Mr MacKenzie cited an email from Crowdcube, which advised his company: “If we are aiming for £2.5 million as [final campaign] target, with a [launch] target of £1.5 million then you should aim to line up £700,000 to £1 million [yourself] to build up enough momentum to galvanise our crowd investors.” Mr MacKenzie told The Times: “Crowdcube set a timetable to raise the funds and drip the money [brought in by the company’s management team] in to create the feeling that time is running out for potential investors.” Since his business, a social media platform called aspokesmansaid.com, which allows people to identify companies that do not provide good customer service, did not end up listing on Crowdcube, we’ll never know how these “off platform” funds might have been presented to investors.

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/business/workinglife/article4685947.ece