Paseo crowdfunding an awful idea

The urge to fund businesses via crowdfunding jumped the shark months ago, yet the pleas from business people for free money continue. Greg Gans, a partner from startup Savvy Orders and a fan of Paseo, is turning to Kickstarter to raise money to save the bankrupt restaurant known for their killer Cuban sandwiches. They’re looking to take $250,000 of your dollars so they can reopen the business and then charge you to eat at a restaurant you just paid for. You share in none of the profit, though, depending on your contribution, you may get a free sandwich every month as a perk. Yay.

This campaign is lazy and unnecessary. Want to reopen a business? Pay for it out of pocket or turn to loans. Don’t hit up people who have an emotional connection to a shop and then leave them from gaining any of the profits. I’m tired of the shortcuts business people are trying to take in order to open businesses and live off the profits. You have virtually none of the risk, but all of the profits? No thank you.

When filmmakers turned to fans to raise money for the Veronica Mars film, you knew the crowdfunding movement jumped the shark. You mean to tell me you couldn’t get the $5.7 million from producers and a studio? You had to take it from fans desperate to see it on film? If there’s a legitimate market for the film, you can find backers pretty easily when you have an A-list actress (with an apparent net worth of $16 million) and an established brand.

As it turns out, funding Paseo is also a really bad business decision.

Gans explained to MyNorthwest.com, “Having a restaurant would be great but we don’t necessarily need that as our profits.” Yeah, that sounds like a great idea that won’t lead to another issue of employees allegedly not getting paid: let’s hand over $250,000 of our money to folks who aren’t looking to turn a profit in an industry that is notoriously difficult to succeed in. He has some big vision of a co-op. Well, do it on your own dime, not ours.