Invest in Porter Road

[58limited]

Just putting this out there for anyone interested:

Porter Road is considering a crowdfunding campaign through StartEngine, an equity crowdfunding platform for small businesses. You can reserve shares (no money up front but you do have to provide financial information - they will send a notice when funds are due and you can back out if you wish).

Basically, they are wanting to expand their meat stick and hot dog distribution - from their e-mail:


"Many of you have tasted our popular Beef Sticks. We are currently gearing up for grocery store distribution nationwide. Not only are they delicious, they are also some of the only dry aged snack sticks that are fully made and raised in the USA. As a shelf stable, ready to eat product, they will contribute significantly to our profitable growth by allowing us to create more value from our trim. For added context, there are companies in the marketplace valued in the hundreds of millions, that only make beef sticks. We are deep in conversations with national retailers to get these on shelves across the country soon. Value-add products like our Beef Sticks are just one of the many ways we are scaling up our business."


I'm not a financial expert by any means but I believe that Porter Road has future potential so I made a small investment reservation.

Scroll down their main page to find the link for more information.

https://porterroad.com/

Full e-mail:

"We announced some exciting news a few days ago, and as a valued member of our community, we want to make sure you didn’t miss it. We are exploring launching a crowdfunding campaign through StartEngine, an equity crowdfunding platform for small businesses, and you’re invited to be one of the first to know if we open up investment opportunities.

We’ve been blown away by the initial response, with over $235,000 in reservations so far, primarily from our loyal customers.

The future of Porter Road is full of opportunities. As you may know, we pride ourselves on being a whole-animal butcher. We work hard to create as much value as possible, and don’t let anything go to waste. Many of you have tasted our popular Beef Sticks. We are currently gearing up for grocery store distribution nationwide. Not only are they delicious, they are also some of the only dry aged snack sticks that are fully made and raised in the USA. As a shelf stable, ready to eat product, they will contribute significantly to our profitable growth by allowing us to create more value from our trim. For added context, there are companies in the marketplace valued in the hundreds of millions, that only make beef sticks. We are deep in conversations with national retailers to get these on shelves across the country soon.

Value-add products like our Beef Sticks are just one of the many ways we are scaling up our business.

We hope you’ll join us. Learn more below and be the first to know about investment opportunities. As a thank you for showing early interest with no commitment, you’ll receive 5% bonus shares in our possible upcoming investment opportunity if you reserve now.



Gratefully,

Chris Carter & James Peisker
Porter Road Co-founders"

[Jerod Broussard]

Interesting. According to my RobinHood graphs I need not invest anymore this year.

[FireMan]

One thing I can attest to is, there products are outstanding. I am not surprised by the response of their customers.

[Troutman]

I doubt I'd be interested but thanks for posting. They are a fine producer, just not sure what kind of return to expect on such an investment.

[STEbbq]

Lots of new information in the latest update.

https://www.startengine.com/offering/porterroad/updates

[bbqLuv]

Bovine flatulence is bad for the environment. Help Porter Road save our planet--Eat More Beef

[58limited]

UPDATE, Not Good. Glad I didn't invest much.

Got this e-mail today:



"This is a tough message to send, but an important one as a company that is built on transparency. We want to inform you, our loyal customers, fans, and supporters, that we made the difficult, but ultimately right decision to file for Chapter 11 protection. This Chapter 11 filing is not a shutdown or liquidation—it’s a strategic reorganization. Rest assured, there will be no impact on the product or the customer experience you’ve come to expect from Porter Road. With your continued support, we’re confident we will emerge from this process stronger, and more resilient than ever.

Porter Road has always been a mission-driven company. From day one, we’ve set out to raise the bar for how meat is sourced, processed, and delivered—with ethics and transparency at the center. But doing things the right way is often more expensive than doing them the easy way. Between the rising cost of beef, and the overhead of operating our own facility, which requires scale to operate most efficiently, we have been fighting an uphill battle.

In order to fund the business and chase opportunities, we partnered with a financing group who was lending capital. Over the last year, this relationship began going sideways, culminating in the partner arbitrarily sweeping our funds from a bank account they controlled. We made a bad call continuing to do business with them, but at the time, it felt like our best choice. The Chapter 11 process allows us to hit the pause button and catch our breath.

Throughout this process, we are also electing to take the path we feel is right, even if it is harder - much like we do with our farming practices. We care deeply about our partners and those that have supported us as investors along the way. If approved by the court, we will pay back all outstanding debts to our partners. We also filed Chapter 11 under a small business carve out called Subchapter V, which allows us to protect investors, including those that participated in the crowdfunding campaign.

Running a small business, especially in the meat industry, is no small task. While we’ve made our fair share of mistakes along the way, we have learned from all of them. Porter Road is a company with a purpose, and we will continue to fight for it. We appreciate your support."

Chris and James

[LA Pork Butt]

I wonder about Wild Fork and Direct Tools, because I have been inundated with emails since last fall.

[FireMan]

Not good, but it does look like a learning curve for a decent company and a decent group of people.

[Huskee]

I appreciate their transparency. Who of us havent made bad, or less than fruitful, business decisions we wish we'd done differently? Part of learning.

They'll bounce back because they care enough to.

[STEbbq]

More on Chapter 11 and subchapter 5. I too appreciate the transparency. If it is a liquidity crisis as opposed to a over leveraged issue, they should be able to resume firmer footing once they get their cash back.

https://www.findlaw.com/bankruptcy/business-bankruptcy/subchapter-5-in-chapter-11-bankruptcy.html

[Jerod Broussard]

Would they have had to file Chapter 11 if there was any reasonable expectation of getting the cash back?

[STEbbq]

Jerod Broussard I’d view this as buying time to fix the lack of cash. You can’t pay suppliers, employees, taxes etc with no cash with creates a whole new set of problems. Preventing all of those issues from getting worse while buying time to find cash makes sense. Maybe there is a fraud claim to be filed?

[Jerod Broussard]

Got it. I grew up a Rice Farmer's son. You live in Chapter BROKE.

[SheilaAnn]

I was just going to post about this. I received the same email.

[jfmorris]

Well, in the article I read, they appear to want to protect their investors including the crowdfunding ones. I think things went south with shenanigans by the venture capital people, from the article. The big issue I see is that they owe at least $5M in debt to two debtors.

[Murdy]

The concerning thing is that the venture capital people decided the best course was to end their relationship with Porter Road to protect their investment. They, more than just about anyone, as their money was at stake, wanted PR to succeed and expected PR to when they put their money up in the first place. While the venture capital people were undoubtedly acting in their self interest, i doubt they caused the problem, but were just reacting to it.

[jfmorris]

Well, in support of the guys at Porter Road trying to make a go of it, I placed an order yesterday, while they had a "spring" sale going on with 15% off the picanha and butt I ordered, along with one of my favorites - their osso bucco. We'll see if they charge my card or ship. I am hopeful they will, since they were going to the effort to run a "stocking up" sale over the weekend.

[Hulagn1971]

Yeah, I keep getting their sale texts, like I do from other places I purchase from. It's been a while since I've ordered and always had good service/product from them. I'll probably wait a bit till the dust settles, myself.

[STEbbq]

Fingers crossed for your willingness to take one for the team. In theory, you should be okay but I am sure it is all kinds of chaos behind the scenes.

[jfmorris]

Well, I am happy to report that the order I placed at 4:30pm yesterday (Monday) has been packed and shipped (Tuesday afternoon), and I have UPS tracking information saying it should arrive by 7PM tomorrow (Wednesday). I'm within the 1 day zone for UPS ground coming from where Porter Road is located.

I will report back on whether it arrives on time. I hope it does, as temperatures are 70 outside today, but jump into the 80's tomorrow!

EDIT: As of 7am Wednesday, the package is out for delivery!

EDIT: As of 4pm Wednesday, the package was DELIVERED. Less than 24 hours after pickup.

All ice packs were frozen, the pork butt was frozen, the beef osso buco next to it was frozen likely due to proximity, and the picanha was very cold, but not frozen. All items look to be at or above the specified weight range on their website. 3.94# picanha, 2.12# osso buco, 8.35# butt. Fat caps do not seem excessive. It all went straight into the freezer in the garage for future use.

[ronny676]

Porter Road’s idea sounds pretty intriguing, and I’ve been trying to get a handle on how these investments usually pan out, especially on platforms like StartEngine. It turns out many of these deals happen under Regulation D, which is basically a set of SEC rules that let companies raise capital without all the hassle of going fully public.

I found a really helpful breakdown on how Regulation D offerings work if you’re curious about the details or risks. And hey, Porter Road’s beef sticks seem tasty enough to be worth a small bet