Legion M's Secret Master Plan
Legion M is a truly unique proposition. We're a first-of-our kind company pioneering uncharted new territory. It's a big, bold idea—a Facebook/Google/Tesla-sized swing for the fences. And, for the first time in history, you have a chance to get in on the ground floor.
But before we ask anyone to invest any of their hard-earned money, we want to explain WHY a fan-owned company is so powerful, and HOW we believe it can transform the media landscape. After all, this isn't a Kickstarter donation—it's an investment. If you buy $100 of Legion M stock, our job is to turn it into $200. Or $10,000. We believe that you, as an investor, deserve a chance to see our top-secret plans.
YOU DON'T MAKE GREAT ART BY COMMITTEE
Before we get started, we want to make sure one thing is clear. Legion M is a fan-OWNED company. That doesn't mean fans MAKE the content. A lot of people initially confuse the two.
If you look at the projects we’ve already been involved in, you’ll see names like Stan Lee, Kevin Smith, Anne Hathaway, Jason Sudeikis, Dean Devlin, David Tennant, and Nicolas Cage. This is the level of projects we aim to develop.
While we love fan films, DIY creators, and crowdsourced entertainment, Legion M isn't about fans CREATING content—it's about fans SELECTING, FUNDING, and SUPPORTING content, and also having the potential to earn a return on their investment if we’re successful. (Of course, you can also lose money too—more on that later.)
When fans unite, we have incredible power.
THE IMMEASURABLE POWER OF FANS
We believe the next great media company will be owned by FANS. Not because it's a fun idea, but because it's an EXTREMELY powerful business model. We believe an entertainment company owned by a large audience has significant advantages in one of the most lucrative and competitive industries on the planet.
WISDOM OF THE CROWD
For most entertainment companies, content decisions are made by a few executives. They rely on data from small focus groups and projections based on box office results of similar movies.
We believe there’s a better way. At Legion M, we use the WISDOM OF THE CROWD whenever possible. We’re constantly developing tools, systems, and strategies that allow us to leverage our largest asset—a community of passionate fans—when making our decisions. This includes M-Pulse, the tool we use to give shareholders a say in our development slate, and SCOUT, the system that allows our shareholders to help us find new projects and IP.
Involving fans in our decisions doesn’t just make us DIFFERENT than other entertainment companies (when’s the last time Disney asked you what movie they should make next?), we believe it makes us BETTER. We’re not only giving our shareholders a voice in the direction of the company, we’re leveraging their collective wisdom to make better decisions on behalf of the company.
BUILT-IN AUDIENCE
For Legion M, fan funding isn't just a source of finance—it's the foundation of our business model. After all, fans hold all the power in the entertainment industry. We buy the tickets, pay the subscriptions, and fuel the entire multi-trillion-dollar global industry. Individually, each of us is just a consumer. But when we band together, we have incredible power.
Every project—from the smallest independent to the largest studio tentpole—lives or dies by its ability to attract an audience. This is the reason we see so many reboots, sequels, and movies/shows built on comic books, video games, and other existing IP. Studios know that having a pre-existing audience dramatically increases a project's chance of success.
That's also what powers Legion M. Because we have a large group of fans that are emotionally and financially invested in the success of our company, we've got a built-in audience that increases our projects' chances of success. When our movies come to market, our shareholders don't just go see it—they go opening weekend (the most crucial time in the release cycle), bring their friends, and talk about it on social media. A large group of excited, invested fans can create the sort of grassroots buzz that studios would kill for but money can't buy, and we believe it improves the chances of success for every one of Legion M’s projects.
Legion M volunteers organized over 130 meetups around the country to support the opening weekend of Bad Samaritan!
GETTING INTO THE BEST DEALS
A legion of fans doesn't just help make our projects successful, it also helps us get into the BEST projects. The fact is, EVERY project in Hollywood needs funding. Whether it's a couple hundred thousand for a web series or a couple hundred million for a summer blockbuster, every movie, TV show, and VR project needs investors to provide the capital required to produce, market, and distribute it. That money comes from a myriad of sources—from studios, banks, and presales, to business magnates and oil tycoons.
But not all projects are created equal. As you might expect, the best projects—i.e., the ones with the best talent, best scripts, and best chance of success—have investors fighting to get in. Those creators can pick and choose who funds their project.
The fact that Legion M represents a large group of fans gives us a leg up, though. Think about it—if you had a movie coming out, who would you rather have invested in and excited about your production? A corporate conglomerate? A wealthy individual? Or a large group of the paying customers you are relying on to see it when it's released?
If you look at our slate of projects, you can see this dynamic in action. Projects we’ve invested in like Colossal, Bad Samaritan, Mandy, and Jay and Silent Bob Reboot were already fully funded. They didn't NEED our money—they CHOSE to let us participate because they saw the power of the Legion. Ditto for Kevin Smith and Stan Lee for our ICONS project. The fact that we're owned by fans opens a LOT of doors.
Legion M has been around for a little more than 3 years, but has already done projects with Stan Lee, Kevin Smith, Anne Hathaway, Jason Sudeikis, Dean Devlin, David Tennant, and Nicolas Cage. Being owned by fans opens a lot of doors.
OPENING THE GATES TO HOLLYWOOD
In addition to helping select, fund, and support our projects, investors get to go behind the scenes and come along for the ride as we develop and distribute our film, TV, and virtual reality projects. Whenever possible we work to “open the gates of Hollywood” with people like Kevin Smith, Elijah Wood and Nicolas Cage, and Dean Devlin.
Shareholders also get invited to lots of in-person meet-ups and special events, which have included our incredible Hollywood Houseparty with Stan Lee, Legion M Lounge at Sundance Film Festival, and Tolkien Red Carpet Fan Premiere. Sometimes we even get to offer very exclusive experiences like the visit to the set of Jay and Silent Bob Reboot, where our lucky winners also got to be extras in the film!
These experiences help our shareholders become emotionally invested in, and knowledgeable about, our projects. It also makes Legion M a truly unique investment opportunity that offers experiences you can’t get anywhere else!
George R.R. Martin, Lily Collins, and Nicholas Hoult at the Fan Premiere of Tolkien
RISK VS. REWARD
Investing in startups is inherently risky—the fact is, most startups fail. This was as true for Facebook and Google as it was for MySpace, Pets.com, and untold other companies that failed before you ever learned their name.
But startups that succeed can change the world. Every great company—from Walt Disney Pictures to Apple Computer—started with entrepreneurs and investors who had the courage to defy the odds and try something no one else had done before. We believe Legion M could be one of those companies.
The advantage of investing in startups is that if the company is successful, you can make quite a bit of money. If you'd invested in Facebook when they were at Legion M’s stage, a $100 investment would likely be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars today. While that’s an extreme example (Facebook is one of the most successful companies of all time), the fact remains that if Legion M can achieve our goals, your investment could become worth quite a bit of money.
You should never invest money you can't afford to lose. But if you can bear some risk and want to swing for the fences, we'd be honored to have you on the team. We're betting our own money (not to mention our jobs, careers and reputations) that we can make this company successful. And while we can't guarantee success, we can guarantee that we're doing everything we can to make this the best investment you ever made!
Listen to the Legion M cofounders talk about the risks and rewards of investing in a PRE-IPO startup.
JOIN US
If, after all this, you are interested in becoming a part of the world's first FAN-OWNED entertainment company, we'd LOVE to have you join us.
To get more information and buy shares shares in Legion M please go to our funding portal: www.startengine.com/legionm.
To get detailed information on Legion M including audited financial statements, please check out our SEC offering documents.
And if you aren't sure about investing, try joining as a free member at www.legionm.com/join-legion-m. There's no cost or obligation, but it's a GREAT way to join the community, get access to Legion M events/opportunities, and see first-hand what Legion M is all about!
Onward and Upward!
Jeff Annison and Paul Scanlan
Cofounders, Legion M