Blue Fish Clothing:
$4 million raised in a DPO
Blue Fish Clothing, maker of hand-painted clothing in Frenchtown, N.J., completed a Direct Public Offering for $4 million primarily to customers that believe in the organically grown, pesticide-free cotton clothing the company is known for. Colorful hangtags in the shape of fish were placed on all of the clothing they sell, drawing a lot of inquiries from customers. The company announced an early end to the offering to create scarcity, and reached the maximum by the early completion date, with half of the investments made in the last few days.
Mendocino Brewing Company:
$3.6 million raised in a DPO in six months
Hopland, Calif.’s Mendocino Brewing Company raised $3.6 million in six months for a new brewery through word-of-mouth and cards placed in six-pack containers of ale. In addition, they also placed newspaper ads in the food section of the paper every weekend for a couple of months and caught the attention of investors.
Original Beverage Corporation:
$900,000 raised in a DPO in less than six weeks
The maker of Reed’s Original Ginger Brew raised over $900,000 with a DPO in less than six weeks from a large customer base. Each bottle of ginger brew included a neck tag directing people to the company web site where they could download the offering documents. The company followed up with a phone call within a couple days to answer questions and close the sale with the investor’s credit card.
Spring Street Brewery:
The First National Internet DPO
$1.6 Million raised in less than 30 days
New York Brewery hosted a website for it’s DPO and attached notices to six-packs of its Wit Ale urging customers to visit it’s site or call the company for more information including a prospectus. In one month, investors paid $1.85 per share investing a total of $1.6 million for an interest in the microbrewery.
Tully’s Coffee Corporation:
$4.5 million raised in two Direct Public Offerings in less than 12 months
The Seattle coffee company used radio, newspaper ads, and promotion through its retail stores to raise $1.5 million in it’s first Direct Public Offering and and its second DPO brought in an additional $3 million in less than a year.
Z-Tech, Inc.:
$3.6 million raised in a DPO less than 12 months
Z-Tech, Inc., an innovative shoe company, did a mailing to their 10,000 customers, offering a free pair of shoes for a $250 investment, three free pair for a $500 investment and so on up to ten free pairs of shoes. The shoes retail for $150 a pair. They ran radio and newspaper ads, conducted investment preview evenings. They raised $3.6 million in a DPO in under 12 months.