StartEngine: Pre-IPO Investing

What people write about

Direction describes a theme in aggregate. An individual review may differ — select a theme to inspect its star profile and every text.

loading the rest of the reviews

1. ★★★★★negative experience without a specific reason· unspecific

   Review was deleted. Nice that bad reviews have been removed to boost this horrible app

2. ★★★★★negative experience without a specific reason· unspecific

   Scam. I deposited $1200 to start a new account. They sent me emails stating they are setting up my account. No more emails about the status of my account just sales emails. Several months later, I log into the app and it shows I have no balance. So they just scammed me out of my money.

3. ★★★★★crashes, freezes and errors

   Constant Website glitches. Today the website is not working. Most days I have tried to connect with equity trust or add funds and you have failed. On a daily basis.

4. ★★★★★negative experience without a specific reason· unspecific

   Absolutely No customer service! Never a reply! No way to sell! Scam! Run the other Way!. I’ve contacted customer service, or tried to on there app, 6 times in 3 years never any reply. I’m even part of there venture club for $275 a year and no help or support. I’ve funded and received $Thousands of share of different stocks over 3 years ago. and even after waiting, there’s no way to sell. For all who are considering this app, it’s a good place to tie up money and never get it back! I can’t understand how this app can have such high ratings? I wanted to believe in it, now I think I was scammed!

5. ★★★★★negative experience without a specific reason· unspecific

   Wack. All my investments I can’t sell

6. ★★★★★saving, exporting or sharing the result fails

   Scam SE - Money Locked Away. UPDATE: 5 years later. Finally sold off some shares...StartEngine app wont allow withdrawals. If anyone opens a class action against, count me in. Mr Wonderful is fronting a scam site. There are so many ways to invest in the world nowadays. My personal experience is that StartEngine is definitely an investment to avoid. You think you might be able to invest in the next Uber, but mostly companies are pretty small. They're not really profitable and it's many many many years before they're going to be going public, if they ever do all, which is the only way you're gonna get money for your investment. So far I have about $10,000 invested in this type of crowdsourcing and I found it to be a poor investment strategy. Note, would NEVER invest this way again. Need the money now, yet cannot get it out. Money is locked.

7. ★★★★★negative experience without a specific reason· unspecific

   Scam. Has anyone ever cashed out from them?$5k invested in start engine itself and no way to get any of my funds back 3 years later.

8. ★★★★★saving, exporting or sharing the result fails

   I’m a investor. Cannot download the app to my present iOS don’t have 17.1 can’t open the app and I’m an investor. Don’t know how to get a hold of these people to correct this problem. My phone will not allow me to download the higher iOS.

9. ★★★★★negative experience without a specific reason· unspecific

   Scammers!. I invested $300 to a start up called JET AI in 2020. I thought it was a good investment because its the uber of jets! With kevin oleary promoting it, i thought ok this is legit. Then years past nothing was happening and they stopped promoting. The year they knew trump is becoming president and with the help of the old sec who were also scamming the usa, did something to steal our money. So in 2024 ALL early investors got their shares dropped to 0?! Though the years i tried figuring out how to sell my shares and start engine never helped. Then they send me an email saying my shares were being sold or transferred to another company “continental stock” and they also left me clueless giving me the run around. Then when it was all set and done they FINALLY told me that this and this happened. But i still understand why my 999 shares went to 0 when the stock is higher than ever? These people are scammers and oleary is part of the scamming, i dont care how popular he is dont invest in start engine.

10. ★★★★★subscription and paid restrictions

    Ripoff alert. Do not waste money on this platform Mr wonderful won’t feel wonderful when you get fleeced ….more than half of these companies are near dead and should be taken to the back of the barn to end their misery….one company Atmos Home fleeced me on a convertible debt I have received no interested payment they disappeared and rebranded …another dumpster app I got called fluz never became a big hit…I got knightscope that cnbc even tried to influence this company is on its way to death….do not buy any of these dumpster juice companies…. You are better off putting money in stocks

11. ★★★★★negative experience without a specific reason· unspecific

    Waste of money. This is the worst investment site out there. Basically ties up your money with no way to get it out. I’ve bought shares in multiple companies and they just sit there making no money and no way to sell them. Could be making real profits with that money on a real investment app. Total waste of time and money. Just let me cash out!!

12. ★★★★★subscription and paid restrictions

    Access to Account Issues. Been trying to access my account for the past 6 months. I even subscribed to an Authentication App and still cannot access my investment or my monies. It’s like my monies are gone. Like they purposely holding my monies without my consent so they can charge a second $275 membership fee plus keep the monies I no longer have access to. Phone Customer Support is nonexistent. Plus the email does not work.

13. ★★★★★subscription and paid restrictions

    Unable to sell. 2 years ago I bought 60 shares of a business, it has now gone up around 25% yet my shares remain at the same price as when I bought them. And after emailing them they said I could sell my shares (again without any of my profits, because who knows where those went) but only if I purchased their $275 a year membership. Yup that’s right you are forbidden from selling your shares unless you get their premium subscription. Based on most reviews its hard for me to believe this company is a complete scam but I definitely got ripped off of my investment and it has been a several month long issue to try to figure out how to sell my stocks and get away from this horrible company.

14. ★★★★★negative experience without a specific reason· unspecific

    You will never get your money back. Don’t invest through the platform. After companies go public you invested in you’ll get a runaround that they can’t find the shares or never had it.

15. ★★★★★negative experience without a specific reason· unspecific

    Scam. I invested in the first stock the actual company start engine . Now it’s saying I have no money but I have the stock trying to sell my investment but can’t get help from start engine

16. ★★★★★negative experience without a specific reason· unspecific

    Update no update. Says update required. But it will not update. Now what??

17. ★★★★★negative experience without a specific reason· unspecific

    You will lose all of your money. StartEngine is not a scam, however, you will lose your entire investment because none of these companies make it. The ones that do and ipo you can’t actually sell your shares on the stock market and by the time you can sell, they have become penny stocks and your investment is gone. Avoid, there are better ways to invest.

18. ★★★★★negative experience without a specific reason· unspecific

    You’ll never see your money again. Invested in a company I believed in in 2021, since then the company has performed moderately. But the catch? I cannot withdrawal my money. Multiple contacts with customer service resulted in confirmation that my money is confined to their platform. Eventually they stopped responding to my customer service requests. I regret putting my money in using this platform, and thank God that it wasn’t more money.

19. ★★★★★negative experience without a specific reason· unspecific

    Not a good experience. I invested in a Mezcal company and I can’t even get them to reply to my emails now. I would say be careful with this because you sign disclosure saying they’re not liable. You’d be better off gambling in Las Vegas or investing in the stock market lol.

20. ★★★★★data, history or progress disappears

    My investment disappear. I opened an account with Apple ID, one day i couldn’t get in and error showed, I tried many times until I got in but I think it got me sign up as a new user. My investment is not showing. I sent an email Jan 24 2024 and no response. I try to call and no phone number is available. Is this app a scam? Please help

21. ★★★★★negative experience without a specific reason· unspecific

    Scam?. Says need to reconfirm or forfeit shares but no reconfirm UX as described so guess they are just going to take my money/shares. Avoid!

22. ★★★★★negative experience without a specific reason· unspecific

    Not worth it. Save your money for elsewhere. Too hard to get your money out if needed. Lack of communication. If a company goes belly up you just lose it, with no information. Have to pay to sell, IF… it’s even an option

23. ★★★★★negative experience without a specific reason· unspecific

    App crashes. Start app and it crashes. Apple 13 pro being used with latest updates.

24. ★★★★★crashes, freezes and errors

    App fails on my phone. Just installed App. It displays a splash screen, then crashes. I tried rebooting my phone, and upgraded iOS to 18.0.1. Still crashes. Update 10/24: Apparently, the App just fails on my phone, although I have over 200 Apps on my phone and have never seen an App crash problem like this ever before. I verified I can open the App on my iPad, but not my phone still. My iPhone 13 is corporate managed if that makes a difference.

25. ★★★★★negative experience without a specific reason· unspecific

    buyer beware. No real time phone support… There are some bait and switch traps in the software during offers… I got my 10% discount, but I had to fight for it… If there was another way to support Legion M I would do it that way!

26. ★★★★★crashes, freezes and errors

    Broken app?. App won’t load. It’s only replays the welcome animation over and over.

27. ★★★★★negative experience without a specific reason· unspecific

    Too much Personal information. Why is this app asking for so much personal information like SS#, employer & information on family members? I'm wanting to sign up to review what Start ups I may be investing in, but have to answer all this personal information first. Why?

28. ★★★★★negative experience without a specific reason· unspecific

    Helps the companies and StartEngine but not investors. It’s a joke.

29. ★★★★★negative experience without a specific reason· unspecific

    Scammers. I’ve been registered with those platforms is 2021. I can never get any help I’m always met with automatic emails that never have a follow up email what I’m gonna do and when I’m gonna do encourage other investors to do is to file a complaint with the FCC and the consumer protection financial bureau

30. ★★★★★negative experience without a specific reason· unspecific

    Worked until it doesn’t.. Made my first investment using this app. I go to the app today (2/28/24) and it doesn’t work. Tried to use the app today and nothing. You can’t even contact anyone at this app. The emails don’t work and the phone numbers no one is there or is just an automated message.