My apologies for trying to do something good that looks to at least one person like fraud.

[Shanti Mama]

Permission from Skinner to post this.

It dawned on me that I could just as easily offer to DUers what I'm now pitching to high net worth individuals. I'm offering 15% interest on loans to a socially responsible business I founded and am building. I'd so, so, so much rather create wealth for like-minded internet friends than for rich people who want to feel better about where they put their money.

Subject was: Need help with subject line... please.

Here's an intro to the company:

Himalayan Wild Fibers (HWF) is a socially and environmentally responsible American company, operating in Nepal and committed to “Development through Enterprise.” We buy fiber—environmentally sustainable and wild growing—through ethical supply chains and sell it into developed textile markets.

Our mission is to transform the lives of thousands of Nepali families by creating opportunities for them to generate cash income. The majority of those who will be touched by our work are among the most marginalized, landless laborers or small scale subsistence farmers. While our goal is to have a large economic/social impact in Nepal, the company will also generate substantial profits, a portion of which will be held in trust for reinvestment in Nepal.

I need financing asap because my investor dropped out (personal issue for him)and am offering 15%, nearly three times the market rate, over 7 years (through 2016). The minimum for DUers would be $10K (it's 25K for the rest of the world). Please private message me if you're interested and want more information, and/or keep this kicked.

Thanks,
Shanti Mama

PS It's 9:16pm here. Going offline until morning. I hope this gets kicked enough to stay on. the radar

[Name removed]

1. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Name removed]

2. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[havocmom]

3. I should have cached the legitimate questions of a well established DUer

Because they were legitimate questions. The fact that OP met them with such animosity speaks plenty to me re this business opportunity.

And yeah, I suppose my reply will be deleted also, which would give me a whole new set of concerns, and during a DU fund drive? :wtf: Come on, can we have Skinner please let us know this has his OK? And was he OK with legitimate questions going bu-bye?

:hi: mods. Sorry, but this time a gentle call out may be in order.

[Skinner]

6. Look, I'm not taking sides on the legitimacy of the enterprise.

But two people arguing over whether I gave permission for a post is pointless. Neither side can possibly prevail without my stepping in.

[havocmom]

7. Appreciate that you clarified the OK to post OP

But other poster did raise some legitimate concerns and consumer protection is a liberal value ;)

Not fighting with you, Skinner, but just looking at the facets here besides the saving of face.

[Skinner]

4. Yes, I gave permission for this post.

To be clear: I have no personal knowledge of this company, and giving permission to post is not an endorsement from me. I think it goes without saying that if anyone is thinking of investing money in something, you do so at your own risk. It just seemed like the type of thing that might interest our visitors.

(FWIW: Typically I inform the moderators about stuff like this ahead of time. So if you have any concerns, just hit alert and they will deal with it.)

[havocmom]

5. Thank you for varifying that, Skinner

My above post stands, at least until the delete. The questions were fair. And they were a lesson most of us need refreshers in as we see so many scams about these days.

[Ms. Toad]

8. While I support the principles espoused by the company

As someone who has invested that kind of money in start-up/charitable ventures in the past, I would encourage you to get your house a little better in order before seeking what (for smaller investors at least) is a sizable chunk of money.

I visited your website, and about half the links return the 404 dead link message. Personally, I would not be likely to invest money in an entity owned by a person I did not already know personally which couldn't successfully carry out the task of creating a functional website before asking for investments. Doesn't need to be fancy - simple and elegant is often better, but whatever is there should be attractive and completely functional.

(A website is not a minimum criteria for me, by the way, just that whatever you do publicly to generate interest and investments needs to be well done when you are asking other people to entrust their money to you.)

[Shanti Mama]

9. My clarifications

Thanks, Skinner, for stepping in.

As to everything else, my post was not intended to be the entire offer. I have a proposal, lots of data, a partnering university in the UK for research and a partnering manufacturing company in Italy. The local offices of Save the Children and MercyCorps are interested in working with us to scale up production.

I am, for now, a one-woman band. I'm also a single mom to two and, like so many of you, I have little money and no health insurance. Making the website work for a company that will not really need a website was not high on my list of priorities. No other prospective investor has criticized the fact that it's not good. And the website does have photos that show real people, stories written by me. You can see that I'm not in Nigeria.

What blew me away was the animosity I felt thrown at me. I actually went to bed crying because it had all backfired so badly and I felt hurt by the immediate and total discounting of what I posted, the assumption that I was promoting a scam. This is DU. I could have been asked questions that were genuinely curious about the proposition, something you can't do with an email scam.

All I wanted to do was to try to involve people (DUers) who need the return more than the ones who are getting to me through other channels, and who might be more enjoyable to deal with.

I'm sorry if I seemed to be equally so. I was trying not to be until my sarcasm crept in.

I wish I could remove the entire thread and just continue with my networking with jerks with too much money.