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Nothing works well, Power. And that's why we are all here invested together and hoping that Sigma 1 is the answer.
That is my point -- the more drugs that work well, the less attractive Anavex becomes. If Anavex is the only game in town it's a lot more valuable than if Anavex has to convince MDs why it is the best option -- and don't forget, a lot of these MDs are, more or less, on big pharma's payroll. Those pharma reps with their golf trips and expensive dinners have expectations, you know...
Actually, yes. And this is the very reason why it is important to criticize Joey publicly. He doesn't respond (regularly) to private emails sent to him. And despite his insistence that he doesn't read the message boards, he does. And it gets under his skin that shareholders don't put him on a pedestal.
IF he actually learned from his mistakes, that would be one thing. But he doesn't. It's bad decision after bad decision, and nothing ever changes. How about this new marketing strategy for WeFunder. Does anyone know what exactly he's doing differently?
How about cutting his salary again and putting that money toward professional fees so that any money investors contribute can go toward expansion? How about accepting that GIGL needs to be in lower-tier malls where the mall owners are more desperate, and may be willing to overlook GIGL's financials? How about franchising even if it means that GIGL will for the time being be an erratic network of random locations -- at least its building the brand in different markets and that paves the way to try and sell merchandise and stuff.
How about stepping down? It's clear that after 9 years, success has evaded Joey. Give someone else a go at it. If Philip Gay isn't available full-time, there are hundreds of other qualified candidates who may have better knowledge of corporate strategy than Parsi (and who may have networks to tap into for new funding).
Parsi reads this board daily. He'll never admit that, but he does, and its tweets like this that prove he is affected. Maybe, just maybe, one day one post here will be enough to convince him to do the right thing: stop misleading investors with false promises, put the ego aside, and step down.
ALZ is the big prize. It's the reason everyone on this board invested in Anavex, even before we realized there may be potential for other diseases like Retts or epilepsy. I'm not sure I agree that Anavex is worth $10s of billions -- simply because it appears the drug compound is most effective for a particular subset of the ALZ population as opposed to being effective for everyone who has it -- but I think $5-$10B isn't out of the question in a buyout scenario.
371 is one compound I'm not very familiar. Admittedly, I haven't bothered to spend much time trying to research and learn about it because it's so far down the pipeline -- and if A273 fails its trials, its highly unlikely that Anavex will have the cash to advance the drug without selling itself to a larger company.
I do remember Martin Shkreli, of all people, saying that he thought 371 was the compound that Anavex should be developing first. But that's the extent of my familiarity so I'll defer to you on this one.
I agree there is room for multiple epilepsy drugs. I just prefer Anavex to target diseases where there isn't much competition in terms of promising alternatives; like Retts and Alzheimers.
It's not at the expense of one over the other.
It's that every indication that Anavex wants to treat, that there is a current drug that works well, is going to put a ceiling on the overall value of this stock.
If tomorrow a Parkinson's drug comes out that cures the disease, that would be a bad thing for Anavaex, right?
Same principle applies here. Epilepsy was one of the indications Anavex hoped to treat. The fact that GW Pharma has come out with something that seems to work well is wonderful news for your patients, but it diminishes the overall value of Anavex's drug compound if there's less incentive to prescribe it instead of Epidolex.
I hope you're right that Epidolex doesn't come at Anavex's expense. I would prefer (selfishly) for there to be nothing that works well so that Anavex is the only game in town when it comes to treating neurological disorders.
I purposely waited to respond to this because I wanted to see what my charts ended up showing. As I said, I didn't see $2.30 having any chance of holding. Now the question is whether $2.2s can hold. I don't really have an opinion one way or the other. I enjoy watching the stock price go up, and I enjoy watching it go down, too -- I like TA and charting and all that technical analysis/predictions.
The share price to me is irrelevant at the moment as I don't have any trading shares to worry about. Three years from now this stock will either be ten cents or twenty or more dollars. The day to day is moot.
If I HAD to guess, I think we retest the low 2s. A few days ago I thought maybe 1s were possible, but AVXL showed a bit more strength than I gave it credit.
Yup, sure looks like. Dado chimed in on this, too -- and he knows as well as anyone.
AVXL looks like it's going to break support and crash hard unless it can hold $2.20.
But with more companies competing for other indications, AVXL needs to get its drug into P3 ASAP.
Yup. Joey Parsi is so stupid that he actually -brags- about how over $9mm has been invested in this concept to date, as if that somehow means the company is worth $9mm today.
For $9M invested there should be at LEAST 10 locations open today. What's funny is that Parsi refuses to consider franchising. He talks about how he fields inquiries all the time but he isn't interested in franchising because logistically it would be too hard to fly from LA to Oklahoma or wherever. Yet the guy was actively trying to open two locations in Bahrain.
Yes, suing Parsi would put Giggles into bankruptcy most likely. But, there has to be some satisfaction of knowing that Parsi's $200k gravy train salary would come to a screeching halt, and also that this would essentially be the last entrepreneurial effort he could start up. He was "allowed to resign" from TD Ameritrade, and he worked at Barron Chase, so his brokerage career is pretty much shot. Now this...
After 9 years this is no longer a growth company. It's a failure. It's on life support. Joey had one shot to go to the shareholder well to raise more money, and he screwed over every single person who invested in the offering. He claims to have purchased shares himself in the offering, put out a PR about it, but how many did he buy and did anyone see a Form 4 or other insider document showing that he purchased more shares? If so I must have missed that one.
Now, Joey is trying to market opening a new location through a crowdfunded site but by his own admission he has zero marketing acumen. The fact he won't commit to putting any money raised into an escrow should be warning sign #1, and the fact he can't even commit to saying where this new location will definitely be should be warning sign #2 that he isn't all that serious about opening a new location. If it happens it happens but if he ends up needing this money to pay other expenses, including himself, he will -- and it appears those who invest will only have recourse to sue a shell LLC and not the GIGL parent holding company. So sketchy...
There may be cause for a lawsuit if Gay is listed as the CFO on the prospectus. That's misleading investors -- either he's co-CEO or he's CFO. Which is it?
I think it would be pretty easy to prove that Joey never intended to step down, based on his actions and lots of previous statements that turned out to be untrue and/or failed to materialize.
Could be fun to hire an attorney and file a lawsuit.
As for the hope that scaling will help the company...it won't. Do you really think that if GIGL opens another store or two that Parsi won't jack his salary and bonuses up to $700,000/year? The guy is a joke. He's the stupidest person in the room, which is dangerous, but he thinks he's the smartest in the room, which is downright scary for those still invested in this.
See my post # 176175 on 12/26 in response to Tom asking me the same thing....
"Short term pop followed by a plateau followed up by a slow decline through mid-2019, until the price stabilizes out a bit as everyone waits for signs of life from the company in terms of trial updates/announcements on the Retts front."
Two months later: pop from $1.25 to $2.68, followed by a slow decline into the 2.30s. It should hopefully stabilize around this range, give or take 10/15% either direction.
With each upcoming catalyst I think the moves (good or bad) will become more significant and will set new levels of support and resistance. Question is whether the news we receive will be positive? If we go to AdCom, which I suspect we will, it's a crapshoot. Just look at what happened today for a drug that had very solid data and was vying for accelerated approval...
I guess I'm confused as to who is shorting/bashing the stock?
Admittedly at one point when the stock was coming off CTAD highs in Oct/Nov 2015, Adam Feuerstein and Nathan Michaud and Tim Sykes and Jean Fonteneau and all them based the stock on end -- even Martin Shkreli got involved. But lately those guys haven't mentioned AVXL in years. They've moved on. So I don't see the "cabal" as being a factor anymore. I think it has a lot more to do with the fact that the catalysts here are still a ways away, and people feel there are better places to make an immediate ROI by investing in other stuff. The risk is they miss out if there is news but what news is coming out soon if Missling isn't interested in partnering?
I don't know. That's the valid question where its easy to second guess.
I think what is more troublesome is that Missling continues to receive bonuses for performance that has not improved the share price. Now, if AVXL ends up being legit and has the next big drug, he will have earned every cent of those bonuses and 100x more.
But, if AVXL cr@ps the bed in its upcoming trials, no sweat off MIssling's back. He still made millions from his time with AVXL.
I know a lot of people believe that Missling is the perfect CEO. I think he's okay. I've seen better, and worse. He's a bit more aggressive than I think he should be, and I guess I can't tell if that confidence comes from him knowing that he has a drug that has a better than good chance of succeeding, or if it's because he knows he's playing with house money due to his compensation package?
I agree. I never said that Anavex is doing things incorrectly under Missling's guidance. I was just saying that the current share price is appropriate for where the company is in its timeline. No revenue, high risk, lots of competition, and an overall economy that is still bullish -- so putting your money in Anavex right now is basically parking it for the long term. Some may be fine with that. Others may decide they can invest elsewhere, and come back in a few months and the share price will be around these same levels. Nothing wrong with that strategy too.
My only gripe about Missing is that his compensation and bonuses seem a bit excessive for where the company is at. Anavex is essentially a startup. He could be running a leaner operation in terms of SG&A .
It works against the stock because it's hard to get too excited over data that comes from such a small sample size. 20 is the minimum N threshold and we're barely above that.
The data I would say is encouraging. But there's nothing that indicates this is a sure thing -- and Missling himself would be the first to agree. Some people like to act as if this is a sure thing, and they're sitting on a future jackpot. Maybe they are, maybe they aren't. But the 32 person trial isn't nearly conclusive enough to make that determination with the data its produced.
The biggest problem is that there is no urgency with Anavex. At least not now. Missing has indicated he doesn't want to partner just yet so the fear of unexpected partnership news is all but gone. And these trials take time to complete. So why buy AVXL and have that money parked sideways when the rest of the market is going up and up and up?
I don't think anyone is paying 7x current pps right now. All this talk about manipulation and wash trades and everything else is speculation. The stock price is down because there aren't enough people who, as of now, believe that Anavex is worth more than a few bucks a share as a gamble.
If/when more data comes out that shows 273 is effective (and beyond a 32 person trial powered for safety), I expect the price to rise. Until that happens, finding people to buy this stock is going to be tough.
The reality is that AVXL has been a terrible investment over the last three years -- when just about everything else in the market has been soaring, Anaves has dropped and stayed down. It's a moot point if 273 turns out to be legitimate but as of now, pretty much anyone who wants in is already in.
A $15 bid is the price point where I can sell 90% of my holdings and make enough money to pay, in cash, for something that is important to me (my kid's education) and something I would enjoy (a second home).
I'm pretty simple. I don't need much to be happy. If I made a lot of money I'd probably piss it away on stupid stuff anyway.
So my original point that is now lost in this ridiculous thread was that I would be perfectly fine with a hostile takeover pre-FDA approval because it would drive the share price up. Obviously I would vote against it if the offer weren't high enough to meet my risk/reward threshold, but I don't feel as confident as many here that 273 is a sure thing. Maybe it is, maybe it isn't but a bird in hand...
So my logic was simply that if someone were willing to give me $10 or $15 today for my shares that are currently valued at $2.40, I would jump on that in a second.
Remember that game Deal or No Deal? That's all this is. Everyone has a point where they want to take the deal. And it's fun to let it ride all the way to the grand prize, but there's a lot more risk when you do that. I would feel way worse knowing I had a great profit and I lost it than making some money and knowing I could have made more.
Betting on spring training its crazier than betting on a company that has no revenue, no track record, and is trying to find a cure for a disease with a 99.6% failure rate for prior trials.
That said, if you're going to bet on Spring Training, the Red Sox look as good of a bet as you'll find. And I think the same holds true for Anavex when it comes to betting on startup biotechs working on neurological disorders.
It's not misleading in the slightest bit. With any new drug, there is a very limited amount of time, less than a decade, before the drug becomes available for generic substitutes.
Then, there's always the risk that something like this becomes law. So much so that Warren is making this issue a big part of her 2020 campaign.
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/12/20/18146993/elizabeth-warren-2020-election-drug-prices-bill
My OPINION that Anavex will never be a $75B is just that, my opinion. Just as your OPINION that the stock price decline is due to manipulation is just that, your OPINION. I sold shares today. A good amount of them. Does that mean I am manipulating the market? Of course not. People sell for all sorts of reasons.
Fiction.
28,898 shares traded... there oughta be a law against this sort of manipulation.
Keyword: Potential.
The potential of the lotto ticket I bought last night is $58M. Doesn't mean it'll ever be worth that.
If someone offered me $500 for that lotto ticket right now, I would sell it in a second.
Same principle applies here. Some people will make a LOT of money on Anavex if the drug works. Life changing amounts. Others will lose a lot of money -- life changing amounts, if the drug fails. And in between there will be those who either miss out on the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity or dodge a bullet by selling too soon.
For me, if it hits $15/share, I'll make enough profit to pay for my kids (and grandkids) college education. I'll have enough left over to buy a modest cabin in the mountains, or a small condo close to the beach.
That's good enough for me, and I wouldn't want to risk losing those opportunities just so I can have maybe a larger vacation home with fancy cars parked in the driveway. Your aspirations may be different than mine and that's okay, too.
(And no, this will not be a $75B company even if the AD and Parkinson's trials pan out, because there is a very limited amount of time to capitalize before the generic drug comes out).
Needs to hold $2.30. Next support is 10% lower. After that it's look out below...no support until the $1.40s. It probably won't get there though. This consolidation seems fairly normal and healthy.
Lots of speculators taking profits the last few days it appears. AVXL was all over the trading chat rooms a few weeks ago, which partially explains the run on zero news.
Tom, Leo -- What do you see?
SO how much do you think it will cost to put three trials through the paces to get them to a point where the FDA will make a decision?
A hostile takeover can also be an attempt to bypass management and issue a proxy tender directly to the shareholders. There's a pot stock right now that is trying to do it. The shareholders rejected the offer.
If a large company wanted to acquire Anavex, and Missling didn't want to sell, that company would do two things: 1) buy as many shares as possible on the open market -- which would drive the price up, and they'd also have to disclose this increase in holdings at some point. And 2) offer the shareholders a deal to sell their shares at a pre-determined price.
Either/or would result in considerable stock price increases, to which I wouldn't complain about nor would many here. If the offer is subpar, the shareholders can reject it.
If a company were to offer every shareholder $15 cash right now, I think that deal would have a decent chance of being accepted. So easy is relative in terms of price.
For those who have a cost average above, say $5, or those who think this will be a $10B company, they'd vote no.
For those wth an average price of $2.25, and traders, and those who aren't certain 273 will pass P3...anything over $10-$15 will be hard to turn down. I know I would vote to sell all my shares at $10 given what I know right now.
Care to buy them from me now, Powerwalker? I'll offer you a nice discount. You can have them all today for $10! That's huge savings...
I think that $100M is perfectly reasonable to complete three P3 trials. The AD trial alone may very well cost that much.
https://www.jhsph.edu/news/news-releases/2018/cost-of-clinical-trials-for-new-drug-FDA-approval-are-fraction-of-total-tab.html
What does one have to do with the other? If/when 273 gets approved, as others have mentioned, there will be a flood of partners with trucks of cash piling in. Selling preferred to fund 371 seems unnecessary.
I think the main reason to vote yes is to prevent a hostile takeover. And its a valid reason. I just don't know that voting yes introduces additional risk for the small chance of a hostile takeover -- which, by the way, can easily be rejected if the offer is too low.
100 million shares. Fully diluted up to the authorized amount
I don't think that Anavex gets through three P3 trials on its own without raising a lot more money. And as long as the stock is in the 2s or 3s, that's a lot of shares it'll need to sell.
It's fine though. I think that Anavex could be a $5B company if the trials go well -- at 100M shares O/S, that's $50/share. Or a 25x bagger from here. I'll take it.
So you think selling shares to LPC is a good deal? It's cheap dilution. There are/were less expensive ways to raise additional cash.
By the time this is all said and done, I think AVXL is fully diluted. Another reason why Missling wants those preferred shares issued.
For the record -- I'm not against the issuance of the preferred shares. I haven't decided how I am going to vote my shares. But to say that preferred shares cannot be used to dilute common holders is not true, which is what I thought you were referring to when you said the preferred don't "equate to common.
That would have been a good idea, yes.
Maybe you'll get another crack at it?
I disagree. He's selling shares on the cheap to a vulture fund. Should have issued shares years ago at $5+ when he knew well in advance how much it'll require to run three simultaneous trials.
Leo is right. It does depend on how the preferred shares are structured.
It's very common for preferred shares to convert into common shares down the line. And if that is how these preferred shares are structured, then voting to issue them runs the risk of future dilution.
It all depends on how they are structured. To proclaim that there is no way for preferred shares to equate to commons is simply not true.
I agree.
But I keep going back to a point I've made repeatedly. There's nothing proprietary about this concept, the Giggles n Hugs brand has no value because there's only two locations in one city, and mall owners would cut the same deal to anyone who came to them with this concept. All they'd have to do is show them Giggles' per restaurant numbers.
If someone has $10mm he would be better off opening his own restaurant chain. Could open 15 locations across the country to start and franchise the rest. It would put GIGL out of business instantly.
Clearly Philip Gay isn't able to bring any value to the table other the credibility...in terms of using his connections, though, so far nothing.
If Joey offered to sell you Giggles n Hugs right now, the whole enchilada, for $14M -- would you buy it?
If not, I don't think it's fair to expect anyone else to value this at $14M, either! ; )
I didn't want to say it, but yeah, I can absolutely see that happening.
He's strapped for cash. Has a lot of expenses coming up. Hundreds of thousands of professional fees alone. And he's got a guaranteed $50k raised right now.
The difficulty would be creating a structure where the money can flow out of the LLC subsidiary and into the parent, but it's certainly not impossible.
The sad thing is that if Joey did two simple things, he could probably raise all the money he needs and then some:
1. Agree, in writing, to create an escrow account that all money raised from WeFunder and other campaigns is kept in. If, after a year, there isn't a third restaurant, the funds are distributed back to the investors.
2. Decide where the location will be, and market to those residents. The fact he isn't entirely sure of where the third location will be -- maybe Seattle, maybe San Fran, etc. -- indicates that his discussions with the mall owners isn't very far along. Identifying a city to put a new location in is the easiest of the many steps involved -- and the first step, too.
If Joey said definitively, "We want to put a Giggles in this city, in this mall, here's the current foot traffic, here are other stores in the mall, here is what we estimate we will bring in terms of additional foot traffic, here's the competition in that market, here's why we picked this city, etc..." he wouldn't have any trouble getting people in those cities to fund the expansion. I think a lot of people would love to have a Giggles-type concept in their town, but the problem is Joey is so arrogant he thinks everyone knows his brand outside of LA. They don't. Even if it was mentioned in a national magazine they read -- do you remember every blurb in every magazine you read? Of course not...
Me too. My hope is that by calling Parsi out publicly, it'll force his hand to be more transparent with shareholders.
I'm not going to go so far as to say he intentionally lied to shareholders in the past, but his actions were certainly less than transparent at best and showed a complete lack of business judgment at worst.
Take him stepping down as CEO for example. He later said that Philip Gay didn't have time to commit to being a full-time CEO. Fair enough. But this seems like something that could easily have been vetted early on to make the determination that Gay wasn't able to fulfill that role. His PR announcing Gay as CEO never mentioned that it would be in a part-time capacity. How many shareholders got suckered into the offering because of this news that later turned out to be half-true? And if not Gay, are there no other qualified CEO candidates who could/would replace Parsi?
I want this to work out but as long as Joey continues to commit blunder after blunder, I don't think that it will. He even admitted he half-assed the WeFunder marketing campaign and had no idea what he was doing as an excuse for why it hasn't been successful to date. His ego is simply too big to walk away, or even accept offers from interested parties who want to franchise. It's not because putting a location in Arkansas is too difficult logistically -- he allegedly signed a LOI for a location in Bahrain! It's that Joey isn't interested in franchising to a few mom and pop types because his ego won't let him.
Steve Jobs had an ego, too. The difference is that Steve Jobs was also competent, and commanded respect. Joey Parsi is a two-bit stock broker, a community college dropout, who thinks he's the next big thing. He isn't.
That is probably a good plan, although getting close to $200k isn't really the point. The question you and everyone else considering investing in this WeFunder campaign needs to ask is: "How much confidence do I have that Joey Parsi will use this money toward expansion?" The secondary question is to ask, "Is this the best investment that I can make with my money?"
I personally do not believe that $300,000 is nearly enough to open a new location, let alone $200,000. Parsi used to brag about getting these malls to "roll out the red carpet" and that's now changed into, "Nobody wants to give a million dollars to a business that isn't financially stable." The deal he had with Tanofran that supposedly included 100% build-out costs, do we really know if that is true? He said the reason for that deal falling apart was mall renovations, but a) I haven't been able to find any proof of substantial mall renovations, and b) if the mall is paying 100% of the build out, isn't that worth the inconvenience of a renovation to have, for free, a new location in a state-of-the-art mall? Something isn't adding up.
Also, if all it takes is $200,000 to open a new location, why isn't Parsi sacrificing more of his salary to make it happen, since as the largest shareholder he would recoup those losses immediately?
Then you factor in the time he had $500,000 to open a new location from the offering and he spent that on other things that didn't contribute a penny to the stock price going up. If he couldn't get another location open last year with $500,000, why should anyone believe he can open a new location this year with a fraction of that amount?
Then you look at the upcoming expenses, including professional fees and stuff that HAVE to be paid -- and you look at how much the current locations are bringing in, and you look at Parsi lowering the amount he's trying to raise -- and to me, it all adds up to him needing money to make up the difference between his profit and operating margins. Unless he's willing to put any WeFunder revenues into an escrow account only to be used for expansion I would stay the hell away -- he's already screwed over one set of investors who paid .03 to help the company grow, nothing happened to him, so what makes you think he won't do it again?
The reality is that Parsi had $9M+ and all he has to show for it are two locations and a difficulty to stay afloat at the corporate level. He's been involved with some shady companies (see: Barron Chase) and he's had his own issues when he was "Allowed to resign" at Ameritrade, in addition to him being written up for various FINRA disclosures.
I see a desperate CEO who needs money ASAP and knows he cannot go back to the shareholder well after the stunt he pulled with the offering.
It would be one thing if he even told the shareholders, "unfortunately we didn't raise enough to open a new location and we have immediate expenses to pay" but he didn't even have the courtesy to do that. He just spent the money on other G&A without so much as a comment about why the offering failed or why he needs the money for other expenses.
Stay far, far away from this WeFunder campaign. Buy the stock instead if you want to invest in the upside. Same risk, more reward, and you're not risking being the sucker investing in an empty shell for Restaurant 3 LLC"
All in my honest opinion, of course, based on Parsi's track record and the current financial situation of the parent company.
Yeah, not so good Pitbull.
You're investing in what is essentially a cashless subsidiary, from what I can tell. Not Giggles n Hugs (the parent corporation).
What happens if the restaurant never opens? Any claims you have to recover your money will be against a shell LLC entity.
Whether Joey can transfer/use funds raised through a subsidiary LLC to pay expenses at the corporate level is debatable. I think with his track record it wouldn't be too difficult to convince a court that he never intended to open the third location, which could constitute fraudulent conveyance, and would allow you to possibly pierce the corporate veil and go after his personal assets (and maybe those of the other officers). I highly doubt Joey has D&L insurance but if he does, you'd go for that, first.
Look, maybe this turns out to be the best investment in the world and it's an easy 250% return. I hope that's the case. And if you're doing it to help out the rest of the shareholders, they should all be very appreciative. All I am saying is that Joey's actions, including recently (and for no apparent reason) lowering the amount needed, raises questions that he doesn't feel comfortable answering for the time being.
The WeFunder Q&A has comments that specifically ask if he will guarantee, in writing, whether any funds raised will be used exclusively for a new restaurant. He has yet to reply.
1. It's positive that if the campaign fails investors are made whole. That said, I would be concerned that Parsi continues to move the yard stick to guarantee its successful. I simply don't see how $200,000 is anywhere near enough money to open a new location.
2. Is this agreement with Giggles n Hugs, or is it with a subsidiary LLC that was created (i.e. the individual restaurant?) Big distinction there.
I agree. I could very well be wrong, maybe Joey has the purest of intentions, but I can only go by his track record and his past actions to predict the future.
Does anyone know how WeFunder works? Does he keep whatever he raises or does he have to raise the entire amount? Because I just don't see how $200,000 get him to a new location unless the mall owner is willing to offer $1M of their own to build out and he verbatim said on the call that even he wouldn't give Giggles $1M when their finances are so wrecked there's no guarantee they'll be in business in a year.
Seems more like Joey is lowering the amount so that he increases his odds of getting funding, which he can use to pay other expenses. I'd be curious to read the contract though that the investors sign because it could constitute fraud if you give the company money with the expectation that it is used for one thing, and they spend it on something else that benefits them but not you.
Does anyone have a copy of the offering? I'd be curious to read the language in there, too. There probably was a clause that says that the offering money is not restricted -- which makes me wonder why anyone would have invested in it in the first place?
If Joey could guarantee that $200,000, or even $300,000, is enough to open a new location, and that he has a binding agreement in place with a mall owner who will front the difference, I can get him the money he needs provided the investment terms are agreeable (they'd have to be better than the crap terms he's currently offering). It's not a lot of money, folks. He acts like $300,000 is so hard to raise, yet he had no problem paying himself $300,000 year after year...
Bingo. If he had cut his salary to $75k/year for the last three years we would have 4 locations by now.
$200,000 isn't going to open a new location. And not surprisingly he won't guarantee in writing that money raised will be used solely for expansion.
Best hope short term is a chat room runs this. Best hope long term is that he starts to franchise
If he needs money to keep the lights on, a few things should happen:
1. He should cut his own salary to under $100k.
2. He should find less expensive professional advisors -- there's no reason an accountant and a lawyer should cost $400k.
3. He should take out a loan.
What he shouldn't do is treat the company's stock as an ATM for paying himself.