Register for free to join our community of investors and share your ideas. You will also get access to streaming quotes, interactive charts, trades, portfolio, live options flow and more tools.
Hey Michael,
I’m not sure where all these claims and accusations are coming from, but I’d like to try to address them. We are pioneering a new space with a first of its kind business model so it is understandable that questions and inquiries come up.
I remember you had similar concerns about the business back when you first got involved and we have responded back then as well. Everyone is entitled to his or her own opinions and we know that Legion M’s unique model may not be a great fit for everyone. The tone of your latest inquiry/attack is pretty aggressive though, which causes us to wonder if you might have some ulterior motivation or to wonder what happened.
Regardless, I’d like to give you the benefit of the doubt and try to patiently address your concerns. I don’t expect that my response is going to change your mind, but as you make some pretty damning charges against us, I think it’s worth responding to.
Let me start with your statement that Legion M is a scam. This is a strong statement to make and something we obviously don’t take lightly. There are a lot of scams out on the Internet but I can assure you Legion M is not one of them. The founders and the small team at Legion M have a lot more at stake than a $100 investment. We are betting our own money, our careers, and our reputations on making this work. And we know the odds are stacked against us and we warn each new investor of this, but we are excited about the potential for Legion M and our goals are genuine and sincere.
What we are attempting isn’t going to be easy and it is not going to happen overnight, but if we can achieve what we aim to do, we are convinced that we can create an influential and valuable entertainment company. Success for us isn’t raising capital. Success for the Legion M team is creating a profoundly important and valuable new company in the space and providing our shareholders with emotional and financial ROI. You can bet against us if you wish, but its not going to stop us from pursuing something that we wholeheartedly believe in and are working around the clock to make happen.
For now, let me try to address each of your accusations.
<<They make NO MONEY!.>>
We have generated some revenues but like most startups at our stage, we are not profitable? We don’t pretend to be nor had we intended to be profitable at this early stage. We are building and growing and profitability is not the primary objective in this early phase. To be clear as I don’t want to be misquoted on this, we do care about profitability and we believe that we can build a profitable company over time, but the phase we are in today is all about growing the community, establishing some early projects and demonstrating our impact. Tesla wasn’t trying to be profitable on the first car they sold.
<<They have no business plan.>>
We do have a business model. In fact, many credible people in the industry have celebrated our unique business model. Stan Lee said it “Legion M was such a good idea, he wishes he had thought of it”. Dean Devlin calls Legion M’s model the “Future of Hollywood”, a recent reporter went on record saying "This exciting company is a bridge between the fans and the creators and, I truly believe, has the potential to one day even overtake Disney as Hollywood's most influential entertainment force."
We regularly share information and details on the business model with our shareholders, including a recent 1 hour presentation title “Method to the Madness” where we walked our investors through our plans, shared some data on the demonstrated impact we have had, and our phased approach. If you have not seen this presentation, I encourage you to watch it (https://legionm.com/shareholder-updates/2018/7/10/legion-m-strategy-plan-shindig-method-to-the-madness) or maybe read our secret master plan (https://legionm.com/shareholder-updates/legion-ms-top-secret-plan). Ultimately, you may not believe in our business model, which is fine. We don’t expect everyone to get it. When we started MobiTV, nearly 18 years ago, many people very smart people did not believe that anyone would ever watch TV on their mobile phones. Jeff and I are very accustomed to naysayers and we have a saying that a healthy debate helps us polish the stones and that downright naysayrs only strengthen our resolve and our commitment to prove them wrong. Time will tell if it we can prove you wrong, but we are more convinced now than ever that we can create a very successful and valuable company.
<<They have a small office in LA Ca.
They have no studio.
NO REAL ESTATE folks. >>
Yes, we have a very small, shared office in LA and we are otherwise virtual. I hardly think you’re revealing some dark secret here. We are scrappy, we don’t feel it is necessary to incur the added expense of rent or an office when we can all work remotely. In fact, for the Bay Area, we have free use of MobiTV’s office whenever we need it. We are a small team and we don’t need a big studio lot, that part of Hollywood is old school. We don’t need real estate to be successful and it most certainly isn’t an indication of whether we exist or not. We’ve also been very clear about this in our communication, and most investors see this as evidence that we are spending the money wisely.
<<They offer no address to visit or send hard mail to because they're hiding.
They operate out of an electronic, post office box.>>
Your claim that we are hiding couldn’t be more absurd. Anyone in or outside the Legion can contact us and reach us in a wide variety of ways. We are available night and day and highly responsive. LOL, I’m just noting that I’m responding to you on the weekend on the same day you inquired.
Our Legion knows that they can meet us, get us on the phone, any of those things. We do frequent updates (written and live) on the business to keep everyone informed and to answer any questions, concerns, etc. We just came from SDCC where we invited Legion M members to our lounge to meet face to face. It was awesome! And our community knows how to reach us, how to meet with us, how to engage. I would be shocked if beyond your complaint, we have a lot of investors that think we’re hiding away somewhere and not reachable. I’m not sure why you feel differently.
<<You are DONATING your money to them, not investing it in them.>>
Nobody is donating money to Legion M. If we wanted donations, it would have been much easier and less expensive for us to set up a kickstarter or gofundme page and avoid all the complications and expense of properly filing with the SEC and setting up real equity accounts on behalf of all our investors.
Every investor is getting real shares of the company and a Carta account to keep them in. You have one yourself. And you invested at $7 per share and the most recent valuation of the shares in the last round was $8.32 per share. You can argue that you don’t think the shares are worth that, but we just sold out a round at that price which many would argue is evidence that they were fairly priced and because it was oversubscribed, some might say the price should have been higher. At this point, it doesn’t matter. We’d just be arguing again over whether Legion M is a longterm viable business model and we have already established that we don’t agree on that.
<<Don't ask about auditioning. They have no studio. >>
We have had a few casting calls and there have been some Legion M member projects posting their casting calls to the Legion social and forums, but casting and auditioning hasn’t been something we have promised to investors. I’m sorry if you invested in Legion M with the expectation that we would be hiring or casting you in a role.
With that said, it is our goal In the future to provide the Legion with a database and ability to connect with one another and to post any staffing or casting opportunities for members to get involved. In the meantime, we’re very careful not promise our investors that we’ll be hiring them in one of our projects. Again, that just wouldn’t be practical to pull off.
<<Don't ask about sending in manuscripts. They have no editorial staff. >>
Again, just to be clear, investing in Legion M does not mean that we back your manuscript. I’m not sure where you got that impression. We have had incredible interest in submitting projects to us, which is great, but if we made an open call, we would be overwhelmed with the material and we don’t have an army of readers and editors to review. Therefore, we have been very clear that we’re not taking new submissions at this very moment, but we do encourage people to go to our site, there is a place where you can sign up to get an alert whenever we do (www.thelegionm.com/submissions). They can also submit your ideas through our Pitch Elevator Project (https://legionm.com/shareholder-updates/2017/10/6/pitch-elevator-update) when we open our next season (we are still finishing season 1). Lastly, Legion M is an interactive community and as such we encourage our members and investors to connect with one another via our Forums pages and social media to share projects, and potentially cooperate together.
Once again, we wouldn’t want any investor investing their money with the expectation that we will be buying their manuscript. That’s not practical or a very smart way to run the company.
<<Don't ask about the value of your certificate. It's less valuable than the paper you wipe your a** with. >>
Once again, not true. People in the Legion know the value of the shares. According to our records, you invested $100 in our first round at $7 per share and we just closed the most recent round at $8.32 per share. With those facts in hand, you have already seen a gain in the value of your shares, yet, you’re trying to convince yourself and others that they have no value. Do you do this for all your investments? I can’t imagine that’s a good investment strategy.
I don’t completely understand where you’re coming from, but if you really do think the shares have no value, you should sell them. We had more demand for the shares than we had supply for at $8.32 so some might argue that the shares were underpriced at $8.32 per share.
I don’t know if any of this helps. I’m guessing not, but I don’t appreciate our heartfelt and genuine efforts to do something new and innovative being called a scam.
Response to Handyman,
I’m not sure where all these claims and accusations are coming from, but I’d like to try to address them. We are pioneering a new space with a first of its kind business model so it is understandable that questions and inquiries come up.
I remember you had similar concerns about the business back when you first got involved and we have responded back then as well. Everyone is entitled to his or her own opinions and we know that Legion M’s unique model may not be a great fit for everyone. The tone of your latest inquiry/attack is pretty aggressive though, which causes us to wonder if you might have some ulterior motivation or to wonder what happened.
Regardless, I’d like to give you the benefit of the doubt and try to patiently address your concerns. I don’t expect that my response is going to change your mind, but as you make some pretty damning charges against us, I think it’s worth responding to.
Let me start with your statement that Legion M is a scam. This is a strong statement to make and something we obviously don’t take lightly. There are a lot of scams out on the Internet but I can assure you Legion M is not one of them. The founders and the small team at Legion M have a lot more at stake than a $100 investment. We are betting our own money, our careers, and our reputations on making this work. And we know the odds are stacked against us and we warn each new investor of this, but we are excited about the potential for Legion M and our goals are genuine and sincere.
What we are attempting isn’t going to be easy and it is not going to happen overnight, but if we can achieve what we aim to do, we are convinced that we can create an influential and valuable entertainment company. Success for us isn’t raising capital. Success for the Legion M team is creating a profoundly important and valuable new company in the space and providing our shareholders with emotional and financial ROI. You can bet against us if you wish, but its not going to stop us from pursuing something that we wholeheartedly believe in and are working around the clock to make happen.
For now, let me try to address each of your accusations.
<<They make NO MONEY!.>>
We have generated some revenues but like most startups at our stage, we are not profitable? We don’t pretend to be nor had we intended to be profitable at this early stage. We are building and growing and profitability is not the primary objective in this early phase. To be clear as I don’t want to be misquoted on this, we do care about profitability and we believe that we can build a profitable company over time, but the phase we are in today is all about growing the community, establishing some early projects and demonstrating our impact. Tesla wasn’t trying to be profitable on the first car they sold.
<<They have no business plan.>>
We do have a business model. In fact, many credible people in the industry have celebrated our unique business model. Stan Lee said it “Legion M was such a good idea, he wishes he had thought of it”. Dean Devlin calls Legion M’s model the “Future of Hollywood”, a recent reporter went on record saying "This exciting company is a bridge between the fans and the creators and, I truly believe, has the potential to one day even overtake Disney as Hollywood's most influential entertainment force."
We regularly share information and details on the business model with our shareholders, including a recent 1 hour presentation title “Method to the Madness” where we walked our investors through our plans, shared some data on the demonstrated impact we have had, and our phased approach. If you have not seen this presentation, I encourage you to watch it (https://legionm.com/shareholder-updates/2018/7/10/legion-m-strategy-plan-shindig-method-to-the-madness) or maybe read our secret master plan (https://legionm.com/shareholder-updates/legion-ms-top-secret-plan). Ultimately, you may not believe in our business model, which is fine. We don’t expect everyone to get it. When we started MobiTV, nearly 18 years ago, many people very smart people did not believe that anyone would ever watch TV on their mobile phones. Jeff and I are very accustomed to naysayers and we have a saying that a healthy debate helps us polish the stones and that downright naysayrs only strengthen our resolve and our commitment to prove them wrong. Time will tell if it we can prove you wrong, but we are more convinced now than ever that we can create a very successful and valuable company.
<<They have a small office in LA Ca.
They have no studio.
NO REAL ESTATE folks. >>
Yes, we have a very small, shared office in LA and we are otherwise virtual. I hardly think you’re revealing some dark secret here. We are scrappy, we don’t feel it is necessary to incur the added expense of rent or an office when we can all work remotely. In fact, for the Bay Area, we have free use of MobiTV’s office whenever we need it. We are a small team and we don’t need a big studio lot, that part of Hollywood is old school. We don’t need real estate to be successful and it most certainly isn’t an indication of whether we exist or not. We’ve also been very clear about this in our communication, and most investors see this as evidence that we are spending the money wisely.
<<They offer no address to visit or send hard mail to because they're hiding.
They operate out of an electronic, post office box.>>
Your claim that we are hiding couldn’t be more absurd. Anyone in or outside the Legion can contact us and reach us in a wide variety of ways. We are available night and day and highly responsive. LOL, I’m just noting that I’m responding to you on the weekend on the same day you inquired.
Our Legion knows that they can meet us, get us on the phone, any of those things. We do frequent updates (written and live) on the business to keep everyone informed and to answer any questions, concerns, etc. We just came from SDCC where we invited Legion M members to our lounge to meet face to face. It was awesome! And our community knows how to reach us, how to meet with us, how to engage. I would be shocked if beyond your complaint, we have a lot of investors that think we’re hiding away somewhere and not reachable. I’m not sure why you feel differently.
<<You are DONATING your money to them, not investing it in them.>>
Nobody is donating money to Legion M. If we wanted donations, it would have been much easier and less expensive for us to set up a kickstarter or gofundme page and avoid all the complications and expense of properly filing with the SEC and setting up real equity accounts on behalf of all our investors.
Every investor is getting real shares of the company and a Carta account to keep them in. You have one yourself. And you invested at $7 per share and the most recent valuation of the shares in the last round was $8.32 per share. You can argue that you don’t think the shares are worth that, but we just sold out a round at that price which many would argue is evidence that they were fairly priced and because it was oversubscribed, some might say the price should have been higher. At this point, it doesn’t matter. We’d just be arguing again over whether Legion M is a longterm viable business model and we have already established that we don’t agree on that.
<<Don't ask about auditioning. They have no studio. >>
We have had a few casting calls and there have been some Legion M member projects posting their casting calls to the Legion social and forums, but casting and auditioning hasn’t been something we have promised to investors. I’m sorry if you invested in Legion M with the expectation that we would be hiring or casting you in a role.
With that said, it is our goal In the future to provide the Legion with a database and ability to connect with one another and to post any staffing or casting opportunities for members to get involved. In the meantime, we’re very careful not promise our investors that we’ll be hiring them in one of our projects. Again, that just wouldn’t be practical to pull off.
<<Don't ask about sending in manuscripts. They have no editorial staff. >>
Again, just to be clear, investing in Legion M does not mean that we back your manuscript. I’m not sure where you got that impression. We have had incredible interest in submitting projects to us, which is great, but if we made an open call, we would be overwhelmed with the material and we don’t have an army of readers and editors to review. Therefore, we have been very clear that we’re not taking new submissions at this very moment, but we do encourage people to go to our site, there is a place where you can sign up to get an alert whenever we do (www.thelegionm.com/submissions). They can also submit your ideas through our Pitch Elevator Project (https://legionm.com/shareholder-updates/2017/10/6/pitch-elevator-update) when we open our next season (we are still finishing season 1). Lastly, Legion M is an interactive community and as such we encourage our members and investors to connect with one another via our Forums pages and social media to share projects, and potentially cooperate together.
Once again, we wouldn’t want any investor investing their money with the expectation that we will be buying their manuscript. That’s not practical or a very smart way to run the company.
<<Don't ask about the value of your certificate. It's less valuable than the paper you wipe your a** with. >>
Once again, not true. People in the Legion know the value of the shares. According to our records, you invested $100 in our first round at $7 per share and we just closed the most recent round at $8.32 per share. With those facts in hand, you have already seen a gain in the value of your shares, yet, you’re trying to convince yourself and others that they have no value. Do you do this for all your investments? I can’t imagine that’s a good investment strategy.
I don’t completely understand where you’re coming from, but if you really do think the shares have no value, you should sell them. We had more demand for the shares than we had supply for at $8.32 so some might argue that the shares were underpriced at $8.32 per share.
I don’t know if any of this helps. I’m guessing not, but I don’t appreciate our heartfelt and genuine efforts to do something new and innovative being called a scam.
Response to Handyman,
I’m not sure where all these claims and accusations are coming from, but I’d like to try to address them. We are pioneering a new space with a first of its kind business model so it is understandable that questions and inquiries come up.
I remember you had similar concerns about the business back when you first got involved and we have responded back then as well. Everyone is entitled to his or her own opinions and we know that Legion M’s unique model may not be a great fit for everyone. The tone of your latest inquiry/attack is pretty aggressive though, which causes us to wonder if you might have some ulterior motivation or to wonder what happened.
Regardless, I’d like to give you the benefit of the doubt and try to patiently address your concerns. I don’t expect that my response is going to change your mind, but as you make some pretty damning charges against us, I think it’s worth responding to.
Let me start with your statement that Legion M is a scam. This is a strong statement to make and something we obviously don’t take lightly. There are a lot of scams out on the Internet but I can assure you Legion M is not one of them. The founders and the small team at Legion M have a lot more at stake than a $100 investment. We are betting our own money, our careers, and our reputations on making this work. And we know the odds are stacked against us and we warn each new investor of this, but we are excited about the potential for Legion M and our goals are genuine and sincere.
What we are attempting isn’t going to be easy and it is not going to happen overnight, but if we can achieve what we aim to do, we are convinced that we can create an influential and valuable entertainment company. Success for us isn’t raising capital. Success for the Legion M team is creating a profoundly important and valuable new company in the space and providing our shareholders with emotional and financial ROI. You can bet against us if you wish, but its not going to stop us from pursuing something that we wholeheartedly believe in and are working around the clock to make happen.
For now, let me try to address each of your accusations.
<<They make NO MONEY!.>>
We have generated some revenues but like most startups at our stage, we are not profitable? We don’t pretend to be nor had we intended to be profitable at this early stage. We are building and growing and profitability is not the primary objective in this early phase. To be clear as I don’t want to be misquoted on this, we do care about profitability and we believe that we can build a profitable company over time, but the phase we are in today is all about growing the community, establishing some early projects and demonstrating our impact. Tesla wasn’t trying to be profitable on the first car they sold.
<<They have no business plan.>>
We do have a business model. In fact, many credible people in the industry have celebrated our unique business model. Stan Lee said it “Legion M was such a good idea, he wishes he had thought of it”. Dean Devlin calls Legion M’s model the “Future of Hollywood”, a recent reporter went on record saying "This exciting company is a bridge between the fans and the creators and, I truly believe, has the potential to one day even overtake Disney as Hollywood's most influential entertainment force."
We regularly share information and details on the business model with our shareholders, including a recent 1 hour presentation title “Method to the Madness” where we walked our investors through our plans, shared some data on the demonstrated impact we have had, and our phased approach. If you have not seen this presentation, I encourage you to watch it (https://legionm.com/shareholder-updates/2018/7/10/legion-m-strategy-plan-shindig-method-to-the-madness) or maybe read our secret master plan (https://legionm.com/shareholder-updates/legion-ms-top-secret-plan). Ultimately, you may not believe in our business model, which is fine. We don’t expect everyone to get it. When we started MobiTV, nearly 18 years ago, many people very smart people did not believe that anyone would ever watch TV on their mobile phones. Jeff and I are very accustomed to naysayers and we have a saying that a healthy debate helps us polish the stones and that downright naysayrs only strengthen our resolve and our commitment to prove them wrong. Time will tell if it we can prove you wrong, but we are more convinced now than ever that we can create a very successful and valuable company.
<<They have a small office in LA Ca.
They have no studio.
NO REAL ESTATE folks. >>
Yes, we have a very small, shared office in LA and we are otherwise virtual. I hardly think you’re revealing some dark secret here. We are scrappy, we don’t feel it is necessary to incur the added expense of rent or an office when we can all work remotely. In fact, for the Bay Area, we have free use of MobiTV’s office whenever we need it. We are a small team and we don’t need a big studio lot, that part of Hollywood is old school. We don’t need real estate to be successful and it most certainly isn’t an indication of whether we exist or not. We’ve also been very clear about this in our communication, and most investors see this as evidence that we are spending the money wisely.
<<They offer no address to visit or send hard mail to because they're hiding.
They operate out of an electronic, post office box.>>
Your claim that we are hiding couldn’t be more absurd. Anyone in or outside the Legion can contact us and reach us in a wide variety of ways. We are available night and day and highly responsive. LOL, I’m just noting that I’m responding to you on the weekend on the same day you inquired.
Our Legion knows that they can meet us, get us on the phone, any of those things. We do frequent updates (written and live) on the business to keep everyone informed and to answer any questions, concerns, etc. We just came from SDCC where we invited Legion M members to our lounge to meet face to face. It was awesome! And our community knows how to reach us, how to meet with us, how to engage. I would be shocked if beyond your complaint, we have a lot of investors that think we’re hiding away somewhere and not reachable. I’m not sure why you feel differently.
<<You are DONATING your money to them, not investing it in them.>>
Nobody is donating money to Legion M. If we wanted donations, it would have been much easier and less expensive for us to set up a kickstarter or gofundme page and avoid all the complications and expense of properly filing with the SEC and setting up real equity accounts on behalf of all our investors.
Every investor is getting real shares of the company and a Carta account to keep them in. You have one yourself. And you invested at $7 per share and the most recent valuation of the shares in the last round was $8.32 per share. You can argue that you don’t think the shares are worth that, but we just sold out a round at that price which many would argue is evidence that they were fairly priced and because it was oversubscribed, some might say the price should have been higher. At this point, it doesn’t matter. We’d just be arguing again over whether Legion M is a longterm viable business model and we have already established that we don’t agree on that.
<<Don't ask about auditioning. They have no studio. >>
We have had a few casting calls and there have been some Legion M member projects posting their casting calls to the Legion social and forums, but casting and auditioning hasn’t been something we have promised to investors. I’m sorry if you invested in Legion M with the expectation that we would be hiring or casting you in a role.
With that said, it is our goal In the future to provide the Legion with a database and ability to connect with one another and to post any staffing or casting opportunities for members to get involved. In the meantime, we’re very careful not promise our investors that we’ll be hiring them in one of our projects. Again, that just wouldn’t be practical to pull off.
<<Don't ask about sending in manuscripts. They have no editorial staff. >>
Again, just to be clear, investing in Legion M does not mean that we back your manuscript. I’m not sure where you got that impression. We have had incredible interest in submitting projects to us, which is great, but if we made an open call, we would be overwhelmed with the material and we don’t have an army of readers and editors to review. Therefore, we have been very clear that we’re not taking new submissions at this very moment, but we do encourage people to go to our site, there is a place where you can sign up to get an alert whenever we do (www.thelegionm.com/submissions). They can also submit your ideas through our Pitch Elevator Project (https://legionm.com/shareholder-updates/2017/10/6/pitch-elevator-update) when we open our next season (we are still finishing season 1). Lastly, Legion M is an interactive community and as such we encourage our members and investors to connect with one another via our Forums pages and social media to share projects, and potentially cooperate together.
Once again, we wouldn’t want any investor investing their money with the expectation that we will be buying their manuscript. That’s not practical or a very smart way to run the company.
<<Don't ask about the value of your certificate. It's less valuable than the paper you wipe your a** with. >>
Once again, not true. People in the Legion know the value of the shares. According to our records, you invested $100 in our first round at $7 per share and we just closed the most recent round at $8.32 per share. With those facts in hand, you have already seen a gain in the value of your shares, yet, you’re trying to convince yourself and others that they have no value. Do you do this for all your investments? I can’t imagine that’s a good investment strategy.
I don’t completely understand where you’re coming from, but if you really do think the shares have no value, you should sell them. We had more demand for the shares than we had supply for at $8.32 so some might argue that the shares were underpriced at $8.32 per share.
I don’t know if any of this helps. I’m guessing not, but I don’t appreciate our heartfelt and genuine efforts to do something new and innovative being called a scam.
This just in....
Hello,
We may be entering the slow-moving dog days of summer, but there’s no stopping the Legion! July was an incredibly busy and exciting month for us and we’re excited to share a few highlights, so let’s get to it!
ROUND 3 IS OFFICIALLY FINISHED!!
THANK YOU to more than 4,800 new and returning investors who made round 3 our most successful round ever! Not only did we raise the SEC maximum allowable for Legion M ($901,888) in RECORD TIME, we also ended oversubscribed, with more investors wanting to participate than we had room to accommodate.
In accordance with our “No Fan Left Behind” policy, we’re working hard to ensure that everybody who attempted to invest in the 3rd round has the opportunity. We’ve filed with the SEC to open a new round to accommodate the extra demand. If you attempted to invest in round 3, please stay tuned for details—we’ll be reaching out with next steps in the coming weeks.
If you missed out on round 3 don't worry—there’s still plenty of time to invest in Legion M. As a pre-IPO startup, it's still very early days for us. We expect to open a 4th round very soon—the best thing you can do right now is sign up as a free member so you can be first in line the moment Round 4 opens!
We will be back in September with another investor update. Until then, be on the lookout for more details about Round 4, the launch of our new Referral Program and PULSE tools, as well as news about how to join us for supporting Mandy’s September 14 theatrical debut!
Onward and upward!
Paul Scanlan and Jeff Annison, co-founders, Legion M
P.S. Be sure to join the Legion M members-only Facebook page, Instagram and Twitter to stay up-to-date on all things Legion M!
***---***---***---***---***---***---***---***---***---
There it is folks.
Another quarter of party funding!
Expenses met for the income and entertainment and nothing at all for any form of business product.
Don't ask about auditioning. They have no studio.
Don't ask about sending in manuscripts. They have no editorial staff.
Don't ask about the value of your certificate. It's less valuable than the paper you wipe your a** with.
Don't ask about the future value of your certificate. It will NEVER have any value even if the company could somehow manage to go legitimate and register the company with the SEC. They'd issue class A,B & C common stocks and your certificates won't count for squat.
You are DONATING your money to them, not investing it in them.
This company makes NO money.
This company has no interest in making money because they'd have to spend their personal income to make it happen.
This company is a scam.
Asking the IRS for anything is a joke. BS to be more precise.
The IRS doesn't care what they do with the money like they would a real investment company. The IRS just wants their share of the money you willingly DONATE (GIVE) to Paul and Jeff with NO CONSIDERATION of any future compensation or repayment so that Paul and Jeff & Co. can continue their big, no risk party.
(https://www.journalofaccountancy.com/issues/2018/mar/donation-based-crowdfunding.html)
NO MONEY folks. They make no money.
100% of the funds you keep pumping into the company is CHARITY folks. Not an investment. It goes to the partners and their staff living expenses.
They make NO MONEY!.
They have no business plan.
They have a small office in LA Ca.
They have no studio.
NO REAL ESTATE folks.
They offer no address to visit or send hard mail to because they're hiding.
They operate out of an electronic, post office box.
If you dig deep into the corporate registration papers, you'll find they're incorporated in Delaware and registered in California.
The address on the State Registration papers reads...
1801 Century Park E, Los Angeles, CA 90067
Google the address to see the extent of the great and wonderful Legion M Studios.
(https://businesssearch.sos.ca.gov/)
Choose "Entity Number" from the search choices
Enter the registration # below.
C3891349 LEGION M ENTERTAINMENT, INC.
Registration Date: 03/29/2016
Jurisdiction: DELAWARE
Entity Type: FOREIGN STOCK
Status: ACTIVE
Agent for Service of Process:
C T CORPORATION SYSTEM (C0168406)
To find the most current California registered Corporate Agent for Service of Process address and authorized employee(s) information, click the link above and then select the most current 1505 Certificate.
Entity Address: 1801 CENTURY PARK EAST, 24TH FLOOR
LOS ANGELES CA 90067
Entity Mailing Address: 1801 CENTURY PARK EAST, 24TH FLOOR
LOS ANGELES CA 90067
https://businesssearch.sos.ca.gov/Document/RetrievePDF?Id=03891349-23978004
Donation-based crowdfunding and nontaxable gifts
This growing means of contributing to causes and hardship relief requires special attention from recipients and their tax advisers.
Crowdsourced online donation projects have become hugely popular: A 2016 report from the Pew Research Center found that 22% of American adults said they had contributed to a crowdsourced fundraising project. Most donors (68%) contributed to help someone in need. And while the majority of crowdfunding contributions were quite small — 62% of donors gave no more than $50 to any project — the amount raised can grow quickly. However, these online campaigns raise a number of tax issues for people setting up a campaign and for beneficiaries.
Under Sec. 6050W, payers are required to send a Form 1099-K, Payment Card and Third Party Network Transactions, to a payee who receives more than $20,000 and has more than 200 transactions during a calendar year. A copy of this form will also be sent to the IRS.
You people are such fools.
These guys are frauds.
There. I said it out loud and I DARE THEM TO REFUTE IT.
This company makes no money.
It lives off your donations.
Any money it brings in pales in comparison to the money it hemorrhages out.
I'd compare it to Musk's electric car company scam but Legion M one is worse.
Musk has to eventually answer to the Federal Government and the FTC.
Legion M has to answer to no one.
They reprint only the questions that they know won't hurt them and burry the really hard ones like...
Where's your P&L statement?
What's your next film budget?
Who's being negotiated for contract on the next film?
IS THERE A NEXT FILM?
Never a question or answer that makes business or investment sense like that.
Only stupid crap like can I get a job with you, can I submit an idea, can I exchange my shares.
Same questions EVERY TIME they do a new round of funding.
THEY MAKE NO MONEY People!!
Mark my words here folks. I've been following this company since it took its first Wefunder donation. They're scamming you.
They make no money people!
They have little to no interest in developing their studios (I doubt they actually have one outside of someone's garage anyway), they have no interest in hiring real acting talent, when they put together a production it's only face work. No substance. No box office ratings. All BS to keep you amature actor and investing idiots pumping more dollars into their big party!!!
Since this is all outside of the FTC auspice there's no fraud happening here.
So Send your money to keep Paul and his buddy's BIG PARTY rolling!
Common Paul. Show me I'm wrong here.
Show me the money Paul.
Can you?
Handyman responses:
#1 What? Really? Good advice there.
#2 If the people leading the charge are not excited about the idea. There would be no way I would consider backing them.
#3 If you paid attention, you would be in the know, with the exception of what they can't disclose due to FCC rules, contracts and deals with partners to remain confidential. Never have I felt they were "Hiding" anything.
#4 What?
#5 I happen to be a Forum admin. And I can personally attest to the fact that the only things that get removed are items that are offensive to the general populace of the forum. Or by posting things not related to the legion.
#6 And no where were they promised.
#7 I was investor #870 so I respectfully disagree, and I would like to know where you get the right to claim what other investors think.
#8 I am literally a partial owner of the company regardless of how small a portion that is. Sorry, factually, you are wrong.
And my point was that even as a small investor. They have taken the time to personally consider my opinions. In most corporations your opinions would not even be heard unless you were holding a considerable percentage of the company.
If you are disappointed in your decision to invest. Then do us all a favor and post a request in the forum and we will find a way to take those shares off your hands.
I personally do not feel you are a good fit for the Legion because you just do not understand the value of it at all. And am tired of hearing your baseless criticism posted publicly.
I am really questioning whether you are a paid troll by a scared competitor.
Innpact...
#1
Legion-M is in fact, misleading the investors.
All companies mislead investors. Every single one and some more than others.
Noone in their right mind would invest in a business if there were not some covering up, redressing or distracting of details.
#2
CEO's chant company rah, rah all the time.
Especially the ones running a ponzi scam.
It's what keeps financial support coming in until they either get caught by authorities or gain enough legitimate success that the business speaks for itself negating the need for their public statements of support any more.
#3
This is not a transparent company and it's certainly not "the most transparent company" that most investors (your personal experience aside) have ever seen.
Any publicly traded company is more transparent than Legion-M and I personally don't believe that even Jeff or Paul would agree with you there.
#4
The Wefunder page clearly states that any investment is a risk.
It does not specifically state anything endorsing or condemning Legion-M.
#5
Their public forum is unarguably, censured.
There's literally no way to argue that since everything published to that site is admittedly reviewed prior to publishing.
#6
There are no voting rights.
Polls are not voting rights and in fact are oftentimes used to divert attention from discrepancies.
As far as "Opinions" are concerned. They're like AH's. Everyone has one, most smell awful and all are useless to anyone else.
#7
"Previous investors" are the ones asking these difficult questions.
New investors are for the most part, ignorant as were we "previous investors" when we mailed in our money.
Age has regretfully garnered experience.
#8
"They have empowered me to feel like an owner". Indicates delusional acceptance.
Factually. You aren't.
The last statement is insignificant.
I'm sorry Jeff but I can't agree with you.
The bottom line here is you're not making enough money to cover your deficits and that makes Legion-M an imminent crash company.
A total loss.
The only reliable positive cash source you have now is the naive investors who continue to plug money into your company with the mistaken hopes of some type of return some day and the consistent Amway rah, rah that keeps them clamoring for more while simultaneously blindly defending thin veil of credibility you two present.
If I'm wrong on this I'll be the first to apologize publicly to both of you and to even endorse your dream but the fact of the matter is that you have no business model, no "reliable" product or service and no plan to change that's been made public to date.
You are Carolco in its later days and you don't even have a First Blood or Total Recall to show yet.
Legion-M is currently a great advertising model but a horrible profit model.
Worse than that is that you have made no P&L statements or disclosures that any corporate company that's working legitimately makes to its investors.
If you have nothing to hide and you're doing your absolute best to succeed, why not show your figures publicly?
Added to that your best defense on this site (which incidentally, is not censored by you) is not even a forward looking statement of action, it's a gilded explanation of your past performance.
I started this site because I am an investor.
I'm unhappy with the progress and personally I think you two should step down and let someone who knows how to make money take over.
Without getting into the semantics of your business developement let me say this.
I make less than %50k/yr and I live in a 4000 sqft home and drive two cars and while I don't live in Calif where I understand expenses are greater than here in Virginia, you can bet that if I were starting your company, I'd find a way to draw even less than $50 annually that wouldn't involve pumping unwitting investors.
I'd also have a team of people paid to find new ways to generate more money into the company than that going out.
Where did this substantial amount of money go?
PR is well and fine on it's own but really doesn't matter in regards to my investment.
What I want to know is...
Where did this substantial amount of money go?
Who got paid?
So now that there is official representation to speak on the things I can't.
What I would like to say as just an investor, is that Legion M was a risk I took early on 'because' of the character of the two leaders.
The vision they had made sense and every plan and project they discussed were equally genius when you look at the 'why.'
On the surface the fans (Legion) are thrilled because they targeted comic-cons to attract investors and in the very first year the Legion took them on a cross country journey through Comic-cons doing the Pitch Elevator. They did panels on Cosplay, They did Icons with Stan Lee and Kevin Smith, They promoted a Colossal Monster Movie, They honored one of the most creative geniuses of the comic world and threw a hella party at the Stark Mansion. We even got behind the scenes for some VR Horror flicks the Legion helped with.
Behind the scenes they were taking the talent of the legion, which includes writers, producers, actors, screenwriters, artists, techies and nerds and giving them each a voice and an outlet if they wanted to help make the legion stronger. They are organizing talent of all the these people and the vested interest of the legion is what is building the Legion.
Every step of the way they took us investors with, and despite the fact that all these projects in the first year seemed to be chosen solely to match the Legion Comic SciFi and Horror interests. Each of them had a strong strategy behind them to grow the Legion, create exposure in the industry and take us closer to profitability.
This was the first year! I never expected that much out of them.
So think about that. All those investors that were all just little buds in the industry with all that talent and will are now heavily vested in an up and coming company. So instead of being a movie conglomerate that was built by Venture Capitalist and Out of touch investment firms. The people that Love the industry will actually be driving it and taking a convoy of consumers along with them.
So what did I do in this round? I doubled my investment immediately and every time they come up with new ideas I end up adding just a little more.
If you are a typical Angel or VC investor or the Capitalist Wall Street type. This probably isn't a fit for you because you will never understand it. Nor will you help our cause.
The power of the Legion, is the Legion, and Jeff and Paul have become our Heroes leading us forward because they are perfect for the job.
The journey is already a pay off because we are loving the ride, and where ever we end up is just a bonus.
As for Colossal, here's what I can say at the moment. Please keep in mind that we have to be very careful and deliberate about releasing financial information, as we want to make sure we're not providing any sort of misleading statements. I know just enough about GAAP accounting to know that I shouldn't be talking about any numbers before they are reviewed by accountants. :)
We haven't released any public info about Colossal yet. We're planning to provide updated midyear financials next month, and I expect there will be some updated information on our projects at that time. However, I don't expect that we'll be providing a breakdown of specific project financials. We have confidentiality clauses in many contracts, and a lot of our data is tied to information that can be very sensitive for our partners. We need to balance our desire for transparency to investors with the impact it might have on our ability to sign deals with current and future partners, including private companies that don't release financial data.
That said, I can tell you that we were VERY pleased with our investment in Colossal, and that we'd make it again in a heartbeat. We've said a number of times that the amount of money we invested was small enough that any financial ROI is DWARFED by the value we received in terms of industry recognition, establishing a real world case study for Legion M, and showing the world the type of projects we want to be involved in. A lot of people (mistakenly) assume that as a small company with limited funding we'll be limited to very low budget productions, fan films, etc. Coming out of the gate with an Anne Hathaway movie has been huge.
Here are our my thoughts on salary.
You are correct--Paul and I are both currently drawing a salary of 175K per year. As the other commenter mentioned, that's not a particularly high salary in Silicon Valley, but I believe this is an important discussion nonetheless. As a startup with limited resources, cash is king.
That said, I think you are looking at the salaries the wrong way. As an owner of a company, the question you should be asking isn't "how much am I paying" but "what am I getting for my money?", and "what gives the company the greatest chance of success?".
Imagine you own an NFL team, and you are looking for a quarterback. The current market price for a MVP caliber quarterback is $25 Million per season. Is that an exorbitant salary for a guy who throws balls for a living? Yes. Can you find somebody cheaper? Sure. But would you sign the MVP? Probably. Because as a business owner you recognize that the quarterback is the most important position on the team, and if you want to reach the Super Bowl, he's probably your best shot.
Now, what if you had the chance to get that EXACT same player for HALF of his market price. $12.5 is still a high price, but it's an amazing value, and most team owners would trade in their mothers to get that deal.
I use that analogy because both Paul and I are probably making 50% or less than we'd be making if we went elsewhere. In fact, Paul left a job that had over $500K of comp per year to start Legion M. He also worked for nearly a year for free. Both of these are documented facts--you can see the first in MobiTV's S1 filing a few years ago, and the second in Legion M's Reg A filing.
So with Paul, you've got somebody that WOULD have made close to $1MM over the first two years of Legion M, but instead earned $175K. This show a few things:.
1) As an owner of the company, you bought $1MM worth of value for $175K, which seems like a pretty good deal.
2) You've got a founder who is investing SIGNIFICANT value into this startup. One could argue that Paul's invested $825K into Legion M.
3) If you average his salary of 175K over two years, he's actually been paid 87.5K per year. So technically you don't have a problem with both founders--you only have a problem with me. :)
I understand that there is a lot of conventional wisdom from VC's re: founders salaries. However, you've got to realize a couple things.
First, the VAST majority of startups are led by 20-somethings right out of college rather than experienced, middle aged guys like Paul and I. For those people--a 100K salary is reasonable, and enough to pay the bills. For guys like Paul and I with mortgages and families living Silicon Valley, they are not. We would both LOVE to be able to work for $1 per year, but unfortunately that's not a possibility. (TBH, the only way I've been able to afford working for $175K per year is by cashing in college funds I had set aside for my children). A seasoned VC recognizes that the general guidelines they use for graduates of Y Combinator don't apply to every company. And while conserving money is very important in the early days of a startup, it's not nearly as important as having the right people in the right positions.
To give you an example, my salary in the early days of MobiTV (which was a VC funded company) was $120K (keep in mind, this was over 15 years ago). I was also 28 years old, and can tell you with certainty that that I brought a tiny fraction of the value I bring today. If you could go back in time, you might be able to get 28 year old Jeff and Paul to run Legion M at a salary you'd feel comfortable with. But I can tell you that you'd stand a MUCH, MUCH lower chance of success. As with anything, it's not simply a matter of how much you are paying for something--what matters is the value you are getting for your money.
Secondly, one of the primary reasons VC's push so hard for low CEO salaries is because the entire company's salary is often pegged to the CEO. I.e. if you you have a highly paid CEO, you'll end up paying more for your VP engineering, which means you'll have higher paid Engineering Managers managing higher paid engineers. This logic is true, but not particularly relevant to Legion M.
That's because MOST startups are built to dramatically scale their organization. I..e, If you are a tech startup, you need to hire engineers. At MobiTV, we started with 3 cofounders, but eventually grew to over 400 people--mostly in engineering. In these organizations, the costs of internal staff represent the vast majority of the monthly costs that need to be covered, and so ANYTHING you can do to reduce those salaries has a HUGE lever on the long term success of the company.
Legion M is different--the vast majority of our expenses will be the investments we make into projects, and ultimately the cost of our team should be diminutive. In that regard, we're more like a VC firm than a tech startup. If you look at the that model, you'll see while VCs push very strongly for tech CEOs to keep salaries low, VC's themselves are EXTREMELY well compensated. That's because smart investors recognize that when you have a very small group making very important decisions, you want the RIGHT people, not the CHEAPEST people.
Finally, I'd like to suggest rather than focusing on the salaries of individuals, you look at the overall burn of the company. With Legion M, we intentionally have an extremely small (but senior) staff. We do almost everything ourselves, which is an extremely powerful way to keep burn low. I.e. Paul and I built the website, Terri does most of our legal, -- our combined 40+ years in startups allows us to do almost everything ourselves instead of hiring other people to do it for us. This means that overhead costs--rent, furniture, HR, middle management, IT, etc--are almost zero. When 28 year old Paul and Jeff started MobiTV, our first 4 hires were a tech guy (to build our website), a receptionist, an office manager, and a documentation writer. Those hires, coupled with rent, were probably more than half of our burn in the early days. At Legion M, 45 year old Paul and Jeff have NONE of those expenses. We're smarter, more capable, and have taken our lumps and learned from our mistakes. Not to say that we won't make new ones, of course, but at least we got some of the big ones out of the way... :)
Finally, I'll reiterate the point that NOBODY in this company is watching our cash closer than Paul and I. If Legion M runs out of money, most of our investors will lose a couple hundred bucks. Paul and I will lose our jobs, and have serious damage done to our careers and reputations. If you don't believe we're the type of people that care about that sort of thing, then I'd HIGHLY recommend you don't invest. You should never go into business with people you don't trust.
Hope this helps! Happy to answer any followup.
Not for everyone
So sorry about the 3 peat! The first time I posted I got an error message, so I tried again. I got an error message again, so I went back through the process from scratch. It was only after that errored out that I realized that the problem was an erroneous error message, and that I'd posted it three times!
But by then I'd hit my new member 3 post limit, and was muted. :)
I don't know if anybody has the ability to delete the redundant posts (along with this one)--I haven't been able to figure out a way.
I plan to respond to your questions tmw!
In reply to your questions ...
The company has stated that Paul took no salary for the first year of operation. I believe I read that Jeff took only a partial (approximately half) salary for the same period. To my understanding, it's only been since the early part of this year that they have been taking full $175k salaries.
Many people have questioned the $$ amount, but I don't understand their concern. As far as I know, these guys are not independently wealthy. They have mortgages to pay, families to support, kids to put through college. They work 60-80 hours a week, and have done so for nearly two years. The salaries they are taking are considerably less than what they were making in their previous company (MobiTV) and are also significantly less than what they would be paid if working somewhere else.
In addition, they live in the San Francisco Bay Area where the cost of living is very high. I live here as well and I think most people would find those salaries to be rather low for the CEO and President of a start-up company in this area. I don't know where you live, but around here, $175k is about the range for a senior manager or director at a large corporation.
And the guys don't get any back-end deals either. They own stock in the company but it has the same financial terms as investors' stock. Consequently, they won't see any rewards from the stock until we all do. So, as an investor, I'm not bothered by their salaries, considering all the circumstances around them.
As for the Colossal ROI, they are in the process of preparing a mid-year financial statement, which should include those figures. The report is expected in the next 6 weeks.
For what it's worth, the company has said that our deal on Colossal wasn't with the producers, it was with the distribution company NEON. We were invested in P&A, which has a totally different set of economics from production. Also, our investment in the movie was relatively small from a $$ perspective.
Until the new financial statement comes out, you can see their previous SEC filings here: Legion M Investor Relations
Thanks for your response regarding the Stan Lee event. I never questioned the hand print ceremony making a profit and you bring up a good point regarding the mansion being a networking opportunity.
However, I have two questions below that have been ignored and raises a major red flag.
The Stan Lee Party MADE Money
(In the interest of disclosure, I am a first-round investor in Legion M.)
Some disparaging remarks have been made about the Stan Lee house party being lavish and unwarranted.
What you may not realize is that tickets to the party weren't free -- they started at $100 and went up to several hundred dollars. In addition, there were several corporate sponsors of the event. More than 500 people attended the party. You do the math. The party completely paid for itself and had money left over.
The hand and footprint ceremony was also paid for by the sale of fan packages, auction items, 43 corporate sponsors, and the leftover money from the house party.
As was previously noted, the ceremony provided great media coverage for Legion M, but the house party was also extremely beneficial. Many Hollywood insiders attended the party and were able to learn about Legion M and see for themselves the passion of its investors. A number of the insiders, who have attended many Hollywood parties, said Legion M's party was absolutely the best one they had ever attended. Those insiders will now go back to work and tell their colleagues about their experience.
Insiders were not the only ones who were impressed with the party. There were a number of non-investors who became investors afterward. And even existing investors were able to generate some buzz among their friends and colleagues after telling them about their experience at the party.
In today's world, PR doesn't come exclusively from TV and other mainstream media. Social media and word-of-mouth is just as important, if not more so. And in the world of Hollywood, schmoozing is absolutely essential to networking and deal-making.
Legion M was able to host two fantastically successful events, each one reaching different, but equally valuable, audiences. And although it cost the LM staff hundreds of man-hours to produce them, it didn't cost the company any significant amount of money.
As an investor, I couldn't be more proud of Legion M's accomplishment with these two events. Did they make money for the company? No. But they did open the doors for any number of potential future deals, the profit from which is incalculable.
My questions to you...
Have you watched any of the live streams on the FB page that the company has done?
Have you gone to the forums?
Have you attended an event?
Did you support "Colossal"?
Have you interacted with any of the other members/investors in the company?
So nice your had to post thrice. Thanks for taking the time to post. I'm a potential investor but I came across this board created by one of your investors that is not too happy. I only have two questions, which I'll direct to you.
1.) Do you and and Paul each get paid $175K base salary yearly? This info was posted by the investor/board creator and seems very high.
2.) Now that Colossal is out on video, what was the amount invested in P&A and what was the ROI? If that info is not available now, will it be available in a future investors report?
INVITATION ACCEPTED! Sorry that it's taken us so long to respond, but TBH I didn't realize this forum existed until one of our investors pointed it out to us. I'd like to go through and respond to some of the earlier and later posts, but this seemed as good a place as any to start.
First, to introduce myself, my name is Jeff Annison, and I'm one of the cofounders (along with Paul Scanlan) of Legion M. We also cofounded another company (with one other cofounder) back in 1999 called MobiTV. That company started with 3 guys working out of spare room and turned into a global leader of mobile television. We raised over 100MM in venture capital, and in 2005 won an Emmy for innovation in Television. I know we're not talking about MobiTV here--I just bring it up as a way to demonstrate that we aren't first-time entrepreneurs here.
I'd like to provide a two part answer to your question about how we make profit at Legion M.
PART 1. How do we make money?
We make money using well established business models for entertainment content. Some examples:
-We can invest in existing film, TV, and VR projects. This is what we've already done with Colossal (where we invested in P&A after the film was already completed) and Field Guide to Evil (where we invested up front in production as executive producers). The spectrum of investment terms is extremely wide--from owning equity in the project to "last money in, first money out" financing. Our goal is to develop diversified slate, which you can already see from our first two projects. Being flexible allows us to be opportunistic and get involved in projects we love (more on that in part II).
-We can develop our own projects. A great example of this is our ICONS VR Interview with Stan Lee and Kevin Smith. In this case, we conceived of the idea, signed Stan and Kevin, hired the VR studio, and shot a pilot. We own the footage outright. It's worth noting, that what we did with that project is groundbreaking--you can read more about it in this Fast Company article: https://www.fastcompany.com/3069267/with-icons-legion-m-is-creating-pop-culture-time-capsules-and-pushing-vrs-limits.
Icons is a long term investment--VR is a nascent industry today, but our footage was captured in a way designed stand the test of time. We want to give people 100 years from now the opportunity to sit face to face with an icon of our time. We believe the value of this footage will increase over time. One of the challenges we face is that no headset even exists today that can play the full quality of the footage we captured! Given that Stan is 95, it's quite possible this is the only footage of this type that ever exists. It's already the only footage of his wife. :( As I said, we view this as a long term investment.
In the case of ICONS, our goal ins't just to monetize the Stan Lee footage, but to turn it into a full series that allows people to sit down face to face with other luminaries of our time. Stephen Hawking, Paul McCartney, Warren Buffet, Mel Brooks, etc. We're very early in this process, but we have interest from distribution partners, sponsors, etc.
These are two great examples that illustrate the diversity we seek in our slate, both in terms of medium (film, TV, and VR), stage (early stage speculative vs. safer later stage), type (internal projects that require a lot of work on our part vs. more passive investments into other people's projects). I can elaborate more if you like, but hopefully this gets the point across.
Part II. Why does 1,000,000 fans matter.
The business models I describe above are used by thousands of studios/production companies in Hollywood. Anybody with money can come into Hollywood and try to make a fortune (or more often than not lose a fortune) doing this. In fact, Hollywood has a long and storied history of taking advantage of starry-eyed investors.
A lot of investors don't care--they are so excited about hanging out with stars and being a movie producer that they don't care about the ROI. Their's nothing inherently wrong with this, but it's really more akin to "buying" a once-in-a-lifetime experience rather than investing. I think a lot of Legion M investors fall into this category--especially those that have put in $100. The range of financial returns you're going to get on a $100 investment is de minimis compared to the joy you'll receive from being a part of something you love.
That said, while some of our investors may not care about a financial return, the same cannot be said of Paul and I. We care deeply. After all, we have FAR more invested in this venture than ANY of our investors. Paul went the first year without drawing any salary, an when we did start paying salaries, we're paying ourselves about HALF what we'd be making someplace else (more on this in another post). This means that we literally have hundreds of thousands of our own dollars at stake. Not to mention our jobs, careers, and reputations.
If you look at what we're doing, you'll see that while we work hard to make Legion M a fun investment (we call it Emotional ROI--meaning how much JOY you get from owning the stock), at it's core Legion M is a legitimate Facebook/Google/Tesla type swing for the fences that's being run by serious businesspeople with a track record of success. That's where the 1MM fans comes in.
Our power as a company comes from the fact that we're owned by fans. If Paul and I had come to town with a couple million $$, we would not have gotten us a seat at the table with Colossal. We wouldn't have gotten Stan Lee and Kevin Smith to do a VR shoot for no money (they were compensated with stock options). We wouldn't have received profiles on the front page of the business section of the LA Times, or made it in Variety Magazine, Nerdist, Fast Company, Forbes, or any of the hundreds of other press interviews we've done.
All of these things were made possible because we're owned by FANS. Not even that many fans yet--we had about 3K when all those deals were signed. Today we've got about double that, and it's growing fast every day. This is important, because our power grows exponentially based on the number of fans we have in the company.
To explain further, I ask you to check out the following post, that explains our master plan, and hopefully helps illustrate why 1MM fans isn't hype or BS. https://legionm.com/shareholder-updates/legion-ms-top-secret-plan
In any case sorry for the long winded response. As Mark Twain said, i'd make it shorter if I had more time. :). Please review the link I sent, and then I'd be happy to answer any other comments or questions you have. I also plan to comment on the other posts when I get a chance.
INVITATION ACCEPTED! Sorry that it's taken us so long to respond, but TBH I didn't realize this forum existed until one of our investors pointed it out to us. I'd like to go through and respond to some of the earlier and later posts, but this seemed as good a place as any to start.
First, to introduce myself, my name is Jeff Annison, and I'm one of the cofounders (along with Paul Scanlan) of Legion M. We also cofounded another company (with one other cofounder) back in 1999 called MobiTV. That company started with 3 guys working out of spare room and turned into a global leader of mobile television. We raised over 100MM in venture capital, and in 2005 won an Emmy for innovation in Television. I know we're not talking about MobiTV here--I just bring it up as a way to demonstrate that we aren't first-time entrepreneurs here.
I'd like to provide a two part answer to your question about how we make profit at Legion M.
PART 1. How do we make money?
We make money using well established business models for entertainment content. Some examples:
-We can invest in existing film, TV, and VR projects. This is what we've already done with Colossal (where we invested in P&A after the film was already completed) and Field Guide to Evil (where we invested up front in production as executive producers). The spectrum of investment terms is extremely wide--from owning equity in the project to "last money in, first money out" financing. Our goal is to develop diversified slate, which you can already see from our first two projects. Being flexible allows us to be opportunistic and get involved in projects we love (more on that in part II).
-We can develop our own projects. A great example of this is our ICONS VR Interview with Stan Lee and Kevin Smith. In this case, we conceived of the idea, signed Stan and Kevin, hired the VR studio, and shot a pilot. We own the footage outright. It's worth noting, that what we did with that project is groundbreaking--you can read more about it in this Fast Company article: https://www.fastcompany.com/3069267/with-icons-legion-m-is-creating-pop-culture-time-capsules-and-pushing-vrs-limits.
Icons is a long term investment--VR is a nascent industry today, but our footage was captured in a way designed stand the test of time. We want to give people 100 years from now the opportunity to sit face to face with an icon of our time. We believe the value of this footage will increase over time. One of the challenges we face is that no headset even exists today that can play the full quality of the footage we captured! Given that Stan is 95, it's quite possible this is the only footage of this type that ever exists. It's already the only footage of his wife. :( As I said, we view this as a long term investment.
In the case of ICONS, our goal ins't just to monetize the Stan Lee footage, but to turn it into a full series that allows people to sit down face to face with other luminaries of our time. Stephen Hawking, Paul McCartney, Warren Buffet, Mel Brooks, etc. We're very early in this process, but we have interest from distribution partners, sponsors, etc.
These are two great examples that illustrate the diversity we seek in our slate, both in terms of medium (film, TV, and VR), stage (early stage speculative vs. safer later stage), type (internal projects that require a lot of work on our part vs. more passive investments into other people's projects). I can elaborate more if you like, but hopefully this gets the point across.
Part II. Why does 1,000,000 fans matter.
The business models I describe above are used by thousands of studios/production companies in Hollywood. Anybody with money can come into Hollywood and try to make a fortune (or more often than not lose a fortune) doing this. In fact, Hollywood has a long and storied history of taking advantage of starry-eyed investors.
A lot of investors don't care--they are so excited about hanging out with stars and being a movie producer that they don't care about the ROI. Their's nothing inherently wrong with this, but it's really more akin to "buying" a once-in-a-lifetime experience rather than investing. I think a lot of Legion M investors fall into this category--especially those that have put in $100. The range of financial returns you're going to get on a $100 investment is de minimis compared to the joy you'll receive from being a part of something you love.
That said, while some of our investors may not care about a financial return, the same cannot be said of Paul and I. We care deeply. After all, we have FAR more invested in this venture than ANY of our investors. Paul went the first year without drawing any salary, an when we did start paying salaries, we're paying ourselves about HALF what we'd be making someplace else (more on this in another post). This means that we literally have hundreds of thousands of our own dollars at stake. Not to mention our jobs, careers, and reputations.
If you look at what we're doing, you'll see that while we work hard to make Legion M a fun investment (we call it Emotional ROI--meaning how much JOY you get from owning the stock), at it's core Legion M is a legitimate Facebook/Google/Tesla type swing for the fences that's being run by serious businesspeople with a track record of success. That's where the 1MM fans comes in.
Our power as a company comes from the fact that we're owned by fans. If Paul and I had come to town with a couple million $$, we would not have gotten us a seat at the table with Colossal. We wouldn't have gotten Stan Lee and Kevin Smith to do a VR shoot for no money (they were compensated with stock options). We wouldn't have received profiles on the front page of the business section of the LA Times, or made it in Variety Magazine, Nerdist, Fast Company, Forbes, or any of the hundreds of other press interviews we've done.
All of these things were made possible because we're owned by FANS. Not even that many fans yet--we had about 3K when all those deals were signed. Today we've got about double that, and it's growing fast every day. This is important, because our power grows exponentially based on the number of fans we have in the company.
To explain further, I ask you to check out the following post, that explains our master plan, and hopefully helps illustrate why 1MM fans isn't hype or BS. https://legionm.com/shareholder-updates/legion-ms-top-secret-plan
In any case sorry for the long winded response. As Mark Twain said, i'd make it shorter if I had more time. :). Please review the link I sent, and then I'd be happy to answer any other comments or questions you have. I also plan to comment on the other posts when I get a chance.
INVITATION ACCEPTED! Sorry that it's taken us so long to respond, but TBH I didn't realize this forum existed until one of our investors pointed it out to us. I'd like to go through and respond to some of the earlier and later posts, but this seemed as good a place as any to start.
First, to introduce myself, my name is Jeff Annison, and I'm one of the cofounders (along with Paul Scanlan) of Legion M. We also cofounded another company (with one other cofounder) back in 1999 called MobiTV. That company started with 3 guys working out of spare room and turned into a global leader of mobile television. We raised over 100MM in venture capital, and in 2005 won an Emmy for innovation in Television. I know we're not talking about MobiTV here--I just bring it up as a way to demonstrate that we aren't first-time entrepreneurs here.
I'd like to provide a two part answer to your question about how we make profit at Legion M.
PART 1. How do we make money?
We make money using well established business models for entertainment content. Some examples:
-We can invest in existing film, TV, and VR projects. This is what we've already done with Colossal (where we invested in P&A after the film was already completed) and Field Guide to Evil (where we invested up front in production as executive producers). The spectrum of investment terms is extremely wide--from owning equity in the project to "last money in, first money out" financing. Our goal is to develop diversified slate, which you can already see from our first two projects. Being flexible allows us to be opportunistic and get involved in projects we love (more on that in part II).
-We can develop our own projects. A great example of this is our ICONS VR Interview with Stan Lee and Kevin Smith. In this case, we conceived of the idea, signed Stan and Kevin, hired the VR studio, and shot a pilot. We own the footage outright. It's worth noting, that what we did with that project is groundbreaking--you can read more about it in this Fast Company article: https://www.fastcompany.com/3069267/with-icons-legion-m-is-creating-pop-culture-time-capsules-and-pushing-vrs-limits.
Icons is a long term investment--VR is a nascent industry today, but our footage was captured in a way designed stand the test of time. We want to give people 100 years from now the opportunity to sit face to face with an icon of our time. We believe the value of this footage will increase over time. One of the challenges we face is that no headset even exists today that can play the full quality of the footage we captured! Given that Stan is 95, it's quite possible this is the only footage of this type that ever exists. It's already the only footage of his wife. :( As I said, we view this as a long term investment.
In the case of ICONS, our goal ins't just to monetize the Stan Lee footage, but to turn it into a full series that allows people to sit down face to face with other luminaries of our time. Stephen Hawking, Paul McCartney, Warren Buffet, Mel Brooks, etc. We're very early in this process, but we have interest from distribution partners, sponsors, etc.
These are two great examples that illustrate the diversity we seek in our slate, both in terms of medium (film, TV, and VR), stage (early stage speculative vs. safer later stage), type (internal projects that require a lot of work on our part vs. more passive investments into other people's projects). I can elaborate more if you like, but hopefully this gets the point across.
Part II. Why does 1,000,000 fans matter.
The business models I describe above are used by thousands of studios/production companies in Hollywood. Anybody with money can come into Hollywood and try to make a fortune (or more often than not lose a fortune) doing this. In fact, Hollywood has a long and storied history of taking advantage of starry-eyed investors.
A lot of investors don't care--they are so excited about hanging out with stars and being a movie producer that they don't care about the ROI. Their's nothing inherently wrong with this, but it's really more akin to "buying" a once-in-a-lifetime experience rather than investing. I think a lot of Legion M investors fall into this category--especially those that have put in $100. The range of financial returns you're going to get on a $100 investment is de minimis compared to the joy you'll receive from being a part of something you love.
That said, while some of our investors may not care about a financial return, the same cannot be said of Paul and I. We care deeply. After all, we have FAR more invested in this venture than ANY of our investors. Paul went the first year without drawing any salary, an when we did start paying salaries, we're paying ourselves about HALF what we'd be making someplace else (more on this in another post). This means that we literally have hundreds of thousands of our own dollars at stake. Not to mention our jobs, careers, and reputations.
If you look at what we're doing, you'll see that while we work hard to make Legion M a fun investment (we call it Emotional ROI--meaning how much JOY you get from owning the stock), at it's core Legion M is a legitimate Facebook/Google/Tesla type swing for the fences that's being run by serious businesspeople with a track record of success. That's where the 1MM fans comes in.
Our power as a company comes from the fact that we're owned by fans. If Paul and I had come to town with a couple million $$, we would not have gotten us a seat at the table with Colossal. We wouldn't have gotten Stan Lee and Kevin Smith to do a VR shoot for no money (they were compensated with stock options). We wouldn't have received profiles on the front page of the business section of the LA Times, or made it in Variety Magazine, Nerdist, Fast Company, Forbes, or any of the hundreds of other press interviews we've done.
All of these things were made possible because we're owned by FANS. Not even that many fans yet--we had about 3K when all those deals were signed. Today we've got about double that, and it's growing fast every day. This is important, because our power grows exponentially based on the number of fans we have in the company.
To explain further, I ask you to check out the following post, that explains our master plan, and hopefully helps illustrate why 1MM fans isn't hype or BS. https://legionm.com/shareholder-updates/legion-ms-top-secret-plan
In any case sorry for the long winded response. As Mark Twain said, i'd make it shorter if I had more time. :). Please review the link I sent, and then I'd be happy to answer any other comments or questions you have. I also plan to comment on the other posts when I get a chance.
Appreciated I guess. Only thing I am really curious is Profit and Loss from the Collossal and Stan Lee/Stark Mansion investments and if Jeff and Paul really each take in $175K yearly.
Well, that is because it was the first post I had read. I was unaware this was a larger conversation until after I left this post.
I will be happy to pull in some official Legion M ambassadors to discuss this, and they will be happy to answer any questions.
And yes I came to the defense of the Legion because the post was not well researched and was pushing incorrect information. And I am very happy with my investment, so much so that I doubled down in this round based on the actions I've witnessed over the past year.
If you really want to know how the Legion functions. All you need to do is go to their Legion M Members only page and without investing a cent they will welcome you into the conversation. They give regular updates on everything they can without breaking FCC rules or giving up potential deal details before they are finalized. But I challenge you to find a more transparent company that you are not on the board of.
Since they were unaware this conversation was going on without them. I'll pass it on. Because although I am part owner and proud of it. I am not an official voice.
I'm always wary when I see defensive posts such as this. Especially since my analysis was actually unbiased and defending earlier critism about money waste. Curious why you chose to respond to my opinion and not the harsher one from your fellow investor who thinks this is a scam? Regarding the 6-7K number of investors, I am basing that on both Wefunder campaigns combined and ignoring that fact that are probably a lot of return investors in the second round.
Also
I will pre-empt this reply by stating upfront that I am a first round investor in Legion M.
You are claiming that Legion M is misleading investors when you really don't know what you are talking about. Name me any other company that the actual CEOs will break into the conversation to explain it to the individual investors exactly what their investment means. Especially to an investor that can only afford less than a $500 investment. Go ahead, try it. Ask them a question.
Let me be clear, This is the most transparent company I have ever invested in!
The Wefunder Page clearly states the terms as well. They never pressure anyone to invest and the Legion is open to anyone even without an investment. In their public forum they go into depth about what it means, and numerous times have explained the voting rights to people.
But the points you are also missing is that the Legion actually does give us voting rights all the time. They are currently running a poll to decide the most effective use of advertising on Facebook. And although they are not bound to act on those votes. They do that specifically because they want the opinion of their investors and they do act based on the results.
And to your last statement. You are only looking at investors from this round. Previous rounds are not included in that tally.
So as you've seen I came to the defense of the Legion because I am an investor, and because they have empowered me to feel like an owner. Which is the true power of the Legion. As we grow we will have more defenders, more promoters and more consumers.
So before you taught about companies misleading people. You should make sure you aren't misleading them yourself just for the sake of air time.
To be fair, drawing a salary is not unrealistic if it was in the 60K-90K range but if they are both getting 175K then that is way too much.
The Stan Lee hand cement ceremony was a good idea on Legion M's part. It did get them a lot of publicity and I am sure the signed Ebay items and ticket sales probably made them a profit. I don't get the Stark mansion party though. They already had the PR for the cement event and the party did not get them extra coverage outside of a video they made themselves. Also the party was likely expensive.
They have the Field Guide to Evil film that they are doing with Alamo Drafthouse. Really low budget horror but perhaps a profit maker.
The Icon VR interview with Stan Lee looks like a money loser IMO. Not sure why anyone would pay to have a VR experience of seein Kevin Smith interview Stan Lee in a room. Stan has done so many interviews that people can see and read for free.
Again, they really need to be transparent and at least be open on how much money they are using and the expected ROI.
I honestly get the vibe that they really believe in this dream of Legion M, at least Jeff seems the more sincere and level headed of the two.
The great concept with the 1 million investors Is that having a million people (with their family and friends behind them) means that they can influence Hollywood and weld unlimited power with a large built in audience.
A big problem I see is that a lot of these folks investing in Legion M are not really educated on what their investment really means. For example, the name tags where people are branding themselves as co-owners or executives simply because they invested in a small percentage is worrisome. I wish the company did more to educate people on what voting rights and influence they actually get with their investment instead of people being deluded though lack of or misleading info.
Of course the other big issue is 1 million investors equals delusion of the stock value from all rhe extra shares being created. They claim 10,000 members but from the Wefunder info it looks like there could only be 6000-7000 actual money investors given the stats.
MESSAGE TO JEFF AND OR PAUL
This is an open invitation to either or both of you to formally explain to us, how you expect your company to make money (Sometimes referred to as profit) so we can look forward to ROI.
And please spare us the 1,000,000 fans BS.
Most of us here are really not interested in the "fans hyp", we're interested in making money.
The delusional fans are all on Facebook.
Wonder how much money is being wasted?
REALLY?
You wonder how much money is being wasted???
LOL
All of it. That's how much.
You bet they pay themselves.
How do you think they're surviving?
It isn't off the company income side and neither of them have outside jobs (God forbid).
Nearly zero income, no negotiations for scripts or rights, no production schedules, no product advertising other than facebook anyway, no income.
Just big expensive parties and flamboyant honorary bashes, fancy show booths and a ridiculous car.
Since there's no SEC rules governing them there's no reporting.
Every time you write something on the Facebook page regarding the massively hemorrhaging outflow, when you finally get an answer from the McKenzie bros, its an Amway pump about "How wonderful it will be to have 1,000,000 fans owning shares!!!"
The goal here is apparently not to make money, it's to keep the investors pumping dough into the Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure.
To what I see, there is ZERO interest in making Legion M a profitable company and until I see some effort to actually make a profit, I'm not investing any more money into it and I advise anyone who is thinking about it to seriously consider any other production company.
No matter how good a deal the cost is, if the company isn't making money, what's the stock worth?
That's my issue as well.
I bought in first round so my loss isn't that great at the moment.
Despite my pleas for some type of revenue stream all I* ever get back is hype about 1,000,000 fans owning the stock.
Trouble is, no one will address the question of, So what is 1 million fans own it. What good does that do the investors?
I think it was a scam I'm sorry to say.
Do Jeff and Paul each pay themselves $175K yearly? That is WAY excessive given that they had $1 Million in operating funds for the first year and $1.5 Million with the latest Wefunder campaign. Wonder how much money is being wasted?
Glad I found this board. I am not an investor but know a number of people who are invested in Legion M. I would not go so far as to say that they are a scam but they do seem come off a bit as a joke and amateurish in how they run things.
The Colossal deal was strictly for prints and advertising and was done after the movie was made. I do wish the founders were more transparent in how much was invested and whether there was a ROI for this. To me, the film made 3 million domestic and 4 million overseas so I do doubt that it was a money making move. I also noticed Legion M not credited in the home release of Colossal as well. There other project is some low budget horror from the people that made The ABC's of Death and a VR of Stan Lee being interviewed. Both sound kinda lame.
LEGION M ENTERTAINMENT, INC. EXECUTIVE EMPLOYMENT AGREEMENT
1.
2.
3.
4. Compensation.
(a) Base Salary. Executive will receive an annual base salary of $175,000, which will be paid in accordance with the Company’s regular payroll practices, and which will be subject to withholding required by law. Executive’s annual base salary will be reviewed from time to time to determine whether, in the Company’s sole discretion, the annual base salary should be changed.
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1674163/000114420416140312/filename8.htm
Paul Scanlan
(born 1970) is an American businessperson, and co-founder and CEO of Legion M, the world's first fan-owned entertainment company. Scanlan is also a co-founder of MobiTV, where he is currently a board member, and is a founding board member of New York Rock Exchange.
Legion M
Scanlan, along with business partner and MobiTV co-founder Jeff Annison, founded Legion M in 2016 as the first entertainment studio that allows fans to invest in and be part of the creation of new films, TV shows, and other entertainment content. Legion M's model was made possible after the SEC passed Title IV of the JOBS Act, allowing non-accredited investors to make investments in small businesses. Legion M is currently backed by Seth Green, co-creator of Emmy-winning TV series Robot Chicken, and Gaston Dominguez of Meltdown Entertainment.
MobiTV
Scanlan partnered with Phillip Alvelda and Jeff Annison to found MobiTV (originally known as Idetic). He had met Alvelda playing ice hockey, and they were both mutual friends with Annison. His first role was VP of marketing of the company in 2000, moving to the position of chief operating officer in 2005 and then president in 2007. He has also been a member of the board since inception. The company was founded in order to deliver television to mobile devices. In 2005, Scanlan and his team were awarded an Emmy for Technical Achievement in Advancing Television for their work with MobiTV. Scanlan stated that he believed the decrease in mobile Internet fees and free video-capable phones provided by mobile service companies, would increase the demand for video content specialized for mobile devices; that year the company produced content on twenty different mobile-TV channels. Scanlan also helped to raise about $125 million in investment for the Company. In 2011, Forbes Magazine credited Scanlan for the rise in streaming television that came towards the end of the 2000s.
You want input from your "fan club" (note the sarcasm there)
Ok. Here it is...
I'm disappointed.
I've been following you guys since start up and I've seen nearly zero progress on my investment but you guys appear to be having a ball on my dollar.
I thought I bought into a motion picture industry company investment with blockbuster picture potential and large returns on investment (see Carolco 20 odd years ago) but it appears that what I actually bought into is a private company, hollywood party fan club with the founders enjoying the cash rich, wealthy lifestyles of the investors purchases and no intentions of making anything of it.
Colossal is apparently the only production you have (mol) under belt and it got varying reviews and was certainly not a million dollar seller and how much did it actually generate for you?.
I still see no ability what so ever of the company ever being able to support its costs much less qualify for an NY Exchange listing, and even much less an OTCounter pink sheets listing and as such, no future return on my investment.
What part do I misunderstand here?
It looks like all you guys wanted was some fast, easy money.
Quite frankly, if this were my company I'd be looking now for somebody to replace you guys that knows how to make money, not spend it flagrantly on parties.
Please clarify for me.
What exactly are you doing to make money to run your company on?
Is that even a consideration?
When are you planning to apply for public listing? (Are you?)
in my modest opinion, you can't even qualify due to lack of profit (income).
When can we expect something earth shattering?
A new book or story purchase for production?
A new director contract for production?
A new series rights purchase for syndication?
Any thing that actually makes money?
At this point I'm beginning to feel relieved that I didn't invest anymore in your company private party.
Eventually you'll run out of our money and then what?
Another request for additional capitol from us or just close the doors on Legion M and start up a new company (SCAM, Inc.)???
Followers
|
1
|
Posters
|
|
Posts (Today)
|
0
|
Posts (Total)
|
38
|
Created
|
06/25/17
|
Type
|
Free
|
Moderator Handyman4545 | |||
Assistants |
Volume | |
Day Range: | |
Bid Price | |
Ask Price | |
Last Trade Time: |