The Journey To The IPO

OK! This will rank as one of the strangest ReviewMe reviews I’ve ever done. Why is that? Because the blog requesting the review, IPOJourney.com, has a grand total of two posts. That’s right, two posts.

It’s very easy to review a blog when it has a lot of information for me to critique. However, giving me two posts to work with doesn’t give me a lot to write about. However, IPO Journey doesn’t want me to write about the blog. Instead, they want me to tell you about the concept behind the blog.

What Is IPO Journey About

Using the tag line “Let’s try to get rich together,” IPO Journey seeks to get a bunch of people together, build a company from scratch, and have it become an IPO or be bought out. The foundation as to what the business will be based around is the domain name www.insane.com. Those that help build the business will in turn receive shares for their work. If someone designs the logo, he will receive shares in the company. If someone creates software used by the company, he will receive shares. If someone comes up with a business idea on what Insane.com can do to make money, he will receive shares.

If all goes well, Insane.com will become a big hit and everyone involved will get rich from the IPO or buyout. IPO Journey will be the blog that documents the trip from concept to IPO.

What Is Wrong With IPO Journey

Where do I begin? First, we don’t know who started IPO Journey or Insane.com. The site is not associated with any names and the blog has no contact information. The person who sent the review request never gave his or her name. The two posts at IPO Journey lack “posted by” information. A WHOIS search for Insane.com revealed that the owner is hidden behind a private registration service. IPOJourney.com is registered to a company called Net Marketing 2000, which is a one page site with no real contact information.

Not only do we not know who runs IPO Journey, we don’t know how to become a part of the concept. There is no sign-up form or “how to get involved” page. I can only assume that you participate by commenting. The author does ask for business ideas in the first decision post.

If the object of IPO Journey is to get people together in a collaborative effort to start a new company and take it to IPO, why does the blog have Google ads? That seems completely counter productive to me. The object is to get people to join the IPO effort, not leave the site by clicking on a Google ad.

At the end of the day, I cannot figure out if IPO Journey is serious about what they’re doing or not. The entire project seems slapped together without much thought or care. The idea of a collaborative effort to take a concept from startup to IPO is a good one. However, unless IPO Journey completely revamps the site to create a lot more trust and transparency (and a way for people to participate), they’re not going to be the one to do it.