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Kickfurther Review - Investing In Small Business Inventory - YouTube

Channel: The College Investor

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(electronic tones)

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- [Narrator] Hey everyone, Robert here

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from The College Investor.

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Today we are going to look at a very interesting platform

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called Kickfurther.

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So Kickfurther is a new type

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of alternative investment platform

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where you can lend money to companies

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to help them fund their inventory.

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Now you're not technically lending money to the company.

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You're actually buying part of a purchase order

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to fund this inventory and the company will pay you back

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on the sales of the product.

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Woo, that sounded a little confusing,

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but really what you're doing is your helping this company

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fund their inventory growth with the goal of this company

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selling all this inventory, paying you back

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with a nice little return on it.

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So it's a really interesting way to invest

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in companies that you find interesting.

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Most of these companies are very small

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or medium sized business and they're just looking

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for alternative funding methods to get their products

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out there into the marketplace.

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So with any alternative investment, there's high risk here

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and we're gonna kind of share with you

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what that risk looks like, but honestly I wanted

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to just dive into this platform here,

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give you a glance, and show you what it looks like.

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So when you land on Kickfurther, you have this home page

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here with some featured, they call them co-ops,

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they have featured co-ops, some featured brands

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they're working with.

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They show you exactly what the company's looking for,

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how much they've raised so far,

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what the expected margin is, that's what you'd make on it

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and then how much time is left to fund this offer.

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So, how it works is you pick a brand you want to work with,

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you place an order and then when the inventory sells,

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the co-op is going to pay you back

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with their profit margin on it,

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which is all done automatically through this platform

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and Kickfurther they make their money

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by taking a percentage of that.

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I think it's 1.5% when you withdraw your funds

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from the platform.

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Now if you don't withdraw your funds

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and you keep reinvesting, they're not gonna take out

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their percentage until you take out your money,

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so that's interesting too.

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So let's dive in here, what does this look like?

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After you create your account, we're gonna browse,

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and you come up to this.

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So here's the live co-ops that they have for sale

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right now or that they have offering right now.

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So the one we reviewed on the blog today

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which you can find in the comment section

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in the notes right below this video,

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was Rise N Shine, LLC.

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So when you click it, they're looking to raise $204,000

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and they've only raised about $90,000 right now.

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They're selling, they have 1258 packages left.

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So what's a package?

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A package is the inventory you're buying.

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So one package costs $91.09 and if you go

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to the product info, here's what their packages include

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and here's all their products, what they're selling them for

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and then here's how the order breaks down.

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So what you're funding and what you're purchasing right here

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is all this stuff.

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So you get 2% of this, 3% of that sale,

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10% of that sale, all the way through,

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and that is what you're actually buying.

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The goal is they sell these things

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and they repay it for you.

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It's an 11% profit margin, so that means

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they're gonna give you $1.11 for every dollar

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that you invest in the package.

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They estimate it's gonna take about eight months

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to sell through everything and they give you

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a timeline here.

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So the offer closes on November 7th,

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there's about a 60 day lead time to get everything going

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and then they expect the first inventory update

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and payout in February in next year

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and then the next one in March, April, May, June,

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and then I think by July of next year

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they would have fully paid off what they owe you.

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So what is this company?

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I mean, it starts off, it gives you a little overview

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of what the company looks like,

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it says what they've been doing.

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So it looks like this company is gonna be selling

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on WalMart Marketplace.

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They have some branding, kind of sharing

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what they want to do, and then it comes down here

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to the good stuff.

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This is what you really want to look at

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with the company, so it's the credibility overview.

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So, number of Kickfurther brand reviews, 74.

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Yeah, take that with a grain of salt.

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Number of followers, take that with a grain of salt too.

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And this is what the company gets to write.

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So the company says they've been in business,

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what their revenue's been.

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Here's their social following and everything

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and you know that's great and all

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but you can put whatever you want here.

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We know you can buy followers,

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you know you can fake reviews,

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so when you're doing your diligence,

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take this with a grain of salt, but it's helpful.

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It's what the company's trying to sell you on.

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So let's go into the past co-ops.

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Have then done things in the past?

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I always like to see the past.

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The company's been responsible and yes,

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this co-op has done a couple before

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and they've had success and they've paid off

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both of those co-ops before.

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They paid off one really early

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and they paid off another one right on time.

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So this co-op has already been successful

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and this company's already bought inventory before

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so they're trying to do it again and so they've done well,

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that's awesome.

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So then you get to Kickfurther score.

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The Kickfurther score here is what Kickfurther rates

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on the company and they give them a letter rating.

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So this is like a C1, you know, kind of medium,

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middle of the road, and here's why.

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They break it down, so the average margin,

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you know this metric is tied to the business' ability

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to make their paybacks.

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So they give them full points for that.

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The annual revenue of the co-op,

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they give them full points for that.

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That means the company's already making good money.

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Their social reach, I don't know, I kind of view that

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kind of low, but that's what they think.

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Their Alexa rank really has no,

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I don't even know why they include that

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as a measurement.

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Anyone can get their Alexa rank down,

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but this is the one I really care about,

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percent of the PO covered by the purchase order.

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So, when it comes to businesses that are selling inventory,

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it's all about your purchase order, right?

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Your purchase order, let's just say that,

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go back to that WalMart, they said WalMart is going

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to sell it in their marketplace.

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So if WalMart wants to buy their product,

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WalMart gives them a purchase order

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and they say, "I want to buy 10,000 units at this price"

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and there usually is like a net 60, net 90, net 120,

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so they say I'll buy it and then in 190 or 120 days

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I'll pay you back for it, because WalMart's goal

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is to sell it and then use the funds

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to pay off the purchase order.

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Well, when a company is buying inventory,

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it's helpful to have a purchase order already in place

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because now you have a guaranteed sale, effectively.

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Well in this case, the percent of PO covered

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by the purchase order is less than 1%.

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So that means they're buying all this inventory

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without a guaranteed buyer, so that means it's pretty risky

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to invest in this company as a investment

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because that inventory is not guaranteed to sell.

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Now I'm sure this company is gonna go out there

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and hustle and they're gonna work hard

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and they're gonna try to sell all this stuff,

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but they don't have any guarantees yet,

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so that's something to think about,

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and then their third party reviews.

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These are on sites outside of it

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and they only have four stars.

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So, something to think about.

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And then here's the Kickfurther reviews.

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You know, a bunch of five starts and, once again,

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I don't know, always take that with a grain of salt.

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So then they come in here to the company details.

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Okay, so here's the company details about Rise N Shine,

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about the owner.

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They give you a little bit about, more information about it.

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Here's the product info.

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We already kind of went through this.

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They share with you all of it.

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Look, they link to their Amazon so you can see

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it's for sale out there already.

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We already talked about the timeline

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and then here's some comments.

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And so these are people that are potentially investors

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or just on the platform and they have a bunch of comments

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and people are discussing it as well.

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These are interesting to read.

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The company usually posts there

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and so it's just really interesting to read

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what they have to say, what people have to say

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about the firms and it can be a good source of information,

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a little bit more unbiased information

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but it also has people's opinions and online opinions

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are always a little bit interesting.

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So let's go to another one here

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and let's just take a look at it.

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I think this one, the iPlush, so looks like

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they're gonna make kids' plush toys.

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So let's go right over here to the company details.

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Or not company details, yeah company details

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down here at the bottom.

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We're gonna go to the Kickfurther score.

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So here's one that I want to jump right down there

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and show you this one.

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The percent of POs covered by purchase orders.

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So here you go, this company already has at least

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a purchase order.

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Now there's a lot of other risk in the company

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because the margin's low and they have very little reach,

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a brand new website, some low third party reviews,

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but I just wanted to share with you that someone

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has already agreed to buy at least a portion

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of this inventory, so that is a good sign

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because they're buying inventory because someone

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is already interested in selling that inventory

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so little less risk there and then you can see

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they got more points for it than the other company

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we looked at.

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So, that's kind of an overview of what you're doing.

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So you're investing in these packages,

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so for this one it's $54 to invest in the package.

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What are you getting?

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You're gonna buy these plush toys and here's how

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it breaks down.

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They have like five different versions.

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It's almost split evenly across all those five,

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so that's what you're investing in.

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You're investing in their inventory.

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When they sell this, they'll pay you back

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based on this timeline to go from there.

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Let's look at some other ones.

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Let's look at the funded ones.

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So they'll show you the overview,

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they'll show you any upcoming ones,

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they'll show you the funded ones,

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and they'll show you the completed ones as well.

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So here's companies that have already successfully paid back

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what they've bought.

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So we'll go to that in a second,

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but let's look at these funded ones,

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because there's some interesting stuff in here

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I just want to share.

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So here's some funded ones and you can see

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different offers that were already there

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so here's a, looks like a beverage company,

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some kind of radio, some clothing,

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lots of different things.

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Some food product ones.

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Some things that I like to look at

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are the dollar amounts.

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Some of these are pretty small, which is interesting

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and some of these have pretty low profit margins too

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so that's also a turnoff a little bit,

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but not terribly.

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You know, if you're guaranteed to get your money back

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in a few short--

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Let's just go to this one, the Olomomo Nut Company

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at 7% margin.

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If you get that money back in a short period of time,

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7% they're gonna take 1.5%, so what are you at, 5.5%.

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But if you can get that 5.5% back in a little less

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than six months, you know your annualized return

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is pretty good on this thing.

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So I do want to share a little bit about Olomomo Nut Company

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because I think it's interesting,

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it's an interesting company because I know a little bit

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about this company.

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So here we go, we're going through this.

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Let's go their Kickfurther score.

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They have a little higher score.

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Look, they are almost 100%, 75-100% covered

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by purchase orders, which is really interesting,

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so they're buying inventory,

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they're trying to fund inventory that they already

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have orders for.

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Their reviews, though, are a little low.

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Their social reach is a little low,

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but their annual revenue growth is cranking it

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and they're getting a lot of points for that.

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So I'll share with Olomomo Nut Company,

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I'd still be leery of this investment a little bit though

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because I know, I follow a lot of the crowdfunded platforms

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beyond this and then this company was trying to raise

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equity earlier this year on another platform,

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so they're trying to raise a lot of money

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and they're trying to fund their company

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in different ways so I don't know,

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it's always a risk you're taking,

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so as you're investing in these companies

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and investing in their products,

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you have to realize that, why are they here?

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Why are they looking for money to fund their inventory?

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Why don't they have the money?

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Is there something wrong?

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I'm always a little leery on that front, so realize that,

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but if you're investing small amounts,

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so this Olomomo Nut Company is only looking for $26.98

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a package and they're gonna pay you $1.07

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for every dollar.

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So we're also, if you're only buying a little bit,

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you also have a lot less risk.

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You know, if you're investing a lot, you have

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a lot higher risk.

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But realize that.

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So it's like, yes it's high risk,

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but you're also investing small dollars,

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so it goes both ways.

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Now let's look at some of these completed offers

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just to kind of see.

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So the purple line is what they expected to pay it back.

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The green line is what they did.

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So this company beat their expected timeline

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by, it looks like, four months.

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That's month four, five, six, eight, ten.

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So they right here at, what is that, month seven,

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three months.

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This one was right on their payment timeline.

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You kind of go through and you can see

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their different things.

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This one just crushed it.

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This one missed their payments and they came back

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and paid it early.

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So little look at this one is they're missing

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all their payment timelines right here.

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So what I wanted to show you with this

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is that there's risks involved in investing in this stuff.

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Some companies are making it, making their payments back.

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You can see across this top row.

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Some companies are not.

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So this company is missing all their payments.

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They paid 100% back but they missed it by a month.

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This company was on, on, missed a little bit

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and then made it up and it looks like they paid them

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some kind of bonus to them.

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And this company is just miss, miss, miss, missed

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all the way through, but they ended up paying it back off,

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what is this.

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They were expecting to do it in seven months

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and it looks like they did it in 10 months,

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so it took them a little longer than they thought.

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And you can see that it goes back a long way.

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There's a lot of funded deals on here.

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So I just want to highlight that there's a lot of risk

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involved in this.

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There's risk from why the company is looking for money.

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There's risk in this company never being able to sell

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their inventory, but there's also ways for the company

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to get their money back, so even if they don't,

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even if this company bails on you,

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there's legal alternatives that Kickfurther will take.

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They'll either take the inventory,

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they'll take the company to court to get the inventory,

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but whenever you're going down that path,

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you have to realize that it's expensive, so you're never--

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And chances are, it's inventory that someone

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didn't want to buy anyways so not only are you paying

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more money to get this inventory,

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the inventory's probably worth less

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than what you paid for it, so you might not

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get all your money back in that co-op

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so it's really important to remember

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this is high risk but it could be a good reward.

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These are annualized numbers because in four months

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you might have gotten a 10% return on it

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or a 5% return on it in four months,

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which breaks down into a good annualized number,

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which is a decent return, but to get these huge returns,

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you have to take on that risk.

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I would also like to share with you that there's also

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a lot of people that are talking about Kickfurther

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on different platforms.

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These companies usually have some kind of social following

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or online following, so with any kind of investment,

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I think you should really do your due diligence.

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I think you should Google the company,

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look at the reviews for yourself.

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I think you should also look on forums like Reddit.

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There's a lot of Reddits out there, sub-Reddits

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that discuss Kickfurther opportunities

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and they also discuss these companies as a whole.

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So if you're gonna invest in these companies' inventories,

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do your due diligence because you don't want

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to just throw money away.

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Yes, it's not a lot of money, but it's still money

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and you want to get ahead of the game

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and not be losing it all the time.

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So, that's Kickfurther guys.

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It's a really interesting platform.

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They have a really interesting business model

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where you can invest in inventory and hopefully

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that inventory sells.

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But it's not for everyone, so you have to do

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your own due diligence and really see if it's for you.

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So if you are interested in checking out Kickfurther,

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we have a special $5 promo.

[987]

If you sign up with our code, if you go

[989]

to TheCollegeInvestor.com/Kickfurther,

[992]

you get $5 credited to your account which gets you,

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you know some of these are only $20 offers,

[997]

so you can be 25% of your way there

[999]

on your first investment.

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And if you go and invest or you don't invest

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and check out the platform, we'd still love

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for you to leave a comment and tell us your thoughts

[1006]

on Kickfurther and tell us what you are thinking,

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what you invested in, how it did, didn't do.

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I'd love to know.

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So if you'd go into the comments right below this video,

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you can see the link to the article on the blog.

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Click it.

[1021]

Check it out.

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