Image from Modobag.com

What happens when 1 Bar Owner, 1 Motorcycle Engineer, 3 Marketing guys, and 1 video editor get together for a drink? They create ModoBag and raise over $274,000.

The following article started after reading through their Indiegogo page and noticing the following question. Remember just a few months earlier all those hoverboards were banned.

“Has Modobag been approved by all necessary flight authorities?”

And their reply, “Modobag is compliant with Transportation Security Administration (TSA), Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), United Nations (UN), and International Air Transportation Association (IATA) guidelines.”

Hmm, hold on, they are trying to twist the question from the reader seeing “approved” from the question to “compliant” in the answer. So their answer should have read:

“No, the Modobag has not been approved by ANY flight authorities. However, Modobag is compliant with Transportation Security Administration (TSA), Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), United Nations (UN), and International Air Transportation Association (IATA) guidelines for the size of their batteries.”

Isn’t that sneaky, maybe that was just a harmless mistake, can they actually build it?

Can they build it? Team Breakdown

As with our breakdown of what made the Barracuda Bag Team so great, lets break down the Modobag team.

And a quick tease… how many guys does it take to launch a company? 1 Bar Owner, 1 Motorcycle Engineer, 3 Marketing guys, and 1 video editor.  Oh yeah, this company has huge potential.

Kevin O’Donnell

What Modobag says: “After studying Industrial Design as a student at the University of Illinois, Kevin spent several years in the technology space, where he launched numerous eCommerce ventures.”

What Kevin O’Donnell’s LinkedIn says: for the last 6 years he’s been a co-manager at “Chi-town Finest Breakers is an unique family-run break-dance crew of five young siblings from Chicago, IL. Ozone, Spinderella, Turbo, Crazy Legz and Precious Moments discovered their passion for dance at an early age after watching their father, Henry, perform in old break-dance videos.” and he owns a bar called “Pint“ “Pint’s relaxing atmosphere, delicious meals, tasty beer selection and ‘old world’ charm will make you feel as comfortable and welcome as any public house in Chicago.”

Odd that his Modobag profile says he spent several years in the “technology space” and yet there’s not a single mention of technology anywhere on his bio.

Paul Moriarity Jr. (Marketing Guy #1 “Kinda”)

Paul’s is truly the best… Modobag says “Currently he is Modobag’s copywriter as well as being involved in marketing and advertising. His experience in social media is second to none”

But his LinkedIn says… “General Manager At Pint”, so yes, he is the general manager of Kevin’s bar/restaurant! To be fair, it does list him as a proofreader at CompTIA, which is a trade publication. But I believe he’s far far from having that much social experience that they are claiming.

Boyd Bruner

Oh wow there isn’t much on this guy, we tracked down his Facebook. He is the ONLY one on the team with any sort of technical experience, and sure enough, not enough technical experience to make an app to power this thing.  His expertise is in being a competitive motorcyclist, motorcycle technician, Crew Chief and “built the motorcycle that won the 2014 Daytona 200”. We couldn’t find anything that said he actually built the motorcycle, we did find an article that seemed to infer that he was in charge of the rear axle though.

Tom Casey or Tommy Casey (Marketing Guy #2)

Modobag says “Tom is a talented and creative artist that produces and shoots commercial video and photography for advertising, merchandising, and product placement.” He was a little more difficult to research, but we found out he actually is Los Angeles based, and is the owner of the Box 24 Studio in Venice. And is the boss of , you guessed it, employee number 5 – their video editor, Ralph Guerrero (Video Editor).

Tim Ryan (Marketing Guy #3)

Seesh, how many marketing guys does a startup need? Here’s his LinkedIn.

“Tim is a marketing and communication entrepreneur adept at helping start-up and established companies market themselves in the New Economy.”

He currently runs, everywhichway marketing + communication, which appears to be just a really, really, outdated website.

Missed Ship Dates Already

While researching who Boyd Bruner was, we came across an old Facebook post of his in which they announced they were going to start taking pre-orders in December 2015, and start shipping in the beginning of 2016. But, looking at that indiegogo, don’t expect yours to show up until at least January 2017. That’s 1 full year of delays.

Their Kickstarter Failed the first time

Back in September of 2015, they attempted a KickStarter, where they only met $21,839 of their $160,000 goal. Curious how after hiring a few marketing guys, they realized that they could do the same thing with only a $50,000 goal. Odd.

If you read through their original KickStarter you’ll notice their team is only two members, Kevin & Boyd, I’m going to guess after they couldn’t raise funding the first time, they went out and hired all these marketing guys to make it happen.

Summary

Look, time and time again we see KickStarters/IndieGogo’s trying to do way to much with not enough skills or expertise. But this sets a new record for what they are trying to accomplish, 1 Bar Owner, 1 Motorcycle Engineer, 3 Marketing guys, and 1 video editor are trying to built a motor, battery, configure ABS plastic, build custom wheels, build circuits, source fabric and materials, build an app for iOS (suddenly they know Objective-C?).

Look, we’re not saying that it’s not possible, we’re just saying, it’s highly likely that they are outsourcing everything and hoping it all fits need and tidy into a little box. And that their bag will magically be able to ship to their customers in only a few short months.

We’ll just go with that it’s highly unlikely, this is a major buyer beware.