zyntravel-logoDespite having a “company” page, there is no information on the Zyndio website indicating who owns or runs the business.

The Zyndio website domain (“zyndio.com”) was registered on the 24th of October 2011, with a “Integrity Management Group” listed as the owner. An address in the US state of Arizona is also provided.

Further research reveals the email address used to register the Zyndio website domain appears to belong to Anthony Powell:

anthony-powell-email-address-zyndio-domain-registration

anthony-powell-zyndio-zyntravelIt follows that Powell (right) owns Zyndio, or at the very least is running the company. However for reasons unknown, Powell’s name does not appear anywhere on the Zyndio website.

Powell is currently heavily advertising Zyndio on Facebook, referring to it as a “a ‘Mark Hughes of Herbalife’ type of business”.

Perusal of Powell’s Zyndio marketing efforts reveal he’s primarily focused on affiliate recruitment:

recruitment-focus-anthony-powell-promoting-zyndio-zyntravel-facebook

Anthony Powell is best-known in MLM for his time in Herbalife.

It is believed Powell’s primary Herbalife income was generated through selling leads to recruited affiliates in his downline.

This focus on recruitment and selling of leads to recruits saw Powell mentioned in numerous FTC complaints against Herbalife.

It was my intent to recruit rather than to sell retail as I was told there was much more money to be made in recruiting.

Multiple calls by company President Anthony Powell urging me to do “whatever it takes to get to the next level”.

Herbalife cracked down on this practice in 2012, which prompted Powell to leave the company and join Vemma in January 2013.

Vemma was recently shut down by the FTC, with the regulatory accusing the company of being a $200 million plus pyramid scheme.

A court-appointed Receiver has since revealed that, through his company Global Pro Systems, Powell was mentioned in 42% of complaints about Vemma filed with the FTC.

In light of regulatory action against Vemma, Powell announced earlier today that he is ditching the company (September 6th):

anthony-powell-leaves-vemma-sep-6th-2015-facebook

And that brings us to Zyndio.

Read on for a full review of the Zyndio MLM business opportunity.

The Zyndio Product Line

Zyndio operate a travel portal they call “ZynTravel”, which Zyndio claims provided ‘access to 65,000 resorts and 200,000 hotels worldwide, with discounts of up to 85%‘.

Based on how much is spent on affiliate membership, Zyndio affiliates are given a ZynTravel travel credit when they sign up:

  • Silver ($69.98) – $75 credit
  • Gold (219.98) – $300 credit
  • Platinum ($469.98) – $750 credit

The Zyndio Compensation Plan

The Zyndio compensation plan sees affiliates paid a commission on any travel booked through their ZynTravel portal.

The company also heavily focuses on paying existing Zyndio affiliates to recruit new affiliates.

Travel Commissions

If travel is booked through a Zyndio affiliate’s ZynTravel portal, a percentage of the commission paid on the travel booking is paid to the affiliate.

How much of a percentage is paid out is determined by how much a Zyndio affiliate spent on their affiliate membership:

  • Silver (69.98) – 25%
  • Gold ($219.98) – 50%
  • Platinum ($469.98) – 100%

Note that these percentages aren’t calculated on the price paid at the time of booking, but rather the commission paid to Zyndio by third-party travel companies the booking was made with (in other words it’s a percentage of a percentage).

Recruitment Commissions

Zyndio affiliates are paid to recruit new affiliates down two levels of recruitment (unilevel).

How much of a commission is paid out is determined by how much a newly recruited affiliate spends on their Zyndio affiliate membership:

  • recruit a new Silver affiliate = $10 on level 1 (personally recruited affiliates) and $2.50 on level 2
  • recruit a new Gold affiliate = $40 on level 1 and $10 on level 2
  • recruit a new Platinum affiliate = $90 on level 1 and $22.50 on level 2

Residual Recruitment Commissions

Residual recruitment commissions in Zyndio are paid out via a 3×2 matrix.

A 3×2 matrix places an affiliate at the top of the matrix, with every personally recruited affiliate placed directly under them:

bizoppers-3x10-matrix-compensation-plan

These initial three positions make up the first level of the matrix, with the second level generated by splitting each of the first level positions into another three positions each (12 positions total).

Commissions are paid out as positions in the matrix are filled, with each affiliate tier (Silver, Gold and Platinum) operating as an independent matrix cycler.

A Silver Zyndio affiliate has access to the Silver cycler, a Gold affiliate access to the Gold and Silver cyclers and a Platinum affiliate access to all three cycler tiers.

Each cycler is filled with newly recruited affiliates who bought positions at that level:

  • Silver affiliates receive a Silver matrix position
  • Gold affiiates receive a Silver and Gold matrix position
  • Platinum affiliates receive a Silver, Gold and Platinum matrix position

Commissions are paid once a matrix across any tier is filled as follows:

  • Silver – $150
  • Gold – $600
  • Platinum – $1350

Once a Zyndio affiliate cycles out of a matrix, their position is then re-entered into a new matrix at that particular level (Silver, Gold or Platinum).

Note that in order to qualify for cycle commissions, a Zyndio affiliate must personally recruit three new affiliates.

Cycle Matching Bonus

The Matching Bonus pays out a percentage bonus on recruited affiliate’s matrix cycle commissions, paid out down two levels of recruitment (unilevel).

How much of a commission is paid out is determined by how many matrix cycles an affiliate themselves has been paid on.

At 50 or more cycles a Zyndio affiliate is paid a 25% match on level 1 (personally recruited affiliates) and a 10% match on level 2.

Zyndio affiliates who have been paid on less than 50 cycles earn a lower matching bonus percentage (not disclosed in the Zyndio marketing material I reviewed).

Global Bonus Pool

If a Zyndio affiliate generates cycle commissions but does not recruit three affiliates within a year of generating their first cycle commission, those commission funds are put into the Global Bonus Pool.

The Global Bonus Pool is paid out annually to qualified Zyndio affiliates.

Affiliates can qualify for a share in the Global Bonus Pool by cycling at least fifty times themselves.

Travel Bonus

The Travel Bonus is a 5% bonus paid as ZynTravel travel credits, to Zyndio affiliates who have personally recruited three or more affiliates.

The 5% bonus is generated each time a personally recruited affiliate is paid through a matrix cycle (the percentage is of the actual cycle bonus paid).

Platinum affiliates can qualify for a 10% Travel Bonus by recruiting three Platinum affiliates within 15 days of joining Zyndio.

Lifestyle Bonus

The Lifestyle Bonus rewards Zyndio affiliates for cycling through matrices:

  • 5 matrix cycles = Mini iPad
  • 10 matrix cycles = GoPro Hero camera
  • 25 matrix cycles = MacBook Air
  • 50 matrix cycles = a “Mastermind Session” in “an exotic location with Anthony” Powell and “his team”
  • 1000 matrix cycles = BMW or Mercedes car plus $10,000

Due to the lack of complete information available on Zyndio’s compensation plan, I’m unable to provide a complete list of Lifestyle Bonuses offered.

In a Zyndio marketing video I watched however, additional bonuses such as vacation trips and a one million dollar cash payout are mentioned.

To qualify for Lifestyle Bonuses, a Zyndio affiliate must sign up as a Platinum affiliate ($469.98), recruit 3 new affiliates and complete one matrix cycle within fifteen days of joining the company.

Joining Zyndio

Affiliate membership with Zyndio (referred to as ZynTravel Club membership), is available at three price-points:

  • Silver – $69.98 plus $12.99 a month
  • Gold – $219.98 plus $12.99 a month
  • Platinum – $469.98 plus $12.99 a month

Conclusion

The trouble with MLM opportunities is that commissions usually have little to do with travel and instead focus on affiliate recruitment.

Zyndio continues this tradition, with the bulk of the Zyndio compensation plan ignoring travel altogether.

Before we get into that, I’ll point out that access to third-party discounts is not a valid MLM product.

Neither Zyndio or ZynTravel own the travel services provided, with those services provided instead by third-parties.

Marketing material simply refers to these third-parties as “travel providers”, failing to disclose who actually provides the travel discounts Zyndio and ZynTravel promote.

All Zyndio and ZynTravel do is offer affiliates access to discounts on said travel services. That access is the only product Zyndio and ZynTravel market – and that’s a problem.

Following on, aside from the travel commission offered when travel is booked (which is typically peanuts due to travel industry margins), the rest of the Zyndio compensation plan is all about recruitment.

Primarily Zyndio affiliates are paid through the matrix cycler, positions in which are paid for with Zyndio affiliate membership.

You sign up for a Silver, Gold or Platinum position, and then get paid to recruit others who do the same.

The travel discounts side of Zyndio has nothing to do with the MLM compensation plan, which is all affiliate recruitment.

Furthermore, the math behind Zyndio’s matrix cyclers lends itself to that of a Ponzi scheme.

At the Silver level a matrix position is $69.98, with a $150 ROI paid out once twelve subsequent $69.98 positions have been invested in.

The Gold level pays out a $600 ROI off a $219.98 position investment and Platinum $1350 ROI off of $469.98.

Those of course are only initial ROIs, with subsequent $69.98, $219.98 or $1350 payments possible with continued affiliate recruitment (new matrix positions entering the system).

These commissions obviously have nothing to do with travel. Instead it is subsequent matrix position investment which funds them, qualifying Zyndio’s ZynTravel offering as a Ponzi scheme.

The rest of the Zyndio compensation plan adds a pyramid layer to the scheme, making it a Ponzi pyramid hybrid.

Outside of the travel commissions and cycle payments, every other layer of the compensation plan is tied to affiliate recruitment, either as an incentive or qualification criteria.

Pay to play is also strongly featured in the Zyndio compensation plan, with how much an affiliate spends and how much those they recruit spend, directly affecting commission payouts.

pay-to-play-zyndio-zyntravel

Nowhere is this more bluntly advertised, then in an unlisted Zyndio marketing video uploaded to YouTube:

john-beall-zyndio-zyntravel-compensation-plan-video-youtube

Featured on the August 30th video is John Beall, who tells viewers

Everybody’s coming in at Platinum to grab these Founders positions and uh, with good reason as well because you’re gunna see when I show you this, that Platinums make about nine times the money than what Silvers do. And about four times the money than Golds.

When you can make 9x (the commissions) right here, that’s called a no-brainer, right? So that’s why you really want to be Platinum.

Some bonuses, such as the Lifestyle Bonus are only accessible if an affiliate signs up at the Platinum level.

Having built an affiliate recruitment empire in Herbalife and then Vemma, it’s apparent that Anthony Powell is now trying to do it again – this time whilst running the company he does it through himself.

To be entirely fair though, give any Zyndio affiliate who might approach you about ZynTravel the benefit of the doubt.

Ask them how much they’ve made in travel commissions versus that in matrix cycle bonuses.

If the matrix cycle bonuses dwarf travel commissions (or you get a blank stare answer while they try to think up some way to avoid the question), then you’ve pretty much just confirmed Zyndio is the Ponzi pyramid hybrid scheme its compensation plan identifies it as.

What with all the regulatory heat Vemma is currently getting, one has to wonder to what extent that will affect Powell’s MLM marketing ventures going forward.

In Vemma alone Powell was a Star Ambassador who likely made millions of dollars.

In a report filed by on the 4th of September, the court-appointed Vemma Receiver wrote:

The Temporary Receiver intends to evaluate what claims, if any, may exist against highly compensated (Vemma) Affiliates.

Food for thought, in addition to the blatant compliance issues inherent in Zyndio’s compensation plan and business model.