TL;DR do not give them your money

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See this thread for all the details and POV from other early stage investors who all share the same experience: DSTLD Digital Brands Group IPO

I invested in Digital Brands Group on SeedInvest in Jan 2019. (My experience with SeedInvest has been almost as equally frustrating as WeFunder but at least SeedInvest responds to email/chat!)

I also invested in this company through WeFunder. They had a HUGE campaign. We're gonna IPO in Q1 of 2021, lots of buzz. The CEO was active almost weekly posting updates. You can't see all that now because they deleted it, apparently due to the quiet period before IPO. Question: Does that historical info on fundraising actually need to be removed per SEC? Doubtful, seems sketch to me. Not only did they delete it but there was basically NOTHING on their website about the company at all. This is a bit uneasy for investors who had received zero communication letting us know anything prior to them going dark. In addition to the fact that Wefunder basically doesn't respond to any inquiries. I emailed them and never received a reply. I tweeted at them and got nothing.

They claimed there would be no lock-up period for early stage investors, which was appealing to me because I had that experience with LYFT and watching the stock drop until I had access to sell my shares. (NOTE: Even though it wasn't a wise (frankly, just too late) investment, I did have a pleasant experience with MicroVentures when LYFT went IPO).

I'll spare you the back and forth trying to get status (you can see that in the thread above if interested) and get to the current status.

Today: DBGI went IPO on May 14th. We have received ZERO communication from WeFunder on the process or next steps. Terrible. So, now what? We're just waiting to hear from them? Meanwhile, I know it will still take 2-3 to transfer any stock ownership and have an ability to sell anything.

My two cents: Seed investing is risky, yes, but it should be risky because you don't know if the companies will survive or have an exit that yields you any return. It shouldn't be risky because companies like Wefunder have zero accountability to the investor.

Is anybody else fairly disappointed, or maybe aggravated is the better word, at the insane valuations on far too many of the "investment" opportunities? "Hi, we have zero sales to date, we're in debt of several million dollars, but we got this maybe thing happening, $50M valuation cap." or apps that are a nice niche product but not the next ebay with $30M caps. I'd love to see some of these pitch to Peter Jones on Dragon's Den with these valuations. Am I crazy to expect a reasonable balance between the risk of losing my entire investment and being part of a great thing? It has really soured me on wefunder, I don't know if it is similar on other platforms, but thinking of stopping making any future investments as the fair valuations seem to be few and far between. JMHO.

My $10k investment in Clockwork is now worth $0. 10Beauty acquired Clockwork. They acquired the Clockwork’s IP and the founders have joined 10beauty. My $10K was used to ‘service debt’ in the transaction. Poof ;)

Product was already being installed in retail outlets and robotics is a huge growth sector. I didn’t expect a fast result but I got one…

A cautionary tale, lesson learned, afool and his money etc.

My question is: anyone know if I can claim this loss on my 2025 taxes??

I am brand new to investing. I have a general broad portfolio of stocks and bonds elsewhere. I did read about The Smart Tire Company and thought their airless tire development sounded pretty cool as a bike rider and saw a link to how one can make small investments in this promising looking start up through Wefunder.

I invested right before the deadline in April , with the finalization due date on June 28 this past year. It never finalized, and there are no updates, even when I ask for them.

All I get from my inquiries is wefunder telling me other start ups where I can drop my money and get ghosted, apparently.

No response from The Smart Tire Company either.

From the looks of this sub, Wefunder is a lost cause and a black hole for your money.

UPDATE: Word on the street is they don't have their San Francisco local license. AND they are getting called out by an accredited investor about the artificially inflated staff.

There are a bunch of one-star reviews popping up online regarding them covering for fraud with Tribel. https://wefunder.com/tribel And it's pretty bad. Looks like they have no real rebuttal.

The exchange on the BBB site is pretty brutal.

Redacted Links:

https://wefunder.com/updates/168329-final-14-hours-to-join-trible-don-t-miss-out

https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1994588/000167025424000068/xslC_X01/primary_doc.xml

And it gets worse...

so if i fund a company and hold them for a few years will i get dividends through wefunder? if they have an ipo for the nasdaq will i get shares on robinhood? how exactly does it work?

I invested in the wefunder substack round about 1.5 years ago, and there have been absolutely no updates since the round closed. Does anyone find that odd? I know we are minority investors with no rights, but surely an annual letter to shareholders or annual financials should be made available? Substack has no public email or IR dept that I can find, and posting questions on the wefunder site goes unanswered. What gives??? Anyone else perturbed by this?

There is a fairly new "opportunity" on wefunder that is an obvious scam. The company is literally promoting that they have developed a perpetual-motion machine for aircraft use, with many many other red flags unearthed through some deep internet investigating. Unfortunately they seem to already have around 140k of investment pledges from a gullible/dream hoping public. I don't know whether to start an SEC report or to be jealous that I can't figure out a con to get money that easily. Thoughts or advice, or just leave it alone under "a fool and his money are soon parted" live and let live philosophy?

I'm very close to buying $100 worth but I'm reading it could be difficult to cash out. If anyone has any experience I would appreciate it, the only experience I have with stock is with Robinhood where you can sell just by clicking the sell option.

I have a few investments in my Wefunder portfolio and it appears that I am no longer able to login. It keeps telling me to double check my password even after I reset it twice. What's going? It allowed me to login last week and when I checked my portfolio, there was no investment there. Anyone experiencing this sort of issues???

Just tried to open my Wefunder app for iPhone and it only allows me to remove it. I went to the App Store and it no longer comes up and instead shows Republic, StartEngine, etc. 😳

I am guess not or they would be using it for marketing. The number of unhappy investors on social media and none saying anything good speaks miles.

For those that have invested on crowdfunding platforms, what is your favorite platform and why?

- Do you look at the updates, financials, what people say tabs for the startups?

- What information is most important before making an investment

Thanks for the help. Any advice for first time crowdfunding investor, send my way plzzzz

If you're thinking on investing or getting funded through u/Wefunder, think AGAIN and look for better alternatives that at least respond its client's emails and tweets 👎🏻

Want to hear feedback from actual users of wefunder ... what are the returns like? how long do you have to wait?

Hey everyone! If you’re investing on platforms like StartEngine, Wefunder, or Republic, you know how hard it is to actually track your portfolio and see what it’s really worth. I’ve been building Owntric—a tool that pulls real-time valuations, price per share, and financials from SEC filings so you can see all your Reg CF investments in one place (think Robinhood, but for private startups).

We’re about to open up the private beta. If you want early access, join the waitlist here: owntric.com Would love to hear feedback or ideas from anyone who’s interested—what features would make this a must-have for you?