jamparii

One year ago, I wrote about Jamparii and their (IMO) bizarre method of raising funds for their business. As it turns out, the company was not able to profit on the rise of social networking websites, and failed to get the required funds.

According to Jim Tuffin, CEO and founder of Jamparii, they have now put the project on hold due to lack of funding. He says that all funds received are returned. I have no reason not to trust his words.

Jamparii serves as an example of how good (or bad) ideas need a critical mass to survive. Building a business is hard work and high risk. I usually see two main reasons young business fails:

• Lack of funding
• Lack of patience

Lack of funding is usually due to the fact that things takes much more time, and costs more money than first imagined. I have seen, and been part of, this kind of failure. It hurts, and it is not fun. The only way to deal with this is to get the funds in time, and enough of it.

Lack of patience is different - this happens if investors, or key members, stop trusting the product. This creates a downward spiral where all energy in the venture goes away, and takes with it the passion that is required to succeed.

Happily, way too few business creators know this. And if they know, they are able to push it aside and get their venture going anyway.

One year ago, I wrote about my thoughts on Jamparii, and I asked if it was just another scam.

Back then, Jim Tuffin, the CEO and founder, claimed that this would be the next great success within social networking. In a comment to my blog post, he also said that he did not want to involve professional venture capital, as they would require a high number of shares in exchange of their cash. Who would blame them?

Anyway, I would be very interested in knowing what happened to Jamparii, and their founder members. Do you know anything? Did you join? What are the prospect of getting your cash back? If you did not join, what where your reasons not doing it? Any news you have, please share!

Dear anonymous (I would much rather prefer to say Dear John),

First - I post this as a blogpost instead of a reply to your comment on my post about Jamparii. 

Thank you for your input. As I know you are not only claiming to do what you say, but actually are trying to build your own tool for business networking, I would much rather that you did enter your own name, John.

However, what you are pointing at is true in all new ventures. It does take capital to build success. And there are several different paths to choose from. Jim has chosen one path, and John, you took another path.

My experience tells me that the path of money alone is not enough. To build a successful networking site, you need quality. You need content. You need active users. And you need a value proposition to your users.

Linkedin, Xing and Facebook are three successful networking tools, but they are very different. Ecademy and Viadeo are others. Myspace and Orcut are there too. Just to name a few of your competitors. They offer value. Distinctive value. And they have success. 

You need to present a clear value to me before I will even consider your new tool. No matter how you choose to finance you venture. Scam or not.

This is about risk as well. Do you have what it takes to break the bank? Did you consider all options? Have you done your homework, so you know how to position yourself?

What if you fail? What if it takes twice the time to break even? Or three times the time? What if you only secure half the funds you need? What if only one tenth of the required users actually signs up? 

So the question to you two competitors - do you have the BUZZ?

I get many strange invitations in my email. Todays selection is from a that calls themselves Biztime Limited, based in the UK. They have a new Social Networking idea - called Jamparii. Sure we can use that (pun). Their plan is to let me make a profit as they become the next MySpace and Youtube. In other words, they want my money.

The invitation came by an Ecademy group. I quit Ecademy 18 month ago because back then I felt many users where only interested in MLM and promoting scams. Even though I have canceled my account, and no longer are available on Ecademy, they continue to send me emails from their forums. That is another post, I guess!

So back to Jamparii - they ask me to give them £1 000,- in exchange for a Founder Life Membership. And a potential revenue share:

Our strategy is to create a small group of just 250 Founder Life Members, who will be the centre pillars of Jamparii and will benefit both as life members but also financially as shareholders. We already have a number in place but there are still plenty of places left. Your investment will be under £1,000 and you will have the opportunity to earn and win more shares during the first year or so.

 

So - I will win more shares during the first year or so. Sounds like the MLM game that took Europe by storm a few years back - you played around with virtual stocks, and made a profit based upon how many people you recruited. World Game Inc. it was called, before it was called a bluff.  

Further fuel to my presumption is the fact that 3 750 Founder members are also invited. So - we have Founder Life members who will win shares, and Founder members who pay to enter. Then add regular, paying members - they will provide the profit up the lane. Or so it may sound.

They start their story like this:

When we hear of the huge sums of money that are being paid for these web platforms do you wish that you had thought them up or had a stake in them?

Well here is an opportunity for you to do just that! - Read on and see for yourself!

 

I am sorry. If I had such an idea, last thing I would do is to tell everyone. I would have people use it. Not try to sell it like a scam.

Thus, I suggest Jamparii is a scam, and time will show who is right. I will have to appologize if they actually end up like MySpace or Youtube - walking away with a huge lump of money.