Returning Capital to Balance Investors
I raised $1.2m from 1500+ people in 2017. It has been an incredibly hard journey but I am finally ready to start delivering a return to my community of investors.
Over the last 5 years I have been exploring Ethereum with the support of hundreds of people from all over the world. In 2017, my ETH sky-rocketed and I wanted to start building interfaces for the protocol. I had a small company making Mac software for normal banks—it was a modest success.
I wanted to go much bigger. I invested 1/3 of what I had at the time and asked a community of strangers to support me financially.
They backed me when no one else would.
Angels didn’t listen.
VCs didn’t listen.
Everyone did ICOs and tokens.
I zigged when every founder zagged.
Raising money through regulated crowdfunding was absolutely excruciating. It took months and cost me a fortune personally. In the end, we only received around $1.2m of the money and Wefunder totally botched the accounting.
Where did the money go?
Half of it went on engineers’ and designers’ salaries. 10% of it on audits and security. The rest was spent on travel, offices, machinery and administration.
Then I started to pick up the tab personally in 2019.
In total, I used about 3,000 ETH to keep Balance alive.
It was brutal.
I can look any investor in Balance in the eye and say, truthfully, this statement:
No one invested more than me. No one lost more. No one stands to gain more.
First money in. First money out.
What happened to everyone else?
They forked off or they were fired. Working with me is not easy. I care more.
The only person left standing is Chris Downer, who has been my design advisory and guiding light for many years.
We all did our best. What I learned is that most people like the idea of a startup but loathe the reality of what is involved.
Very few people will sacrifice even a month of salary.
That is how little conviction they have in their work.
Everything starts up. No one likes it when it ends down.
Startups filter out the posers.
If you invested, please check your Wefunder account & submit your wallet address
So far, less than 10% of investors have given me a wallet address. I am going to give everyone 1 more month then I will begin distributions.
After 3 months, it will be open season. First come, first serve.
What will investors be getting?
The returns will be a mix of ETH, USDC & other assets. My goal is give people a chance to get out today or stay with me on my journey.
Why are you doing this?
A person is either a net positive or net negative to society. I have felt the weight of the $1m I raised over me for half a decade. It is time for me to settle that debt.
If you have any questions, just reply to this email or use Substack Chat :)
A man of his word.
Ric I gave you a hard time a couple years ago about what seemed a careless mishandling of money. I’m impressed at this point with your follow through and tenacity. You have integrity and you deserve success.
Well done, and may good fortune find you.
Thanks for the sincere message, much appreciated.
What is the path you propose for one who wants to continue the journey with you and Balance?