheet and good cash flow/receivables, you should be able to take on debt to finance your growth.
NOTE: There is absolutely a good time and place for raising capital through equity/investors, but you should do it for the right reasons and at the right time.
Where can we go to learn more?
Liked this text interview? Check out the full interview with photos.
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Accelerate your business growth with credit card processing services
Ordinary payment processing sometimes gets complex. But getting good offshore, international or high-risk payment solutions is difficult and can be a real nightmare. If you ever fall into one of those categories that are high-risk, then you had your merchant account application denied at least a few times. Sometimes it gets worse when your payment processing services get terminated and your money withheld from you for months. We at Amald understand your struggle. There are millions of businesses that go through the same situation and we are here to help you find out the perfect offshore merchant account for your high-risk business. While those who are looking to expand their business require offshore services that will allow them to accept multiple currencies for their business. We at Amald provide you with the
best Offshore Merchant Account facility that will drive your business to higher growth.
Reasons Merchants are labelled high-risk A bank's underwriting will determine whether the business is high-risk or low-risk business. Hence, each financial institution calculates risk differently. Chargebacks and frauds determine risk. The more the business is associated with getting chargebacks the more they are high-risk. For example- Travel business is considered to be high-risk because there are higher no. of cancellations due to outside factors such as weather condition. Adult entertainment is one more industry that is associated with getting numerous chargebacks. It is not unusual for customers to visit sites such as Adult entertainment and then ask for a refund claiming they never visited the site. There are various such other businesses like Gambling, Online dating, Nutraceutical and credit repair sites that are considered to be high-risk because they are more likely to get different, typical chargebacks. No one factor determines whether the industry is high-risk or low-risk multiple factors intend to determine whether the industry is high-risk or not.
· Business location
· Business size
· Credit history
· High chargeback ratio
· Type of industry
Though most merchants only become high-risk accounts only after they have compiled up excessive chargebacks. Though these merchants can take huge benefits such as increased sales volume, multi-currency option and recurring billing by using high-risk payment processing.
What happens when a business is classified as a high-risk business? When a business is considered as high-risk, merchants still can accept credit card payments. However, these businesses are subjected to higher processing rates. Sometimes, the high-risk business also requests the bank to reclassify the business. Though it is not easy to reclassify considering the many factors that led to the classification. While a good credit card history of six months or low chargeback history can make them think to reclassify your business account. Banks or financial institutions expect a chargeback rate of less than 1% of a business total transaction.
Difference between High-Risk or low-Risk Merchant Chargeback threshold determines whether the business is a high-risk or low-risk business. Every processor follows up a chargeback monitoring program. Higher chargeback would mean that you have higher no. of customer downfall or the merchant is losing more potential customers for their business. A low chargeback is considered to be good for merchants. Hence they always look to have efficient payment processor for their business so that they can have a better business transaction. There are many merchants such as Adult Entertainment, Forex Trading, Pharmaceuticals, Travel, Tech Support, Online Dating and various others who prefer to opt for the efficient processor that can drive the business to higher growth. We at Amald tend to provide significant
Offshore Merchant Account services that will allow you to take your product or services to international customers.
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Identity verification solution for e-commerce project?
I am launching e-commerce project (shop of prepaid cards), you will be able to buy prepaid cards (PayPal gift card, eBay gift card, PaySafeCard...) with credit card. Because my business model is very high risk (I also have to use identity verification because of money laundering risk and to comply with know your customer requirements) credit cards merchant (processor) suggested for me to use identity verification service to reduce chargeback rate from credit cards.
My question: I need advice with which service I should sign the contract, main things for my company:
- Price
- Trustable service
- Time of user onboarding
- User onboarding success rate
- Customer support
After
3 weeks of research, calls witUh providers, I have shortlisted
3 top identity verification solutions:
Jumio USA based company, oldest identity verification company in the market. They have really big clients like AirBNB, Uber, local and international banks, seems they are really trustable services. Jumio sales guy contacted me only after 2 weeks...🤦♂️ really low sales support, I guess their customer support is the same. Price is $3 per transaction/verification, minimum I have to buy 10,000 verification, so to start working with these guys I have to pay $30,000🥺 I think the price for starting company is really too high...
iDenfy Lithuania based company, startup, launched only two years ago. Sales guys contacted me during the same day, I have to say brilliant sales support💪 I hope their customer support is the same... I haven't found much information about this company online, but sales guy said that they are working with national banks, specialised banks, financial, gambling, crypto companies but honestly I haven't found any well known brand in their clients list... Their price really charmed me, their minimum package is only $300 per month and you get for that 200 identifications ($1.5 per one identification), one more fantastic thing they are charging only for approved identify verification, they don't charge even if verification was fraudulent, so that means I only have to pay if user was onboarded successfully🤯. Brilliant! What about technology strength? Only two years in the market, are they trustable?
Onfido UK based company, in the market about 7 years. Very nice sales guy, he contacted me after 5 days, I have to say sales team doing better comparing with Jumio... About customer support, sales guy said that if you pay more you will get separate account manager, fair enough... About technology, they are using/developing their face recognition system with Microsoft, that sounds really impressive. They have clients like Revolut (one of biggest startups in UK), local banks (but they can not say which one because of NDA). Price is the same as Jumio, $3 per verification / transaction, minimum package is 10,000 verifications.
Guys, I just wanted to share experience after my research, would be great to hear your experience/advice/opinion which service is the best to use for clients on-boarding (identity verification).
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$583k/mo selling a dolly (and going viral on QVC)
Hey - Pat from
StarterStory.com here with another interview.
Today's interview is with Michael Reznik of
Upcart, a brand that sells stair climbing folding cart/dolly.
Michael laid out some super nice tips for sales and entrepreneurs early in their journey - so hope you enjoy this one. Some stats: - Product: Stair climbing folding cart/dolly.
- Revenue/mo: $583,000
- Started: May 2015
- Location: Columbus, Ohio
- Founders: 2
- Employees: 4
Hello! Who are you and what business did you start?
Hello, my name is Michael Reznik and I am the Co-Founder and CEO of TriFold LLC, the company that invented the
UpCart ® line of products. We are dedicated to revolutionizing mobility with innovative products that give people the freedom to do what they love by enhancing their mobility. When people have greater mobility, they can do more and be more productive.
Let’s be real, carrying stuff up & down stairs is the worst. The UpCart ® line of products solve this problem with a unique line of all-terrain folding carts and hand trucks that have been engineered to reduce effort while going up and down stairs and over irregular terrain. Our patented technology also allows all of our products to fold completely flat for easy storage or transportation.
Our newest product the
UpCart Versa Trolley (renamed from the UpCart City), the most compact stair climbing cart, won the Retailer’s Choice Award at the 2018 National Hardware Show and was successfully funded on Kickstarter. The UpCart Versa is the only folding hand cart to ever be offered with a LIFETIME warranty!
Our first product, the UpCart Original, became available in August 2015 and promptly sold out of stock within 10 days of going viral on Facebook after Thanksgiving. We did $385,000 in sales from August – December 2015. Revenue continued to grow with $3.2M in 2016, $5.4M in 2017, and we are on track to exceed $7M in sales this year. We are excited to note that UpCart ® products are for sale in Costco, Bed Bath & Beyond, Home Depot, Lowe’s and other major retailers.
What our product looks like What's your backstory and how did you come up with the idea?
Some great companies are started by very unlikely business partners.
I was at my Dad’s birthday party and was sitting next to a long-time family friend, Leonid Khodor (my Dad’s age), an engineer and patent agent. During the course of the evening, after a few libations, Leonid shared that he had invented this new product but wasn’t sure how to turn it into a business.
He had a rough Frankenstein prototype (made from baby stroller wheels, cannibalized part and some custom fabricated pieces) and showed me a little video of it in action. A light bulb went off in my head, immediately I saw so many applications/uses for this right away. We exchanged contact information that evening.
Early prototype 1 Early prototype 2 After conducting some research, performing some due diligence and convincing my wife to let me make the investment of both time and money, I agreed to go into business with Leonid. I applied for our tax ID and trade name and TriFold officially became a company in February 2013. At that time, I had spent most of my career in the Fortune 500 as a Management / Operations Consultant.
I already had a pretty demanding job but always had a passion for entrepreneurship. I had attempted to start a company in the mid-2000’s right before the 2nd stock market crash, but I wasn’t able to get it off the ground before the economy imploded. This time, however, I wasn’t going to let anything stand in the way. I believed wholeheartedly that this idea was going to be successful, we just needed to figure out how to make that a reality.
TriFold started as a “side hustle” while I continued to work my corporate job, but it quickly became much more than that. 100+ work weeks became my new normal. During the day I was the good corporate steward, but evenings and weekends were dedicated to TriFold.
Many people write/advise that you must be “All-In” to make a business successful… that’s easy to say if you don’t have a wife, two kids, car payments and a mortgage. I wasn’t in a position to just quit my day job and commit 100% to the business, and I wouldn’t be until December 2016 (3.5 years later).
Describe the process of designing, prototyping, and manufacturing the product.
Our first challenge was taking Leonid’s Frankenstein-cart prototype and turning it into a real finished product.
Design We hired a good local design firm that conducted some market research and worked with us on several design iterations. While their designs were beautiful, we had concerns about their practicality and feasibility of manufacturing those designs at a reasonable cost.
We parted ways with the design firm but learned enough through the process to finish the product design on our own. Leonid is a gifted engineer and designer and developed all of our 3D models and industrial designs on his own using CAD software (and still does to this day).
Prototyping The second major challenge was how to turn the designs into a working prototype. We explored many options ranging from 3D printing to full custom fabrication.
The challenge was the exorbitant cost associated with all of these options. Due to the nature and complexity of our product design, the prototyping process would cost about 33% - 50% of the cost of the actual production tooling.
So after much deliberation, and 3D modeling in CAD software, we decided to take a huge gamble and move forward with the production tooling without going through the prototype process first. Our logic was actually very sound. The cost of modifying and adjusting tooling would actually be less expensive than the cost of developing a working prototype.
Moreover, by working directly from the production tooling, our samples would be real load-bearing fully functional samples. This also had the benefit of saving us months of time and allowed us to bring the actual product to market sooner.
Finding a factory Once the decision was made, we set out to find a factory to help make our vision a reality. With the aid of an experienced sourcing consultant (who later became our sales manager), we visited many factories in China, asked for quotes from three and selected one to work with.
Note: we did explore manufacturing in the USA but found the cost would have been at least 3-times higher to produce in the USA. One big advantage to the factory we selected was a very low minimum order qty, provided that we paid 100% for the tooling and assembly fixtures.
Describe the process of launching the online store/business.
Our plan was to get working samples from the factory and present them at the largest hardware show held annually in Las Vegas. There was one small problem, we were quickly running out of money.
Despite countless pitches and meetings, at this point, we had very little success in raising capital. Everyone wanted to invest in tech, biotech, SaaS or mobile. In late 2014 we attempted to go to Kickstarter to raise capital. We rushed in and didn’t do it the right way. Our funding goal was too high and while we did raise over $27K we didn’t hit our funding goal, so no funds were received. We were quickly running out of operating capital.
Fortunately, I cultivated a relationship with one of our backers who later became one of our angel investors. After closing our angel round, we had enough capital to pay for the remainder of the tooling, stand up a basic website, pay for a trip to the factory to finalize the samples (and pack them to take home as our check luggage) and pay the costs to attend the
National Hardware Show in a tiny 5x7 booth in the Inventor’s Spotlight Area.
We were the bells of the ball!
From the moment the show opened, we had a crowd at least two deep at our booth almost the entire time. The UpCart won the “Most Innovative New Concept” award at the show and I was invited to a pitch contest hosted by QVC. I won the pitch contest and was live on the air three weeks later doing a live-sell on the
QVC Sprouts program.
Please note, these were still production samples – no actual product had been produced yet.
This was May and we told QVC that we would not have actual product in the USA until August of that year. QVC was good with that and noted “Will Ship August 22” during the program.
The UpCart sold out in 5 minutes and started taking wait-list orders! This was immediate validation that we had something customers wanted.
Me on QVC Later that same year, I made product video on my MacBook and posted to Facebook. I boosted the post for $20/day and it ended up going viral. The video ended up getting 7.5M views and over 15.4M organic reach.
This all occurred in about 10 days between Thanksgiving and Christmas. The UpCart completely sold out, we had zero inventory left with a couple weeks of Christmas shopping left. We weren’t complaining too loud, we were out of cash and purchased as much inventory as we could afford to head into the holidays. We were able to take the revenue from those sales and reinvest back into the business.
We have bootstrapped this business from day one. After our initial angel investment round, we never did another funding round. We have been fiscally conservative and managed the business well. Due to our early profitability, I was able to work with small micro-lenders at first and then consolidate our debt with Huntington Bank through the SBA lending program. As we grew, Huntington continued to be a fantastic partner to us with additional lending when we needed.
The faster we grew, the harder it was to manage cash flow. I never realized that being a manufacturer of a physical product meant that you would also act as a bank for your customers. Everyone takes payment terms ranging from NET 30 to NET 120! We have to pay for the inventory before it leaves the factory while the clock doesn’t start on payment terms until the customer physically receives the goods so in some instances (such as with QVC), we wouldn’t receive payment on the goods for up to 6 months!
Our early success on QVC was both a blessing and a curse:
The blessing I can’t think of a better way for a new product to get market validation than selling out on the air your first 5 out of 6 times Even better, once it sells out on QVC, your sales on your direct channels spike as customers look to buy it elsewhere.
Also, when talking with prospective buyers or retailers, no one wants to be ‘first’, they want validation that your product can sell. Having the ability to tell our story about our sales on QVC was a big advantage for a small startup. It also helped keep our factory happy to be getting large orders at once.
The curse Curse – QVC is VERY slow to pay. The larger their order, the longer you have to float the cost of the inventory, and cash is king for a growing startup.
QVC has MUCH higher than average customer returns and all the returns come back to you. In most cases (especially for new vendors) everything they buy is consignment, meaning that at any point in time they can return the goods to you.
However, the greatest curse is the visibility your success gets to the wrong audience. The vultures who make their fortunes by stealing the ideas of others and making cheap knock-off As-Seen-On-TV items.
Since launch, what has worked to attract and retain customers?
As with many new products, the biggest challenge is educating the customers about your product and how it is different. While a picture is worth 1,000 words, a video is priceless. Without question the best platform for that is online. Ever since going viral on Facebook in late 2015, we have relied heavily on Facebook paid ads.
No other platform provided a lower customer acquisition cost. Equally important, Facebook allows you to engage with potential customers and address questions, concerns, and complaints. However, it’s not as simple as boosting a post and sitting back to watch the customers come in.
We made a lot of mistakes along the way and learned a great deal about managing audiences, optimizing ads, and refreshing creative to keep relevance scores up.
We followed a 3-tiered strategy for advertising on Facebook comprised of Prospecting for new audiences, managing the core through lookalike audiences and retargeting. Each tier is allocated a percentage of our budget:
1. Prospecting: 10% - 25% of ad spend Prospecting is the process of searching for potential customers in order to develop new business.
You should always allocate a percentage of your budget to Prospecting for new audiences/customer groups. We try to think through what specific group of individuals would benefit most from our product.
A strategy that works for us is to think of specific audiences that we believe we can be #1 in that market. Then we test it with targeted ads. There will be a lower conversion rate and higher acquisition cost on these ads, but that is by design because not all audiences will convert. The goal is to find a new core audience.
This assumes of course that you know and understand your core customer demographic, otherwise, ALL of your advertising will be prospecting ;-)
2. Core Advertising: 60% - 70% of ad spend Advertising to your core audience should be where the bulk of your ad spend goes and should have the best conversion rates and lowest acquisition costs. We handle these two ways. The first is to create ads that target the specific demographics (age, gender, geography, income, etc.). The second is to leverage information from existing customers to create “lookalike audiences”.
Lookalike audiences are arguably one of the most powerful tools that Facebook offers advertisers. Facebook will take a list of your current customers and analyze their demographic information to find new potential customers that look like the list you provided them. So, if your customers are 25-35 year old’s living in apartments and very active in outdoor activities, Facebook will create a population of potential customers with the same interests and demographics.
It is important to monitor and optimize these ads on a regular basis. Also, refresh the creative on these ads to keep them current and relevant.
3. Retargeting: 10% - 20% of ad spend Retargeting, also known as remarketing, is basically getting your ads in front of potential customers who visited your site but did not make a purchase. For most websites, only 2% of traffic converts to a sale on the first visit. Retargeting is a way to try and reach customers who don’t convert right away. Many people don’t make the buying decision the first time they see something new, they need to see it several times before they are ready to make a purchase. For this reason, retargeting is very important. This should have a better conversion rate and acquisition cost than prospecting and ideally better than core advertising.
A cautionary note on SEO (Search Engine Optimization) SEO is basically the process of getting traffic from the “free,” “organic,” “editorial” or “natural” search results on search engines.
There are many ways to improve your SEO results and many companies/consultants that will offer you paid services for improving your SEO results. We hired a very good SEO firm and they did everything they promised they would. However, we realized too late we would have a very hard time monetizing the results sufficient to justify the cost of the services.
It takes a very long time (12-18 months) to move up ranking on competitive keywords/search terms. You end up paying every month for SEO services but there just wasn’t a good enough ROI on the investment. Moreover, by trying to ‘game’ the results, you are locked into paying for SEO services forever. Once you stop paying for the SEO activities, your rankings will start to fall off.
The best advice I can give someone about SEO is to focus on having good, meaningful and relevant content on your website. Follow the basic design rules for good SEO (submitting your schema, appropriate use of H1/H2 tags, alt text,
sections, etc.).
Partner with good sites to get high-quality backlinks through blogs, articles, etc. Don’t waste your money on paid SEO services.
Amazon - a knife that cuts both ways If you are selling online, you MUST be on Amazon.
It’s hard to attribute actual sales, but without question every time we increase our ad spend on Facebook/Google we see a corresponding spike in sales on Amazon. Many customers just feel more comfortable making a purchase through Amazon vs. [your name].com. For that reason alone, it is important to have your product listed on the platform… on Seller Central.
With that said, I would STRONGLY discourage anyone from moving to Vendor Central and signing Amazon up as a direct wholesale account. If you have good sales volume on Amazon through Seller Central, you will most likely be approached by Amazon to let them buy direct from you and have your items listed as “Sold by Amazon” on their platform.
They will sell you on all the benefits and claim that your sales volume will go up dramatically. Here is what they won’t tell you:
You lose all control of pricing Amazon will not be undersold. If your product is listed anywhere on the internet for less, their automated bots will find it and automatically lower the price on Amazon. So if you have a MAP policy and ever do a sale with one customer or on your website, Amazon will find it and match it. Worse yet, if any of your distributors/retailers lower the price on their own, that will also trigger a price drop. On Seller Central, you control the pricing, on Vendor Central you don’t
You lose control of your product We sell internationally and have exclusive agreements with distributors in other countries. We told Amazon that they could only sell in the USA, so you can imagine our shock when we found Amazon selling our product in Canada, Mexica and Europe?!?
Good luck ever making sense of your billing and figuring out if you are actually maintaining margin. Pretty much from day one, we were buried in paperwork, false chargebacks and shortage claims, obnoxiously inefficient processes, and general frustration. It was almost a full-time job trying to stay on top of the amazon process and paperwork… and DO NOT fall behind else you will never get caught up and they will never pay you fully. They claimed shortages on so many orders that we had to submit documentation to try and prove that we actually shipped the full amount. Heaven forbid if the trucker didn’t sign the bill of lading and give you a photo copy, because that would be grounds for denying payment.
How are you doing today and what does the future look like?
As noted above, we went from $385K our first year to $5.4M our 3rd year and are on track to close around $7M this year with our highest margin thus far.
We had always hoped but never expected this type of rapid growth. We have released several new models and are getting ready to re-launch our new UpCart.com website before Thanksgiving with a renewed focus on growing our direct channel. Additionally, for 2019 we are looking to increase our international sales by growing presence in Europe.
Historical ad spend has only been about 10% of revenue because a lot of our revenue comes from retail accounts vs. direct to customer e-commerce. When we first started, our direct vs. retail was about 50%/50% because QVC was such a large part of our revenue. As we continued to grow, each year a larger part of our total revenue shifted to retail. Today, our direct channel only comprises about 10% of total revenue.
Direct to customer channel has seen a steady increase in acquisition costs. We started around $18-$20 per acquisition and have stabilized around $34-$38 acquisition cost, but at the same time, our average ticket value has also increased from $80 to about $105.
When we entered the market, we created a segment that didn’t exist, and the acquisition costs were very low. Over time, as competitors entered the market, the cost to acquire a new customer has gone up.
Additionally, as we increased the number of retailers selling our product, we found that we were competing with our own retailers for ad space. We would see ads from Home Depot, Lowe’s and others bidding on the same keywords.
So, while Facebook remains the largest part of our advertising spend, the increasing acquisition costs have led us to start exploring additional avenues of advertising that won’t have us bidding against the same ad space as our retailers and distributors.
Additionally, as we re-launch our new e-commerce site, we have made a strategic decision that all new products will be launched exclusively on UpCart.com first for at least 6 months before they are released to retail. This will allow us to continue to grow our direct channel without competing with our retailers and distributors.
As we look to the future, we will stay true to our mission and vision. We will continue to innovate and develop new products that make people more productive through improved mobility. Our product roadmap includes expansion of our products into different industries.
Through starting the business, have you learned anything particularly helpful or advantageous
It would be impossible to summarize all the lessons learned in a couple of paragraphs, so I will share what I believe to be two of the most important characteristics of a successful entrepreneur.
Be a “Life-long Learner”. You will be required to make countless decisions almost daily on things you are not properly qualified to answer. You will never have all the information or knowledge necessary to address the various topics and challenges you face.
Get good at finding information quickly and qualifying the relevant facts. You must be able to learn quickly and never stop learning. At every stage of growth of your business, you will encounter new challenges and dynamics. What you thought you knew may no longer be relevant or apply to your current situation.
I find that I'm reading a lot more about entrepreneurship after I started a company!? I'm learning how much I don't know about starting a company, LOL
Manage to your vision and convictions. Opinions are like rectums, everyone has one and they don’t usually smell too good.
Early on, my natural inclination was to seek advice and guidance from the "entrepreneurial community" and people who have been down this road before. Sadly, most of the advice I received was 'wrong for me' and my company. To be clear, I don't believe people were intentionally providing bad advice. With rare exceptions the reality is no two companies are the same, no matter how similar. Therefore, one person's experiences will rarely translate the exact same way to your unique circumstances and situation.
For your company to be truly successful you have to do something unique or different… otherwise why are you staring a business?! Your strategy must be uniquely your own. You are solving a problem for your customers in a new and special way. Your vision for your company must guide the decisions you make and the approach you take. No one else has ever had to balance the specific set of circumstances, constraints and variables you are required to contend with.
By no means am I advocating anything other than trying to seek out as much advice and guidance as you can. HOWEVER, it is your responsibility to evaluate any and all "advice" you receive as a data point. Each data point must be analyzed and evaluated taking into consideration the source and context surrounding the data. What is the fundamental message or lesson behind the advice? Distill the advice down to the cause and effect and see how closely, if at all, those lessons apply to your actual situation. Further, you should never make your decision from just one data point… even a trusted source. It is your responsibility to seek out multiple data points and gather sufficient information before making a critical business decision.
I've seen colleagues spend countless hours researching what TV to buy. They will go to multiple websites, watch YouTube reviews, go into the store and look at different sets, then ask everyone they know about what TV they have and why they purchased it, then return to online reviews again before making a final decision. Ironically, I've then seen those same individuals make significant financial business decisions based on 'advice' from one source or based on only one data point.
Whatever your vision for your company may be, ultimately you have to live with the consequences of the choices you make. It's easy to get bullied down one particular path or cling to what seems like reasonable advice when it's the only source of information you have. I strongly encourage you to always evaluate the advice against how well the underlying lessons apply to your particular situation and if it aligns with your vision of the future.
What platform/tools do you use for your business?
My absolute favorite tool has been
Microsoft OneNote. This is ironic since I am a die-hard Apple/Mac fanboy (note, there is OneNote for Mac and web-based).
What’s so great about this tool is that it allows me to organize the most critical information necessary to run my business and be able to find/access it quickly and from anywhere in the world. I have also found that it is a remarkable tool for organizing the creative process, anything from writing blog posts to brainstorming marketing plans or user personas. Another good alternative is
Evernote.
A close second is
Dropbox. I live on Dropbox. I keep every important file, picture, video out there. We have a Team account and all of my team members share the same team folders. This has been one of the best productivity tools for us.
I am able to instantly create shareable links of files or folders and send them to retailers, reps or distributors. I also use Dropbox links to send files to my factories and partners overseas. We work remote very often and being tied to network drive only accessible at the office would not have worked for us.
Honorable mention is
QuickBooks Online. It is a fantastic accounting tool that is easy to use, integrates with our banks, credit cards, etc. and is reasonably priced for small-medium sized businesses. It allows me to grant access to different users for maintaining PO’s, Invoices, Inventory, and payroll.
For most of our operations:
What have been the most influential books, podcasts, or other resources?
Books The Lean Startup by Eric Ries – my background was in management consulting and operations. I am a certified Lean Six Sigma Black Belt, so the concept of applying Lean principals and Lean thinking to innovation and startup was extremely interesting to me. While the book was slanted towards IT/Tech innovation, the principals are applicable to any startup.
Zero to One by Peter Thiel – As one of the best known and most successful venture capitalists and co-founder of PayPal, Peter knows a few things about entrepreneurship. The lesson that resonated most with me was competition is a looser, monopolies are the path to success.
The 4 Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss – While a lot of the suggestions/tools in this book are a little dated and many of the principals are extremely difficult to implement in a practical setting, the core message is spot on and aspirational. There are countless nuggets of brilliance and valuable insights that I took from this book that I put into practice every day. More importantly, it allowed me to discover the best IMHO Podcast on the planet…
Podcasts Tim Ferriss – I started listening to his podcast after reading his book and I’ve been hooked ever since. Topics covered are not only relevant to my professional life but to my personal life. Tim has interviewed top performers in every discipline and profession and I have learned more from these podcasts than I ever imagined possible.
Business Wars – If you are an entrepreneur then you love this podcast. It tells the backstory of some epic business battles such as Coke vs. Pepsi, Nike vs. Adidas, Marvel Comics vs. DC, etc. Just a fantastic and entertaining series.
Advice for other entrepreneurs who want to get started or are just starting out?
Run a good business first and foremost.
I speak with many new entrepreneurs that have grand aspirations of raising lots of capital and hiring their ‘dream team’. A disproportionate amount of their efforts is tied to pitch decks and selling their vision. Trust me, I understand the importance of raising capital and cash flow more than most. But I never understood why so many people were so eager to give away equity in their company, take on investors and relinquish partial control.
The best way to raise capital is to show that you can generate cash flow. Investors and lenders alike are interested in a return on their investment, not doing charity work. They want to make sure you have a sound business based on strong fundamentals. An impassioned pitch with a beautiful vision of the future might keep them awake, but it won’t open their checkbooks. A solid business plan with accurate figures and projections and real cash flow will.
Everyone needs an angel, so did we. But after our angel round, we focused on running a good business first. We watched every penny spent. We looked for creative ways to be more productive and efficient without throwing capital at things. We didn’t take salaries, paid our own cell phone bills and cut costs wherever we could. We outsourced things that didn’t make financial sense to own and put sweat-equity in instead of hiring extra help. We kept the ego out of it and managed our Balance Sheet and P&L… and when we couldn’t go any further without extra capital, we were able to borrow the funds instead of giving up equity.
The funny thing is that once we no longer needed outside investment, we kept getting approached by people wanting to invest. As long as you continue to grow, there will always be a need for additional capital. If you are running a good business with strong balance sheet and good cash flow/receivables, you should be able to take on debt to finance your growth.
NOTE: There is absolutely a good time and place for raising capital through equity/investors, but you should do it for the right reasons and at the right time.
Where can we go to learn more?
Liked this text interview? Check out the full interview with photos.
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Bank Account Information
For those interested in gambling on the Annual Uncapped Plan - be aware that MP accepts only ACH / eCheck for this plan, meaning you need to provide your bank account information. This payment was tried before and was very unpopular- we all know they avoid chargebacks and prevent any disputes using this method but I would be wary of giving MP my real bank account information as multiple charges can cause a major headache and are very difficult to dispute with a bank (unlike insured purchases with credit card charges)- be cautious and consider opening an online checking account, depositing only that one-time yearly charge and then closing the account once charged- one option is
https://www.chimebank.com/
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FunFair - An In-Depth Analysis (Updated April 25th)
FunFair has been up to a lot of things, and thus, the post made a few months ago is quite outdated. I’ve written this just to keep the subreddit updated, and to have a nicely formatted post full of information regarding FunFair for both newcomers and “veterans”. This post will be updated more often than not, and when the time comes for a new one again, it shall be written! Cheers.
What is FunFair?
FunFair is a decentralized gaming technology platform which uses the Ethereum blockchain, smart contracts, and proprietary state channels (Fate Channels) to deliver casino solutions with state of the art games that are fast, fun, and fair.
FunFair is not a casino. Instead, FunFair will license its technology out to casino operators. Being a casino carries with it risks and burdens stemming from statutory and regulatory hurdles. Being a licensing entity instead, provides legal safeguards and will enable a more widely used platform.
Why was FunFair created?
There are many costs, headaches, and complications with online casinos. Briefly, they are the fees associated with operations (servers, infrastructure, large employee-base, fraudulent activity investigations, chargebacks) etc. Attracting players and gaining their trust comes afterwards, which is another issue within itself. There is a blatant trust issue with conventional online gaming that FunFair aims to diminish, while creating a seamless experience for both operator and player.
The Market.
Online gambling is a large market: Currently over 47.1 billion dollars in market volume and projected to continue increasing quite exponentially. FunFair is also attempting to capture a new market of casino operators and players that aren’t currently factored into this estimate.
The Team.
The FunFair team consists of 40+ developers, industry executives, and professionals. They have one of the largest teams in cryptocurrency. Feel free to check them out on their website:
https://funfair.io/how-it-works/our-team/ Notably, the first five employee profiles presented on the website are:
Jez San OBE, Founder, CEO Jez San is a British technology entrepreneur and investor whose pioneering work in the field of real time 3D computer graphics led to being awarded the OBE for services to the computer games industry.
Jez founded Argonaut Software in his teens and designed the first chip used to power 3D games including multi-million-selling Star Fox, Harry Potter and Croc. He also founded 3D online poker room PKR and microprocessor developer Arc International.
Since 2013 Jez has been an active investor in the blockchain and cryptocurrency sector. His investments include Google’s DeepMind and online cryptocurrency exchange Kraken.
Jeremy Longley, Founder, CTO Over 15 years’ experience managing technology teams – from the development of advanced video-game software through to the deployment and operation of enterprise-scale infrastructure.
Oliver Hopton, Founder, Developer Oliver Hopton is an experience developer and team lead with over 15 years experience building gaming products. He spent 10 years working at online poker room PKR as Software Development Manager working on a huge variety of administration tools and integrations with 3rd party gaming content and providers. Heavily involved in technical compliance for gaming license applications in Guernsey, the UK, France, Italy and Denmark.
He then spent 18 months as CTO of EveryFan, responsible for architecting and building a UK facing sports betting product.
David Greyling, COO David has more than 20 years’ experience in E-Commerce related organisations. In his role as COO, David is responsible for leading the business development, strategy, operations, finance and corporate functions.
With extensive leadership experience in Digital marketing and E-commerce international companies, David specialises in leading business integration and transformation programmes.
Prior to his current position David was Director of International for William Hill PLC, reporting to the board on market expansion, regulation and strategic change management programs.
Stefan Kovach, Business Strategy and Marketing Consultant Stef is an industry executive with with a wealth of experience, having headed up the marketing functions of both PokerStars and bwin.party - two of the biggest brands in online gambling.
Career Opportunities
Further, FunFair is looking to expand – and fast. They expect to have a team of 50+ people in the not-so-distant future, as they are currently hiring developers, business and marketing professionals, and so forth. So, if you’re looking for an opportunity to showcase your expertise in these fields, try your shot at securing a position within the company! (
https://www.funfair.io/careers) The FunFair team’s base of operations is in London, UK.
Some of the positions currently offered in the United Kingdom, England, London:
- C#/Javascript Developer
- C#/Javascript Developer - Domain
- C#/Javascript Developer - KYC
- Community Manager
- Senior Business Analyst
- UI Developer
- Senior Developer - Typescript
- VP Product Owner
When did they start the project?
Technically, FunFair started on June 22nd, 2017, because all FUN tokens that will ever exist were created on this day. However, the idea, technology, and product were being developed before the ICO started.
What have they accomplished to date?
FunFair have accomplished a lot since their inception- consistently updating development, business operations, and hiring many new staff. From Sponsoring DevCon 3, receiving awards from the Malta Gaming Awards, excellent showcase updates, and launching their product to the gaming industry at the International Casino Exhibition which boasted over 30,000 industry attendees, they have been on track to their public release. With the release of the closed beta right around the corner, the future is bright for FunFair.
Ok, so what is the technology? What are they developing?
FunFair is building their decentralized platform and protocol on top of Ethereum’s blockchain. FunFair is developing the game technology, and their proprietary, advanced state channel technology which they call Fate Channels. The platform that FunFair has created and continues to develop, will allow anyone to run a casino in just a few clicks, allow third party developers to distribute and integrate their own games to a new, global audience, while creating the ultimate casino experience for end users.
Fate Channels are FunFair’s custom, proprietary version of State Channels. They are superior technology to current State Channels, as they are what support the communication during game sessions between player and casino, while executing entire game logic and random number generation off-chain. They provide a fast, low cost method for RNG, starting game sessions, ending them, and settling with smart contracts on the blockchain. There is only one gas fee needed to start the game session, which solves scalability issues with platforms like Ethereum.
For an in-depth explanation that you won’t be disappointed in reading, please refer to the technical white paper here:
https://funfair.io/wp-content/uploads/FunFair-Technical-White-Paper.pdf What really happens in the Fate Channels?
FunFair’s random number generation is executed within the Fate Channel, and is a commit/reveal scheme that makes it provably fair. There are also a hash chain to prove that the overall sequence is indeed fair.
A player enters a FunFair-powered casino with some FUN tokens in their wallet, and then both the casino and player send FUN tokens from each of their personal wallets into a smart contract which then holds the FUN in escrow via the Fate Channels (off-chain) until the player cashes out/closes the channel.
The player and casino swap random seeds that they have generated locally, and these are then hashed numerous times by both parties in private. The sequence of hashes are stored locally by each party. There could be thousands of hashes, which become the random numbers, and are passed one by one, in reverse order, by the casino to the player and vice versa when the game needs randomness. Since the hashes are in reverse order, a new hash will always hash into the previous one, so that it can be verified that it’s the correct value of the next hash. The first hash is committed in the state channel on the blockchain as it was opened, and this is what will be used later to reveal that the random number generation was correct.
The position that a ball lands on in a roulette spin, for example, is computed this way. The two hashes provided by both player and casino are combined into a random number that neither side could have predicted. It’s provably fair because because it can be shown that they come from the same hash chain in the correct sequence, and it can be shown after the game session is over, using the reveal to show the seed was in fact, committed to the blockchain in advance of the games played.
The random number generation scheme works extremely fast, and is not dependent and waiting on the blockchain for verification every time, yet it is provably fair in both randomness and sequence. It is easy to detect cheating by either side (for instance, the random number generations would go out of sequence). The security of the hash chain is what makes the randomness unpredictable. If it is possible to reverse a hash, you could predict the random number generation. FunFair uses SHA-3 for hash generation, which has not been reversed yet, and is likely to last in strength for some decades.
The platform.
FunFair presents its casino operators and players with a gaming opportunity never seen before:
- Decentralized, essentially serverless
- Provably fair, blockchain-based
- Trust-less outcomes that can be witnessed on verifiable smart contracts
- Instant cashouts - casinos do not hold your funds
- Accessible through web browser on desktop or mobile
- Fun games with an exciting user interface
- Casinos feel safer, with no risk of fraudulent charge-backs from player credit cards
- Fast gameplay conducted through Fate Channels – the team’s custom version of State Channels.
- FunFair is preparing for mass adoption and has a working solution for Ethereum network congestion.
The games.
FunFair is pursuing a full suite of traditional casino games:
- Blackjack
- Baccarat
- Craps
- Roulette
- Slot machines (many variations)
- Let It Ride
- Caribbean Stud
- 5-card Poker
- 3-card Poker
- Many more to come
You can test all of these games, right now at
https://showcase.funfair.io . Some are currently testable on the Ethereum test networks.
Regarding mobile functionality: A number of mobile dapp browsers are being built (ciphestatus) – FunFair support these. Their games are built with technology that works in mobile browsers.
FunFair is one of the only projects in the cryptocurrency space that has a working product. FunFair’s vision for the future- an updated roadmap for 2018:
FunFair’s writeup of the updated roadmap can be found here:
https://funfair.io/updated-funfair-roadmap-explained/ The roadmap can be found here:
https://funfair.io/latest/roadmap/ Q1: In January, the team submitted to the UK Gambling Commission their application for a Remote Gambling Software License.
February 6th-8th,
Official launch into the gaming industry at the ICE (International Casino Exhibition).
Read FunFair’s written re-cap here: https://funfair.io/ice-2018-round/
Watch FunFair’s video round up here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEjC3_5Q5jA
March 8th-10th,
EthCC Conference.
FunFair CEO Jez San gives a presentation on FunFair platform and protocol to Ethereum community in Paris.
Watch the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irpu2iHDiK0
Q2 Goals:
- Live Beta on main network.
- Announce and start integration of first 3rd party games developer.
- Further license applications.
- If Beta proves successful, look to go live with first operator.
- Continue to attract & retain blockchain talent.
- Continue to build FunFair brand.
April 2018
- V1 product enhancements and initial stage of Go-Live readiness.
- Announce 3rd party game development partner.
- Further production quality games released.
May 2018
- V1 completes and closed Beta launches
May 15th - 17th,
G2E Asia - launch FunFair brand to Asian gaming market
Website: https://www.g2easia.com/
May 16th - 17th
Consensus and Token Summit in New York
Networking and updating community
Website: http://tokensummit.com/
May 23rd - 24th
Disruptive Online Gambling conference (London)
Exposure to UK gambling industry
Website: http://www.arena-international.com/gambling/
Q3 Goals:
- Continue roll out of early operators
- Learn, iterate and improve partner integration process
- Drive further product improvements & platform features
Q4 and beyond:
- Go live with first 3rd party games content
- Continue to build FunFair brand
Some Information Regarding Casino Operators:
Casino operators will save significant money on hardware, chargebacks, and operational headcount. The number of physical servers required is reduced as gameplay executes in immutable smart contracts deployed to the ethereum network.
An operator will, at all times, require a reserve of FUN tokens to ensure they are able to accept bets, and cover their liabilities. If, after a period of time, they wish to convert some of their FUN token balance they will have a number of market exchanges which are capable of facilitating this type of transaction.
FunFair is working on the many customization options right now and up until release. You will definitely be able to customize the look and feel. You can add your own graphics, logos, colour schemes, etc. You will also be able to choose which kinds of games are offered, and how they will be laid out.
FunFair fully supports KYC. They’ve built their own KYC technology that’s crypto-friendly. FunFair’s tech will allow each operator to have their own policies on who they exclude and whether they require KYC/AML etc.
A reminder, FunFair isn’t an operator, it’s a technology that operators use, and some will be in countries where they need to do KYC/AML and some will be in countries where they don’t. FunFair’s tech works for all cases and will support the full strength KYC if that operator requires it.
Lots of information can also be found on the website. Here are some excellent links: The Past, Present, and Future of FunFair..
FunFair has been consistently networking, and the team have been continually attending blockchain conferences and events. From launching their product to the gaming industry at the International Casino Exhibition in early February, launching their product to the Asian market at G2E Asia, and just recently announcing their
industry first game development partner; Spike Games, FunFair is advancing very well, on track and ready for industry disruption.
For questions that you may have think I've missed, please refer to this updated FAQ on the FunFair website: https://funfair.io/frequently-asked-questions/#the-fun-token TL;DR - Read
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