To say the market for digital money is like the Wild West would be unfair to the comparatively tame American frontier days. Dozens of cryptocurrencies compete for investors’ attention with few restrictions and a ready-fire-aim mentality. The admonishment “buyer beware’’ seems inadequate, and, to even mention it, almost naive.
Marszalek’s history as an entrepreneur is a checkered one. And a bit like swinging from vine to vine in the digital jungle.
Bee Crazy
In 2010, Marszalek founded the daily deals website Bee Crazy, which was similar to Groupon. He sold it to iBuy Group Ltd. in December 2013 for $21 million. After the deal, he became chief operating officer of iBuy, which later purchased Ensogo Ltd., a unit of LivingSocial Inc., for $18.5 million. IBuy ultimately changed its name to Ensogo and named Marszalek CEO in August 2014.
In Marszalek’s first year as CEO, Ensogo posted a A$67 million ($60.4 million) loss, more than 11 times its 2013 deficit, as the company’s operating expenses ballooned. The next year, the loss widened to A$80 million.
“I was asked after I sold the company to try and turn the business around,” Marszalek said. “It was a very, very difficult task as the business model was failing.”
Preserve Cash
In June 2016, Ensogo’s board of directors announced the company was shutting down Bee Crazy to preserve cash for new investment opportunities. Bee Crazy came under fire from the Hong Kong Consumer Council for the sudden closing, which left consumers and local merchants who bought and sold coupons on the website with no way of contacting the company.
“The council was deeply concerned about its closure and had tried to contact the Bee Crazy’s management through different channels, in order to understand how the company would arrange and handle the related inquiries and complaints,” the council said in an email statement. “However, the council has been unable to reach the head of Bee Crazy since its closure.”
The Consumer Council received 117 complaints and 328 inquiries about Bee Crazy over the course of eight days in June 2016, according to the statement.