We want to keep everyone who has supported us so far as up to date as possible.
As many of you know, we have been looking at a specific property, and had planned to sign a lease for the space incredibly soon. Some things have changed, and I want to make sure everyone is informed anytime we make big decisions like this one.
First:
The 2000 STEEM goal we have set for our startup was determined by the value of the currency, as it stood. As everyone here knows, STEEM, and cryptocurrecies in general, have seen a very large dip over the last couple weeks or so. We have watched as our startup fund has grown 25%+ over the last week, while the value in dollars has decreased by roughly 40%. This leaves us with significantly less spending power if that STEEM is converted to fiat at it's current value.
We have full faith that STEEM will see a hefty rise, and soon. Just not soon enough. We are now faced with making a decision between withdrawing now for around $2,700, or waiting until the value comes back up. Unfortunately, the latter leaves us vulnerable to further decreases in value, which are always a possibility in the crypto-sphere.
On top of that,
the terms for the space we were looking at have changed, increasing almost 3 fold. We were originally told one price, which included utilities, on a specific space. Apparently the agent with whom we were speaking didn't entirely know what the owners had in mind for the space, and when I got a copy of their lease today, things were laid out much differently than I had been told.
Things like having to have written permission for any partitions we put up, and that we can't rent the space ourselves. How is a makerspace supposed to be open 24 hours a day, or rent stalls to entrepreneurs if we don't have the authority to do with the space what our business model says we need to... I understand a large part of it is bureaucracy and lawyer talk, but it wouldn't put us in a very good position until we were able to buy the entire building, and do exactly what we want with it, but that would cost $550,000, currently around 225,000 STEEM...
By the way, whales, we would be more than happy to negotiate taking on a 4th member of our LLC, who would be entitled to a full quarter of all profits, in exchange for the funds to buy such a building, or any other... Come talk to us...
This was also a five year lease, at $1172 per month plus the cost of utilities "above what the building uses while empty", which was determined by them to be about $350. The building only has one meter, meaning even though we are only renting half of the basement, the lease reads as if we would be responsible for the whole... As is common, a stipulation in the lease states that If we vacate for any reason, we are still liable for the entire lease amount (roughly $70,000). So if I sign this paperwork, I'm stating that no matter what, I'm going to be giving these guys $70k. Idk about all that.
As it stands,
we are expanding our search for a location. We have mostly been focusing our attention on the downtown district, but have decided that any location may be what we need to start up, instead of a gem of a location with prime foot-traffic. If we can find a location large enough to host a small makerspace, roughly 1000 square feet, at the right price, we will withdraw from our fund, and get our physical presence started as soon as possible.
If we can get our physical makerspace started up in any location on something as small as a 6 month,or even a 1 year lease, it would give us the time to build our customer base, without chaining us to something we may not be able to afford to start. We have put in requests to look at a few other properties, and will be sharing updates as soon as we know more.
Dream Team;
Those who have invested with us deserve rationality, not a team who jumps to decisions that could start us off on the wrong track. We want your investments to be as powerful as possible, and create the greatest start it can. We are also looking at other avenues of funding, and will be starting a local crowdfund, allowing us to get started as quickly as we can. Please understand that we are very excited to get this project truly started, but we want to be very smart about it. There are now over 30 of you, and we want to do right by every single investment, small and large.
@daddykirbs, @carrinm, @karinzdailygrind, @barbara-orenya, @bitshares101, @cgbartow, @roofcore, @ethandsmith, @fingersik, @yekrats, @fun2learn, @aussieninja, @creon, @asianetwork, @improv, @doughtaker, @plushzilla, @el-cr, @kunschj, @mdbrantingham, @mattclarke, @kedi, @o07, @crosheille, @stephen-somers, @holoz0r, @millennia, @calumam, @brandonp, @pacific-yt, @dysprosium, @scuzzy,
We would love to hear what every one of you thinks about this.
There are three members of this LLC, @criticalphil, @cryptomomma, and myself, @thatsweeneyguy. I am the only one of us who is regularly active on Steemit, and this is all my idea, so I take the full brunt of public opinion, and all of the responsibility of the fund that I have collected. I will always do my best to deliver everything I have promised. I have never seen such support for one of my ideas, either locally or online, and this will be my first real-world business. I cannot explain in words the motivation your support has given me, so I want to make carefully thought out decisions, and let my actions speak for me. Anyone who has read my blog for very long will know that I am a scrupulous person, almost to a fault, and will never conduct myself in a shady manner with other people's money.
I also want all of you to know that this changes nothing about when you will start receiving payments. As soon as our 2000 STEEM funding goal is met, all blog profits from that point forward will be subject to the budget including Dream Team Dividends. Mostly, this post is to explain that it may take a little longer for us to get our physical end up and running. We will start creating educational content focused around S.T.E.A.M., making, crafting, and tinkering, which will help bring in extra SBD to be shared with the Dream Team as well, we just won't be blogging about having a super cool space where we make super cool steem things... yet.
- Jonathan Sweeney ( @thatsweeneyguy )
Owner of The Steem House LLC
Get caught up on all the details of our project here and here!
Please support this project by upvoting, resteeming, and giving us feedback!
Hey dude!
That sucks! Although, not super surprising given that in my experience, real estate agents tend to say whatever they want to try and land a sale, factual or not. Keep looking my friend, obviously I want this done right, not fast. You're doing a great job of communicating... as long as you don't go silent... I'm happy!
It's a great initiative and you'll make a difference; not just in your area but on Steem itself... the mainstream media is going to love this once it's set up.
Totally trust you guys to do it right, keep doing what you're doing!
It is what it is, mate.
Just keep making the best decisions you can with the best information you have.
Back your judgement and look after yourself.
That's all we can do. We'll be sure to keep everyone updated when we look at some of the other spaces we plan to look at.
I think looking for a smaller location would be just fine for now and I totally trust you three to make the best decisions on the road forwards. A secondary Indiegogo campaign (or similar) might do really well if you can get our local affiliates like WKYT, WLEX, WDKY, etc involved, and that shouldn't be difficult to do, I'd be willing to help reach out to them.
Hey @thesteemhouse.
I would suggest, alonside a gofundme or something similar campaign, to talk with the municipality or the equivalent to see if there are funds for such initiative. In Italy, if you present a good plan, you can usually get some help from administration.
Every little bit counts I guess!
Have a nice day,
Luca ✌️
We're definitely looking into any grants that the government might have available for such a business, though many will require us to already have a location. We're searching down every possible source of funding for a startup tech/education company, though, and we're sure we'll find some extra help soon.
Thanks for the update,
Keep on truckin and talk to you on the discord :)
As someone who pitch in some support, I'm really curious about how are you going to sustain and get profit? Do you intend to fully rely on cryptocurrencies or do you have other projects too?
As explained in some of our earlier posts, this is a real-world, for-profit business. The funds we are raising are to get that physical business started. The makerspace itself will pay monthly dues, and we will charge for any materials and consumable supplies used by members.
We also intend to hold many workshops/classes, all of which will have an admission price.
The buy in being offered for STEEM is a portion of the liquid currencies generated by this blog account
Investors will still benefit from physical profits, but only because part of those profits will be put into SteemPower as an investment for our team, which will increase the revenues on the blog end.
Thanks for staying curious about the details, and I'm sorry it took so long to answer this.
Thanks for the reply. Truly appreciate it. i will certainly plan to visit the makerspace one day.
and i do agree with @millennia to post your projects on indiegogo or crowdfund.
In Beijing, there are companies that set up to host other small businesses like an incubator. They also host business talks and encourage young ppl who strive to be young entrepreneurs. Most of them does e-commerce or services.
Keep up with the great work =)
The terms of that lease would make me want to run. I think there's several whales that would be able to very easily fund such an endeavor, and their reluctance to do so; instead leasing out SP or devoting themselves to pay for vote bots; when a very real opportunity to assist a community, grow the platform; and give it a physical presence....
It paints a picture of what some facets of the community stand for... themselves and nothing but.
What I'm trying to say is 225k steem for a building is a bargain!
I have to agree, and that's just for this building, which is a 3 story school. I'd certainly be willing to look at smaller buildings if we owned one, and if the price of steem would come up, we could find a very nice location to purchase for roughly 50k steem, easy. Property is fairly affordable in my city at the moment, because we are just now getting started with the city's remodel.
Our governor just gave us millions of dollars to enhance our city. Mostly because we're the capital and need it more than most... Now's a great time to buy into Frankfort, KY :)
I signed up for whatever it is that comes up from this your great idea and i trust so much in your ability than to be wavered by just a little setback that you have stated above. I trust you to make the best decisions for this idea.
Tiny setbacks are bound to happen. It's pushing past them that creates success. Thank you for your trust and confidence.
Steem on. I'm doubling down on my initial sum.
Thank you for your confidence.
There are always little bumps on the road to success. These things often happen for a reason and your perfect space is going to appear soon.
I think the same thing. Maybe being forced to pass on this one will lead to a space I haven't seen yet that could work even better!
You seem determined, and despite the speed bump , I have send you $75 steem, so I am in.
Thank you very much for seeing our hard work, and deciding to support our cause. Your investment will not go to waste, that's for sure.
Thanks for handling the money wisely. I have also decided to double my investment. I did a second transfer like many others. All the best and may God grant you great wisdom to make the best decision!
I agree with @mdbrantingham and just doubled my investment. I trust you'll do what's best with the information you have available.
Thank you for your vote of confidence! We will always do our best, because if we don't, what's the point?
I can see why @timcliff wants us to be out there 'shilling' and making the investors realize just what the potential of Steem is to the future digital economy. As the highest rated cryptocurrency on the Weiss Cryptocurrency Rating scale, I was as surprised as anyone else about the price of late, but most investors that understand the value of a commodity knows that in the long term the price is linked to the value of the asset. I believe that you have the best interest of the people who have contributed at heart, and I am sure we will find a solution to the problem as a group!
Hey @thatsweeneyguy,
don't feel bad! This development sucks, but you are not at fault! Please do not feel pressured by our backing, small and large, and do not take on risky financial endeavors. There will be opportunity, and then you'll be ready! :) I trust you, do what you think is best!
Pressure from backers isn't always a bad thing. I think that if this were my money, I'd probably be more likely to take risky decisions with it that may end badly. The fact that someone else gave it to me for a purpose makes me want to make the best decisions with it that I can.
Thank you very much for your continued support.
The guys in the first building wanted to rip you off...fuck them...take you time and find a better starting location...i share your point of view that starting location doesn’t need to be in a very centre of the town:) as long as it is not far from the centre it’s all good:)
The thing with our city is that it really isn't incredibly large, with only about 30,000 citizens. We could start anywhere in town, build awareness and an income, then move downtown when we get the opportunity, and everyone would be totally cool with it.
totally something to sent some steem for soon ;) really cool project and nice to see people with this motivation
Keep up the good work! don't let this stop you. You will find the space you need!
Sometimes the best decision only presents itself after a set-back. Wishing you all the best.
Hope you find a good location soon! Looking forward to more updates. Upvoted :)
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