Studio 777 is like the Vegas of
Second Life. It is an institution in SL business which offers the residents not
only the option of skill gaming and winning money but also entertainment. Studio
777 also offer residents the chance to find virtual employment not only with
the company but with other companies in Second Life as well.
It is not surprising when Studio 777 announced that they were going
public allowing residents in Second Life to be shareholders. Finally residents
were able to buy shares. 60% of shares
were sold out within an hour on that first day. The owner of Studio 777 Luke
Slingshot and his team surprised but also knew that residents who were buying
shares could see that this was a business to invest in now and for the future.
I was able to chat with Luke about the success of going public and also
about Studio 777.
Interview with Luke Slingshot
Piers: Hi Luke, can you tell us
about STUDIO 777 going public as we have all been hearing the buzz on the
streets about it but I know our readers would like to hear it from you?
Luke: We're really pumped that
Lanai broke the story on the SL Enquirer... The press release was called
"Ring The Virtual IPO Bell" and editors all over the world ran the
story, on CNN and USA Today and hundreds of websites - But SLE was first!
Around two years ago, Skip Oceanlane, the CEO of CapEx, asked me about
us joining the companies going public there, I had heard about it from Glaznah
Gassner, he owns Smartbots and Earn2Life and has been a great friend to me.
We've been really lucky, this was a startup in 2009 and now we have
L$10m in monthly revenue and over a million guest visits.
It's grown so fast that we didn't have time to be part of CapEx but Skip
and I stayed in touch. Early this year, we met up and talked about it again and
I talked about it with Glaznah and we made the decision to move ahead and
started preparing the IPO paperwork. We went public last Saturday morning at
5am SLT, and the IPO is already 80% sold out, we're selling 4 million shares at
L$1.50 each, low price so everyone can profit with us. People have been great,
we're gotten tons of investment offers, but we've been really lucky and never
needed the capital.
CapEx is great though, it's really easy to use and Skip has made honesty
the key over there. It's vital, there were a lot of bank scandals back around
2007 or 2008, before I knew about SL.
We've worked hard to build a reputation for honesty and fair play, it's
the only way to succeed with a business on here and the same with going on
CapEx, because it's a stock market simulation game, investors have to trust the
CEO and the Exchange.
We watched Glaznah go through it with Earn2Life and Smartbots and that
got us thinking about joining CapEx. When he started Smartbots on CapEx, the
IPO price was L$1 per share, that was about 2 years ago... now the stock is at
L$5 per share plus dividends. It's important to note that while companies pay
dividends, under Linden TOS there can be no guarantees.
So it's great for a new investor, kind of like our freeplay games
here... You can learn about the stock market and how to trade and place limit
and market orders for a lot less than the real stock market. 100 IPO shares in
FUN (that's our ticker symbol) is L$150, we wanted it to be affordable for
every player who wanted to be part of 777.
Piers: With such a successful
business and a brand that is so well known did you ever imagine Fun would be as
successful as it is today. I mean, your company is the most wanted shares right
now?
Luke: Never imagined it, not at all, it's amazing. When this got started
in 2009, there weren't any places that looked to fuse gaming &
clubbing. A lot of the game places were
sketchy skyboxes, and clubs might have a few stray games in the corner. But
nothing that looked at the whole resort concept.
It was so clear to us, every place in Vegas or Macau has clubbing &
bars & fun stuff around the gaming. Exactly. A lot of people here say it
looks like the Hard Rock Vegas with the dome and club in the centre
If you look at the original sketches, you'll see it really ended up
being what we dreamed and that makes SL epic.
As time has gone on, we've kept growing and people always asked how they
could invest and be part of 777 and now we're able to do that. It wouldn't have happened without our guests
and our team, they're incredible. I'm
really proud that every member of our team is receiving shares of FUN stock and
we'll continue to grant stock to our team members. That's more what this IPO is
about Piers, the investment we will use to grow the business, and our stock can
be compensation for our great team or to make acquisitions, just like real life
companies do.
Piers: Can you explain a bit more in
depth for those who are new to trading. For example, if they bought say 100
shares @L$1.5 what kind of dividend's would they be looking at getting?
Luke: Dividends on CapEx are paid monthly or quarterly, we'll be
monthly, and shareholders get dividends through their CapEx accounts. In our
IPO application, we mentioned that we have about L$10m in revenue monthly and L$9.8m
in expenses, that's because our players are very skilled a win a lot, over
L$250m so far. Our IPO is for 20% of the company, that's what the 4 million
shares are, the total company is 20 million shares. So each month we'll plan a
dividend. Let's say our profit for the month is L$250,000... That will go to
all the shareholders.
Piers: Is there still chances for
residents to buy shares?
Luke: In just 5 days, over 80% of the 4 million shares have been sold,
but there's still time to be part of it.
IPOs are the best way to buy into a stock because the price is
controlled and with the L$1.50 price it's not a big investment.
While we can't make any guarantees because of TOS, our intention is for
between a 8-10% annual dividend return for shareholders, and of course we hope
the stock goes to L$5 like Smartbots has.
Piers: You have been in sl for a
long time now and have seen business come and go. What do you feel are the
reasons why Studio 777 is as successful as it is?
Luke: I think 777 has been successful because of the people Just like in rl, you have to have a business
plan to be successful and a lot of new players don't take the time to make a
plan and learn about what they're getting into.
Fairly low barrier to entry to start a club on here.
The question is how do you make money to support it? People miss that
step and it's a big one. For us, it was
the fusion of the clubbing and gaming, while it's a huge amount of work, the
two parts work together really well, people attend our events (6-8pm SLT, we've
had over 1400 events since 2009) and win game credits... Or they're planning
and they get live entertainment.
just like with the sketches, we believed that if we set up both parts,
they'd work together, but we didn't know.
But it did, people have really liked being able to have a resort
destination that had shopping (we have 50 stores in our mall), jobs (our
Jobstar Job Center is on the sim, we bought Jobstar last year and have more
than doubled its revenue and customers), partying and games so it's really been
fun.
I'd also say about businesses on here... being reliable and honest is
key. Look at SLE and Lanai, the goodwill and trust you all have built up over
the years gives you a great reputation. That's what's needed for success in rl
and on here and we try every day to follow that.
Piers: What's next for you and the
business?
Luke: What's next for us after the completion of the IPO is growing the
business even further, both with what we're currently doing and with new ideas.
We're pitched all the time about projects, now we'll be able to do more of
them. We've always wanted Vegas condos
here, for example... A lot of people have their home set to Sol Hermosa so we should
give them a bed or something :) Bring a
hot girl home after winning :) We also
see a lot of need for more tools to promote in world, that's a big challenge
still. We also plan more events, some on more European times. So for us it's continuing to execute and
after the IPO finishes with more budget and connections. We're thinking about that, not sure if we'll
go as far as Beachwood or Anaconda (lboth clubs rock) but we'll have more
raves, those are fun And here at 777, everybody wins L$ every 30 minutes, even
on freeplay games. You have to play the
games, it's not camping, but everybody who's playing gets cash. We're really
happy that thousands of people have made their first money here at 777 or use
the money to pay for all of their SL, rent, clothes etc. Exactly, we still think Linden should give
every new avatar L$1000 to get started with shopping, its rough when you have
L$0.
So we try to help with new players, they can play the freeplay games and
practice and earn some money having FUN.
It's built loyalty over the years, it's amazing how many of our original
players from 2009 are still with us, it's great
Even our DJs, like DJ Sasch from Germany, has been with us from the
beginning He owns the DJ World group as
well. It's amazing and that's what I
mean about making a good honest reputation, it opens so many doors
.
If you would like to still buy shares here are the links of how to do
so.
★ 3 Easy Steps to buy IPO Stock:
1) TP to 777's CapEx ATM:
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Sol%20Hermosa/128/187/22
& Click on the ATM. Look in
chat for your Account Password.
2) TP to CapEx:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Crystal%20Springs/192/182/27
to Deposit L$ into in the ATM,
funding your Account &
3) Log on to
http://www.SLCapex.com/ipo to trade!
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Sol%20Hermosa/114/93/35,
Twitter @Studio777Club
http://www.Studio777s.com
No comments:
Post a Comment
Comments will be reviewed and posted within 24 hours. Please note any abusive content or outside promotional links may not be approved.