Tim Arnold pointed to one such success: his own advertisement for GoDaddy.com in the 2005 Super Bowl. The ad generated 5 million Web hits in 48 hours and doubled the company’s market share in the months that followed. Writes Arnold, “It was an outrageous spot that arguably stayed on the right side of the line of good taste and political impropriety. Viewers gave it mixed reviews, but GoDaddy’s business went through the roof as a result of it.”
http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/super-bowl-a...
FTC puts proceeds of settlement into a "consumer restitution" or "consumer redress" fund. Consumers who were affected by the bad actors, can claim their money back via a separate company which administers that fund. After a period of time, once all affected customers have had time to claim their restitution (usually 12-24 months), then any remaining money left in the "redress" or "restitution" fund goes into the FTCs coffers. I can't quickly find stats on what percentage is usually claimed by consumers. But last time I researched this, it was pretty low with something like <10% of affected consumers actually claiming their restitution and 90% going back into FTC budget.
I agree - the notion that LendingClub is P2P is mostly PR hype. Sure an individual can put some capital to work. But most of their capital as pointed out above comes from institutions (mostly hedge funds). I had heard that 95% of their capital was institutional but I can't find a quote on that. P2P gets fantastic press tho and which in turn drives down new borrower acquisition cost.
Wow! I can see a misguided politician already saying something like "Maybe all bitcoin exchanges/wallets/etc need money transmitter licenses or FDIC insurance"
Simple was/is a dressed up version of a prepaid debit card with a good mobile app and a good web ux. Typically prepaid cards net $1-$4 per active user per month depending on the level of fees. An active user is someone that has loaded cash onto the card. So if Simple had 100,000 customer which could translate into 100,000 loaded cards, its gross revenues would be between $100K-$500k per month (1.2-6m per year). My guess is the 100K number is simply customers that ever signed up for it and that their active accounts (loaded cards is much much lower). Kudos to the Simple board, investor and team - selling at that sort of price is unbelievable. I would happily work with any investor who could help me get that sort of valuation for my companies.
I second the Single family rentals (SFRs). Follow the 12% rule which is that the house HAS to rent on an annual basis for at least 12% of purchase price. For example a $100K house has to rent for at least $12K per year ($1000/month). So put 20% down ($20K), get a 30 year fixed for $80K. Your expenses on monthly basis are mortgage + prop tax + prop manager + prop insurance = $500-$600. Rental income = $1000 per month. So you clear $400-$500 per month ($4800-6000/year) per rental property. With 20% down ($20K), that's a ROI of right around 20% before any property appreciation. Note: I didn't include closing costs which fluctuate a fair bit depending on lender and where the property is.
There are tons of ebook money plans/schemes - go hunt around blackhatworld.com and read some of the threads there. Some are nonsense and some are legit.
Lawyer up if the app is valuable - eg has the potential to make you over 100K, if its worth less than that, send a nastygram and move on to better apps.
I wonder how many people that declare bankruptcy own a big flat screen TV with a DirectTV subscription with at least one premium package (Showtime, HBO, etc)?
Get an outsider who can give you concrete unbiased advice on your process. An attorney is ok, but generally an investment banker who specializes in your size company is best. See the threads listed in previous comment.