There’s a lot to talk about.  We’ve had almost two months since we transitioned to Bitcoin back, we introduced a new Bitcoin-based member recruitment process offering 5 Now and 5 For Life, our next offering has progressed through the SEC, and our stock (OTCQB: RWRDP) is now DTC eligible, which means buying and selling on the OTC can commence.

Unfortunately, because we are public, sometimes I’m forced to communicate in generalities.  My apologies for that; I sometimes feel like I have the SEC sitting on my shoulder, waiting for a misstep.  But I always feel like I have our SEC lawyers on the other shoulder, trying to help me avoid a misstep.

The Bitcoin back transition

It’s going well.  Our cash gross profit (the number I think is most important, because it’s what we pay our bills with) is doing nicely.  We are gaining new members who are cryptocurious, or are already intimately familiar with cryptocurrencies.  Both are positive for our long term expansion.  And we still need to expand.  We’re not yet cash flow break even.

We’ve lived through some of the most amazing volatility ever seen in the Bitcoin market.  While it’s too soon to know for sure, I don’t think it affected us one way or the other.  As I’ve mentioned elsewhere, we are not trying to speculate on Bitcoin.  We’re hedging our position so that we reduce our exposure to price fluctuations.

Bitcoin-based new member recruitment

The best place to read about this is a post I made earlier this month.  It’s only been a couple of weeks, but this effort is paying off.  The KPIs we watch (Key Performance Indicators) are all up.  Those are all leading indicators; the real proof will come in about a month or three when we can see how these new members are shopping.  The early indicators here are positive, too.

Lowering the cost of customer acquisition and increasing the lifetime value of a customer are the Holy Grails of direct response businesses like iConsumer.  Transitioning to Bitcoin allows us to more strategically address our potential audiences as we seek to grow our customer base.  Once you’re a shareholder / customer, our goal is to delight you so that you buy more, buy more often, and stay a customer longer.

Our plan is to have our own token / coin, our own cryptocurrency.  Preliminarily we’re calling it REWARDScoin.  Our belief is that the transition to Bitcoin now will make the eventual transition to REWARDScoin even easier and less expensive.

Our next offering – financing the future

It was filed with the SEC in late January.  View it here.  They have twenty-seven days to comment on it.  If they’re satisfied we’ve done our part, they’ll qualify the filing.  If not, they’ll comment, and we’ll need to address their comments.  They’ve been very clear, concise, and supportive of our goals through our previous offerings.  I’m hopeful that we’ll be qualified by the end of the month.

That will give us the ability to have our members earn stock that we can issue and transfer.  50,000 members are waiting for that day.

The highlights of the offering include an increase in the offering price per share from our prior offering ($.09 per share to $.15 per share) and our discussion of our blockchain efforts.

We’re relying on this offering to raise the cash we need to build our membership.  The near-term goal is 250,000 members, which we project (that’s a forward-looking statement, no guarantees) will get us to cash flow break even.

Buying and selling our stock

It’s not easy yet, but we’re making progress.  I spend most of my time focused on this issue.  We’ve got an entire article on this.  Because we did this a brand new way, we’re all learning some of the unforeseen challenges.  Right now, the challenge is getting broker dealers (think stock brokers like TD Ameritrade) to want to deal with our stock.  We’re a penny stock.  There are lots of rules that these folks need to follow when dealing with penny stocks.  None of those rules make it easier for iConsumer.

On top of that, while we have lots of shareholders, and lots of shareholders in waiting, most of those shareholders are first-time investors with very small portfolios (think 100 shares of iConsumer stock).  Stock brokers don’t yet know what to do with that opportunity, so we’re helping them understand it.  But it takes time.

Fortunately, we have allies in this.  The OTC markets group is being very helpful.  Our large investors are going to bat for us, and a raft of other folks as well.  Part of our strategy is to create a groundswell of interest in iConsumer’s stock.  We’re asking our shareholders who do have brokerage accounts to bring it to the attention of their brokers.

Conclusion

Shop, tell friends, consider making a bid on our stock, save up to invest in our offering…and enjoy the ride.  When we started down this path, almost three years to the day, we had no idea it was going to take this long.  While the journey had some fun moments, the goal is within reach.  We’re finally changing the faces of Wall Street, giving the 99% a chance to really participate in our economy.

Thanks for taking the journey with us.