The note is unsecured.. which means only recourse is to sue the company if defaulted. You will not be able to sue Bartko because of corporate veil unless illegal conveyance is able to be proven (ie paying himself directly from a good portion of the 10,000)
One thing I am trying to figure out, is the business model.
BUT: ThunderBlaze is investor support for Starfire. As such, ThunderBlaze does not have a formal office. Neither ThunderBlaze or Starfire have inventory or employees that work out of an office. Starfire’s 11 full time employees work from home tracking down ordered products.
As explained on the web site, Starfire receives orders from Fortune 500 companies/aerospace/military for products. Starfire then purchases the products or has the products made and has them shipped to the ordering company that then pays Starfire for the products.
1) Most Fortune 500 and smaller companies have their own purchasing department which do this work.
2) Most Fortune 500 and smaller companies prefer to work directly with the manufacturer (better control of product quality, quantity and delivery times).
3) Military/Aerospace companies tend to buy in bulk.. which is better done directly with the manufacturer.
4) If the 11 full time employees work from home tracking down ordered products, who manages the ordering, scheduling and bookeeping?
5) Why is there a ‘double layer’ of companies? ThunderBlaze acting as agent to ‘Starfire’? It does make it harder to ‘chase the money’.
6) If the sales and profits have grown in excess of 25%/yr for last 5 years, why doesn’t the company have enough money for their own operating capital? They claim they ‘repay’ investors instead of sitting in a bank, but profits are above the costs of investor financing (after the investor has gotten their money back with interest)
If Starfire applied for a loan at a bank, the investment opportunity would be gone by the time the bank approved the necessary paperwork. Starfire’s turnover for each order is normally between 60 and 90 days. Starfire could obtain a line of credit, but with the current banking situation, Starfire couldn’t rely on a line of credit.
Try something called a revolving line of credit.. at 24% annual, most banks would bite.
An order for 10,000 power supplies might cost Starfire $50.00 each. If they sell for $60.00 each, the profit would be $10.00 each. In this example, for 10,000 power supplies the purchase price would be $500,000.00, the sales price $600,000.00, and the profit $100,000.00. Out of that $100,000.00 profit, interest to the investors would be paid along with all of Starfire’s overhead and expenses.
Leaving $70k.. that could have become operating capital… but where did it go? I could see some of it going to wages.. but not many people are needed to track just one order like this..
The owner of Starfire personally guarantees the investment and signs all documents.
Yeah right.. he is behind at least one LLC.. which means his real liability is 0.
Just seems a bit fishy. I used to work at a defense contractor until I was laid off.. and I never heard of “Starfire”..
