TheFunded, a website that rates venture funds based on first hand experiences from readers, is shutting down on April 2, according to a notice posted on the site today.
This very well may be an April Fools joke, although founder Adeo Ressi has not returned our email requesting comment. The fact that the service isn’t shutting down immediately also suggests this is fake.
The site has been controversial from the start, and many investors have never been pleased with TheFunded. Last August the company was involved in a lawsuit brought by a venture capitalist trying to track the identity of an anonymous commenter.
TheFunded recently opened a new section of the site listing banned investors – that part of the site is no longer live.
We’ll update when Ressi confirms its real or a joke. The last part of the message, below, is so rife with sarcasm that I’m leaning towards it being fake.
The message:
Conclusion: Investors are Great
“On Friday, March 27th, TheFunded, Incorporated (’TheFunded’ or ‘we’ or ‘the Company’), in conjunction with counsel has concluded that venture financing and the purchase of preferred equity, herein referred to as ‘investing’ or ‘investment’ or ‘investors’, is both broadly and generally good for companies worldwide.
TheFunded will officially cease reviews on April 2nd, 2009, which, from time to time, reflect negatively on the many innumerable benefits of investors or investment or investing. We encourage companies to consider seriously taking investment, and we apologize for the following statement made in haste:
“investing is predatory”, “over 75% of investors are bad”, “avoid banned investors.”
The Company further apologizes for making any other statements and causing questions to be raised regarding the ethics and the good reputation of investors. Further updates are forthcoming Wednesday, and we encourage every Member to take an investment and then post feedback on the positive and rewarding experiences in Open Letters. Thank you.”
hehe
I think I know where all the banned investors hang out…
So who did it?
now that’s the way to reply to court decisions like that. free speech my arse =)
The message says “officially cease reviews”. Does that mean the other content will live on – forum questions, Connect, Discuss, etc. (everything except VC reviews)?
“Further updates are forthcoming Wednesday”
Wednesday is April Fool’s. I doubt this is real.
the “we encourage every Member to take an investment and then post feedback on the positive and rewarding experiences in Open Letters” certainly suggest so.
The credit crisis is still claiming more victims than thought before.
http://www.nichea.info
From a site like this I would say it is a pretty safe bet to say it is April Fool’s Day related.
we’re big fans of going early with april fools, but this is ridiculous.
http://www.tech...-from-your-car/
Check this for early April Fools:
http://stocknam...m_campaign=wf-e
WHY?!
Reads like an April fools joke but isn’t funny. Either that or The Funded have become The Scared of Litigation.
…so their gag is one where people will unbookmark their site and stop visiting. What genius came up with that idea?
The same genius who got the site mentioned on TechCrunch.
C’mon guys, it’s a joke….
Any posting that starts: “On Friday, March 27th, TheFunded, Incorporated (’TheFunded’ or ‘we’ or ‘the Company’)….”, has got to be tongue *firmly* in cheek.
yeah agree, but it isn’t that funny.
“Conclusion: Investors are Great”
I think that’s pretty darn hilarious.
My money goes on April Fool’s … until MA hears from thefunded guy, it’s pretty clear what this is
Maybe Adeo got drunk at one of the GDC parties and people convinced him this would be a good April Fools joke – although it wasn’t that funny. But when have those crazy ideas conceived in a fog of alcohol ever really been that funny once you’re sober
Hey, he got a lot of buzz from this and maybe that’s what he wanted. @robblewis
Though it’s a bit early, I’m sure it will get quite a bit more press than the April fools jokes that start rolling in in the next couple of days.
What happened to first amendment rights? Avvo went through the same issue when an attorney brought suit. There has to be more to this than someone leaving comments. If that were the case every blog out there including Techcrunch could be sued and forced to shutdown if someone sued for not liking something said to them.
Its got to be a joke but its lame how they have the notice appear on EVERY page you visit, even after closing it multiple times.
Creative, but once the user gets past the notice they shouldn’t make a point of pissing them off.
I’m betting it accidentally went out early (i.e. code mistake) and they decided whatever, let it roll for the week.
I think you meant “rife”, not “ripe”, with sarcasm.
If the site’s down, you can come see me and Adeo IN PERSON @ UCLA’s business school.
http://www.ucla...a.com/eac/2009/
He’ll be frank about what’s going on.
It’s clearly a fake, by the fact that it refers to more details on Wednesday (if they had done this on Wednesday, it would be too obvious). It’s a brilliant PR scheme to get every blog like yours to write about it so everyone will go loco by Monday…
This looks like smart PR to me… I wonder if they now think their untimed April fools joke is going to backlash more than ever expected.
What’s the point? Is anyone actually funding any projects these days anyway? Maybe the place shut down due to lack of interest.
Seems like a page from the T-Shirt Hell Playbook
My friend Flint who is an enthusiastic guy has developed a site called http://money-ma....synthasite.com which has information about sites where you could make money and you could get his advise on them.
super ducky man rides again!
I think this is definitely an April Fools joke since, they realised if they published this slightly early they’ll get press from this whereas simply posting this on April Fool’s Day they will be competiting with others for the Press including the likes of Youtube, Google etc and its likely they would have received little/no press if they did so.
if that’s the intention, they are having all the publicity they asked for !!
Its a joke. sssh..
Thats what I’m assuming because of the way it was worded. Although we won’t know until 2nd April since there hasn’t been an update.
http://youtube.com/befryxell
Hey, the “Banned Users” section is back up!
http://thefunde...om/funds/banned
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