Rippln sold off to Insider21 investment group?
I was recently asked by a BehindMLM reader to take a look at “Insider21”, an opportunity they were just introduced to by a friend.
Already in the process of going through the emails I’d flagged during the week for reply, I flicked over to the browser tab I had open for looking up new company review requests.
I punched in “insider21.com” and what came up was pretty bland:
The company listed three “brands”, none of which appeared to have anything to do with network marketing:
- Texstar – a “company (that) provides numerous investment opportunities by participating directly in oil and gas exploration and mining programs”
- Bonamour – a “lifestyle products company” and
- MSD Gold – “one of the most promising gold mining companies in the world”
If there was an MLM business opportunity within Insider21, I certainly wasn’t seeing it.
At this point I’d usually reply back to the reader who emailed me asking for more information on what they were specifically pitched on. After a little bit more poking around the Insider21 website though, the PDF document titled “Your invitation to join the 21st Century Fortune Club” caught my eye.
Maybe this was what the reader was talking about.
Clicking on the link an eighteen page document loaded up, informing that what I was looking at was “exclusively for Insider21 members” and that I shouldn’t “miss your chance to be on the inside!”
The inside of what exactly?
Reading on the invitation opened with a letter from Eric Tippets, credited as Insider21’s President.
We are excited to introduce you to Insider 21, the first member owned, Fortune Club that is being launched throughout Asia.
We have a simple mission—to affect three key things in a positive way—1) People 2) Planet 3) Profits.
We are excited to share this incredible opportunity with you and give a quick snapshot of Insider 21—Past—Present—Future.
This will provide you why Insider 21 will be recognized as the world’s leading, member owned, Fortune Club that will leave a positive legacy.
We welcome you to the future of prosperity in Asia—
We Welcome YOU, to Insider 21.
Yeah ok, still not seeing an MLM business opportunity but.
After some waffle about personal, business and wealth development, next up was a slide on “The Ultimate Game of Life”:
Wait hold up, that’s that personal development stuff Rippln was trying to get people to pay $500 to participate in wasn’t it?
There was no logo or anything so I was ready to chalk it up to co-incidence and move on. I kept scrolling down and read about how Texstar Oil’s “founding member” program had already closed and how, apparently only having just closed, it was supposedly already a roaring success.
Then something about Insider21 going public on the GXG/Frankfurt stock market, with the company asking members to cough up $1000, $5000 or $10,000 for “founding memberships” (bundled with the Game of Life).
And then this, which confirmed I was looking at the very same game Rippln was pushing:
Jim Bunch, co-founder of Rippln… what on Earth was he doing here? I know Bunch had run the Game of Life independently long before Rippln came about, but wasn’t it a bit too soon after Rippln to be pitching it to other companies?
Especially when an email from “Rippln HQ” had just advised affiliates they weren’t quite dead yet.
I continued on, blahblahblah something about future plans with the MSD Gold company… boring. Then, on page 13 I stopped in my tracks.
“Insider21 acquires social network company”? Waitaminute… I know that logo!
- 1 million members in only 78 days!
- current 1.4 million members
- gamification – the next billion dollar revolution Insider21 will be leading
- forecast – 5 million+ members on social platform by 2015
I’d recognize that hype anywhere! Rippln!
I immediately scrambled for a date on the invitation but the only thing I found was “2013” at the end of the document. Only that didn’t seem to jive with the earlier announcement from Rippln co-founder Jonathan Budd, announcing that the company had failed to secure new investment back in January.
I was ready to write off Insider21 as being a possible investor… but then I realised they weren’t writing like they were looking to invest in Rippln, they’d clearly already bought in.
Expecting to see CEO Brian Underwood’s face pop up somewhere on the next few slides, I was surprised when it didn’t. Underwood’s name is nowhere to be found in the invitation. With the exception of Jim Bunch as part of the Ultimate Game of Life, none of them are.
Reading on, then I was hit with the big sell. Those “founding member” prices from earlier – turns out that’s likely what the reader who contacted me was talking about:
Specifically the part about the “most lucrative referral plan in industry”. Assuming it’s paid out on multiple levels, that sounded sorta MLM’ish to me.
The problem of course being that even paying out on a single level, Insider21 would be paying referral commissions on investments from members. Multiple levels and it’d be an outright pyramid scheme.
The fact that it was attached to the corpse of Rippln just made things even worse.
What wasn’t mentioned earlier were three additional founding member fee tiers; Platinum, Diamond and Black Onyx – all of which instead of displaying the cost of membership show “invitation only”.
If Gold is $10,000, I can only imagine that those three additional levels push well into the tens of thousands of dollars.
I don’t know the exact details of Insider21’s acquisition of Rippln, I don’t know whether or not Brian Underwood and the rest of the management team are still involved but I do know that $10,000+ investment positions, a “lucrative referral plan” and a business that has already flopped sounds incredibly dodgy.
Insider 21 is an EXCLUSIVE 21st Century Fortune Club that provides our members access to Pre IPO and Post IPO opportunities in fast growth companies as well as Direct Investment prospects in a number of lucrative business sectors.
How to get on the Inside Track to Fortune – INSIDER 21 Makes It Easy!
1. Be introduced to the program by an Existing Founding Member
2. Complete Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA)
3. Enroll in one of Insider 21’s Wealth Development Programs
CONGRATULATIONS! You have joined the 21st Century Fortune Club.
I really hope this isn’t another Terry LaCore SEC blunder in the works.
As always, stay tuned…
Footnote: You can view the Insider21 Founding Member investment invitation over at the Insider21 website.
Update 4th March 2014 – Insider 21 co-founder and CEO, Eric Tippetts, has issued a statement clarifying that, contrary to what their invitation states, Insider21 did not acquire Rippln.
A letter of intent was signed by both parties but upon the revelation of the Ripple Labs trademark infringement lawsuit against Rippln, Insider21 passed on the acquisition.
I doubt it’s related to this article (I only just hit publish), but the official Rippln Facebook group has been deleted sometime in the last 3-4 hours.
and the startmyripple.com page redirects to GetVapt.com with the message:
So “Vapt” = Rippln Communicator v2.0?
getvapt.com domain was registered anonymously on the 21st of February 2014.
This all appears fairly recent.
Actually I think Vapt is the new company name, courtesy of the Ripple Labs lawsuit.
“ReBranding of the Rippln Chat App”
Doesn’t sound like anything exciting or brand new, does it ???
The only new part appears to be the ” Updated Incentivized Sharing business model”
If that “updated incentivized sharing business model” is the investment amounts Insider21 are asking for we’re in a world of trouble.
Or maybe that’s just for the cronies at the top, with the schmucks below continuing to be fed the “gamification” line… and paying their monthly fees.
Someone should invent a “tongue in cheek” smiley to use when posting things like “updated incentivized sharing business model” and trying to keep a straight face at the same time.
Clearly this can’t be advised by KT, as KT would have told them paid “founding member” is going to be considered an investment and thus illegal, but then they’ll claim they’re in Europe, and thus away from US jurisdiction, won’t they?
That might be a bit hard… considering Insider21 appear to be based out of Hong Kong (oh dear… not another one).
Whoever is offering these securities has as much concern for legality as a Somali pirate.
I have been forwarding all the new Rippln BS to Ripple Labs’ trademark attorney, particularly the material since the infringement where they are using the name Rippln and Rippln logos.
I suspect they have already violated the terms of the agreement.
As to “vapt”. It appears they did not do their trademark and brand research prior to picking the name. Hilarity will undoubtedly ensue.
I started looking into Insider21 a few weeks back but got sidetracked, something I sorta regret. There are some intertwined business entities with some common ownership and fairly depressing bottom lines here being sold to Pacific rim people as incredible, legitimate investments.
Add that to the red flags Oz points out above and I fear for some people’s pocket books. I’m not sure some of the investments are legal in the US but lack the foundation to say the same for other nations.
I think at one time Insider21 was considering the purchase of the smoldering post App Share corps of Rippln but Jim Bunch’s “the investors back out” message seemed to have ended that. Has that changed? too soon to say.
GlimDropper:
We’ve been discussing Rippln for some time. Can you think of anything Rippln ever produced that could be valuable to anyone as an investment other than the 1.4 million supposed names on the Rippln mailing list? Because I sure can’t.
(It’s not like most of the names on that list are real. It’s likely only a fraction are real people.)
So, it appears Insider21 is capitalizing on the carefully crafted illusion, in contrast to the stark reality we know from watching the analytics and social media numbers, that Rippln had a large number of people moving product and generating revenue. (They had a few thousand, at peak.)
How much does a “company”, using the term loosely, pay for this sort of thing? And how does it work when undoubtedly Brian Underwood and his new vapt trademark headache will claim to be Rippln 2.0?
They can’t both be Rippln’s successor. Can they?
I don’t know that Insider21 has any current interest in the company that used to be known as Rippln.
If I have any advantage over Oz it would be that I saw the same vague information on their website indicating some sort of acquisition or partnership between Insider21 and Rippln prior to Diamond Jim Bunch releasing his “looks like the deal’s off” message.
Bunch is in the feel good BS business, his factual face value is bupkis. Interpreting anything he says is an abstract artform.
Insider21 however, if I wanted to sell shares in a near worthless oil company, one with almost no revenue to speak of but was listed on an exchange (just not a major one). One who’s the stock price’s float was so low that it could be flexed with facebook posts. I wouldn’t sell that stock to Americans.
Not that we wouldn’t buy it, we’re as stupid as anyone. But we do have laws which can be enforced on people living in this country. So I’d sell that stock to people outside the country.
My best guess is, so would Insider21.
But I have a hard time thinking that they are dumb enough to buy what Brian Underwood is selling.