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Debating investing in GOFBA

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CigarStone

CigarStone

For once, knowledge is making me poor!
Joined
Mar 7, 2007
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I am debating investing with @CigSid Bill’s company (GOFBA) upcoming IPO. I know nothing about IPO’s other than the basics and I would like to invest a little money in hopes of making some money to support my bad habits. :cool:

I’ve heard this discussed briefly on the Vherf and I’d like to get some input from others who have invested or thought about it. I hope I don’t jinx it because everything I’ve ever invested in has shit the bed, and I’m hoping a little due diligence will change that.

Any experience or advice would be greatly appreciated.
 
Woah boy! You could have asked me and I would have given you a not so favorable opinion. I guess I've never really talked to you about it because I'm more or less ashamed that I didn't do my due diligence prior to forking out quite a bit of money.

It has been exactly six years since I originally invested in 2018 and I was told then that I needed to hurry because they were getting ready to go public at any time. So I did!
Then I was told to fill out a form and send a check for $35 after I had wired transferred a large sum of money. I would have a certificate within 30 days from a woman name Shirley. I do not have that stock certificate.

I had a few articles about GOFBA texted to me, but they suspiciously look like articles that were written by anybody on affiliate websites. That eventually led to no updates at all, and the Shirley woman ghosting me.

First is was Trump is a huge fan and I need to move fast so they can go public ASAP.

Then it was we will wait until after the election.

Now, it's we will wait until this October I've heard.
What do you want to bet that will change to that we need to wait until after this next coming election. 😂

Can't make this stuff up.

I have basically come to the conclusion that I can kiss my money goodbye. There's plenty of other things I've discovered through analytics, and close friends that have family still in China (where there is supposed to be 45 million users), but I'm busy at work right now.
 
I just went and checked Jeff. The letter I got after I made the wire transfer was dated July 11th 2018. So yeah, six years ago. I couldn't in good conscience give you my blessing.

I had thought about posting something publicly before, but was worried how it might go down on here.
 
Wow! I don't know what to say?

I'm glad you warned me, but I'm really saddened by what you've posted.
 
I don't know anything, but investing in a pre-IPO is a gamble regardless of what company it is. I assume most companies miss their initial target for IPO. With a tech company I can only assume even more do. When I invested I filled out a "Share reserve form" and submitted it. I assumed this meant when the company went public I would receive my stock certificate. I never assumed they would issue stock certificates before they IPO'd. But again this isn't my area of knowledge.

This post can become very unfair quickly because with Bill being on officer of a company that plans to IPO, he probably can't come on here and talk specifics. I assume there are laws in place he needs to abide by. I understand your frustration @jfields, maybe that is a conversation better had with Bill privately.

@CigarStone I think Bill's vision and character are top notch and I don't regret either investment I made in his company.
 
Hey Jeff - We invested in 2019 a good chunk of money as well. The IPO was to go live no later than 2020. IPO's are certainly a gamble, however we were advised 2020 was for sure the go live, as everything had been prepared and approved by the SEC for a go live. I'm not quite sure what the current status is, as the IPO has been pushed out each year. It's been 5 years for us -- I understand wanting to wait for the right opportunity, however it's also important to keep in mind there will always be issues and challenges -- there never is a perfect time to go live. IPO's are designed to raise money for further expansion of the company.

@CBoukal It's standard to receive stock certificates if you buy into a company, regardless of it being public or private. An IPO simply means it's going live on a public exchange to trade. What we have are stocks purchased internally (prior to the IPO), therefore certificates are standard issue. Bill said in early 2020 that would be going out within a few weeks. Not sure if we have to request them again. I also don't think there's anything wrong with doing due diligence and research prior to making a large investment -- that's the right thing to do.

Needless to say, I'm in the same boat and hoping soemthing happens soon, as it's not easy having money tied up. Generally you can sell your shares off, whether public or not, which is not the case here. Even selling at a loss is not an option.

Curious how many members invested? I think there should be some sort of communcation to us at least informing us of the current status, plans, etc. The communication thus far has been limited, so not really sure what's in the plans at the moment.
 
Also, here's the 10Q for gofba. 10Q's generally have all of the info available in terms of the company, status, etc. They get posted every quarter I believe. Read through the 10Q and it will give you an idea of the state of the company.


The good news is the notice of effectiveness was posted Oct 2023, which I believe gives the go ahead for an IPO. If this is the case, then that's certainly good news.
 
bfreebern said:
I was never approached to invest, but I'm following this thread for sure.
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To be fair, I wasn't either. I approached Bill because I had vaguely remembered this being discussed on the Vherf.
 
Let me add one more thing... Reason we invested was not for a get rich quick scheme -- that was never our intention. Rather, knowing this is a family friendly search engine (which is rare), we really liked the idea behind the company and their vision. I was never looking to "get rich" from this investment, rather support the vision and at least be able to opening trade our shares and pull out whatever we needed at the time (post IPO). I saw this vision as being something that was well needed (and needed today more than ever).

As someone who has been building websites since the late 90's, I know you can turn profit over night if you have users. From the SEC fiings and discussions with the company, they have something like 45 million users world-wide. This is a very good thing, as that makes any website instantly profitable through use of google ads, direct ads, etc. IPO or no IPO, that alone is a huge benefit. This was the selling point for me -- a large userbase is generally a very safe investment.

I think it's fair to allow Bill time to respond, as from what I've been told in terms of user-base, we should be in a good place, with backup plans to start seeing ROI, regardless of an IPO.
 
Would there be any reason at all @Rod that website analytic tracking sites would show little to no traffic to a site?
 
Rod said:
Also, here's the 10Q for gofba. 10Q's generally have all of the info available in terms of the company, status, etc. They get posted every quarter I believe. Read through the 10Q and it will give you an idea of the state of the company.


The good news is the notice of effectiveness was posted Oct 2023, which I believe gives the go ahead for an IPO. If this is the case, then that's certainly good news.
Click to expand...
You are correct Rod.

We've been working on this for over 16 years now. No vacations, no breaks. Many times working days without sleep. We are dedicated to making this company a success. I wish I could say more, but Chad is also correct, being an officer of the company, I cannot discuss anything that isn't already in the public realm.
 
CigSid said:
You are correct Rod.

We've been working on this for over 16 years now. No vacations, no breaks. Many times working days without sleep. We are dedicated to making this company a success. I wish I could say more, but Chad is also correct, being an officer of the company, I cannot discuss anything that isn't already in the public realm.
Click to expand...
Being in n the sidelines I hope that Gofba is a success for all of @CigSid time, effort and energy as well as the investors.
 
Is this the same?

trellis.law

NOTICE OF MOTION September 05, 2023

NOTICE OF MOTION September 05, 2023. Read court documents, court records online and search Trellis.law comprehensive legal database for any state court documents.
trellis.law trellis.law
 
CBoukal said:
This post can become very unfair quickly because with Bill being on officer of a company that plans to IPO, he probably can't come on here and talk specifics. I assume there are laws in place he needs to abide by. I understand your frustration @jfields, maybe that is a conversation better had with Bill privately.
Click to expand...

I disagree with the bolded part. I don't see why this should be treated any differently than any other time a board member has approached another member(s) behind the scenes and that member did not receive what they expected. Maybe Bill can't answer, but something like this should be brought public.
 
tomthirtysix said:
I disagree with the bolded part. I don't see why this should be treated any differently than any other time a board member has approached another member(s) behind the scenes and that member did not receive what they expected. Maybe Bill can't answer, but something like this should be brought public.
Click to expand...
Tom,
The bolded part speaks specifically to my bolded part.
CBoukal said:
This post can become very unfair quickly because with Bill being on officer of a company that plans to IPO, he probably can't come on here and talk specifics. I assume there are laws in place he needs to abide by. I understand your frustration @jfields, maybe that is a conversation better had with Bill privately.
Click to expand...
 
The financials are available via the SEC EDGAR database...I suggest folks investing look at present and past filings before doing so.
 
Please be mindful of what you post.
Posting information, comments, or questions that are perceived as negative (even if it was not the intention) well result in admonishment and name calling...just not in public.
 
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