Scaale (aka Scaale Group, Scaale Capital, Cross Border Angels) portrays itself as a venture resource advisory for startups. In other words, it acts as a vulture for startups looking for funding, investment, services or sales.
They target everywhere with their India-based team reaching people via Linked-In. Silicon Valley is full of aspiriing entrepreneurs and startups, so that appears to be one of their key targets just like someone looking to exploit actors would target Hollywood. Three of the key ways they attempt to extract your money, your ideas or your company are as follows:
1. Investment Packs - these are basically template business plans with various financial information they get from you to create an "investor-ready" model. They claim it's more than a business plan, but it's basically a business plan and you can accomplish most of what they do for $20 with online plans. They charge an astounding $5,000!
2. Cross Border Angels - they claim to have a vast network of international angel investors (mostly from India and it's not a vast network at all) and attempt to lure those looking for funding into qualifiying for their so-called prestigious angel network. They will attempt to convince you to get the above "investment pack" so you can be properly "prepared" for investors. At the minimum, you are exposing your business model and plans to a network of people in places like India that you have no control of who will see, who can copy and who can share with others. Even IF you get any interest of an investor, it will take many months and they will require substantial equity from you. Scaale will take a massive percentage as well from whatever funding you get.
3. They rent a small room in a Regus office in San Francisco they call their "global headquarters." They also have some unusual space in Mountain View that appears to have been intended for co-working space, but they wanted to charge $400 per month to sit in a common area. You can pay far less than that for far better space. When I visited that space, there were ZERO people who had signed-up for co-working. They have other schemes like getting a virtual office and phone number.
They have people from India trying to get leads generated via Linked-In, but there are two people in SF. The main guy apparently has businesses in India he's trying to leverage to make money elsewhere. The girl portrays herself to have business experience, but from whatever I can tell, has never been an entrepreneur herself with a successful technology company.
They recently contacted someone I know to try and get them into an investment pack scheme and they also contacted another startup I know about luring them into their Cross Border Angels. They also try to get investors to be part of their Cross Border Angels and charge the investor $500 per year for the "honor" of being part of this. Any investor that is dumb enough to pay for that is clearly not a good investor.
I personally would stay clear of Scaale. Maybe your experience would be different, but ask them to show you the so-called investment pack samples upfront, ask them for actual names of angel investors and ask them to charge you ONLY if they get you funding...then watch them ignore you.
Scaale Reviews
Scaale (aka Scaale Group, Scaale Capital, Cross Border Angels) portrays itself as a venture resource advisory for startups. In other words, it acts as a vulture for startups looking for funding, investment, services or sales.
They target everywhere with their India-based team reaching people via Linked-In. Silicon Valley is full of aspiriing entrepreneurs and startups, so that appears to be one of their key targets just like someone looking to exploit actors would target Hollywood. Three of the key ways they attempt to extract your money, your ideas or your company are as follows:
1. Investment Packs - these are basically template business plans with various financial information they get from you to create an "investor-ready" model. They claim it's more than a business plan, but it's basically a business plan and you can accomplish most of what they do for $20 with online plans. They charge an astounding $5,000!
2. Cross Border Angels - they claim to have a vast network of international angel investors (mostly from India and it's not a vast network at all) and attempt to lure those looking for funding into qualifiying for their so-called prestigious angel network. They will attempt to convince you to get the above "investment pack" so you can be properly "prepared" for investors. At the minimum, you are exposing your business model and plans to a network of people in places like India that you have no control of who will see, who can copy and who can share with others. Even IF you get any interest of an investor, it will take many months and they will require substantial equity from you. Scaale will take a massive percentage as well from whatever funding you get.
3. They rent a small room in a Regus office in San Francisco they call their "global headquarters." They also have some unusual space in Mountain View that appears to have been intended for co-working space, but they wanted to charge $400 per month to sit in a common area. You can pay far less than that for far better space. When I visited that space, there were ZERO people who had signed-up for co-working. They have other schemes like getting a virtual office and phone number.
They have people from India trying to get leads generated via Linked-In, but there are two people in SF. The main guy apparently has businesses in India he's trying to leverage to make money elsewhere. The girl portrays herself to have business experience, but from whatever I can tell, has never been an entrepreneur herself with a successful technology company.
They recently contacted someone I know to try and get them into an investment pack scheme and they also contacted another startup I know about luring them into their Cross Border Angels. They also try to get investors to be part of their Cross Border Angels and charge the investor $500 per year for the "honor" of being part of this. Any investor that is dumb enough to pay for that is clearly not a good investor.
I personally would stay clear of Scaale. Maybe your experience would be different, but ask them to show you the so-called investment pack samples upfront, ask them for actual names of angel investors and ask them to charge you ONLY if they get you funding...then watch them ignore you.