Heather Cole Responds to Arthur Collymore

On October 3rd, 2021, Arthur Collymore addressed the below comment to me [Heather Cole].
Arthur Collymore

If Phoenix crowdfunding is what Arthur Collymore is referring to, it was perfectly legal as we were in the processing of forming a non-profit.  One person benefits in a Ponzi scheme.   Our operation would have been a modern version of the Barbadian Meeting Turn, therefore benefiting everyone. 

A Barbadian website builder named Alvin Herbert developed a website for us.  It was a fraught with delays from the start.  He did not deliver the finished site on time and what he delivered was a shell and it did not complete our requirements.  When we complained, he removed the site from the Internet. 

The police in Barbados were contacted.   A Police Sergeant tried unsuccessfully to mediate the situation, but Alvin Herbert changed the terms and wanted us to pay him additional funds to complete the work.  I refused and I contacted the Minister responsible for entrepreneurship who referred the matter to the Public Counsel.  A complaint was filed however to date, the Tribunal has not met.  

Loosing over $2000.00 and the website devastated the group’s morale and that is what caused the group to fall apart. We have not been able to get another website built as yet.  If any scamming was done it was by Alvin Herbert.   

I even sent a copy of the draft proposal for Phoenix Crowdfunding to the Minister (Kerri Symmonds), asking if it could become operational in Barbados.  He said it was not his Ministry, but he could pass it on to the Ministry of Finance.  I have not received any response from that Ministry to date. 

My question for Arthur Collymore is why something to help the poor and unemployed is looked upon as a scam and why a plan to rob the Treasury of Barbados by Mark Maloney is not a scam?

 On a more positive note, if anyone out here has a reasonable solution for this website, contact me.  I am submitting the draft proposal for all to see.  There is nothing sinister contained therein.

Phoenix Crowdfunding International

Submitted by Heather Cole – Founder of Phoenix Crowdfunding International

You may recall that a few years ago I had the idea to start a national meeting turn for Barbados. Needless to say it did not materialize then, but; it was not because of the lack of trying. I came to Barbados and had several meetings with one of the Credit Unions, the others never responded. In the end it was pushed under the carpet. No one wanted to change the status quo.

At that time I presented my proposal to the Financial Service Commission and the outcome was that they would not monitor such an establishment so that was approval enough to start the national meeting turn but it could not start without a financial institution to hold the funds.

Fast forward to today and I have a community of about 258 persons in the US and we have now started an automated platform on which we intend to grow physically. Our growth now is not only limited to automation but to legal status. We are currently in the process of becoming an International Nonprofit. This status will open many opportunities for us. Not only will we be a legal entity in the US but we will be able to operate internationally as well.

This is where Barbados and by extension the rest of the world comes in. We can now offer our nonprofit service to Barbadians. As a crowdfunding community our mission is twofold.

  1. To focus on the creation of family businesses but individual efforts are also welcomed.
  2. We will also be using contributions from the platform to invest as a community both in Barbados and the US. This can be in real estate, a restaurant, a store, in agriculture or as importing merchants.
  3. We also intend to be a source of generational wealth.

The bottom line is that the sky will be the limit if we become an entity in which the general public has confidence. The focus in the US is to assist black and brown communities. In Barbados the plan is to have the crowdfunding platform serve the middle and working class.

We will be having a launch for the new entity Phoenix Crowdfunding International on April 15th, 2021. The launch will be held via zoom and I will share the link. All are invited to attend to, hear how the system will work and have their queries answered and sign up.

There is not much that the average Barbadian can do alone but we can do great things together; the most important of which is to pursue economic empowerment. There is no time like the present to change our destiny.