Crowdfunding the creation of the next version of LFGSS

Sorry to stare! The only time I've ever met you was when I was really drunk at the BFF party so wasn't sure if I recognised you. Then I was too awkward to come over and say hi so I posted that I'd seen you on the spotted thread instead. What's happened to my social skills!?

like many of us, your life is run via the interwebz and social skills are not a requirement

so, any of you popping along to the seedr's drinks on 29th?

Love to but can't.

:)

Since Thursday I have:

6) Got promises of introductions to Silicon Valley VC firms and VCs

i know a few people out that way... specifically, i know several people at the EFF should you ever need (i hope not!) and also a few people who did well in the dotcom boom (but i'm not going to name them here).

:)
Oh, one big important question to the people who missed out on the investment round; Do you want us to consider issuing more equity for 1 more opportunity to invest?

i think this is what was trying to be answered in mirius' post (or rather, requote of what you said previously). that was then explained better in the next post:

The context was that you had previously given a very strong statement (with defined reasons as to why) that you were restricting yourself to £50k and that stage two would be quite some time in the future, even though you knew it was very likely that you could raise considerably more in stage one. Now it seems that some people you know have whined a bit and you have thrown out that rationale for the investment structure?

i have to say, i agree: and i declare up front that i was one of the people who invested (i'm an anon ;-)

specifically, i think the bit you said originally about:

And the answer is due diligence and fair valuation. Just because there is demand to invest £75-100k it does not mean that it's true that the company has suddenly had an increase in value to £750k that would satisfy the due diligence of Seedrs and future investors.
still remains very true - what has changed since last week? to my eyes, nothing: you have the same users as last week (lfgss), the same code (more or less, you might have written a little more) and the same ideas. true, you have 50k committed funds from people whereas last week it was all just hot air - but we've all seen startups go bust or be superbly over-valued.

ahh, i see you just responded to this point. the key things you say this time are:

However, more than a trivial number of people have expressed the desire to invest and that they missed the chance, so I'm doing the reasonable thing of listening to this and trying to determine whether I want to deviate from my plan to allow them to.

If I deviated and made an extension to this angel round by opening a 2nd window on Seedrs, it would be to secure 6pt as a designer rather than rely on short windows of design resource on contract. As that is a poor way to build a well-made product.

my responses to this are that one, you've already learnt an important lesson that will stand you in good stead next time around: first of all, be fair to your (close) friends and family, not a bunch of random strangers on the internet. sure your dad may be a bit miffed, so remember to prioritise letting him have first dibs in the second round next year (or whenever) - and anyway, if you make that much money, surely you'd give some to your folks anyway?

secondly, re: design - well, we've all suffered lfgss.com in its various incarnations for the last 5+ years! i think at this stage it's rather the proof of concept than the absolute beauty that's going to get people to come knocking - after all, you've got a captive audience for when you switch this forum over to microcosm, i'm sure 15k people aren't just gonna turn around and scarper off to yahoo! groups or someother alternative overnight. and by that stage, you'll know for sure that you're onto a winner (eternal optimism!) and even more people will be queuing up to help you out with design etc.

i guess the thing that both of these points suggest you're learning here is time management and prioritisation; personally, i think you've done a great job so far and i'm sure you will only continue to get better. rock on!

oh yeah....

To answer your question about preferred features.

0) events

2) better pms. I want to be able to use my email client to send and receive pms, without me knowing an actual email address of the other party. Using microcosm as an intermediary.

Those are in priority order btw.

i was gonna chip in here as well - i'm currently writing this in a miniscule box in the centre of a 24 inch monitor, so it would be really awesome from my pov to sort out how to respond to posts better. i also agree with mashton that better pm system is a priority - the more i can do from my mobile or from my email the better. and, if you're doing calender stuff, i agree with other posters that .ics export / import functionality would be really useful.

and rock on mashton for recognising that counting begins with zero :)

Sorry to stare! The only time I've ever met you was when I was really drunk at the BFF party so wasn't sure if I recognised you. Then I was too awkward to come over and say hi so I posted that I'd seen you on the spotted thread instead. What's happened to my social skills!?

you must be an introvert

Still having issues?

All good now :)

Sorry to stare! The only time I've ever met you was when I was really drunk at the BFF party so wasn't sure if I recognised you. Then I was too awkward to come over and say hi so I posted that I'd seen you on the spotted thread instead. What's happened to my social skills!?

you must be an introvert

No, she was probably just in the Rapha microcosm at the moment. On microcosm.app, it will be easy to switch, of course. :)

A feature I've always thought would be useful would be an ms paint type drawing option when posting, for things like illustrating posts in the mechanics section.

that would be awesome

i imagine it would be used for drawing moustaches on peoples photographs and other silliness

I'd certainly feel a bit disappointed if my shares were diluted so soon after purchasing them especially as there is no reason to re-value the business other than the fact some people missed the boat.

I'd certainly feel a bit disappointed if my shares were diluted so soon after purchasing them especially as there is no reason to re-value the business other than the fact some people missed the boat.

My hunch was not to take more investment (even at the same rate as previously issued and even by only diluting myself), and this seems to be the view of the lawyers who have far more experience than I. I chose this particular firm partly for this reason, they have enormous experience with many other early stage and seed stage companies so are can provide observation and experience based on that.

Even with that in mind, no-one should ever feel disappointed in dilution providing that it increased the total value that your portion represents.

Since last week there has been an arguable increase in value, that being the agreed transfer of assets and contracts from Buro 9. Unless you think that LFGSS is a zero-value asset.

Not that it matters. My hunch was not to take more, that seems to be the view of those with experience, but you should worry more when I don't consider options being put forward to me.

Since last week there has been an arguable increase in value, that being the agreed transfer of assets and contracts from Buro 9. Unless you think that LFGSS is a zero-value asset.

although I think that was always expected, so isn't in fact a new asset.

Not that it matters. My hunch was not to take more, that seems to be the view of those with experience, but you should worry more when I don't consider options being put forward to me.

yep, that's one of the things i've been very impressed with: you seem to do your research well and consider all the options, as well as seeking advice when and where necessary.

I'll gladly sell my shares for 200p on the pound...

Matt is going to improve the patron page ( http://signup.microcosm.app ) as we didn't really spend long on it (can you tell?) and then we'll publicise that better on the mailing list and on here.

If someone reserved the username admin/ssladmin/similar, would you honour it? I need to know for a project. Do not ask what the project is.

If someone reserved the username admin/ssladmin/similar, would you honour it? I need to know for a project. Do not ask what the project is.

I would honour every username that isn't:
1) Already taken
2) In violation of a law within the EU on the basis of race hate, discrimination, etc
3) In the RFC list for common email addresses ( http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2142.txt - postmaster, webmaster are in this list)
4) Used for domain verification purposes by common service suppliers (admin, administrator and ssladmin would be in this list - relates to email)

The last two are security related given that some variant of a username may be used in future email based tools.

An example may be the ability to send a PM directly from email and without knowing the other persons' email address. An address along the lines of velocio+siteHMAC@microcosm.app where siteHMAC was some token generated for you, and paired with the From address identified your site user would prove it wasn't spam... and I'd create a PM on the server and would send an email to the other user.

That's me inventing how it might function, but as a result of functioning like that you could see that I couldn't have usernames follow email standards.

how do seedrs investors register their name (can people have more than one name?)

I'll gladly sell my shares for 200p on the pound...
It seems that Microcosm does have some value. With the Buro9 assets it could be worth more than that. I'm glad that you are not going for a second round just now, when the time comes it would be more effective to charge more for the dilution of your/our share.
I was lucky and got in around midnight. I have emailed Seedrs to see if I can sell part of my holding to others who registered but missed the deadline. This would be a deal for friends not for profit.

Thanks Velocio for the explanation. Plans never survive contact with the enemy so a second round on Seedrs to bring in 6pt could be a reasonable decision which I'd be happy about.

you've already learnt an important lesson that will stand you in good stead next time around: first of all, be fair to your (close) friends and family, not a bunch of random strangers on the internet. sure your dad may be a bit miffed, so remember to prioritise letting him have first dibs in the second round next year (or whenever)

This I have some issues with. Having your family and close friends money invested can be a great motivator (and one I don't think you need from what you've written), but it also creates a huge amount of additional pressure, and that I don't think you have any need for at all. Family and close friends can support you in far more important ways at this point.

Thanks Velocio for the explanation. Plans never survive contact with the enemy so a second round on Seedrs to bring in 6pt could be a reasonable decision which I'd be happy about.

This I have some issues with. Having your family and close friends money invested can be a great motivator (and one I don't think you need from what you've written), but it also creates a huge amount of additional pressure, and that I don't think you have any need for at all. Family and close friends can support you in far more important ways at this point.

Nicely said.

When can I fondle your assets, VB?

I was going to ask when 6pt will make me some coffee...

Get it yourself.

When can I fondle your assets, VB?

I thought everyone had caressed his Mather?

Get it yourself.
miserable sod