Cycle clothing brand Vulpine is "insolvent" and enters administration

amazon22 wrote:

Fixie Girl wrote:

There is also a rumour doing the rounds over here already that someone bought himself a $1M home in Dec.. Its still too early for me to confirm..  Perhaps one of you guys could do some digging while the caffeine kicks in here

Hussey's house was sold on 13 December 2016 for £685,000.

Do you have a link please?

Fixie Girl wrote:

amazon22 wrote:

Fixie Girl wrote:

There is also a rumour doing the rounds over here already that someone bought himself a $1M home in Dec.. Its still too early for me to confirm..  Perhaps one of you guys could do some digging while the caffeine kicks in here

Hussey's house was sold on 13 December 2016 for £685,000.

Do you have a link please?

https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/07211640/officers

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/house-prices/detailMatching.html/svr/3114;jsessionid=0E79DA64664E58BB3E605C059244C283?prop=44123487&sale=89280156&country=england

dubtap wrote:

Fixie Girl wrote:

amazon22 wrote:

Fixie Girl wrote:

There is also a rumour doing the rounds over here already that someone bought himself a $1M home in Dec.. Its still too early for me to confirm..  Perhaps one of you guys could do some digging while the caffeine kicks in here

Hussey's house was sold on 13 December 2016 for £685,000.

Do you have a link please?

 

https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/07211640/officers

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/house-prices/detailMatching.html/svr/3114;jsessionid=0E79DA64664E58BB3E605C059244C283?prop=44123487&sale=89280156&country=england

Does this mean we dont know where he lives...? Now thats a crying shame! 

Fixie Girl wrote:

dubtap wrote:

Fixie Girl wrote:

amazon22 wrote:

Fixie Girl wrote:

There is also a rumour doing the rounds over here already that someone bought himself a $1M home in Dec.. Its still too early for me to confirm..  Perhaps one of you guys could do some digging while the caffeine kicks in here

Hussey's house was sold on 13 December 2016 for £685,000.

Do you have a link please?

 

https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/07211640/officers

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/house-prices/detailMatching.html/svr/3114;jsessionid=0E79DA64664E58BB3E605C059244C283?prop=44123487&sale=89280156&country=england

Does this mean we dont know where he lives...? Now thats a crying shame! 

You're getting more than a bit odd now.

SimonS wrote:

Fixie Girl wrote:

TrekAndy wrote:

If you look through the accounts and registered addresses and the sales history of Mr.Husseys house it would appear he has transferred/sold the house to his Mrs. That way they cant lose it can they................

I've been reliably informed that neither Nick nor his wife own the property in question. 

 

 

Why would he lose the house anyway?  Vulpine is a limited company - it's he company that's gone bust, not Nick personally. 

Depends if any loans were secured on it.

Shouldn't he update Companies House of his new address if he moved in Dec 16?

Kadinkski wrote:

olic wrote:

Kadinkski wrote:

I invested in the low 5 figures, but I knew it was a gamble and was prepared to lose it - I assume it's gone but its no big deal to me. Ony an idiot would have invested anything they couldn't afford to lose in that proposition - it was a hot mess, but a beautiful idea.

Nick is a really engaging chap and is passionate about cycling - I invested in him rather than the numbers. I wish him well in the future. Nothing but love from me.

Kadinkski wrote:

I haven't really been following this thread because it's a bit dumb, but looking at the last few posts, it does make me chuckle. A promised salacious revelation that amounts to zero on an anynomous internet forum. Salaries (yeah, like £10k a month is anything special for a CEO...WTF-LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!). And house prices now. So many DMIs (Daily Mail Idiots) on this site these days. 

Lets burn Nick's house down unless we get our £179 back....cos there's nothing better to put our energy into .

 

So you invested over £10,000 in this business, and having read about how badly the finances were and how poorly it was managed, you've still got nothing for love?

 

I hope for your sake you make some better investment decisions in future

 

I admit I've made some terrible investment decisions. I get overly emotional and get carried away with big ideas and concepts. But two things to note:

1) I genuinely only invest what I can afford to lose. 

2) Some have paid off spectacularly (just to give context - 6 fig invested in Facebook over the months it was trading sub $20 - now worth 7 fig). I sound like a dick saying that but I'm not sure how else to give context.

 I can honestly and truly say i don't give a shit about $13k invested in Vulpine - I took a punt on Nick and it failed. I've moved on. So should you weirdos.

Well done on making money, each to their own but even Facebook can't do anything about your size...I'm sorry!

@Fixie Girl

While Nick's movements and motives are being analysed by you in fine detail, it's perhaps fair to enquire of you - why the extreme interest? You even appear to have set up a Twitter account @fixie_girl with the express purpose of dishing the dirt on Vulpine. Who are you, and why the fixation?

simonmb wrote:

@Fixie Girl

While Nick's movements and motives are being analysed by you in fine detail, it's perhaps fair to enquire of you - why the extreme interest? You even appear to have set up a Twitter account @fixie_girl with the express purpose of dishing the dirt on Vulpine. Who are you, and why the fixation?

Also like how the photo on "her" twitter profile is a crop from a stock image... http://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/photo/happy-young-woman-holding-a-bl...

honesty wrote:

simonmb wrote:

@Fixie Girl

While Nick's movements and motives are being analysed by you in fine detail, it's perhaps fair to enquire of you - why the extreme interest? You even appear to have set up a Twitter account @fixie_girl with the express purpose of dishing the dirt on Vulpine. Who are you, and why the fixation?

Also like how the photo on "her" twitter profile is a crop from a stock image... http://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/photo/happy-young-woman-holding-a-bl...

Hope you like my real pic. Taken a few years ago now. If you notice I look like the stock pic which was in fact sent to me by a colleague who joked that I was moonlighting as a 'model'.. 

The bio is real and I have real friends following this and my public Twitter accts. Willing to put your true details online? I guess honesty isn't your real name but I could be wrong.

Fixie Girl wrote:

honesty wrote:

simonmb wrote:

@Fixie Girl

While Nick's movements and motives are being analysed by you in fine detail, it's perhaps fair to enquire of you - why the extreme interest? You even appear to have set up a Twitter account @fixie_girl with the express purpose of dishing the dirt on Vulpine. Who are you, and why the fixation?

Also like how the photo on "her" twitter profile is a crop from a stock image... http://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/photo/happy-young-woman-holding-a-bl...

Hope you like my real pic. Taken a few years ago now. The bio is real and I have real friends following this and my public Twitter accts.

Willing to put your true details online? I guess honesty isn't your real name but I could be wrong.

Very nice photo. Better than a dodgy crop of a stock image. I find things like that are usually red flags for fake accounts. I mean if you really don't want to have something there why not just leave it blank? Surely you can see how that may cause some people to question your motives?

Anyway as with things on the internet it's better to view everything with a level of healthy scepticism.

simonmb wrote:

@Fixie Girl

While Nick's movements and motives are being analysed by you in fine detail, it's perhaps fair to enquire of you - why the extreme interest? You even appear to have set up a Twitter account @fixie_girl with the express purpose of dishing the dirt on Vulpine. Who are you, and why the fixation?

If you look I have been active on road.cc for many years. I dont wish to use my personal account on Twitter to highlight the issues at Vulpine because I don't have to. Ditto the avatar.

Should I fear doxing now?

I had my earlier posts deleted by Tony where I thought explained why. I met Nick at the beginning and I disagreed with his motivation.  I called him out on this and from memory we even had a few arguments on this forum too. 

When I saw what happened 2 weeks back I had a bad feeling and I did some digging and what I found truly shocked me. It isnt just me who saw what was wrong at Vulpine, Bikebiz, The Times and others sites took a similar view and published their conclusions. Which are broadly the same as mine. I work in a broadly similar business so its relatively easy to find this info by the way.

I have nothing to gain from this  either way.  I liked a lot of what Vulpine did, hell I even bought some kit. My Harrington is one of the first and I do think far better than later iterations. 

Bottom line, I am genuinely angry that someone has gone out of their way to be reckless with other people money to prove a point, the company under his leadership has lost over £2M of investors money, while enriching himself at their expense. At the same time his bad decisions will be felt in the cycle clothing market when 1000's of products hit the outlet shops hurting other brands unfairly, when others try to raise funds and so on.

Knowing Nick I am sure he will we surface soon and no doubt play the victim again. I guess you all know him on Twitter? 

BTW I was being ironic about the house and his 'movements' which I should have been clearer. 

Yorkshire wallet wrote:

Fixie Girl for Road.cc president!

I think that the title of president is rather losing its cachet, nowadays...

Yorkshire wallet wrote:

There's a movie in all this.

Perhaps Nick can raise the capital he has a "gift"!

And where is Tony? I would argue that he has his proof from multiple sources now.

gbzpto wrote:

@Fixie girl "A company disproportionally feted by the cycling press" this is what I always felt as well never could understand why. Road.cc were certainly taken in - and sounds like at least one of the staff had shares in the company. Probably makes sense now.

It doesn't "sound like at least one of the staff had shares in the company" one of 'em did buy shares in the Crowd Cube offering, on the same basis as Kadinkski. I did mention that some way back.

Some of you seem to be labouring under the misapprehension that road.cc is some sort of business news website doling out investment advice on cycling companies. We're not.

Buying advice road.cc is qualified to give:

Buying a Vulpine jacket? - Yes

Buying Vulpine? - No

Our interest in Vulpine pretty much begins and ends with their products - which by and large were very good. When they were raising money on Crowd Cube we reported it - it was interesting, ditto Le Col - ditto Huez. I'd have to say that if you were making investment decisions on the basis of our news stories about Vulpine… well. 

Kadinkski wrote:

I invested in the low 5 figures, but I knew it was a gamble and was prepared to lose it - I assume it's gone but its no big deal to me. Ony an idiot would have invested anything they couldn't afford to lose in that proposition - it was a hot mess, but a beautiful idea.

Nick is a really engaging chap and is passionate about cycling - I invested in him rather than the numbers. I wish him well in the future. Nothing but love from me.

You invested in the low five figures but were prepared to lose it so no biggy? Can I have your job for a while?

Gweeds wrote:

I'm puzzled why someone with no financial skin in this game would spend this much time and effort here, and then create a second Twitter account, just because they're 'angry'. 

You haven't lost anything, a company has failed. It happens every day. The full story will no doubt come out in time.

But this is looking like a very personal vendetta.

So what if it is personal?

At least there's a counter-narrative to the anodyne first page of 'that's a shame: such a nice man/cool company/but my pocket fell off' waste of cyberspace.

Also, exactly how do you suppose the truth does come out in these stories? Do truth fairies eventually sit down with someone connected in a pub, or give the scoop to the FT? Or is it that enough people get angry about it to do some digging, and highlight other sources that took a similar line, and someone can be arsed banging the drum loud enough for it to break into the mainstream?

You might not be personally affected, or motivated to do anything: great. But the world would be a far, far shitter place if only people who'd been personally wronged got angry and motivated.

Fixie Girl wrote:

Yorkshire wallet wrote:

There's a movie in all this.

Perhaps Nick can raise the capital he has a "gift"! And where is Tony? I would argue that he has his proof from multiple sources now.

Hi Fixie Girl

I'm enjoying my Saturday. Eating popcorn
 

Tony Farrelly wrote:

gbzpto wrote:

@Fixie girl "A company disproportionally feted by the cycling press" this is what I always felt as well never could understand why. Road.cc were certainly taken in - and sounds like at least one of the staff had shares in the company. Probably makes sense now.

It doesn't "sound like at least one of the staff had shares in the company" one of 'em did buy shares in the Crowd Cube offering, on the same basis as Kadinkski. I did mention that some way back.

Some of you seem to be labouring under the misapprehension that road.cc is some sort of business news website doling out investment advice on cycling companies. We're not. Our interest in Vulpine pretty much begins and ends with their products - which by and large were very good. When they were raising money on Crowd Cube we reported it - it was interesting, ditto Le Col - ditto Huez. I'd have to say that if you were making investment decisions on the basis of our news stories about Vulpine… well. 

Agree Tony. It is a case of caveat emptor.  

Perhaps it would be useful lesson to carry a follow on piece when all the facts come out and the dust has settled. I hope that there won't now be a negative impact on raising funds for the likes of Le Col and Huez. 

Pete B 

Tony Farrelly wrote:

gbzpto wrote:

@Fixie girl "A company disproportionally feted by the cycling press" this is what I always felt as well never could understand why. Road.cc were certainly taken in - and sounds like at least one of the staff had shares in the company. Probably makes sense now.

It doesn't "sound like at least one of the staff had shares in the company" one of 'em did buy shares in the Crowd Cube offering, on the same basis as Kadinkski. I did mention that some way back.

Some of you seem to be labouring under the misapprehension that road.cc is some sort of business news website doling out investment advice on cycling companies. We're not.

Buying advice road.cc is qualified to give:

Buying a Vulpine jacket? - Yes

Buying Vulpine? - No

Our interest in Vulpine pretty much begins and ends with their products - which by and large were very good. When they were raising money on Crowd Cube we reported it - it was interesting, ditto Le Col - ditto Huez. I'd have to say that if you were making investment decisions on the basis of our news stories about Vulpine… well. 

Come on Tony, this is still a cycling story. There's loads to go on:

Was Sir Chris Hoy an investor and what does he make of all this?

Why the Hoy/Vulpine partnership end? I was unaware that it had and now realise that the Vulpine cycle kit I have (bought in sales obvs) is actually all Hoy/Vulpine.  

Were August Cycles ever paid for the 2 £10K vanity bikes? No sign of them on the A.C. website.

Where's the money?

Well said

And what happened to the directors. ?.

zero_trooper wrote:

Tony Farrelly wrote:

gbzpto wrote:

@Fixie girl "A company disproportionally feted by the cycling press" this is what I always felt as well never could understand why. Road.cc were certainly taken in - and sounds like at least one of the staff had shares in the company. Probably makes sense now.

It doesn't "sound like at least one of the staff had shares in the company" one of 'em did buy shares in the Crowd Cube offering, on the same basis as Kadinkski. I did mention that some way back.

Some of you seem to be labouring under the misapprehension that road.cc is some sort of business news website doling out investment advice on cycling companies. We're not.

Buying advice road.cc is qualified to give:

Buying a Vulpine jacket? - Yes

Buying Vulpine? - No

Our interest in Vulpine pretty much begins and ends with their products - which by and large were very good. When they were raising money on Crowd Cube we reported it - it was interesting, ditto Le Col - ditto Huez. I'd have to say that if you were making investment decisions on the basis of our news stories about Vulpine… well. 

Come on Tony, this is still a cycling story. There's loads to go on:

Was Sir Chris Hoy an investor and what does he make of all this?

Why the Hoy/Vulpine partnership end? I was unaware that it had and now realise that the Vulpine cycle kit I have (bought in sales obvs) is actually all Hoy/Vulpine.  

Were August Cycles ever paid for the 2 £10K vanity bikes? No sign of them on the A.C. website.

Where's the money?

zero_trooper wrote:

Tony Farrelly wrote:

gbzpto wrote:

@Fixie girl "A company disproportionally feted by the cycling press" this is what I always felt as well never could understand why. Road.cc were certainly taken in - and sounds like at least one of the staff had shares in the company. Probably makes sense now.

It doesn't "sound like at least one of the staff had shares in the company" one of 'em did buy shares in the Crowd Cube offering, on the same basis as Kadinkski. I did mention that some way back.

Some of you seem to be labouring under the misapprehension that road.cc is some sort of business news website doling out investment advice on cycling companies. We're not.

Buying advice road.cc is qualified to give:

Buying a Vulpine jacket? - Yes

Buying Vulpine? - No

Our interest in Vulpine pretty much begins and ends with their products - which by and large were very good. When they were raising money on Crowd Cube we reported it - it was interesting, ditto Le Col - ditto Huez. I'd have to say that if you were making investment decisions on the basis of our news stories about Vulpine… well. 

Come on Tony, this is still a cycling story. There's loads to go on:

Was Sir Chris Hoy an investor and what does he make of all this?

Why the Hoy/Vulpine partnership end? I was unaware that it had and now realise that the Vulpine cycle kit I have (bought in sales obvs) is actually all Hoy/Vulpine.  

Were August Cycles ever paid for the 2 £10K vanity bikes? No sign of them on the A.C. website.

Where's the money?

I re-read Road.cc's previous coverage on Vulpine's fundraising...it would be wrong to say Road.cc did anything wrong, made any recommendation or wrote anything they can't back-up.  However, if in this story Nick Hussey is Donald Trump...then Road.cc is Sean Spicer!  The pieces had no objectivity, low on sound bites and full of propaganda!

"Were August Cycles ever paid for the 2 £10K vanity bikes? No sign of them on the A.C. website."

Hello @zero_trooper! We (August Bicycles) we were paid, as we are a small set-up and simply couldn't afford to take a chance on someone's word when we hadn't worked with them before. A real relief to us now, but sad times. They didn't cost even nearly as much as that to the Vulpine guys and the sale prices were heavily inflated, not by us, but for effect, we assume. We were told that they've been seized as company assets now, but have just been informed that is also a fib. Such a sad saga.

RunRabbitRun]</p>

<p>[quote=zero_trooper wrote:

"Were August Cycles ever paid for the 2 £10K vanity bikes? No sign of them on the A.C. website."

Hello @zero_trooper! We (August Bicycles) we were paid, as we are a small set-up and simply couldn't afford to take a chance on someone's word when we hadn't worked with them before. A real relief to us now, but sad times. They didn't cost even nearly as much as that to the Vulpine guys and the sale prices were heavily inflated, not by us, but for effect, we assume. We were told that they've been seized as company assets now, but have just been informed that is also a fib. Such a sad saga.

Thanks for getting back to us RRR, glad that you have been paid for what would appear to have been a labour of love. I raised the question as from previous experience in a specialist, niche market (craft brewing), there are plenty of charlatans out there who are very tardy over paying for goods/services. Which as you have stated can have a real negative impact on small businesses.

Keep making beautiful bikes  

Kadinkski wrote:

I invested in the low 5 figures, but I knew it was a gamble and was prepared to lose it - I assume it's gone but its no big deal to me. Ony an idiot would have invested anything they couldn't afford to lose in that proposition - it was a hot mess, but a beautiful idea.

Nick is a really engaging chap and is passionate about cycling - I invested in him rather than the numbers. I wish him well in the future. Nothing but love from me.

I could understand the first part if the insolvency was down to outside issues, not internal suspect business practise.

second part makes Nick sound like a modern day Jim Jones..  Just dont drink the cool aid?!