Caballo Censored by IndieGoGo

In the final week of the Caballo crowdfunding campaign we received some quite shocking news, IndieGoGo killed the Caballo crowdfunding campaign as it was nearing its funding goal without warning or explanation.

I'll be honest, I was enraged for about 30 minutes, but I meditated, talked it over with a few friends and confidants (which are good to have!) and ultimately I think it's for the best.
Here's why...

• The crowdfunding platform almost totally failed to bring new members into our Biohacker community. Almost all of the customers who backed the campaign were from my email newsletter, website, Youtube channel, or people who know me personally from the offline world (yes, it's out there...)
• IndieGoGo takes a lot of time to disburse funds. I don't get your money until up too TWO weeks after the campaign ends. This delays your dollar's transformation into blood-brain barrier crossing cognitive enhancers.
• IndieGoGo's split+processing fees ads up to about 5% (that percentage will be important later in this email. Keep watching)

I'll explain shortly my plan to get Caballo to everyone who wants to try it.

IndieGoGo has been the subject of harsh criticism before for being a totally indiscriminate funding platform for everything from gratuitously pornographic or violent independent films, and openly racist or bigotry promoting literary projects to really questionable campaigns of people who are obviously just using their looks to get desperate strangers on the Internet to send them money.

So when they single out my supplement to pull the plug on I think it's pretty fair to call it ignorant, lazy censorship. I choose IndieGoGo as my crowdfunding platform originally because Caballo as a supplement was...

• Aligned with their anything goes mission statement.
• And more importantly compliant with their terms of service.

What's astounding about them killing my campaign is the totally impersonal manner in which they did so. If someone at IndieGoGo would have taken 10 minutes to call me and say sorry we just can't take a risk funding your campaign, I would have respected that so much more than the way they did do it...
They sent me a generically worded and automated email saying that my account was frozen and that my project was under review. I responded immediately asking diplomatically for more details, to which I received no response.
24 hours passed without a peep. I began contacting them on social media.
48 hours passed, I emailed their Press relations department, which seemed to accomplish nothing more than generate automated emails.
72 hours passed, I tried contacting IndieGoGo executives via LinkedIN.
Finally, almost a week later a real person responded in just slightly less generic terms, offering a vapid none-specific concern justification. Here's the email that came from Alexandra (Sasha) Levy of IndieGoGo's Orwellian named Trust and Safety department:
Hi Johnathan, (spelled my name wrong)

Unfortunately, we are unable to offer phone support at Indiegogo, and email is the best way to contact us.

It appears that you are using Indiegogo to sell an existing product rather than to raise money for a new product or venture. Your business will likely be better served by an e-commerce platform or a payments processor through your own website.
No apology whatsoever. No suggestions. No critical feedback. Just a callous disregard for customer service and basic human decency in the interests of risk mitigation and automation. A quick glance at their social media you can see that they are in bed with big business, spotlighting their collaborations with brands like Pfizer and Heineken. IndieGoGo is no friend to entrepreneurs and small business people. This is kind of lazy, stupid customer service I expect from a reggaeton nightclub in South America, from a San Francisco based tech company that's worth +$100M it's totally unforgivable, and for me expensive to the tune of about $5K.

I do share some responsibility...
My adcopy is a little edgy. I used the naughty, naughty word drug more than a handful of times in the campaign.
It's probably no coincidence that a few hours before my campaign was taken down, I sent an email broadcast out to the thousands of people on my newsletter describing the tantric orgasm performance biohacking that I intend to devote the next couple of months to researching, understanding and educating my audience about. So I'll say it now, if you are so puritanical that discussion of this kind of thing makes you squeamish, please just unsubscribe now. On Youtube and Facebook, I'll be discussing it a whole lot less (and certainly less in-depth) than here so you may just want to follow me there.
I decided to publicly launch Caballo on IndieGoGo because I wanted to experiment with crowdfunding as an avenue for evangelizing our Biohacking philosophies. Now we can clearly see that it was a misfit for the product.
I'm sorry about any inconvenience my eagerness and propensity for experimentation has caused you.

A philosophical difference...
A company like IndieGoGo really doesn't care about the individual customers (you guys) of the products, it certainly doesn't care about the small business people like myself that it partners with. It takes no ethical responsibility for the projects it funds. It doesn't care about providing good customer service.
Its 1st priority is to scale massively, so they can serve via automation millions of customers and be valued billions of dollars by Wall Street.
Their 2nd priority is C.Y.A; avoiding litigation and government regulation.
My priority with Caballo is NOT scaleability
My 1st priority is to create a safe smart drug that I can use daily to make me productive, focused, happy and verbally witty enough to seduce a nun on a Sunday (like Casanova)
My 2nd priority is to sell a product that satisfies the demands and needs of Biohackers that I've come to understand intimately after conducting dozens of consultations over Skype.
My 3rd priority is to empower individual sovereignty.
My 4th is to make friends (online and off) with the people who use it.

At LimitlessCaballo.com/crowdfunding I've implemented an eCommerce checkout functionality that you can see works almost the same as IndieGoGo.

• You can see how much funding it has received.
• You can select from multiple packages (Starting from $29)
• You can support it publicly or anonymously.
• It has a money-back guarantee - Of which I've only had to issue ONE refund for so far, to a guy who's heart medication had a negative interaction with Caballo.
• The product presentation is still a little raw - I don't yet have snazzy packaging and professional photography of the product, yet! The Caballo 3.0 iteration's packaging will certainly be an upgrade from the Caballo 2.0's.
• The one difference with IndieNoGo is that if you choose to upgrade your package during the campaign, you'll select an upgraded different package, checkout, and then you'll need to notify me that you want your funds applied to the new package.

There's going to be a 2 week period within which you can purchase Caballo - starting today and closing July 25. Then it's going off the market. Why the time limit? 

1. I'd like to go into a mode where I can for about 2 weeks focus intensely on sourcing and synthesis. Someone emailed me the other day asking, who does my product white labeling? Quiet the contrary I hire and work with one contractor/consultant, who has +10 years of experience with supplement synthesis, they advise me and I micromanage the production of the supplement. I'm not 4-hour-work-weeking this. If I run the marketing campaign for 2 weeks and then focus on logistics for 2 weeks my undivided attention will serve you better.
2. I want to reach Atlantis. Here in Spain, I’m geographically closer than ever to what’s been my goal for a while - to reach (what I believe is) the archeological site of Atlantis without using technology or money. I want to take a real vacation and take on a challenge which will be totally foreign to me. Here on Facebook, I explain a little more how I'm doing this.

This is a crowdfunding campaign; it's a little different than just buying a supplement from an eCommerce store.

• Crowdfunding allows me to get some economies of scale working for me to source the highest quality raw chemicals for the cognitive enhancers without having to raise money and sell off control of my company. It's a growth hack that allows me to launch really lean and focus on serving my customers. I'm not beholden to venture capitalists or bankers.
• I'm aware that the product's online presentation is still a little unpolished. What's not unpolished or unproven is the formula itself, that's why my website focuses on the scientific findings of double-blind, human placebo-controlled studies on Caballo ingredients. I hope to have proper product photography and packaging done in the next few weeks. Thanks again for your confidence in my and the experiences of other Biohackers who have used Caballo!
• You're going to be waiting for a little for your package of Caballo (see the time frame below), in the meantime I encourage you to quantify your cognitive baseline with the Caballo Protocol.
• In the interim, I highly recommend you use the three adaptogenic herbs Rhodiola, Schisandra, and Eleuthero to optimize your system to absorb and utilize the cognitive enhancers along with supplemental Nicotine USP... well, because it's awesome!

Here's the logistical timeframe for Caballo 3.0:
July 11 The crowdfunding campaign launches.
July 25 The crowdfunding campaign ends. Caballo goes off the market.
Aug 1 Complete Caballo synthesis & capping
Aug 8 Packaging and shipping of Caballo units to US customers
Aug 15 Shipping of Caballo units to international customers (Sorry about the wait guys and gals abroad!)

Caballo's Legal Status
Given the debacle with IndieGoGo, some of you may at this point be asking: Is Caballo legal? In short, yes. See this article for details.

Caballo

 

4.9

Category: Nootropics & Anti-Aging