UINVEST: THE TRUE MEANING BEHIND
To appreciate a company and gain confidence in its activities, one may ask themselves a question as to why the company exists and what its true mission is; what drives the company leaders and their team; what values are promoted; what message a company tries to deliver to its clients and a society-at-large. These and many other questions we want to address in the article of this month within already established tradition of communication transparency between UInvest and the uinvestor community with the spotlight on the real meaning behind UInvest.
To understand what makes UInvest tick, one has to go back to its history starting with 2007 when a group of entrepreneurs, each having their own construction and manufacturing projects to finance, was left in out in the cold as a result the global economic crisis. Banks stopped lending money, many financial companies folded, and large private investors lost millions and were short on cash. Their projects were partially financed, but lacked remainder of funds with no hope to turn to traditional financiers. They say that out of the darkness comes the brightest light. They also say that at any given moment there are at least seven ways to solve a problem.
With that attitude, creativity vs. despair, the idea of financing the projects through crowdfunding emerged. The entrepreneurs got together and decided to work out a plan of approaching everyone they knew in order to complete the last financing stage of their projects. Realizing that the amount of investment needed was too large for two or three investors, they decided to break lump sums into smaller shares and offer them to friends, family, acquaintances, colleagues, and everyone they knew. The success followed. They closed the final stage of financing, made money, and eventually returned the loans of everyone who believed in them – with interest and gratitude. Everyone was happy.
Since the idea of investing a project this way was new, unique and unconventional, they decided to capitalize on their own success and start a joint venture to help other businesses and entrepreneurs attract capital this way.
That’s how UInvest was born.
At first, our heroes, besides having experience in business and finance, but also with solid academic background, provided private consultations to local businesses, helping them connect with private investors who were willing to take risks and support new ventures. Later on, encouraged by the results of their growth and success, they decided to take this business model and apply it to the world wide web with the vision to help businesses from Ukraine and Eastern Europe find financing resources from real people anywhere in the world.
And that was the beginning of uinvest.com.ua
THE HYIP HYPE
Once UInvest launched the website, the team was faced with their first online challenge: attracting the initial online investor base. The goal was to find the investors already well versed in investment terminology, with immunity to or, at least, high tolerance towards risk, and general understanding of the crowdfunding concept. Since in 2008 the term “crowdfunding” was not popular yet, at least in relation to equity financing, UInvest team, completely unaware of the donation-based model of crowdfunding activities in the West, had to invent their own terminology, methodology, and the business model.
Having researched the HYIP industry, its advantages and pitfalls, and string-strong reputation, the company management decided to take a risky but promising strategy in developing its customer base: to announce to HYIP-investors about its existence through posting controversial articles and encouraging conversations among HYIP-ers. The goal was to get PR, create interest, educate HYIP-ers about the UInvest business model, and turn them into uinvestors.
The approach worked.
However, it came at a price: along with multitude of online discussions and investigations of what UInvest was and wasn’t, came a lot of black PR, ungrounded accusations and doubt. Many skeptics who lost tens of thousands of dollars in a HYIP market erroneously claimed UInvest to be the same type of scheme having little knowledge about the company business model.
It took over four years of patient listening, encouraging open communication, building robust customer service for UInvest to finally see the light and gain trust from the HYIP converts. We cannot say that everything is problem-free and hunky dory yet. Being a trailblazer in a new emerging industry does come with its pitfalls. Suspicions run ramped from some nervous investors on the lookout for scams.
From a uinvestor’s view point, this subconscious fear-based knee jerk reaction is not hard to understand: with the financial collapse of 2008, where millions of people lost their life savings, with fickle financial markets, with not so positive past HYIP experience, they are most likely to apply these fears to every company they entrust their money. So, this reaction is not unnatural.
However, for uinvestors to continue with their love for investing and profiting from financing the ventures of others, it is important to understand how to recognize real from fake, how to spot professionals with good will from scammers.
Our next section is to address these questions.
BUILT TO LAST
Many times, during office visits and in-person interviews with potential uinvestors or blogger-inspectors, i.e., those who come to UInvest offices to do their due diligence on the company with the purpose of reporting to members of UInvest community or other financial investment forums, UInvest staff has to address such questions as “How long will you be in business?”, “What is a guarantee that UInvest won’t shut down like many other HYIP companies?” “How do we know that UInvest is not a flight-by-night company?”
Although these types of questions could be quite frustrating at times to the employees who practically live at their desks knowing that they are doing their job the best way they can, it is easy to understand the motivation of those who ask them: they want reassurance, they want to know that everything will be fine, and they want to hear that UInvest will be in business forever and ever.
While everyone is in agreement that it is impossible to guarantee anything in this world except change and that everything is in the hands of God, there are many factors that can serve as indicators of high-tech and online companies with growth potential and a promise of a long-term presence in the market.
Some of these factors include continuous feature improvements and software or platform versions updates; commitment to online security and investment into sophisticated anti-virus and anti-hacker technologies; customer orientation; community building activities; assuming corporate and social responsibility; continuous educational programs and initiatives; donating to causes and charity; transparency in corporate communications. Each of these activities reflects a long-term commitment and could serve as the confidence factors for customers that look to make an educated choice of whether to do business with a particular company.
All these activities are essential elements in UInvest’ business philosophy and vision for the future.
DEFINING TERMINOLOGY
Many current and potential uinvestors erroneously keep thinking that UInvest plays in the game field of the HYIP industry. As we have mentioned earlier, although erroneous, this conclusion was made by many who used to be involved in HYIP investment activities and later became UInvest converts.
Due to the lack of established terminology prior to 2012, UInvest defined its business model as a global online investment platform, connecting businesses and uinvestors. Today, with the transformation of the term “crowdfunding” from a non-profit, donation-based model into that in exchange for equity due to the J.O.B.S. Act signed into law in April in the United States, the terminology of UInvest model has organically evolved. Equity-based international crowdfunding is what UInvest’ vision encompassed from the start but, for the lack of universal terminology, was not labeled as such. So, next time when uinvestors feel compelled to ask a question, “What makes you different from other HYIP companies,” they should expect the answer, “Everything. Because we do not compete in the HYIP arena, we are an online platform for equity crowdfunding.”
THE BIG PICTURE
So, what’s next? What future awaits UInvest and its faithful uinvestors with millions of dollars invested into multiple projects? What is the company’s vision?
With UInvest’s multinational staff working around the clock around the globe, introducing new features every few weeks, UInvest leadership expects growth and maintains its focus on giving uinvestors opportunities to fund and make money through international projects.
UInvest looks forward to lend a hand, through crowdfunding, to businesses where their country infrastructure does not allow or makes it next to impossible to fund entrepreneurial activities.
Imagine the brave new world of emerging businesses funded in a completely different ways, by people like you. The world where people vote on which businesses contribute to the collective good and which ones do not. Where people vote with their intelligence, with their heart, with their dollar . . .
You, uinvestors, and many more that are to join you in the future, are those people. Vote wisely. Because your voice does count . . .
Хотя и так Ю-Инвест уже празднует пять лет работы.Этому событию посвящена конференция,которая будет проходить в г. Лос Анджелес в конце апреля. Любой инвестор сможет посетить эту конференцию.
Так бы сразу и сказали, что это – розыгрыш…
есть много факторов, которые могут служить индикаторами высокотехнологичных интернет-компаний, обладающих потенциалом роста и гарантирующих долгосрочное присутствие на рынке.» Я так понимаю, потенциальный инвестор так и должен думать – Бог дал, Бог взял.
И какие именно факторы, которые якобы могут служить индикаторами вашего роста, вы приводите в этой статье? Эти что ли: «Некоторые из этих факторов включают постоянное совершенствование функций программного обеспечения, обновление платформы; поддержание онлайн-безопасности инвестиций с помощью сложных анти-вирусных и анти-хакерских технологий, ориентация на потребителя; корпоративная и социальная ответственность сообщества; непрерывные образовательные программы и инициативы, пожертвования и благотворительность, прозрачность в сфере корпоративных коммуникаций. Каждое из этих мероприятий отражает долгосрочные обязательства и может служить фактором доверия для клиентов…». Не смешите людей. Ваша деятельность в рамках правового поля Украины к инвестированию не имеет вообще никакого отношения. Единственное, что порадовало в этой статье, так это: «Таким образом, когда инвесторы задают вопрос: "Что отличает вас от других компаний, HYIP," они получат ответ: "Все. Потому что мы не конкурируем на арене HYIP, мы онлайн платформа для коллективного финансирования капитала ". Можно было просто сказать – мы даже не хайп, мы просто онлайн кидалы.