Welcome

Welcome to the first newsletter from Asset Scholar! We're planning on doing a summary of new posts on the site each month.

In this edition you will see:

1. More Commentary About Here, The Fractional Real Estate Investing Platform For Short Term Vacation Rental Properties

2. Alternate Investing News Articles from January

3. New Investing Platform Resources from January

‼️ TOP STORY
Let's Talk More About Here

When I first started research for our article on Here's lack of recent activity, I was hoping to have a more exciting conclusion. There wasn't enough information available to connect everything together though.

I wanted to share some of what didn't end up making it into the original article with our email subscribers.

Equity Crowdfunding Controversy

Here currently has an equity crowdfunding campaign ongoing on Wefunder. It's now reached over $3M in reservations.

Reservations is the key word here. The fundraising round hasn't fully launched after 6 months. This is because they have yet to file their Form C. The form provides a variety of disclosures, including financial information about the company.

This is somewhat strange. As far as we know, Here has raised a total of $7M in funding so far - including $5M in their most recent round. That makes even $1M a significant injection of funds.

Outside of the stalled Form C, the real controversy stems from how they're handling investor questions on the raise. Here's an example response:

Our Investor Relations team would love to speak with you. Please email us at [email protected]

They haven't answered a single question so far. According to Wefunder, they are allowed to answer this way, but it is not recommended. When Wefunder reached out to Here regarding investor concerns, Here responded with:

Here is held to a strict regulatory standard due to the nature of their business model as an investment platform regulated by the SEC under Regulation A+. If you'd like to speak with a member of their team, you can email them at [email protected].

This also mirrors the answers Here provides when asking why they don't provide information on the expected return for a property listing.

It's hard to know how to evaluate this position. Are they legitimately unsure how to navigate disclosing information in a compliant way? Or could they do it if they really wanted to, but they're using it as an excuse to avoid hard discussions?

For some, this behavior alone is enough to turn them off from investing in their equity crowdfunding campaign.

Is Funding An Issue?

To be clear from the start of this section, I don't know. Everything here will be somewhat speculative.

One of the most interesting things about Here's recent period of low activity is how starkly it contrasts with August and September of last year.

It's my personal theory that the increase in the rate of property listings during that time were a part of a fundraising strategy that might have looked something like this:

• Use their summer funding to increase the amount of listings per month, the company's revenue, and the number of registered users.

• Collect a smaller cash injection from their equity crowdfunding raise to help sustain the higher rate of listings, until....

• They close an additional fundraising round in early 2023. I'm guessing they would have sought $10-$15M in additional funding.

Obviously, that didn't end up happening. Interest rates rose sharply, property valuations began fluctuating, startup valuations collapsed, and venture capital became increasingly hard to come by.

While LinkedIn doesn't have an updated employee account I can see, I did see at least one post implying there were some layoffs at Here.

How much of these potential changes - a lower rate of property listings and reducing staff - are done out of stress, as opposed to cautious capital preservation over the short and medium terms? We really don't know, but if Here needs money, there are millions of investment dollars waiting for them in reservations on their equity crowdfunding raise. They just need to get that Form C filed to get the ball rolling on collecting it.

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