Have you heard anything back? Or an indication that they’ve accepted the complaint and will be looking into it?
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Some really interesting updates on Project Imagine / Dozens over on their Community:
I have to say, I love this level of engagement: great to have the chief exec answering questions and being visible.
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I received this email on the 28th so Dozens have acknowledged the complaint and not sent it straight into deadlock. I am just awaiting a further response right now.
I have removed the customer service agents name.
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Though they have changed from Seedrs to Crowdcube for some reason.
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Weird. I thought the preemption round a few weeks ago was still Seedrs
It was
Crowdcube must have offered them a significant price cut
Will be interesting to see the price they raise at, after Monzo dropped 40% but Revolut increased its value
I think so. But that makes sense given that it would be the Seedrs nominee who would have to manage preemption as it’s to do with existing shareholders.
As @don_quixote suggests, I imagine it’s the commercials that bring them to Crowdcube. I imagine it’s difficult for the crowdfunding platforms at the moment…
Presumably the share price, pitch deck and valuation will be the same as the preemption round, though? Anyone know what they were?
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That preemption round to do with the associated Future Funding round.
They will need to do a new one to accompany the Crowdcube raise
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That’s the thing, I’m pretty sure they’ve got a fair bit of work on their hands to move over. Firstly, just letting their community know they’ve switched.
Must have been a sweet deal from Crowdcube, I suppose
So the crowdfunding has launched in private mode… on Seedrs!
I presume with preemption rights etc, moving platforms was too tricky. But I suppose it won’t matter in the long term if they merge, although I have to say I prefer the Crowdcube site and commercial model.
Anyway, anyone thinking about investing?
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I’m considering investing, but probably only enough to maintain my shareholding. I can’t really justify anything more than that right now 
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In normal times I’d be really keen for a (to me) significant investment. But it’s 2020…
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Yep indeed, likewise. They’re definitely worth the investment in my opinion, it’s just not the ideal time for investing.
Why do you think they are worth it, just curious?
For me it’s mostly about their community focus, and their engagement in that area. I also like that they’re pivoting onto a different target audience to the likes of Monzo, which differentiates them a little in the fintech market I think.
I think they’re aiming to blend fintech with meaningful human interaction, which I think is something the market needs.
Having said that, I’m not the wisest investor and didn’t check their numbers last time I invested, and probably won’t this time. I’m certainly not the best person to take any investment advice from
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It’s worth taking a step back and thinking about the company that is crowd funding. That isn’t Dozens, it’s Project Imagine.
Project Imagine (or PI) has two brands: Dozens, the consumer brand, and PI1, a banking as a service platform. Think about it as Dozens running on PI1.
Looking at PI as a whole, here are my pros and cons in terms of investment:
Pros
- Really tight focus on aligning incentives between the company and its customers. I like this because it means they’re thinking deeply about the business model and are thinking differently to the traditional banks and the Monzo and Starlings of this world.
- Dozens: The spend, save, investment lifecycle is fairly unique - it’s not just a current account, so avoids being just another Monzo or Starling.
- Dozens: They’re much more fin than tech. There’s some fairly innovative financial products coming up (such as FSCS protected savings/investment hybrid where you share the up side of the stock markets but are protected from the downside).
- PI: The valuation looks reasonable with a lot of upside
- PI: Engaged and lean company - completely qualitative but they seem to have some sharp commercial and financial minds
- PI1: Pipeline of customers looks healthy. Lots of potential revenue there, which will buy Dozens time to become profitable.
Cons:
- PI1: This funding round only buys a bit more runway. There needs to be big PI1 deals and/or more funding for PI to become more stable in the long term.
- PI1 looks compelling. But no customers - yet.
- PI: They are more fin than tech. Tech seems to be outsourced. I worry a bit that the continuous improvement and embedded engineering culture you get in Starling/Monzo might not quite be there.
- PI: The timing is bad. Negative interest rates are coming, the pandemic isn’t going anywhere. It’s a really difficult time to be raising money.
- Dozens: They’re slowly taking on customers (although at a similar rate to early days Monzo, maybe?) but despite the differentiation, there’s still the perception that it’s just another digital bank account.
- Dozens: The app is still not quite there. There isn’t feature parity for important Monzo/Starling features (like notes), is super busy and needs (in my view) a design overhaul. But then again, it definitely was the most feature rich first release of comparable apps - and still has some features not available elsewhere (the spend tracking and budgeting, for example).
- Dozens: no banking licence (yet?)
Overall, I think there’s so much potential here. My understanding is that Dozens is looking at moving more into an older user, wealth management niche, which would be amazing. The financial product focus is excellent, but I worry a bit that they aren’t marrying the tech side. The returns look really significant, but the risk is big, too.
Played right, I can see Dozens knocking Monzo and Starling out of the park for my needs. And PI1 seems to be making a better, more vertically aligned, play than Starling’s banking as a service. But, personally, I’d need a deep scrub of the app/brand, filling in missing features, and a banking licence (or other form of FSCS protection) before I could use them as my main account.
One final point: Dozens is about to move to a new platform (including offering direct debits, standing orders, Visa Inc Google Pay etc), and (in longer time?) a whole new version of the app (including open banking integration, hopefully). So my assessment may well change.
Final conclusion: will probably invest. Have asked some questions on the Dozens Community. Value will depend on answers (and affordability, obvs. It is 2020 
)
Tagging @rob_dozens. I know he doesn’t like to promote on competitor forums, but just in case he wants to correct any points of fact.
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Seems like a fair summary to me.
I do think that the business model of PI as a company is quite interesting, and PI1 may turn out to be a very lucrative platform in the long term if they can get a sufficient number of customers on board.
This gives some protection, as you say, from dozens being potentially unprofitable in the short to medium term.
To really look at it simply, I think of dozens as almost a proof of concept for the PI1 platform - although, of course, it is much more than that and is really a full product in it’s own right.
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There’s a video where AC, PI’s Chief Exec, describes Dozens as for the heart, and PI1 as for the head. I think that’s about right: he (and the company) seen genuine in my view of wanting to change the way that banking operates to better align corporate interests with consumer interests. If nothing else, that would be a massive win. And that’s what Dozens seems to be for: it seems to be where the passion is.
You can’t really decouple PI1, though, for the reasons you explain. They are mutually beneficial - if Dozens is the passion project, it provides a potentially very lucrative revenue stream whilst it achieves profitability in its own right. Hence the commercially astute reason for PI1 to be the “head”.
Best strategy in customer fintech by a mile, I wager. Question is, can it pan out?
(I’ve never quite understood why Monzo isn’t looking to decouple its backend/ tech services from the customer app - but that’s another story).
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