X-Message-Number: 6522 Date: Sun, 14 Jul 1996 11:46:49 -0400 From: Mark Mugler <> Subject: Comments on Postings re: Prometheus --=====================_837365996==_ Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" --=====================_837365996==_ Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" SUBJECT: Comments on Postings re: Prometheus. 1. I find all this brouhaha about royalties a bit distressing. KEEP IT SIMPLE. Prometheus should be just like any other profit-making company. OF COURSE Prometheus should make everyone pay royalties. The alternative is to have the prospective investors (and I'm thinking particularly of CryoCare and Alcor) at each other's throats trying to gain a business advantage. At the same time, I like Brian Wowk's idea of "technology credits," which I simply undertand as an agreement by Prometheus to accept shares at par as payment toward royalties. This idea will reduce a disincentive to investment by non-profits. If an organization's shares do not appreciate, but it wants the technology, it can turn the shares in as payment toward a royalty. If the shares appreciate, it can hang onto them, or sell them, and pay the royalty in cash. The prospect of receiving a portion of royalty income should be an incentive comparable to the prospect of receiving technology free of royalties. 2. Apparently the plan is to have each pledger make tax-deductible donations to his or her cryonics membership organization or to a friendly organization such as the Life Extension Society, thereby gaining a tax deduction for the contribution. I share Steve Bridge's concern that if the organization that receives a pledger's donation enters into a proxy arrangement whereby the donor gains a voting right in a profit-making company, that IRS will get in their knickers at the least and maybe take away the deductibility of the donation or even the 501c3 exemption. KEEP IT SIMPLE. Forget proxies and proxy-like games -- you will get burned. Instead, Prometheus should offer shares to INDIVIDUALS as well as friendly 501c3 organizations. If you as a pledger expect to never see your money again, then take the tax deduction, give money to an organization that will benefit you (like the cryonics organization of which you are a member), and forget about it. If you expect to realize a! ! gai n or are a risk-seeker, invest in Prometheus directly, be a voting shareholder, and take your gains and or losses but forego the tax deduction. 3. My personal opinion is that to start the company you don't need 10 years of $1M pledges. First, costs ramp up and ramp down. Second, additional investors/pledgers will step forward over time. Say you will spend $500K the first year. If you start the company with pledges of $750K per year for ten years, you already have enough for the first two years ($1.5M) and you're 75 percent of the way for the out-years. Would you let the idea die if you were that close? I wouldn't. 4. I need clarification on the point about "all" the pledgers having to approve the business plan. I assume that means that the business plan will be designed to please as many pledgers as possible, but a pledger who doesn't like the business plan is not bound by his pledge. --=====================_837365996==_-- Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=6522