EEVblog 1408 - $5M WiGL Wireless Charging BUSTED!

[EEVblog]

Just look at the VT video, it's 5 seconds of some professor pushing the cart. No opinion, no commentary, no other info.

LOL, the July 2021 demo at the university has been REMOVED!

[DrG]

Note to self: check out Startengine, it seems to be the ideal vehicle .....

After you do, could you please explain to me what you get for the 3.5% (apparently of gross raised amount?) platform fee. How does that compare to traditional sources bring shares to market like in the more usual IPO?

[coppice]

Virginia tech puts out some amazing sports research, so didn't believe when they said VT had anything to do with this.
You could pass the youtube link on to schools lawyers, but I don't know if its enough for them to care. They didn't say "sponsored by VT", or "approved by VT" or anything implying an actual relationship.

And that's how these people work. They get people like universities, or the inventor of the RFdigagnostics chip, or UL (in the case of Batteriser for example) to verify some small aspect of their work, very likely without telling them the full scope of their grandiose impractical claims. And then they use that snippet to imply endorsement. And the neat thing is they aren't technically lying.
That's the reason why they want me to interview them, so they can use it as marketing fodder.

Just look at the VT video, it's 5 seconds of some professor pushing the cart. No opinion, no commentary, no other info.

The term for this is the motte and bailey fallacy. Make a big dodgy claim. When pushed, retreat to a smaller indisputable claim. When nobody is looking return to the big claim.

[EEVblog]

Note to self: check out Startengine, it seems to be the ideal vehicle .....

After you do, could you please explain to me what you get for the 3.5% (apparently of gross raised amount?) platform fee. How does that compare to traditional sources bring shares to market like in the more usual IPO?

You get the visibility of the platform, and the ease of use of just clicking a button to invest.
There are people who trawl these sites all day looking for now things to invest in, or Indiegogo or Kickstarter for projects to back. These sites even give badges to people who have backed a certain number of projects.

[DrG]

Note to self: check out Startengine, it seems to be the ideal vehicle .....

After you do, could you please explain to me what you get for the 3.5% (apparently of gross raised amount?) platform fee. How does that compare to traditional sources bring shares to market like in the more usual IPO?

You get the visibility of the platform, and the ease of use of just clicking a button to invest.
There are people who trawl these sites all day looking for now things to invest in, or Indiegogo or Kickstarter for projects to back. These sites even give badges to people who have backed a certain number of projects.

Sounds like we are all doomed - I would rather knock on Katie Hopkins' door.

[EEVblog]

Prepare for WiGL to join the chat! 
And if they do, please be nice to them and keep it technical.

[EEVblog]

Just look at the VT video, it's 5 seconds of some professor pushing the cart. No opinion, no commentary, no other info.

LOL, the July 2021 demo at the university has been REMOVED!

It's been set to private

[EEVblog]

Peer reviewed paper incoming! 
And it's kinda funny how this guy can't send their latest demo video to his friends because they have removed it from Youtube.

[EEVblog]

I just want to post this again with a highlight, because I suspect we'll keep coming back to it.

[EEVblog]

It's all about the capacitors and some magic networking woo-woo.

[MrMobodies]

Note to self: check out Startengine, it seems to be the ideal vehicle to scam poor sods out of their money. So much more efficient than even the previous champion, IndieGoGo. 

Just looking through the comments and noticed this:




So there are 9 days left from now but a month ago it was 6 days left and then they extended to 30 days.

They can change the state of their campaign as they please and seems to be looking scammier the more I read into it.

Joke: One thing I like about the platform, the replies to comments are hidden by default so I don't have to see the owner's dribble seeing how Dr. Ahmad G seems to reply to them a lot.

[SL4P]

They’re right… it’s not just another mousetrap!
A mousetrap would emit more harvestable energy than a WiGLmitter.

[EEVblog]

So there are 9 days left from now but a month ago it was 6 days left and then they extended to 30 days.
They can change the state of their campaign as they please and seems to be looking scammier the more I read into it.

AFAIK they can't extend any further because they have hit their $5M high end max offering. Doing so would change the legal terms of everyones shareholding and effectively dilute the value.

[MrMobodies]

I see so they are restricted by the amount they have to raise not time.

LOL, the July 2021 demo at the university has been REMOVED!

They should also take down that WiGL eNERGY Animation Disclaimer video, I only heard a few seconds speaking about batteries devices being "smartly charged" and the combination of the background music that I find insulting. Just noticed it has DISCLAIMER in the actual title. I question the word "smart?" I ask myself what is that suppose to mean?

00:26 the martin's day starts fully charged all their devices have been smartly and wirelessly charged

Well I was warned with a disclaimer.

Not many feedback in relation to views but quite a few negative:

FIU - July 2021 WiGL Demo 427 View - 1 Jul 2021 (Removed)
2 UP 0 DOWN

WiGL + Guinn Partners 1,170 views 29 Mar 2021
UP 25 DOWN 29

Join StartEngine Waitlist (Part of the Wireless Power Future) 304 views 10 Feb 2021
UP 4 DOWN 23

WiGL Wireless Power Saltwater Generator 800 views on 29 Jan 2021
UP 98 DOWN 21

Final WiGL eNERGY Saltwater (AFWERX Challenge) 293 views on 22 Jan 2021
UP 7 DOWN 12

WiGL eNERGY Device | Electrical Power from Saltwater 142 views 22 Jan 2021
UP 11 DOWN 11

MFE Present MFECast | WiGL & MFE 381 views 21 Jan 2021
UP 2 DOWN 10

WiGL AFWERX Microgrid | Wireless Power 533 views 20 Jan 2021
UP: 15 DOWN: 8

WiGL eNERGY Animation Disclaimer 421 views 7 Dec 2020
UP 14 DOWN 14

WiGL Tech Talk July 2020 w/ Virginia Tech University 1,151 views 4 Dec 2020
UP 23 DOWN 18

WiGL Wireless Electric Power Demonstration 2,358 views 3 Aug 2020
UP 82 DOWN 55

WiGL Tech Talk at VA Tech University (Wireless Power) 443 views on 3 Aug 2020
UP 10 DOWN 15

WiGL FIU Demo (Futuristic UI Demonstration) 2,403 views 29 Jul 2020
UP 10 DOWN 23

G38 Wi GL RF Demonstration (Radio Frequency Demonstration) 292 views 17 Jan 2018
UP 5 DOWN 14


As I was checking the ratings I also overheard this:
 youtube.com/watch?v=CUN3hoG3ou0
WiGL AFWERX Microgrid | Wireless Power

00:21 our solution uses far-field wireless rf
power transmission to get rid of wires reduce heat  reduce weight
and reduce dependency on batteries for our small devices

Reduce heat? but here they admit it's for small devices.

[EEVblog]

That 5 second video of a guy wheeling a cart contained "trade secrets"! 
The exact same hardware which can be seen in the live stread video in much closer detail and also with tech specs and a technical explanation from the WiGL guy.

[EEVblog]

This is interesting, did Virginia Tech have anything to do with this at all?

[EEVblog]

The waffle doesn't stop with this guy 

LOL that that it contains trade secret stuff they haven't published yet.

[madires]

Has WiGL violated the US FCC rules with their demos? If I understand the rules correctly, the 36 dBm limit for the 2.4 GHz ISM band is only applicable for digital communication. Just transmitting a carrier can't be called digital communication.

[DrG]

So there are 9 days left from now but a month ago it was 6 days left and then they extended to 30 days.
They can change the state of their campaign as they please and seems to be looking scammier the more I read into it.

AFAIK they can't extend any further because they have hit their $5M high end max offering. Doing so would change the legal terms of everyones shareholding and effectively dilute the value.

I am not sure that they can't extend further or that the max offering is a limit.

The extension of the offering appears as the latest SEC filing, extending to 7-28-21. Under "nature of the amendment" it says "Issuer is extending the length of their campaign by 29 days. Updating Offering max due to error of last filing - new audited financials have been approved.". I don't know what rules there are for extending.

On the maximum limit of the offering, I notice that the filing checks 'yes' for over-subscriptions allowed, suggesting they can exceed that limit. Maybe the excess can only be for the bonus shares, but language in a filing also indicates 'at the issuers discretion'.

Something else that is noteworthy:

The CEO is listed as holding 83,600,000 shares, which is characterized as 88% of the total shares [note the number of total shares can be affected by subsequent dilution]. So, the maximum offering, in terms of shares is only a small fraction of the total shares (something like 8.5 million shares).

[madires]

So the plan could be:
1. take the salary (roughly 1 million for each board member?)
2. if it becomes a temporary hype and the value of the shares increase significantly sell shares

[DrG]

So the plan could be:
1. take the salary (roughly 1 million for each board member?)
2. if it becomes a temporary hype and the value of the shares increase significantly sell shares

No, I don't think so as it is not that simple.

The projected salaries are listed in the SEC docs and they are not that outrageous.

There are restrictions on selling these shares. They are also listed in the SEC docs. I have already spent too much time with this stuff, but basically you have to hold them for a year (I think) with certain exceptions - like selling to an accredited investor - and I think that has a specific legal definition see https://www.law.cornell.edu/definitions/index.php?width=840&height=800&iframe=true&def_id=51ceecc51a260e02d918a0282157d1ba&term_occur=999&term_src=Title:17:Chapter:II:Part:227:Subpart:A:227.100

If I am understanding correctly, these shares could be sold in an IPO within the first year. It is confusing to me because this (the crowdfunded sale of equities) looks like what I think of as an IPO, but maybe there are differences.

Also, you can not just dump millions of shares without the price approaching 0, if you could find sellers.

If I remembering correctly, early in Dave's video, he suggested that one route that this could go is to simply be finished after 1 year or so of 'trying' - legally no harm, no foul - we tried but we were not able to do it - see ya later - that kind of thing. That may be exactly what happens and the warnings and disclaimers are loud and clear for those who can see it that way.

If they get the 5M the company says that they can last 18 months [I think I read that correctly].

[DrG]

This may be a little off topic, but the take home message for me is learning more about crowd funding as a means to sell stock in a start up company. What has been enlightening is how this process has moved away from Wall Street, so to speak and into other hands. I just did not know - Ok fine, I have been doing other things

Do you know that the situation is such that the US actually has laws to limit how much cash a 'novice' can throw at these crowd funded startups? If I am understanding correctly (and please anyone correct me if I am wrong), these crowd funded stocks are exempted for some kinds of SEC listing controls or somehow differentiated. As such, they limit how much you can spend on them and the limitations are expressed as a percentage of your net worth. Again, CFR - to me, that means it is by law and the law includes 17 CFR § 227.100. Seems to me that these restriction apply to the company and the crowd funding 'platform' (The transaction is conducted through an intermediary) that lets you click and buy.

See: https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/17/227.100

*damn* I'm going back to my cave.....

[robca]

So there are 9 days left from now but a month ago it was 6 days left and then they extended to 30 days.
They can change the state of their campaign as they please and seems to be looking scammier the more I read into it.

AFAIK they can't extend any further because they have hit their $5M high end max offering. Doing so would change the legal terms of everyones shareholding and effectively dilute the value.

More than that: thanks to the link provided by DrG in the post above mine (https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/17/227.100) the SEC Crowdfunding regulation they are using has a hard limit of $5M.

In the past, if you wanted to invest in a scammy business like this one, you had to be certified (or self certified) as sophisticated investor https://corporatefinanceinstitute.com/resources/knowledge/trading-investing/sophisticated-investor/. Basically that you had enough money to know better, and that losing that money won't put you in the poorhouse. The Crowdfunding rule allows everyone to be taken advantage of invest. But for no more than $5M.

So $5M is the max you can bring home using Startengine. Still, not a bad reward for putting together a few docs with many buzzwords and a couple of poorly shot videos

[MrMobodies]

Makes me wonder how much they may get without that hard limit being in place with the amount of money and people they lured into it.

Rimpelbekkie K. a day ago At Dr. Ahmad Glover:
I see in the comments and your replies that EEVBlog and other engineers "don't get what Wigl is about".
We're engineers and like to learn new things. We will point out and challenge the things we think are not going to work.
Then your reply is that we "don't understand". OK, THEN MAKE US UNDERSTAND.

Dr. Ahmad Glover:We were informed that some of the raw footage has WiGL "trade secrets"
... "But as soon as the team is comfortable with the edits/blurring…the will be back up.

Dr. Ahmad Glover: You engineers don't get what WiGL is about
Rimpelbekkie K: OK, THEN MAKE US UNDERSTAND
Dr. Ahmad Glover: some of the raw footage has WiGL "trade secrets" and we have to blur it out then we'd feel comfortable making you understand.

Trade secrets using off the shelf parts and a bank of capacitors.

Fancy giving this guy the bullshit award of the year?

[Austin.Trunk.Monkey]

If the above detractors are correct, then why did Motorola invest/spend millions for this company?

https://guru.inc/