A couple of days ago, I got an email from my friend Evan who runs My Journey to Millions asking if I’ve heard about Rippln. I hadn’t. Turns out it’s super-new… as in the company seems to have been putting out their main promotional videos this week (though there were some going back to middle of April). Specifically this promotional video from the company caught my attention:
I was going to pick this video apart, but it seems like the nice people at TechCrunch have already done it for me. Their reaction was similar to mine, when I read it: “Thanks to my job, I get to see a lot of stupid bulls**t. Most gets filtered out, but every now and then something just rises up that is so ridiculously stupid, it’s just begging to be called out.” The article breaks down 17 ridiculously stupid points in the video, explaining what not to do in a start-up video. Here are a few samples:
- “Don’t tell us that your app is going to be viral before it’s even friggin’ released.”
- “Don’t expect the press to cover your stupid app before it’s even friggin’ been released. Except for maybe in posts parodying it.”
- “Don’t say your stupid app is going to change the way we communicate, or call it ‘The biggest breakthrough since email.'”
- “Don’t promise (again) that your stupid app is going to go viral. Don’t compare its growth to Facebook, or Twitter.”
- “Don’t make your stupid app sound like some sort of exclusive club with an ‘inner circle’ and talk about how lucky we were to be invited and s**t.”
- “Don’t say that there’s just a brief window for me to join!”
TechCrunch called out the video for including Adam D’Angelo of Facebook fame, but it missed the most obvious scam in this video. The video shows how Mr. D’Angelo’s 0.8% of Facebook is worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Well, that’s nice. Is Rippln giving you 0.8% ownership of the company? No. They aren’t give you any ownership. You would be a user of the app the same as if you were a user of Facebook’s app. Putting that aside, if Rippln was really going to give you the cut that D’Angelo got, 0.8%, they could only have 125 people getting it, before they’ve given away 100% of the company. Is the media and news really going to cover something with 125 users? Nope.
When Evan told me about Rippln he also included this promotional video from the company.
The video has adds a few more red flags. Specifically, the marketing in it is just plain slimy. First they say that we are in “hand-chosen few” that are behind the “velvet ropes”, but then make a big point that they can’t say too much about what they are doing. It sends a clear message: We are going to say that you are important to get you to sign up, but you aren’t important enough to know what you are really signing up for.
The other part of this video that got to me is that they push the “you are making Facebook and Twitter rich, but you get nothing for your efforts.” This is a common pitch in the MLM world. It sounds good on the surface, but let’s remember two things: 1) users get to use these companies great products and technology for free and 2) if Twitter and/or Facebook were to share their billions with its users, each person wouldn’t get a lot of money, just a few dollars.
If a company honestly thinks that they are going to share more than with you they aren’t a very smart company. So either Rippln isn’t very smart or they are trying to scam you with misleading marketing. I think it’s clear that both are true.
Rippln’s Founders and Company Information
Let’s dig a little deeper into this mysterious company. Here are the major players:
Brian Underwood – CEO – Underwood was a Master Distributor at Burnlounge, which the the FTC has shut-down and sued for being a pyramid scheme. He then went on to co-found iZigg, an MLM company that promised wealth based on text message advertising. In this video from June of 2010, he claims that iZigg is “launching the biggest brand name in mobile media history.” Have you heard of iZigg? Is it talked about in the news or blogs? Nope. Looks like iZigg failed to attract attention, and all those people who bought in were essentially kicked to the curb with Underwood starting Rippln, an extremely similar MLM, mobile company to try to create buzz from scratch.
Terry LaCore – Co-Founder – LaCore is the founder of b:hip, an MLM company that sells “lotions and potions” like many of the other MLMs that I’ve covered here in the past. Their products include a bunch that promise to repair your DNA and other outlandish claims that they can’t and don’t prove.
Jonathan Budd – Co-Founder – Jonathan is perhaps best known for his information product Online MLM Secrets and The 7-Figure Networker System. These are typical MLM Tool Scams. The idea is that people gullible enough to get involved in MLM are gullible enough to pay for these products. Of course, it’s little surprise that there are complaints about bad credit card charges from Jonathan Budd.
If you are going to compare yourself to Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram, you should have extensive background in technology start-ups. None of these people have that. There is no venture capital from the founders of Paypal (or similar) like you see with Facebook and Twitter.
All that matters is that people sign up?
Jonathan Budd has been commenting on critics websites, which is something I give him credit for. Most of the MLMers know better than to make themselves look that foolish like Jusuru’s VP did on my article. Budd commented on the aforementioned TechCrunch’s article saying (amongst other things): “It’s difficult to deny the effectiveness of our opening marketing at this point, judging by how we are having this conversation on techcrunch’s blog… so say whatever you will about that.” and “However unlike most companies, we believe the user deserves to share in the rewards of their word of mouth marketing. A concept that our users believe in too, as we’ve just crossed 200,000 people in our first 10 days.” and “If you dislike our marketing… that’s your opinion. But we’re proud of the buzz we’ve created in the marketplace, and will continue to test new direct response concepts, ideas, & media as we roll out more of our company in the future. Hopefully there will be something other technology companies seeking to get buzz might be able to learn.”
He also commented on the great site BehindMLM saying, “When someone criticizes how you market… that’s not a fact, it’s an opinion.” Update: he’s actually left a few comments on the site. One of them claimed: “If you think you could do a better job getting 210,000+ users in 11 days, by all means… I encourage you to leave the world of commenting & go become an entrepreneur.” (I shouldn’t nitpick, because there are so many big problems with Rippln, but they haven’t released a product and thus have zero users.)
Call it opinion if you want, but the FTC has clear opinions on what legal marketing is. As they’ve written in the past, endorsers have to “Clearly and conspicuously disclose the generally expected performance in the depicted circumstances.” Rippln is clearly misrepresenting the opportunity that they are presenting when they cite Adam D’Angelo Facebook stock money.
There’s a term for this Mr. Budd. It’s called “fraud.” It’s not my opinion, you can look it up: “…fraud is intentional deception made for personal gain…”
In that Behind MLM article, Budd also quotes the following frequently passed MLM clichés, “One of my favorite lines I’ve heard recently is: ‘There’s no statue built for a critic.’ And it’s quite true.” Who needs a statue when Gene Siskel has a Film Center. And let’s not forget that Hollywood stopped to honor Roger Ebert too.
I could go on for a week about Budd’s comment in the Behind MLM article. It switches from: “We believe that the world’s social graph is missing transparency” to “The criticism so far for our model, is frankly something we cannot fathom to us because no one knows any details yet. After the model is fully released…” to “Have actual information to base your opinions from” to “Give us a little time, and we will gladly take care of you, and answer any question you might have” to “If anyone has true critical analysis of our model, products, plan, or has questions… please post them here and as soon as time permits, I or someone from my team will address them.”
So they are trying to be transparent, but they can’t release their model. Yet we are supposed to have actual information (which they haven’t released) to base our opinions on? They want a little more time, yet they continue to take sign-ups and release misleading videos. Budd invites us to post “true critical analysis of the model”, but remember what he said previously, “no one knows any details of the model.”
Doublespeak much, Budd?
The rest of his comment is pretty much generated from the bad MLM argument generator. In this case the generator must have produced, “you’re just out to get hits for your blog”, “You’re just negative”, and “You just don’t understand it.” May be there are some others that I missed.
But Really, What About the Model
As Budd made clear, they are still working on it. That should give you a lot of confidence, right? That aside, we know a lot of things that they’ve worked on and even released, so it is worth discussing those as it gives valuable insight as to where the company is going with this.
There are numerous reports that people can pay $300 to be a Domestic affiliate and $600 ($900 total) to be a Global Affiliate. In addition, it seems that comes with a $49/mo. fee for the right to distribute the mobile application. If true, and again, I’ve seen multiple reports so it seems credible, it’s going to be a slam dunk to show that Rippln is an illegal pyramid scheme. It doesn’t seem like Rippln intends to sell anything other than the business opportunity to recruit more people to Rippln. It’s not like the product is the app, because that’s supposed to be free. Update: it looks like Rippln is going to try sell in-app purchases and tracking of them.
That’s very interesting because in this 11 minute video from Rippln explaining the compensation plan, it definitely seems like the money comes from recruiting people who pay to become “players.” It surely doesn’t look that Rippln is interested in focusing on the in-app purchases from the video, which is a major red flag for it being a pyramid scheme.
At around the 9:40 point they explain the All-Star Bonus. It seems like this person collects any bonuses that weren’t collected by new people. The example they give is a person joins last month and only qualifies for payment on 4 Ripples. You’d get the money he would have made if he had 10 Ripples. It’s complex and their explanation is clear as mud, but it seems like the All-Stars will pick up a majority of the money. This also sounds like the way that they give the hand-picked early adopters big cash, since at some point, mathematically there will be many, many people who won’t be able to fill up their Ripples. It’s the nature of any kind of pyramid recruiting scheme that there is simply no one left to recruit at some point.
One my favorite parts of the video is at 10:40 when after a ridiculously confusing explanation of where all the money is being sent through this system, it adds, “there’s a more complete explanation about the comp. plan inside the ‘inner circle’.” Wait, it gets even more complicated requiring further explanation?!?!
Again, don’t quote me on these statements being entirely accurate, because as Rippln’s co-founder Budd said, it hasn’t put out the details of the compensation plan (even though there’s a video) . So either the company is A) not transparent enough to disclose the true compensation or B) has their priorities messed up to the point where marketing an app without a business model or C) is lying about not having put out a compensation plan. It’s probably a little of all three.
About this Mobile App
Apple has been pretty strict in what apps it allows. If there’s a compensation plan behind it where people are making money from recruiting others, you can be very certain, it won’t get approval. Google Play is a little more loose with it’s restrictions, but it too probably wouldn’t approve such an app. I’m not as familiar with Windows Phone and Blackberry 10 apps, maybe Rippln plans to take on Facebook and Twitter with the less than 5% market share those smart platforms have? With a plan like that, how can it fail?
Conclusion
In the end, when I look at Rippln, I see the following:
- Laughably-bad marketing. Worse marketing designed to misleading its potential users
- A compensation plan that appears to be a clear pyramid scheme…
- A product that doesn’t exist and probably can never exist the way they hope (due to app store policies)
Rippln is already on defensive about the past of CEO Brian Underwood. Jonathan Budd commented in the aforementioned TechCrunch article and was quick to throw the defamation word out there from well-meaning commenters. In addition Rippln’s lawyer took to their Facebook page saying, “The allegations of Brian Underwood being sued or investigated by the SEC or in another lawsuit are false.” Given how MLM lawyers have threatened me with legal action in my other articles (such as One24), it probably won’t be too long before they come after me with a Strategic lawsuit against public participation (SLAPP).
In which case, I really invite them to do their worst. I would be happy to sit in a court room and discuss the FTC’s guidelines on endorsements.
I’m going to close with this, a video from another person who smells a rat with Rippln, Chris Voss. On his show, he dug up a lot of dirt on Rippln, including information that they don’t seem to be doing business from real office space. There’s a good deal more and I don’t want to spoil the fun.
Thank you for this insightful article.
It touches on many of the concerns our group had from the start.
“There is no bad publicity”, I think they have great marketing, it made you talk about them. Anyway, I mostly agree with you, probably a scam or we’re short sighted, we will find out in the up coming months.
Thanks for the post.
I don’t think Bernie Madoff would agree that statement about there being no bad publicity.
I think the worst part is that they don’t offer real information! It is so secretive and so obvious…
This whole thing is confusing!
Welcome to MLM, the aim is to confuse :-).
well thanks for your opinion, I am actually staring to do it since i don’t have to put money in front, and i will come back to let you know how i do!!
This post is biased, there is a lot of hate behind this, I think their marketing is effective. You cannon judge they are scamming people at this moment, since nobody is being asked to give them money. People will have the option to leave if things get fishy.
You just sound as a politician full of demagogia, full of tricks anti propaganda.
No bias here, I’ve got no stake in the Rippln’s success or failure.
I don’t deny that the marketing is effective… the problem is that it crosses the line and its misrepresentations to being fraud.
The definition of scam is a confidence trick. Money doesn’t have to be involved. Given that they published a video of how they vision it work, it’s pretty obviously that they are looking to scam people.
Of course people will have the option to leave if things get fishy (they have already gotten fishy), but some percentage won’t realize that it is fishy and get scammed.
@Caliche,
“well thanks for your opinion, I am actually staring to do it since i don’t have to put money in front, and i will come back to let you know how i do!!”
– I think this is one of the worst things about the program. You are right you aren’t putting any money up but you are putting something more valuable at risk – Your reputation.
What do you think is going to happen when your friends that sign up realize you just involved them in a CHEESY pyramid scheme? Think they won’t think less of you?
@Jules,
“You cannon judge they are scamming people at this moment, since nobody is being asked to give them money. People will have the option to leave if things get fishy.”
– Great attitude no reason to think ahead when you know something is a scam…wait until you are right in the middle of it lol
Looks like we are getting more information…and it isn’t good
Take a look at Comment 118 on http://behindmlm.com/companies/rippln-review-mobile-app-recruitment/#comment-153146
From Budd:
“Rippln will be developing and acquiring our OWN brand of apps. Our customers are all our users of our own apps, in the exact same way a Zynga, or Rovio who develops a portfolio of apps has customers. We believe we will be one of the largest app networks in the world, because our users will actually have the chance to get REWARDED when they refer something… unlike all other technology companies in this space.”
Looks like the founder’s bright idea for the money making part of this pyramid scheme is to build an app store. It seems to create just a mobile version of the online mall pyramids that didn’t work in the past.
The success of Zynga and Rovio was due to the design of the apps themselves. Seems like Rippln knows that it can’t develop such great apps that people buy and use on their own merits. So instead, they are working to use their marketing and certainly what seems to be a pyramid scheme, to push the apps.
If you think that Rippln will be acquiring the next Angry Birds or the next Farmville, good luck.
I went to Dallas, met Brian Underwood and some of the others. Yes, the app hasn’t gone public yet, so one has to be a little secretive. All I’m doing at the moment is inviting people to be in a ready position to receive the app when it goes public. No pressure for anything beyond that! If someone doesn’t like it when it comes out- unsubscribe. If someone sees this as an opportunity they are interested in like any of other business, there is a licensing fee, and monthly fee–I don’t know of any business that doesn’t require an investment. Lighten up Lazy Man, and perhaps reserve your words till you concretely know what you’re talking about.
As I think Evan pointed out above inviting people is putting your own social capital on the line. If Rippln turns out to be nothing like Wazzub was, and it certainly looks like Rippln is nothing, it’s a lot of egg to wear on one’s face.
It’s fine for a licensing fee and a monthly fee to exist, as long as they aren’t using those fees to pay the earlier members, which it appears is exactly the plan. The term for this is pyramid scheme. To recap, some business investments are legal and some aren’t. From the description that they’ve put out there, and their history this certainly looks like the later.
As for unsubscribing if you don’t like it, that’s a great idea in theory. Why didn’t the people in Fortune Hi-Tech Marketing or Zeek Rewards all just subscribe before they got taken for hundreds of millions of dollars? You think they all decided that they had too much money in their bank accounts and wanted to throw it away?
This is certainly a concern of many in the industry at this time. Rippln has not fully completed its planning for the compensation plan as it continues to undergo scrutiny by Rippln’s legal advisors. Please rest assured that the investors in Rippln are committed to providing a solid compensation plan that is compliance with all rules and regulations.
Rippln is a user acquisition model for the first ever incentivized sharing technology platform. Our unique platform has the ability to track an individuals social influence and ripple effect across the world… and reward that user for the value they create in the marketplace.
Rippln is not a true MLM model, it is a customer acquisition model. Rippln will be using gamification and rewards for the use of the platform and application. It is essentially a lead generation model that will provide an audience to which the Players can share products and be rewarded for it.
If it hasn’t completed it’s planning for the compensation plan, they certainly shouldn’t put a video out there explaining it. They shouldn’t take customers until they figure out what they are doing.
I’m sure the investors are committed to providing a solid compensation plan that is in compliance with all rules and regulations. I’m also sure that Fortune Hi-Tech Marketing and Zeek Rewards were committed as well… right? Keep in mind that the investors in Rippln all seem have shady pasts in MLM. There isn’t anyone from Facebook, Twitter, Ebay/Paypal, Yahoo, Google, or any successful technology company that I could see.
MLM and pyramid scheme models are customer acquisition models. Gamification, lead gen, and rewards are all fine, but put in a Ripple/MLM format is just asking to be shut down. Why not just offer an affiliate program with a single layer? If you are really looking to run a true platform on gamification, lead gen, and rewards, you don’t risk the whole company vision by associating it with a pyramid scheme… unless you need the pyramid scheme.
Oh and if Rippln thinks it is going to be able to track users and get their app on in the Apple App Store or the Google Play store, they’ve got a rude awakening. There are too many privacy and other things that Apple and Google won’t let Rippln and its user have access to.
Clearly, Lazy Man, you have a bias against “pyramids”.
Did you know that Sprint got it’s start as a “pyramid”? Check out this article from the NY Times in 1989: http://zsms.net/sprint
In addition, network marketing has been endorsed by Bill Clinton, Robert Kiyosaki, Donald Trump and Warren Buffet, among others.
Network Marketing provides the last best chance for your average American to hit a financial home run. In a good network marketing company, you can make more money than the people above you if you work harder.
Sure, not everyone get’s rich. But I know plenty of people earning an additional $500 to $1000 per month which makes a big difference in their monthly budget.
Here’s the deal – Rippln is in buzz mode – an effort to spread the word to people that want to be the first to try the app when it launches later this month – and the app is seriously bad ass. Tell me how you can have “egg on your face” by generating a base of interest in trying out a free app??
Even better, Rippln DOES have some big name tech people working along side and behind the scenes. I think you’ll be choking on your own venom once this thing blows up worldwide (which, by the way, it is already doing).
Wait and see, my friend, wait and see.
Leroy, you are right that I have something against pyramid schemes. You might have noticed that Sprint got rid of the MLM pretty early on. And one example for a brief period of something that was almost 25 years ago is hardly a ringing endorsement for MLM… nor is it relevant to Rippln.
Bill Clinton was paid to speak at an MLM convention, it’s not something he independently endorses. I’ve exposed Robert Kiyosaki and MLM scam. Also Trump was paid by an MLM so that they could use the Trump name… again an endorsement that was bought: see MLM and Donald Trump. Finally Buffet doesn’t endorse being a network marketer in any interview I’ve ever seen. He bought a network marketing company because owning a salesforce of people who work for below minimum wage on average and use what little earnings they make to buy the product you are selling is just smart business. Don’t confuse being an MLM distributor with owning an MLM company… two very different things.
MLM does not provide a good chance for the average American to hit a financial homerun. It’s pretty much the worst chance. If you want to see a good chance, watch Shark Tank. That’s average American’s making small business products that sell on their own merit, no illegal pyramid schemes necessary.
As we know It’s Not a Matter of Effort, it’s a Mathematical Certainty. So that ends the “work harder” myth.
For everyone that you know that earns an extra $500 or $1000 a month there are hundreds that are losing a few hundred. That makes a big difference in many more people’s monthly budget.
It’s one thing to be in buzz mode, it’s another to intentionally mislead your customers, which I demonstrated quite clearly that Rippln is doing. If it wants to be taken as a legitimate company, they can put out a press release TODAY that says, we are sorry for these videos that we produced and give a list of corrections of what the average participant can realistically expect. Own up to their mistake and go forth creating a great app that people will want to use because it’s a great app, not because there’s some fake buzz about getting Facebook early investor rich off of it.
As the comments at Behind MLM have pointed out, the people involved in Rippln have a history of harvesting emails of suckers so that they can sell their products to. The Rippln app could be total crap and people spreading this will still have egg on their face, because they’ve shown that they are susceptible to the next Nigerian Prince scam. It’s all a number’s game, get 100,000 emails and pitch them a business opportunity that costs a $1000 and if 1% pick it up, that’s a cool million dollars. Of course they are shooting for more than a 100,000 emails and probably hoping to get more than $1000 from each sucker.
If Rippln does have some big name tech people, that’s what they should have built the buzz with. Those aren’t the people you keep behind the scenes while you put out fraudulent videos of comparing getting into the company early with Facebook riches.
Everyone has always said wait and see about all the MLMs that I’ve covered and they’ve pretty universally shrunk after I’ve written about them. MonaVie and ViSalus are two famous examples.
Critics as usual!
The App platform will be launching very soon, and no one gonna stop it. Enough is enough, we have all these big corporation that have made billion $$$$ from us by our information. Rippln is already over 700,000 in the last 2 weeks since it was release to invites only. The way we socialize with Facebook is gonna be dust compared to what RippLn will be offering. The App will be free to use, no money ask if you just wanna be a Rippln fan to use the App in their everyday life, like we use Facebook and twitter,etc. That $300.00 life time is if you want to go further as an investor. Investor are willing to come in went the App is launch and proof is there that being an investor will benefit them. So there’s no money involve to be a user. So let’s continue the Rippln ripple.
: )
They’ve made billions by providing you with a free service. You should be writing them thank you notes and offering them your financial support.
Rippln is over 700,000 because it’s just email addresses of people who think they are going to be in on the ground floor of a business opportunity. I hate to break it to you, but this is no where close to Facebook’s 700 million actual users spending time with the services.
Rippln should be free to use like Twitter and Facebook. If they start to charge you’d find that no one would be interested in paying for something that isn’t as good as what these companies who spend billions every year to improve their services.
$300 does not make you an investor in Rippln, you’ll own no stock or any assets in the company.
Keep spreading the lies.
I don’t even give out emails. I am texting everyone. What have you got to lose??? Really?
Tara,
Your credibility… Your friends… Just for starters…
Paul can you tell me what “the app” does? How is it going to be distributed? on Itunes or play store? Think again.
Investor in Rippln? So you are getting stock of course, right? Let em know when that happens. You are as much an investor in Rippln as I am in sprint when I send someone there and get a finders fee credit lol
Tara,
You lose your rep which is worth how much? When this turns out to be a cheesy ass pyramid scheme you are going to look like an ass. How do you think your friends, family, colleagues will react when they figure it out before you?
I have explained to my friends that this could be a potential scam or a potential money maker. What do they have to lose? No meetings, no spam mail, no phone calls etc.
They will think nothing different of me no matter what happens!
Good luck with not getting spam email and spam phone calls. I’m reading that was what happened with those who signed up for similar MLM phone app scam, Wazzub last year.
I will be honest, I have joined and haven’t heard from chatting with a couple of Facebook friends about $300 fee, and the $49.95 fee. I advised individuals that there would be a cost, nothing comes for free. However, I also advised individuals that I wasn’t aware of the price absolutely. I really think this has the ability of taking off, think about it, the world is going to the mobile platform, and it is very important for companies to be able to reach that particular market. As a expressing my blog however, there is some difficulties with this program, especially with the fact that they are blatantly discriminating against the blind or visually impaired! I and another individual who is blind, have provided the administrators and support team information with fixing a glaringly obvious in excess ability part of the website, that is not blind or visually impaired individuals are presently unable to sign the nondisclosure agreement excessively. If Ripple is ever planning to make it big, I think it is important for them and their attorneys to be aware of the excess ability issues that currently exist with their software. Also, this has me a little concerned because of the fact that they are planning to release a Mobile application, and I’m not feeling very confident that it is going to be accessible. I would like to confidently be able to stay to my sighted and blind individuals, that this iPhone could be used by both parties. Unfortunately however, developers tend not consider accessibility when creating applications. You may be able to contact me on my blog, probably best through Facebook, if you want your application testing for accessibility from the blindness perspective. Just think, some people don’t even know that they are presently missing out on a vast market. Contact me, for more information! [Editor’s Note: This isn’t the place to drum up Rippln business.]
Michael, Empowering The Blind
I don’t buy into the whole, “Rippln will be successful because the world is going to mobile” argument. Much of the world buys shoes, but it doesn’t mean my shoe company is going anywhere. This is especially true if I’m hoping elves are going to show up at my house and make them to compete with Nike. It seems like that’s Rippln’s plan.
To date they haven’t given a reason for why the app is better than what’s already out there. They are marketing hype essentially.
It is astounding that so many people get caught up in the hype surrounding MLM’s in general.
Rippln is just one of many. The founders / players have a lot of inroads into the internet-marketing opportunity space (particularly Russel Brunson), which is why you’re seeing a 6 figure prospect base in “such a short period of time”.
I have no idea as to how scammy or legitimately fraudulent Rippln may or may not be – but the bottom line is that, obviously, all of the focus & resources have been placed on simply creating acquisition funnels.
The real $$ behind this will be the backend “training materials” and “licensing fees” for the “salesforce”. And not via the freemium model or paid-app model.
It takes considerable development time and capital to churn out games like “Angry Birds”. And, strangely, such apps do not need to rely on an MLM structure to achieve widespread adoption and growth.
Maybe it’s because they’re worth downloading in the first place.
Something I predict the “Rippln team” will have trouble producing – that is, apps that people will actually want and use.
The bigger issue here is this…
For all the hardship that these soon-to-be “groundfloor distributors” will inevitably endure (namely: oversaturation, general product marketability, financial outlay, etc.), and so on…
…why not simply invest all that time, energy and money into building your own product?
Because at the end of the day, at least you’d HAVE something. Maybe not a fortune, but you’d have at least a prototype, business plan (real assets), possibly some initial sales – and no matter what, you’d still have your pride.
Because even if you beat all the odds, and somehow escaped to the fringes of mathematically improbable outcomes by actually succeeding with Rippln…
…the value of your “business” is entirely chained to Rippln itself, and its leadership/founders. (Who are obviously not doing this for the long-haul, given their track records).
There’s no long-term value here. The guys on the “ground floor” are the ones who created the – let’s call it what it is – biz opp. Plain and simple.
Chris
Thanks Chris, that was a very insightful comment.
The people who are interested in this are jumping in because they see little risk. They are viewing it like sending a friend an email saying, “I heard this new thing Facebook is really cool”, except that it isn’t Facebook – of course and they have no idea if it is cool. They don’t consider spending much time or energy, and right now, it’s no money.
These aren’t the people who have the business training to know that you need to provide value to people to make money for the long-haul. What’s the last successful business you’ve seen that required almost no time, energy, or money? Sad that these people can’t see this. Sadder still, they’ll see that Rippln is looking for people to invest money and conclude that makes it a viable business opportunity.
Unfortunately I had my personal info submitted to these clowns by a friend who believes this nonsense. The Ripplers are coming alright. Get ready there will be a giant ripple once your personal info is sold/resold; a tsunami of spam and robocalls. It’s amazing how people talk about how wonderful the app is, and how you’ll make money from it when the app doesn’t even exist. The app is freakin vaperware and even if one is eventually released it will likely be a piece of spyware or junkware and not be approved by Apple/Google.
Thank you for this article. I was invited tonight to a sort of launch party for it in Columbus, OH. Whether they intend to scam, or if they are knowingly misleading, this company is certainly with many questions and the bio’s of those involved has me running for the hills.
A few things from my bias:
They told me is is the first time people can make money from social media. I actually make a six figure income from social media marketing, so that certainly is not true.
They use a lot of words like “key player” and “team players,” “ground floor opportunity,” etc etc All red flags.
They say they are growing faster than Twitter. How so??? Certainly not in terms of users. Perhaps in % of growth of number of users. Though, that is the same logic as if I started my own social network today, then had a few friends join tomorrow and I can claim my user rate is growing by over 200%.
The Marketing and Website and Videos: They arent bad quality, but they are far from outstanding quality. To me, it shows there is not much money behind this. With a tech company, to go from idea to full out execution, you need cash, lots of it (with a few exceptions.)
The “Key Players.” While I am sure all have been a part of some good companies and dont good things in life etc etc, and while I certainly don’t want to rule out someone based on their past, the fact that each key player has a suspect business past and they’ve now teamed up together is a huge red flag.
Thanks again for your article. And…in my websearch – your article came up first before anything their company has put out about their own company. So much for SEO
UPDATE:
I got an email from people associated with it. There is a meeting in the area in which people can pay $35 to meet the CEO. Seriously??? Pay to meet with someone who is pitching you their sales pitch? Who does that?
Ha ha, I’ve seen Hall of Fame baseball players charge less than $10. Weezer did a free concert this last week in the Boston area.
I guess Rippln is having a tough time of making an honest dollar and having to charge concert-like prices for no-name people.
The Rippln community is near a million is less than a month (faster than Instagram which sold for a billion dollars to Facebook.. and what was their product??? Taking pictures!!).
When you understand the true meaning of “eyeball acquisition” you will understand what is about to happen.
You will understand why the big boys such as Yahoo, Google and Facebook invest billions of dollars acquiring platforms.With Rippln, TONS of companies will knock down doors for Rippln to help them sell their apps and distribute products with their “engaged audience”. a,k.a within the ripple.Everyone within Rippln will be rewarded. (Watch recent video…cos you said Rippln is an MLM which it is not… lol). Rippln is NOT an MLM…You’ve been warned!!Industry icons, tech gurus are beginning to see the real pictures and are coming on board.UPDATE: App companies are now approaching Rippln!! (…you didn’t know that did you :) ) Maybe you would if you attend the live hangouts!Yahoo just bought Tumblr for 1.2 billion dollars. The owner of Tumblr is not even 30 years old.Which begs the question.. Why would Yahoo buy a platform…filled with “free users” for a billion dollars? …
the answer is obvious… ENGAGED EYEBALLS.
Why do companies invest millions of dollars for a 30 seconds advertising during the super bowl finals… ENGAGED EYEBALLS.
When you understand this, you will run to your computer and begin growing your Ripple immediately!
When Rippln gets to 10 million users before year end, by then most people’s future would have already been set for life.Question will be, where you there when it all started. Where you a part of it? Did you have the first movers advantage of a platform that will change history forever?
This is NOT an MLM!! or just an App. This is bigger than just 1 person!
The Ripple you create today will reward you forever… DON’T BE FOOLED and JOIN ALREADY for the sake of everyone you love.You join Facebook already didn’t you. Did you ask all those questions about facebook when you joined?
Questions like, where their office was located and the likes?No… you joined because all your friends where in it and thought it was cool.Watch the recent videos and training to get recent updates… Because frankly most of what you wrote here is incorrect. Am not saying you join me,.. but please do it now with the person that invited you or regret later.
As for everyone who came here to get a Rippln review… DO NOT for one second think that Rippln is a scam.
The biggest scam in history is the educational and school system that drained parents and students of their hard earned money.. for what??? no jobs, inflation.
The biggest scam is our children already in HUGE debts from college loans and have no way of paying it off with interest rate reaching all time high.The biggest scam is politicians promising you things they will never fulfill while keeping billions and trillions of dollars to themselves.
The biggest scam is your JOB.
Tech companies and smart entrepreneurs are racking in billions of dollars with technology in the “new social media era” while you slave away in your job.
Join Rippln and be free…. FOREVER..With great love.
It doesn’t look like the Rippln community is anything more than a collection of email address. Did they get an app approved that I’m not aware of. Instagram got a million real users of a product, Rippln has a million of people buying into hype on the off-chance that they’ll make money from it.
I understand “eyeball acquisition”, but that means getting real users, people who are really interested in using the product. Lazy Man and Money has had more than 3 million eyeballs having looked at its pages. And you know what, it actually delivers something of value to people.
There is nothing to make anyone think that the million people will be engaged users. I’m betting more than 80% of those never actually download the app. Of the remaining 20%, some 95% will use the app once or twice and realize that there’s nothing unique or engaging about it.
Rippln is an MLM, it’s just that they are using “Ripples” to explain the levels. MLMs have been renaming themselves to avoid being lumped into the industry. One24 as I have written about previously has done this a lot.
Apple and Google aren’t going to approve an app that lets Rippln have the data necessary to reward everyone, so you can forget about that happening. They won’t be allowed to release apps on their platform because that would circumvent the application approval process of Apple and Google.
Yahoo would buy a platform filled with free users because they are all engaged and creating content every day. Yahoo could slap ads on the site and start making money.
There is no engagement with Rippln… nothing to engage with.
Yes getting educated is a scam. I can see that you avoided that one with your response.
Great Reply Lazy Man. Of course, you know the Rippln fan probably just drank a large glass of the kool aid, popped open a Robert Kiyosaki, and wrote their reply word by word from a promotional brochure.
Lol KP.. You honestly think College and the educational system isn’t a scam?? who between us has drank a kool aid?
Everything R.K predicted has continued to happen (He said it long before it happened), Ignoring this is simply ignoring reality.
As far as Rippln goes, only time will tell.
Who is to say they wouldn’t come out with a Valuable End Free product that will foster engagement?
Didn’t other platforms do it? What makes you to believe they can’t.
And didn’t Facebook, Twitter and the likes collect all our email addresses and contact info? I mean what is the deal here. You guys keep acting like all these “big boy” powerhouses don’t have your email addresses in their databases… smh.
A while ago i tried commenting on a blog that had some type of Yahoo connect feature. They (yahoo) were asking “permission” to access my details before commenting!
But hey, they are Yahoo right.. who dare question them.
And yes Yahoo can get a platform like Tumblr and slap ads around it just like you do here on your blog… Yahoo keeps the billions though.
The rich continue to get richer, while the poor continues to stay poor and the economy is collapsing. Doesn’t this bother you all at all?
That only a few gets to keep all the wealth in a world filled with abundance?
Do you guys have any idea what a billion dollars can do if shared? The lives that will be affected?
I mean forget Rippln, but doesn’t that picture seem all awkward? That Yahoo just bought Tumblr for a billion dollars and would be monetizing it soon.
What about the users of the platform? where do they come in? Just create “good content” and remain broke? while the almighty Yahoo racks in billions and spread the spoils with their rich shareholders?
This doesn’t seem right and this is what Rippln is trying to combat. To provide good content and engagement as well as share a piece of the action with the users who populate them.
As far as Rippln goes again like i said only time will tell but it is an undeniable fact that this guys are trying to do something that has never been done before and if it does works, it will help a lot of people in the process.
If you search deep, you’ll see that this is the prayer of everyone in Rippln.
That it works so that EVERYONE wins!!!
Finally Rippln is NOT just an App. When would you guys start seeing the picture?
Yes they will release a Rippln App BUT that is far from what Rippln is…. its pointless to continue If you all think Rippln is just an App banking on whether or not Google and Apple approves of it.. smh
@Lazy man.. You owe me a drink someday for contributing this well for your blog :) Providing you some Google luv
Let’s be clear about Kiyosaki, I’ve shown that he’s scamming people with his MLM schtick. That article shows many reputable sources depicting exactly why he shouldn’t be followed. Ignoring that he scams people is simply ignoring reality.
Kelechi Ibe said, “As far as Rippln goes, only time will tell.”
Time has told us time and time again that these are scams. Is the Nigerian Prince who wants you to send him money a scam? Why don’t you get involved and find out. “Only time will tell”, right?
Kelechi Ibe said, “Who is to say they wouldn’t come out with a Valuable End Free product that will foster engagement? Didn’t other platforms do it? What makes you to believe they can’t.”
I’m to say that Rippln will not come out with a valuable product that will foster engagement. It is extremely difficult. There are very few Facebook and Twitters out there. Also by definition engagement is limited. People have limited time to engage. When they spend time on Facebook they aren’t on Twitter, Google Plus, Linked In, Pinterest, etc.
Didn’t other human beings dunk from the foul line? What makes you think that I can not? :-)
It’s simple odds and what we know about the company. There don’t appear to be any great technology roots as we’ve seen with other companies. We don’t see any venture capital funding to help them scale to serve people like Facebook or Twitter.
There’s nothing to think Rippln has any chance at a successful product.
Kelechi Ibe said, “And didn’t Facebook, Twitter and the likes collect all our email addresses and contact info? I mean what is the deal here. You guys keep acting like all these ‘big boy’ powerhouses don’t have your email addresses in their databases… smh.”
I don’t know about you, but I only gave Facebook and Twitter my information after I knew they had a proven product with millions and millions of users. The product was built and released before they started collecting emailing addresses.
Kelechi Ibe said, “A while ago i tried commenting on a blog that had some type of Yahoo connect feature. They (yahoo) were asking ‘permission’ to access my details before commenting! But hey, they are Yahoo right.. who dare question them. And yes Yahoo can get a platform like Tumblr and slap ads around it just like you do here on your blog… Yahoo keeps the billions though.”
That’s the blog’s fault for requiring Yahoo connect to leave a comment. I tend not to visit those blogs. That’s up to you. They probably gave you their content for free, so you shouldn’t complain. There’s no requirement that they give you the ability to leave a comment any way. Be grateful that they gave you the opportunity.
Yahoo should be able to slap ads on the product they paid 1.2 billion for. Many analysts have looked at the transaction and Yahoo will not be “keeping billions” if it puts ads on Tumblr. It’s not even close. Furthermore Yahoo has to pay the tech people and hosting costs to make all those webpages available. They have to pay to keep the software competitive in the marketplace (otherwise people will move to other blogging platforms – Google’s Blogger, WordPress.com, or just use Facebook or Google Plus). If it was really going to be “keeping billions” profitable you would have seen Google, Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft and a dozen other companies coming in an buying them. In fact, Tumblr wouldn’t have sold to Yahoo and put ads themselves and kept the billions.
It’s silly arguments like this that undermine your logic.
Kelechi Ibe said, “The rich continue to get richer, while the poor continues to stay poor and the economy is collapsing. Doesn’t this bother you all at all?”
Yes, this is why I write this blog to help everyone get access to information to make themselves rich if they are willing to do the right things. This is also why I warn them to avoid scams like these that appear to be illegal pyramid schemes (from the video Rippln released), which only serve to make the rich people at the top richer and the poor people at the bottom poorer.
Kelechi Ibe said, “I mean forget Rippln, but doesn’t that picture seem all awkward? That Yahoo just bought Tumblr for a billion dollars and would be monetizing it soon. What about the users of the platform? where do they come in? Just create ‘good content’ and remain broke? while the almighty Yahoo racks in billions and spread the spoils with their rich shareholders? This doesn’t seem right and this is what Rippln is trying to combat. To provide good content and engagement as well as share a piece of the action with the users who populate them.”
What about the users of the platform? They are getting free software, with no hosting costs, no headaches managing servers. This is a very good deal for them. If they want to make money from their content, it is very easy to set up a website, see I did. Hosting is pretty cheap (Dreamhost coupons made mine about $20 a year for the first year) and software (WordPress) is free. Or they sign up for Google’s Blogger service for free and put Google’s AdSense ads on it and get money.
Again, Yahoo isn’t racking in billions. People have the opportunity to monetize their content today and choose not to. It makes sense and there’s simply not enough engagement to spread over Tumblr’s million (or whatever the number is) blogs to bring everyone significant money.
Rippln has brainwashed you into thinking there’s a problem where one doesn’t exist.
Kelechi Ibe said, “As far as Rippln goes again like i said only time will tell but it is an undeniable fact that this guys are trying to do something that has never been done before and if it does works, it will help a lot of people in the process.”
Many companies have sold people on promises of vaporware. It’s the reason why the term exists. No it won’t help a lot of people in the process, especially if they start collecting money from people. That will be a sure sign that it is headed down the path of an illegal pyramid schemes.
Kelechi Ibe said, “If you search deep, you’ll see that this is the prayer of everyone in Rippln.”
If you search deep, you’ll see the many of the people in Rippln have a history in scammy organizations related to pyramid schemes.
@Kelechi, you owe me a drink for educating you on the whole Yahoo-Tumblr deal and the business behind it. You owe me 4 more for the time I wasted replying back to continued flawed logic.
@Lazy man, OR whatever your real name is… you are wrong in many ways.
Whats your argument. That all MLM are scams?
Don’t you know that there are other legit MLM companies out there?
You try to appear smart by expressing your frustrations in MLM, but when you start doing that you start losing your points… NOT ALL MLM are scams!
There are thousands of other MLM companies that succeed and how many have you written here that are scamming people? compared to the hundreds others.
You act as though all MLMs come out with the intentions of scamming people. And this is Wrong.
And Kelechi Ibe too has some point.
And your so called solution to changing the world with your HATE blog aint gonna do much.
Am not in “Rippln” and wouldn’t be.. BUT AM ON A MISSION to call out guys like you who hide behind a nickname “Lazy man and money” and intentional attack and insult others to get their point across freaking cyber bully!!!
Why don’t you put your face out there and speak like a real man you insecure thing.
I watched a video about the Rippln thing… and the only difference i see is that they put themselves out there.. they have videos of themselves live out there.. that speak volumes of their courage.
You freaking hide behind your freaking laptop and insult people who have opposing ideas with you. You have issues man.. show your face!
Blogs like yours are always a filled with hate (yuck!!!). Someone will try commenting and instead being straight and professional about it… you attack the person personally. I hate your blog. am outta here… Total hate and disgust.
John, you realize that you commented from the same IP address as Kelechi Ibe, right? I knew it before I even looked it up, because it was exactly the same writing style.
I’m pretty sure that I haven’t made the statement that all MLMs are scams. I have yet to find a legit MLM company though. Perhaps there’s a black swan in the group. It has eluded me.
If I had time to write about the thousands of MLM companies, I would. It takes weeks of research to cover any MLM company in any kind of depth. Even after I do all the research some unintelligent representative of the company spouts out some lie that the company told him and said that I didn’t do my research.
Ummm, if all MLMs don’t come out with the intentions of scamming people, it’s at least greater than 98% of MLM companies that do. I try to stay away from claims of “all.” It would be unfair to say that every person in prison in the world committed the crime they are in prison for. However, it is still fair to refer to prisoners as a whole as criminals. The extreme minority who were unfairly prosecuted doesn’t take away from the vast majority.
Are you sure you aren’t in Rippln, because you certainly seem like you are a big fan of it when you commenting as Kelechi Ibe.
I’m anonymous because I give out my net worth and income information on this blog. This is very common for personal finance blogs. It isn’t related to MLM. I also don’t cyber attack anyone and I’m not a cyber bully. I simply call out scammers when they commit scams, like maybe misrepresenting yourself as you have here.
The Rippln people are going to be asking for your money according to their videos. They better not be anonymous. I’m not asking for your money.
I don’t see where you see the hate from my blog. I give people information on how to save money and fix their finances. If you see hate in that, you are very misguided.
I’m pretty sure you didn’t see any personal attacks here and time and again, commenters leave comments about how professional I am even when people come spouting out lies who are completely ignorant.
John aka Kelechi Ibe
Everyone keeps saying that Rippln isn’t an app and you are right it seems to be an App Store! Can you possibly tell me how that is going to work out for your benefit?
The only people buying from this app store are going to be OTHER Rippln individuals (that’s if they can get the app store onto google play or iTunes). How is that NOT a pyramid scheme?
Well o well “Lazy man” mr IP tracker… Yeh i do know him.. HE IS MY BROTHER… who was hurt by your all your stupid sarcasm.
What now? you know my face from my typing too? Track that now!
The likes of you are found on Youtube… choosing to remain anonymous to gut out all their insecurities and hate about life and hurt others in the name of speaking the truth.
People who speak truth come out in the open and do so…even if they get flagged and hate. Why are you hiding your identity and sitting insecure behind your computer.
Ridiculous!
You just clearly showed how misinformed your judgement (and articles) could be by thinking my lil brother is appearing as someone else. While he is being so real.
Here is his fanpage: http://www.facebook.com/acollegeentrepreneur.
Almost 11,000 fans!
Here is his blog.. http://www.a-college-entrepreneur.com
He has his face BOLDLY on his header. And his proud of where he is from.
He is legit unlike you who hide behind a fake name and ramble.
Who are you? show your face, where is your contact page? I bet you can’t provide any of that.. because that is the first signs of cyber bullies. Choosing anonymity over authenticity.
Clearly he isn’t hiding away from anyone and he does his best to help others by educating them about success and entrepreneurship.
Take some lessons. Be authentic and be bold and stand for what you believe in.
Be real
Peace
John (a.k.a Kelechi Ibe biggest fan)
By the way the “Nigerian Prince” you always talk about HIDE BEHIND FAKE NAMES!! Just like you do here Lazy man!
Who is the scammer now scammer!
All you do is sit behind your laptop all day and collect ad revenues from your blog by appearing to be the voice of the masses.
The fact that we are Nigerians and some idiotic “Lazy man” in Nigeria choose to scam people by HIDING THEIR IDENTITY is no fault of ours.
See my point?
We are proud to be Nigerians even if we know some “Lazy man” out there is trying all they can to pull our NAME down. That doesn’t mean we all stand and not speak the truth openly. Hope you’re taking some notes here.
Hope you see where you are wrong here and can brace the courage to accept your wrong.
And i have a strong gut feeling that you are “Evan”.. you IP trackers!!
Evan and Lazy man, the perfect anonymous duo
John,
If you had disclosed you were Kelechi Ibe’s brother in the first place, we could have avoided any confusion. Unfortunately you chose to respond with the anonymous “John” and use an email related to a “Jon Williams.” It should be clear why it would be hard to connect Kelechi Ibe and Jon Williams as brothers. This is especially true when you use Jon and John seeming interchangably.
As I previously explained personal finance bloggers who give their income and net worth are almost always anonymous. This is the norm in the “industry” (for lack of a better term). Evan is a personal finance blogger as well who gives out such information and is anonymous too. You can find dozens of others in my blog roll (just keep refreshing, it displays a random group each time). It’s pretty simple, people don’t like to have their names attached with their personal financial information, but disclosing the personal financial information helps others in similar circumstances make similar financial decisions. No one cares if I’m Kelechi Ibe or Jo(h)n Williams, just that I have a similar net worth and income to them and making similar financial moves. Sorry that you are ignorant about how this works and I’m sorry that you required the explanation twice.
As for looking at your IP addresses, it’s printed right under your email address in WordPress’s default software installation. I didn’t do any kind of “tracking” that is out of the norm.
I’m not sure what sarcasm your brother found hurtful… maybe he can enlighten us. Quite honestly, if he has to run to his big brother because his feelings were hurt on an anonymous blog, he’s probably not mature enough to run any business, much less one like Rippln. If he was 10 and under running a lemonade stand, I’d understand, but he seems to be at least 21 as he suggest that I buy him a drink.
As for the Nigerian Prince thing, this is the commonly accepted term for the Nigerian scam. As the article notes, the scam happens in other countries, but that’s what most people know it as. I did not know about your Nigerian background and just was making reference to a well-known scam. To balance it out (and really I did nothing wrong here), I’ll say that I’m a big fan of the Nigerian Nightmare, Christian Okoye. I particularly like this Techmo Bowl likeness of his ability to fend of tackles – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_ddO5ENtus.
Now what I can’t understand is why you aren’t responding with an apology and thanking me for imparting my wisdom about the Yahoo-Tumblr transaction. Clearly if your brother wants to be an entreprenuer he’ll understand that he just got a great lesson on how to research a business transaction and appropriately value it rather than just assuming that Yahoo is going to make billions by putting ads on Tumblr.
An appropriate response would be, “Wow, thanks. That really makes sense about Tumblr and Yahoo. My brother took it the wrong way, but I’ll help explain it to him, because this a great lesson for him to learn. What you said about not taking everything in absolutes like I claimed with my over-reaction about your view that ‘all MLMs are scams’ really makes sense and I should think before I put those words in someone else’s mouth and then try to complain about it. Furthermore, I know understand that people have legit reasons for remaining anonymous on the internet.”
Many people would charge you for the lesson that you learned today, but you got it free. John, Jon, and Kelechi, you are welcome.
Brutal topic all around. Terrible arguments against Rippln. You’re essentially a joke Lazy man. This is basically what you are saying to everyone:
“HELP….EVERYONE RUN…..RIPPLN IS TRYING TO SCAM US ALL BY ALLOWING US TO JOIN FOR FREE. HOW DARE IT. AND OH NOOO…..IT GOT OUR EMAIL ADDRESSES…….I THINK MY BANK ACCOUNTS AND FAMILY HISTORY AND MY KIDS ARE ALL IN DANGER FROM POTENTIAL EMAIL SPAM……AHHHHHHH……RUN FOR THE HILLS”
Nighty night
Ryanna,
I never suggested any such thing that your bank accounts and kids are in any kind of danger from email spam. I’ve simply made the point that no one should waste their time with this. It won’t be the email spam that gets you, but the scam where they sell you (paraphrased) “a proven way to thousands for the low price of $99” or something like that.
“And i have a strong gut feeling that you are “Evan”.. you IP trackers!!”
– You got it buddy. We both created multi-year old sites mine with 950 posts NONE on MLM and his on 1000+ Posts with only 10 or 20 MLM posts just to mess with you. Idiot.
Ryanna, John and some random Letters,
Put your collective obvious lack of intelligence aside for just a moment.
Tell me how you plan on you all plan on making money? For anyone to make money someone has to take money out of their pocket whether that be a company via advertising or a customer via a purchase of something. Can we agree on that? So who is your customer? What are they buying?
How are you making money?!
Please don’t give me any horse shit about twitter and facebook. They provided a service that people flocked to (which then they sold advertising on). You think Rippln has the next social media *thing*? Stop it! Lets say I play along for just a second and say they do…what then? If it were so great why do they need idiot sales reps to get it out there?
No need to tell me about faith, God, being an employee is part of the pyramid scheme or that my education was the pyramid scheme (as the person who tried to get me involved).
Just answer those questions. So you don’t have to read again:
1) How will Rippln Make money?
2) How will YOU make money?
3) If 1 is so strong why would they share it with you?
Hi Guys, all I want to say is this is a massive pyramid scam, seriously think about it, say we have a billion USD share it with 10 MILLION PEOPLE you only get a Hundred bucks, thats not how its gonna work LoL they gonna take everything and just use you to make millions. Why would anybody spend hours to create an app or sumthing for 100 USD. Think about it LOL :-)
Great stuff i can now invest my hard earned cash in company i know very little about just because they tell me its going viral.
Rippln is a joke with its big claims and time frames Power Up? really at this stage haha invest your cash and then we’ll crash..
Well, this reading was rather entertaining. Please, everyone, continue. Considering how testy Kelechi Ibe and Jo(h)n are, they don’t appear very professional, but yet somehow entertaining.
On a side note; paying RippLn monthly and annual fees does not seem appealing to me without any product to show for itself. I’m hedging a bet they will also have a ‘premium’ version you will be asked to upgrade to for more features if and when they release the product. They keep saying the product is about to launch, but it’s been a number of months now. When???
It’s been 3 mths. Any updates?
Something similar is happening in HK.
see http://www.palmity.com and http://www.appcz.com
They levied a high joining sum of usd2,400 for a basic entry as “Advisor”
There are a few updates at Behind MLM. There’s this from the CEO apologizing for “failed expectations”: http://behindmlm.com/companies/rippln/rippln-ceo-apologizes-for-failed-expectations/. This is essentially what I was pointing out in this article. They were setting up expectations like everyone was going to be next ground level investor in Facebook, when they weren’t even offering stock in the company at all (a company of very little value since it has no real income and no product).
Wasn’t this post written in April or March? Didn’t everyone have to sign up like that week or miss out?!
Such a ridiculous garbage MLM
They may have said that you only have a week somewhere, but that’s never the plan for any of these MLM companies. They need to keep bringing in fresh meat to replace the people who leave.
These guys are worth less than dog [Editor’s change: poop].
It was a scam from the conception.
They ran the business from a facebook page, lol.
All the so called gurus packed up and ran off, huh? Jonathan Budd should be doing at least 5-20 for his crimes, and his pal Brian Underwood should be his bun buddy, right?
Next, we line up their sluts like Russell Brunson, Troy Olds, and Michael Rutherford.
Release the guys smoking pot and save their warm spot for these jerk offs!
[Editor’s note: I removed a line of this email as I don’t accept violence as a “solution” or “justice.”]
Brian was charged a few weeks ago for assaulting an elderly man in Daviess county, Ky. [Editor’s Note: I haven’t been able to find if this accurate.] Pruvit people need to know his background. He is bad news. Talks a good talk but he’s a creep. With time people will find out who he really is.
SAD BUT TRUE….
State of KY vs. Brian Underwood
Case: 16-M-0145
Division III
DAVIESS DISTRICT COURT
There are a couple of BU’s in KY. The ceo of Pruvit is the same BU named in the charge.