B-Epic Prelaunch Review: Brain Abundance lack of retail focus again?
There is no information on the B-Epic website specifically identifying who owns or runs the business.
Our team of leading industry professionals have been in the MLM industry for over 20 years, and are bringing all of their experience to your fingertips.
The B-Epic website domain (“bepic.com”) was first registered back in 2014. The domain registration was recently updated on the 17th of August, 2016, suggesting this is when the current owner(s) took possession of it.
Further research reveals Eric Caprarese identifying himself as President and CEO of B-Epic on his LinkedIn profile.
Caprarese (right) first appeared on BehindMLM back in 2013, as co-founder and CEO of Brain Abundance.
Today the Brain Abundance website is still online, however Alexa traffic estimates show a continued decline throughout 2016.
According to word on the grapevine, Caprarese sold his share in Brain Abundance earlier this year.
Prior to launching Brain Abundance, Caprarese was involved in A.L. Williams & Associates (now Primerica), PureNRG FX and Blue Bird Bids Ponzi scheme.
Read on for a full review of the B-Epic MLM opportunity.
The B-Epic Product Line
B-Epic’s flagship product is an “ultimate performance capsule”.
Our unique formulation gives you an amazing whole food blend of fruits, vegetables, and mushrooms that allow you to perform at the highest level and rise from obscurity.
Cited ingredients in the capsule product include:
Chaga, Cordyceps, Ganoderma (Reishi), Rhodiola, Shiitake Mushroom, Spinach, Broccoli, Carrot, Beet, Tomato, Apple, Cranberry, Pomegranate, Orange, Grape, and Strawberry.
Retail pricing for the B-Epic product is:
- $30 for a two week supply
- $45 for a month supply or
- $89 for a two-month supply
The B-Epic Compensation Plan
The B-Epic compensation plan pays affiliates on purchases of B-Epic’s product by retail customers and recruited affiliates.
Recruitment Commissions
When newly recruited affiliates sign up and purchase B-Epic’s product, a recruitment commission is generated down two levels of recruitment as follows:
- Two week supply order ($30) – $10 on level 1 (personally recruited affiliates) and $2 on level 2
- One month supply order ($45) – $20 on level 1 and $4 on level 2
- Two month supply order ($89) – $40 on level 1 and $8 on level 2
Residual Commissions
Residual commissions in B-Epic are paid out via a binary compensation structure.
A binary compensation structure places an affiliate at the top of a binary team, split into two sides (left and right):
The first level of the binary team houses two positions. The second level of the binary team splits each of these two positions into another two positions each.
Positions in the binary team are filled via direct and indirect recruitment of B-Epic affiliates.
Subsequent levels of the binary team are generated as required, with each new level housing twice as many positions as the previous level.
At the end of each week sales volume is tallied up on both sides of the binary team.
One bottle of B-Epic’s product, either sold to a retail customer or purchased by an affiliate generates 40 BV (Business Volume).
A B-Epic affiliate is paid 20% of the BV generated by their weaker binary team.
Note that to qualify for residual commissions, a B-Epic affiliate must recruit and maintain at least two active B-Epic affiliates.
No specific “active” qualification criteria is provided, however it is assumed to mean an affiliate who either purchases a bottle of B-Epic’s product a month or sells it to a retail customer.
Matching Bonus
B-Epic affiliates receive a matching bonus on binary earnings by their downline, paid out via a unilevel compensation structure.
A unilevel compensation structure places an affiliate at the top of a unilevel team, with every personally recruited affiliate placed directly under them (level 1):
If any level 1 affiliates recruit new affiliates, they are placed on level 2 of the original affiliate’s unilevel team.
If any level 2 affiliates recruit new affiliates, they are placed on level 3 and so on and so forth down a theoretical infinite number of levels.
B-Epic cap payable unilevel levels at four, with the matching bonus paid out as a percentage of binary commissions earned by affiliates within these four levels.
- level 1 (personally recruited affiliates) – 20% match
- levels 2 and 3 – 10% match
- level 4 – 5% match
Joining B-Epic
B-Epic affiliate membership is free.
Conclusion
The similarities between Brain Abundance and B-Epic are pretty obvious.
Whereas Brain Abundance marketed a daily “brain nutrition” capsule, B-Epic is now a “performance capsule”.
Both companies had a binary-based compensation plan and both have a questionable retail focus.
B-Epic’s business model sees affiliates sign up for free and then have to either purchase or sell product to become commission qualified.
Ideally this would be selling the B-Epic product to retail customers, but more ofen than not is simply an affiliate on monthly autoship self-qualifying.
This was pretty much the case in Brain Abundance and will likely continue in B-Epic.
The problem is that this business model is a product-based pyramid scheme.
B-Epic affiliates sign up, purchase the B-Epic product each month and recruit other affiliates who do the same.
Retail is virtually non-existent, with the overwhelming majority of revenue generated by the company sourced from affiliates.
As we saw with Vemma, this can attract the attention of regulators.
Why Eric Caprarese got out of Brain Abundance isn’t clear, but if I had to guess I’d say it’s because affiliate recruitment slowed down.
That prompts a collapse (be it sudden or drawn out), which is the end of an MLM opportunity without substantial retail sales activity taking place.
B-Epic is currently in prelaunch and does have time to add retail qualifiers and a stronger retail focus than Brain Abundance had, but whether these are implemented remains to be seen.
As at the time of publication, B-Epic is currently scheduled to launch on November 11th.
Update 8th May 2018 – On May 7th BehindMLM published an updated post-launch B-Epic review.
Dear “Behind” MLM,
Good job… although (once again) your reporting lacks some facts.
I have never been involved in Amway or Blue Bird Bids.
Although you call all mlm companies ponzi schemes, in this day and age, millions of people call it a way to supplement their incomes with a real, proven business model.
Please be sure to add the hour long interview that you had posted in the past with me and one of the Top MLM Attorney’s Mr. Rick Thompson (Tompsonburton.com) on this post also. It gives great insight into my work ethic, morals and legitimacy in this incredible industry.
Sincerely,
Eric Caprarese
President & CEO
B-Epic, Inc.
Come on Eric, no need to lie about your past:
Also feel free to elaborate on “the Big A” you mentioned was your first exposure to MLM in the Thompson marketing video. Ditto why you cashed out Brain Abundance.
I hope your business ethic of a higher grade than your false assertion above.
…and who is Rick Thompson?
bluebirds owned the servers i took over. i was in another big A… AL Williams. Sorry.. Kevin Thompson.
Keep up the great reporting.
You will see my companies are customer based first and so will B-Epic.
Eric
ps… and please give me a better pic 😉
How does that explain your bio appearing on a website hosted on the Blue Bird Bids domain?
Easily fixed, thanks.
Sidenote: You might want to stop referring to Primerica as “the big A”. Most people will go with Amway or Avon (I gave you the benefit of the doubt on cosmetics, not that there’s anything wrong with that).
So what was the actual retail order/affiliate autoship spread in Brain Abundance?
What’s wrong with your LinkedIn profile pic?
I live in France and I developed a network with the Brain Fuel product more being in relationship with Eric Caprarese who helped me.
Unfortunately the product has more was delivered in France because of minimal problems of composition on the vitamin B9. So I paid 3 months without receiving product blocked by customs.
Formulators is a serious company and honest, they remborse 3 days after I sent an explanatory email about the situation in France.
I have rarely seen such velocity to reimburse distributors. I would recommend Eric Caprarese to all my friends marketers everywhere in the world.
The b-epic product label shows that it contains yohimbine hcl which is known to interact with a number of medications.