I signed up with the company for free initially... I started receiving messages from "potential investors" who wanted more information about my startup; however, 1. You have to pay for an upgrade, in order to see and respond to messages. Cost: $149 A. You find out later that it can take 3 months to get funded, which sounds understandable. B. So I upgraded 2. The profile from the investors sound legit, and their messages request an executive summary, and business plan. A. When trying to get funding, this request is also logical, so I complied. 3. After the initial contact from these "investors" there is a waiting period until shortly after the expiration of one's upgrade before they contact you back.
A. This requires another upgrade in order to view and reply to the messages. (Begins to sound fishy) but as an eager startup company, the course of action is apparent... Another upgrade.
4. Because of it seeming a bit odd, I did a bit of investigation. I started taking the profile pictures and running their match through Google photos. I found correlating photos displaying different names than the "investor's" profile names. A. I inquired to these "investors" about their profile names and photos. To no avail, I received no responses. I had hoped to receive an indication to it just being a facade, for anonymity.... Nope. 5. I was contacted by 2 investors saying that they want to work with me further...
They gave me an email address for corresponding outside of the system. The emails I sent out received no reply. 6. I received a phone number from an "investor" who said that her husband and her were from MN. The phone number. Was a MN number, so I called it and got her voicemail. No response back. A week later, I called again and it said that "the magic jack customer is not available." I've upgraded 3 times over the course of 3 months. I've had "investors" requesting that I perform certain activities on the site which require upgrades. This site has NO real investors, is a complete waste of time, and opens your company to the liability of someone stealing your idea.... It's a ripoff.
We joined PitchStreet.com to promote a business idea we have and to find investors. They offer a free membership. When you first register you receive a steady stream of requests for information, supposedly from investors wanting to learn more, but to respond to their emails you must spend $149. We invested the $149 and responded to every info request. What followed was a series of responses that had nothing to do with the information we sent and they all requested that we either fill in their online form or send them information. In every case, in order to do what the supposed investor requested, we had to pay PitchStreet.com more money.
We would send an email that said, "Thank you for your info request. Here's our email XXXXX, here's our phone number XXXXX, and here's our web page XXXXX." We would get answers back like, "In order to attract the best investors you should have a vision of where your company is going and a solid plan to attract them" or, "A great business plan needs great leaders, what is your leadership style." Obviously, utter nonsense because it had nothing at all to do with the info we sent AND, not a single "investor" ever gave a way to reach them without paying PitchStreet.com more money.
After sending 74 emails and receiving generic, canned responses, we finally figured out that this was most likely a scam and PitchStreet just had a series of emails programmed in to be sent to anyone who paid them so it looked like they had real investors registered. It took a few weeks but after EVERY investor ignored our request for a NDA, which is so common it's like breathing air, we came to the opinion that PitchStreet.com is a ripoff.
We contacted Brandon at PitchStreet and requested a refund but have not received a response to any of our phone calls or emails. We can file a report with the cc company, but that's a huge hassle. Ultimately, that's what we will do but we have also sent 100+ pages of information to the Los Angeles District Attorney. We believe this is an organized attempt to defraud people and in California, if they have stolen more than $300 it's Grand Theft and Wire Fraud.
We believe this is an organized attempt to defraud people and in California, if they have stolen more than $300 it's Grand Theft and Wire Fraud.
Based on our experience with PitchStreet.com we would encourage anyone thinking about using them to get their business ideas in front of investors to find another way to do it. In our opinion, PitchStreet.com is a ripoff.
Interesting info:
While PitchStreet.com does it's best to hide it's contact information and has no contact page or phone listing on it's web page, you can get a phone number and email in the very last line of their TOS. Also, a domain search brings up this information.
Registered to Darren Salmindon, **** Miami, FL, 33131 - 800-931-2168
When you google that phone number, other PitchStreet.com complaints come up and notification that they abandoned another web name, myfundingpost.com. When you research that, you find more complaints.
When you call the number, you get a busy signal.
When you google, Darren Salmindon, you can come to http://website.informer.com/ which shows that PitchStreet.com has less than 180 visits a day. We should have done our homework before sending them our money.
PitchStreet.com Reviews
I signed up with the company for free initially... I started receiving messages from "potential investors" who wanted more information about my startup; however, 1. You have to pay for an upgrade, in order to see and respond to messages. Cost: $149 A. You find out later that it can take 3 months to get funded, which sounds understandable. B. So I upgraded 2. The profile from the investors sound legit, and their messages request an executive summary, and business plan. A. When trying to get funding, this request is also logical, so I complied. 3. After the initial contact from these "investors" there is a waiting period until shortly after the expiration of one's upgrade before they contact you back.
A. This requires another upgrade in order to view and reply to the messages. (Begins to sound fishy) but as an eager startup company, the course of action is apparent... Another upgrade.
4. Because of it seeming a bit odd, I did a bit of investigation. I started taking the profile pictures and running their match through Google photos. I found correlating photos displaying different names than the "investor's" profile names. A. I inquired to these "investors" about their profile names and photos. To no avail, I received no responses. I had hoped to receive an indication to it just being a facade, for anonymity.... Nope. 5. I was contacted by 2 investors saying that they want to work with me further...
They gave me an email address for corresponding outside of the system. The emails I sent out received no reply. 6. I received a phone number from an "investor" who said that her husband and her were from MN. The phone number. Was a MN number, so I called it and got her voicemail. No response back. A week later, I called again and it said that "the magic jack customer is not available." I've upgraded 3 times over the course of 3 months. I've had "investors" requesting that I perform certain activities on the site which require upgrades. This site has NO real investors, is a complete waste of time, and opens your company to the liability of someone stealing your idea.... It's a ripoff.
We joined PitchStreet.com to promote a business idea we have and to find investors. They offer a free membership. When you first register you receive a steady stream of requests for information, supposedly from investors wanting to learn more, but to respond to their emails you must spend $149. We invested the $149 and responded to every info request. What followed was a series of responses that had nothing to do with the information we sent and they all requested that we either fill in their online form or send them information. In every case, in order to do what the supposed investor requested, we had to pay PitchStreet.com more money.
We would send an email that said, "Thank you for your info request. Here's our email XXXXX, here's our phone number XXXXX, and here's our web page XXXXX." We would get answers back like, "In order to attract the best investors you should have a vision of where your company is going and a solid plan to attract them" or, "A great business plan needs great leaders, what is your leadership style." Obviously, utter nonsense because it had nothing at all to do with the info we sent AND, not a single "investor" ever gave a way to reach them without paying PitchStreet.com more money.
After sending 74 emails and receiving generic, canned responses, we finally figured out that this was most likely a scam and PitchStreet just had a series of emails programmed in to be sent to anyone who paid them so it looked like they had real investors registered. It took a few weeks but after EVERY investor ignored our request for a NDA, which is so common it's like breathing air, we came to the opinion that PitchStreet.com is a ripoff.
We contacted Brandon at PitchStreet and requested a refund but have not received a response to any of our phone calls or emails. We can file a report with the cc company, but that's a huge hassle. Ultimately, that's what we will do but we have also sent 100+ pages of information to the Los Angeles District Attorney. We believe this is an organized attempt to defraud people and in California, if they have stolen more than $300 it's Grand Theft and Wire Fraud.
We believe this is an organized attempt to defraud people and in California, if they have stolen more than $300 it's Grand Theft and Wire Fraud.
Based on our experience with PitchStreet.com we would encourage anyone thinking about using them to get their business ideas in front of investors to find another way to do it. In our opinion, PitchStreet.com is a ripoff.
Interesting info:
While PitchStreet.com does it's best to hide it's contact information and has no contact page or phone listing on it's web page, you can get a phone number and email in the very last line of their TOS. Also, a domain search brings up this information.
Registered to Darren Salmindon, **** Miami, FL, 33131 - 800-931-2168
When you google that phone number, other PitchStreet.com complaints come up and notification that they abandoned another web name, myfundingpost.com. When you research that, you find more complaints.
When you call the number, you get a busy signal.
When you google, Darren Salmindon, you can come to http://website.informer.com/ which shows that PitchStreet.com has less than 180 visits a day. We should have done our homework before sending them our money.