μ - Bitcoin Venture Capital (Collecting Shareholders Data)

[friedcat]

I'm relatively active between 1:00AM to 3:00PM of forum time each day. Contacting me within this time interval could get quicker responses.

Announcement
In case of the possibility we could not receive the shareholders data, we begin collecting the claims ourselves.

Please send to (fnnirvana@gmail.com) your number of shares and your Bitcoin address for receiving dividends. Please annotate that they are MU shares to avoid confusion with ASICMINER or MOORE shares. You could accompany them with any evidence you think is OK to provide. It is highly recommended that you use an address that you have its private key. By that, you may enjoy more facilities provided by our future automatic migrating platform.

Happy investing! Best luck to you and ourselves.

What we do and how we are different
As we grow larger, we are probably getting many new and potential investors who don't have the time to study our history data of financial disclosure, our structure or policies. Here we explain μ with a shorter and clearer manner.

The business of μ contains:
1. investment on valuable new stocks and bonds.
2. market making.
3. arbitraging.
4. value investment on old existing assets.
5. providing loans.
6. funding startups outside the GLBSE system.
Now we are only doing 1-4. We may do 5 and 6 in the future, but we will be extremely careful and make sure that the involved risks are rigidly controlled.

What makes μ different:
1. We are a stock, not a bond. Which means that:
    (1) you can vote if you are one of the shareholders.
    (2) you actually own your portion of μ's net asset value.
    (3) you can give us public or private suggestions, which will possibly be accepted by the CEO and turned into motions.
2. Each of our mid-time or long-time positions was and will ever be assets with a business model that is sound, public, and easy to understand. We may participate in high-risk assets, but only for arbitraging, and we will keep the time of holding them as short as possible.
3. Our name is the shortest of all.

Weekly Financial Disclosure and Market Watch
March 28th
  Financial Disclosure: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=70592.msg822256#msg822256
  Investment Opportunity Study: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=70592.msg823936#msg823936
April 4th
  Financial Disclosure: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=70592.msg836060#msg836060
  Investment Opportunity Study: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=70592.msg836105#msg836105
April 11st
  Financial Disclosure: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=70592.msg845965#msg845965
April 18th
  Financial Disclosure: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=70592.msg856501#msg856501
April 25th
  Financial Disclosure: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=70592.msg867599#msg867599
  The MU Index for GLBSE: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=70592.msg867695#msg867695
May 2nd
  Financial Disclosure: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=70592.msg878181#msg878181
May 4th
  The MU Index for GLBSE: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=70592.msg882018#msg882018
May 9th
  Financial Disclosure: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=70592.msg889439#msg889439
May 13rd
  The MU Index for GLBSE: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=70592.msg897676#msg897676
May 16th
  Financial Disclosure: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=70592.msg902960#msg902960
May 23rd
  Financial Disclosure: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=70592.msg915987#msg915987
May 25th
  The MU Index for GLBSE: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=70592.msg920938#msg920938
May 30th
  Financial Disclosure: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=70592.msg929873#msg929873
June 6th
  Financial Disclosure: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=70592.msg944067#msg944067
June 13rd
  Financial Disclosure: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=70592.msg959191#msg959191
June 20th
  Financial Disclosure: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=70592.msg976412#msg976412
June 27th
  Financial Disclosure: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=70592.msg993086#msg993086
July 4th
  Financial Disclosure: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=70592.msg1007353#msg1007353
July 11st
  Financial Disclosure: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=70592.msg1022545#msg1022545
July 18th
  Financial Disclosure: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=70592.msg1037730#msg1037730
July 25th
  Financial Disclosure: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=70592.msg1037730#msg1037730
August 1st
  Financial Disclosure: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=70592.msg1069580#msg1069580
August 8th
  Financial Disclosure: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=70592.msg1085299#msg1085299
August 15th
  Financial Disclosure: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=70592.msg1100792#msg1100792
August 22nd
  Financial Disclosure: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=70592.msg1122148#msg1122148
August 29th
  Financial Disclosure: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=70592.msg1141655#msg1141655
September 5th
  Financial Disclosure: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=70592.msg1161925#msg1161925
September 12nd
  Financial Disclosure: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=70592.msg1183811#msg1183811
September 19th
  Financial Disclosure: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=70592.msg1202813#msg1202813
September 26th
  Financial Disclosure: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=70592.msg1221658#msg1221658
October 3rd
  Financial Disclosure: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=70592.msg1241274#msg1241274
Reserved

FAQ
Q: What is μ?
A: μ is a GLBSE-listed company which mainly focuses on the following businesses:
   1. We will evaluate each new company on GLBSE, and hold some part or all of its assets if we are convinced to. We may also directly fund private companies outside the GLBSE system. We make profits from the dividends of the assets we own, and(or) by selling the assets after their value increases. We can as well influence or control the policies of the target companies, if their policies are motion-based.
   2. We will provide short-term loans when we have spare funds and could not find enough appropriate assets to buy.
   3. We will hold some non-IPO assets if we believe that they are undervalued.

Q: How could I invest in it?
A: It is listed on GLBSE. The asset id is "MU".

Q: Why do you choose such a weird name?
A: It is inspired by Y Combinator.(http://ycombinator.com/) Basically, in Programming Language Theory, while the Y combinator is used for building recursive functions(terms), the μ operator is used for constructing recursive types. We are "recursive" in a sense that we are ourselves a startup company, which grows other startup companies, some of which might further grow more startup companies...

Q: Will I get scammed?
A: μ itself is not a scam. But considering the nature of our business, we may be scammed by our borrowers and other companies. Therefore, a more accurate question should be like "What are the risks?"

Q: So what are the risks?
A: 1. No matter how careful we are, we cannot totally exclude the possibility that the assets we buy are issued by a scammer.
    2. The assets we buy may not be as profitable as we think. Their value may even decrease after the IPO stage.
    3. The borrowers may not be able to pay our Bitcoins back.
    4. The profits of our company may not be as stable as those of mining companies, and so are the dividends.
    5. Our evaluation of "undervalued assets" may be wrong.
    6. If the price of Bitcoin drops dramatically, you may not be able to get enough compensation from selling hardwares as mining companies do.

Q: Given so many risks, what could I expect from μ?
A: We are probably the most ambitious startup in GLBSE so far. If bad things do not happen, by investing in μ you will:
   1. Enjoy the fruit of our dramatic growth. We will continuously use some of our incomes to fund more and more startups. The dividends are expected to grow exponentially for a considerable time before slowing down. It is even possible that the McDonalds or Facebook of Bitcoin will be funded by us in the near future!
   2. Save your precious time and energy. You do not need to seek or evaluate investment opportunities yourself. We will constantly track the price of the assets we hold and sell them when necessary. We will contact, inquiry, and negotiate with new IPO issuers. We will also do other tedious but necessary work.

Q: How could you persuade me that you could make right judgments and good investments?
A: Unfortunately we couldn't. We can only assure you that we have enough incentive(our own shares and fees) for that. We will do very serious investigation before using our funds, and will raise motions when making critical investment choices.

Q: How do you create shares?
A: 10,000 shares will be created. Each one will be sold at the price of 0.1BTC. We will buy some of the shares ourselves, but no more than 10%. More shares may be created and sold in the future, but only after a motion with 75% of the votes or more to agree.

Q: How do you pay me dividends?
A: As soon as a single share is sold, we will start to pay dividends.
    35% of the profits will be paid to shareholders each Wednesday.
    60% will be reserved for future expansion.
    We will take 5% ourselves as operating fee. This part may be used for expansion of the company too, but not necessarily so.
    The ratio is subject to change, but only after a motion with 75% of the votes or more to agree.
    The profits include all dividends we receive, the net gains of selling existing assets, and the interest paid by our borrowers.

Q: 1000BTC is not a very small amount of money. Do we really have enough qualified companies to invest in, at this moment?
A: Probably not. But we probably will not be able to sell all our shares very quickly either. Remember, our approach is rather incremental: as said in the last Q&A, we will start our business immediately after the first single share is sold. As we wait for new IPOs to hunt, our investors might also be waiting too. Our fundraising will be completed only when we could see some first-stage success.

Q: What information are you willing to disclose?
A: We plan to disclose the following information each week:
   1. Our available funds.
   2. Our weekly incomes.
   3. The assets we hold, including their initial price, the number, and their last dividends paid.
   4. The loans we make, including the volume, the interest rate, and the repayment date.
   5. The results of motions.

Q: What will happen before the company ceases to exist?
A: In very unfortunate conditions, μ might be liquidated. We will collect all debts and sell all assets we hold, then use the Bitcoins we make in this process as the total price to buy all the shares back.

Q: In what kind of circumstances a motion will be raised?
A: 1. Before the creation of new shares.
    2. Before changing the ratio of profits as dividends.
    3. Before a major buying or selling of assets.(For example, buying more than 50% of an IPO stock)
    4. Before making a loan.
    5. Before μ's liquidation.

Q: I want to create a startup company. What should I do to get your help and how could you help me?
A: We strongly suggest you to announce your company on this forum, list it on GLBSE, and provide the details as much as you can. In short, you should pretend that we do not exist at all. If you can get the approval of the public, you may be able to attract us. We can help you shorten your IPO cycle by buying up a large portion or all of your shares at once. We also give you free advice.
   If you do not want to make your company public for some reason, we could discuss our investment privately. However, this is a much harder way to gain our trust.

Q: Who are "we" in this FAQ?
A: Currently it's just me. I'm a Chinese Bitcoin user and live in Suzhou, China.

Q: Your name is freaking me out. Why do you have to use an id like this?
A: It has nothing to do with cats-cooking. Although in some East Asian countries quite a few people include cats or dogs in their diet, I am myself sick of the idea of eating cats or dogs.  "friedcat" is just my nickname, and it has lasted for many years. I used it for signing up many other websites.

Updates before the first round IPO
Thoughts on the first-stage business: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=70592.msg814084#msg814084
Example about how our dividends are calculated: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=70592.msg815227#msg815227
Materials are sent for identity verification: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=70592.msg815670#msg815670
Some missed investment opportunities: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=70592.msg816924#msg816924
Numeric estimate about our growth: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=70592.msg816991#msg816991
News of March 25th: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=70592.msg818568#msg818568
News of March 26th: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=70592.msg819814#msg819814
News of March 27th: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=70592.msg821738#msg821738

Extra Words
Any questions and advice are appreciated. We are very glad to hear from you.

[1713534421]

1713534421

[1713534421]

1713534421

[Nefario]

friedcat has verified their identity with two forms of photo ID.

Phone and address verification still to be done.

Nefario.

[John (John K.)]

Watching.

[friedcat]

Update

I replied Nefario's call for identification.
The IPO will begin after I pass the verification process.

Thanks to everyone who are interested in muBit, and I'm sincerely in need of your advice and criticisms, on my way of doing business, my IPO details, my poor English skills, and everything else.

[phelix]

subscribing

Please look at and learn from the LIF disaster. I hope you will do much better.

[friedcat]

subscribing

Please look at and learn from the LIF disaster. I hope you will do much better.

I had some brief impression about the dead assets named LIF, LIF.A, LIF.B, etc before.

Then I studied the case of LIF as you suggested. It is probably a fraud. If he indeed lost his
coins unintentionally, he could stand out and explain, but it seems that he just disappeared.

We are doing honest business, and we are going to keep our financials entirely open
from the very beginning. But thanks for pointing out the LIF disaster for us. We will
be more careful about keeping the investors' money safe.

This LIF thing must have introduced considerable distrust against the GLBSE investment funds in general
to the Bitcoin community. It might be one of the major blocks to our business. But we have to overcome this.

[Coinabul]

What's your experience, if any, with startups?

Let me know if you need any help!

[friedcat]

What's your experience, if any, with startups?

Let me know if you need any help!

Frankly we have no first-hand experience with startups yet. We have some basic training on economics, some knowledge about finance, and understand some basic principles on how to start and run a business. But no, we haven't started or worked for any startups before.

We really appreciate your kind offering of help. We will ask for your advisory if we need aid and guidance. Thank you very much.

[finway]

I want to know how this going.

[friedcat]

I want to know how this going.

The IPO hasn't been started yet. We are still making preparations about the identity verification
and first-stage business plans.

[friedcat]

Update

Here is some brief discussion of our initial business plans.

We are considering including some of the following assets in our portfolio.
You could certainly directly invest in some of them without muBit. But we will
maintain the portfolio, selling assets when profitable, reinvesting in new IPOs, etc, all
of which you might not have enough time to do. It's basically an exchange between paying a 5% fee
and constantly doing the VC job yourself.

Planned IPOs

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=66204.0
Pros: The 6990s are easy and fast to get. The power price in the CEO's place is very low, and will
possibly even be lower in the future.
Cons: The IPO hasn't been started. And it will take some time to collect a total volume of 1000BTC
according to the OP.

Underway IPOs

RSM (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=63257.0)
Pros: It is claimed to have a higher ROI than most of the other mining companies.
Cons: Its IPO is significantly slowed down by the CEO's frequent unexpected change of plans. This might
further damage the price after the IPO stage.

TyGrr-Bank (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=67818.0)
Pros: It has a high interest rate. If the CEO does not decide to sell more shares in the short term,
the price might rise significantly.
Cons: The interest rate may reduce in the future.

Cognitive (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=67547.0)
Pros: It is an x6500 FPGA based company. We have the history performance data of an existing x6500 FPGA company as our reference. The price of each FPGA.contract's share increased by about 40% between the IPO period to now.
Cons: The MH/$ of x6500 is lower compared to GPUs and BFL Singles. In the foreseeable future, BFL-based mining companies might thrive, attracting people's investments away from x6500 miners.

[Kaos]

If it's not a scam, then may the Satoshi be with you!

"mu" is listed but last time I checked did not have a price set...


Kinda Off Topic, but Nefario, thank you very much both for setting up GLBSE (such a great tool) but also for your due diligence.

[friedcat]

If it's not a scam, then may the Satoshi be with you!

"mu" is listed but last time I checked did not have a price set...


Kinda Off Topic, but Nefario, thank you very much both for setting up GLBSE (such a great tool) but also for your due diligence.

Of course it does not have a price set yet. I haven't started to sell the shares.

[friedcat]

Update

Example about how our dividends are calculated:

Profits from assets

Assume we have hold 100 shares of a stock A, each share of which
was initially bought with the price of 1BTC. The first week we received 0.02BTC
per share, that is 2BTC in total. Then we pay 35%*2=0.7BTC as our dividends,
charge 5%*2=0.1BTC as fee, and reserve 60%*2=1.2BTC for future expansion.

Then, the price of the stock rose to 3BTC per share, and we decided to sell 20
shares of them. After selling, we get 60BTC. The 20 shares we sold is originally
bought with 20BTC, therefore the net profit is 60-20=40BTC. Then we pay 35%*40=14BTC
as our dividends, charge 5%*40=2BTC, and reserve 60%*40=24BTC for future expansion.
We also have 20 extra BTC left, which does not belong to the net profit, but the return of original cost.
This part of funds is also used for re-investments.

Profits from loans

Assume that we lend 100BTC to some one. She paid back 105BTC after a week.
The net profit is 105-100=5BTC. Then we pay 35%*5=1.75BTC as our dividends,
charge 5%*5=0.25BTC as fee, and reserve 60%*5=3BTC for future expansion.
We also have 100 extra BTC left, which does not belong to the net profit, but the return of original cost.
This part of funds is also used for re-investments.

[friedcat]

Update

We have prepared for the materials needed to prove our identity. They are already sent to Nefario for verification.

The IPO has not been started yet.

If you are interested in investing, please be patient. It is the first time we start a startup, and we want to get everything
right before actual fundraising.

If you are still suspicious of muBit, we are here to answer every questions you ask, and will do our best to explain any aspects
of our business plan to you.

[friedcat]

Update

The IPOs of TyGrr-Bank(https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=67818.0) and
Cognitive(https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=67547.0) are already finished.

This news is either bad or good depending on how we see it. It is a bad news because we are too late to
catch on (both of them have a apparent tendency to hugely increase in value). But
at the same time, it is a good news in the sense that the volume of cash flow in GLBSE is way more
than we thought, therefore the possibility of new startups with great potential appearing
soon is also higher than we expected.

Nevertheless, we still decide not to delay our IPO date. We will actively pursue new
high-return and safe investment opportunities with our funds, which is all what muBit does anyway.

[friedcat]

Update

Here is a very rough estimate about our growth in six months.
The calculations are based on the assumption that we do not
issue new shares and merely use our net incomes to do expansion.

Very conservative

Assume all our funds after the IPO are invested to several companies which
have a similar average return rate and value as PureMining, which has a monthly
ROI of 6.40% and the price per share rose from 0.32 to 0.36 (bid price,
12.5% increase) after the IPO. We also assume the price keeps steady at 0.36,
and has an enough level of liquidity.

Then, we suppose a new startup with a similar performance as PureMining will be
started and invested by us each month. Our strategy is to sell 10% of all our holding
assets to buy new IPO assets.

Our total assets will be 1000 BTC*(1+(6.40%+10%*12.5%)*60%)^6=1309 BTC.

Then if we decide at this time to temporarily stop expansion and pay all
net incomes excluding the 5% fee as dividends, we now can have:
1309*6.40%*95%=79.59 BTC of dividends. If you are an early investor who
bought our IPO, you will enjoy a monthly ROI of about 8% from then.

Very optimistic

Assume all our funds after the IPO are invested to several companies which
have a similar average return rate and value as TyGrr-Bank, which has a monthly
ROI of 13.75% and the price per share is assumed to be rising from 0.1 to 0.2 (100% increase)
after the IPO. We also assume the price keeps steady at 0.2, and has an enough level of liquidity.

We also suppose a new startup with a similar performance as TyGrr-Bank will be
started and invested by us each month. Our strategy is to sell 10% of all our holding
assets to buy new IPO assets.

Our total assets will be 1000 BTC*(1+(13.75%+10%*100%)*60%)^6=2224 BTC

Then if we decide at this time to temporarily stop expansion and pay all
net incomes excluding the 5% fee as dividends, we now can have:
2224*13.75%*95%=290.51 BTC of dividends. If you are an early investor who bought
our IPO, you will enjoy a monthly ROI of about 29% from then.

[memvola]

Subscribing because I seem to be missing a lot of GLBSE stuff.

This LIF thing must have introduced considerable distrust against the GLBSE investment funds in general
to the Bitcoin community. It might be one of the major blocks to our business. But we have to overcome this.

Definitely! Diligent transparency will go a long way.

[stochastic]

subscribing

Please look at and learn from the LIF disaster. I hope you will do much better.

+1 on this.  Especially when there are only about 25 equities to really trade on GLBSE.

[friedcat]

Subscribing because I seem to be missing a lot of GLBSE stuff.

This LIF thing must have introduced considerable distrust against the GLBSE investment funds in general
to the Bitcoin community. It might be one of the major blocks to our business. But we have to overcome this.

Definitely! Diligent transparency will go a long way.

Yes. We are taking an approach that's as transparent as possible.

Actually, it will introduce some drawbacks. For example, when we become a significant player on the GLBSE market, people will watch our portfolio and and try to take advantage of us by predicting what we will do next.

However, openness is our chosen way of running muBit, and we will stick to it.