May 2008 to November 2010

In May 2008, once the 'crowd funding' debenture offer was finally launched, we swiftly raised £6,500. A few weeks later, despite having further investors willing to buy debenture units, we took the tough decision to put the offer on hold. We had to accept that the debenture had taken too long to organise and the company's debts were not going to be renegotiated as easily as anticipated.

However, help was at hand. After a series of emails over several months and one 20 minute telephone conversation, Michael had the great pleasure of meeting Mr Harry Halloran in early June 2008. Mr. Halloran has a long history as an entrepreneur, with senior positions in oil, transport, refining and construction industries. He is the CEO and Founder of Frontier Wind LLC and Energy Unlimited Inc and he maintains investments in a variety of cutting edge renewable energy businesses. He is a Board Member and former President of the American Wind Energy Association. Mr Halloran also has a track record in supporting schemes that seek to drive greater social, environmental and ethical responsibility in business, of which The SAIP Institute and B Lab are just two examples.

Within a week of this meeting a £177,230 investment had been agreed. This support saved the SEE scheme. In 2010 Mr Halloran invested a further £31,870.

In the 32 months from May 2008 to now (figures last updated 14 December 2010), the income of SEE Ltd was as follows:

Income source	Amount
Bank interest	£113.05
Client revenue	£41,075.89
Debenture investment	£6,500.00
Loans	£21,412.00
Miscellaneous	£6,092.09
Mr Halloran	£209,098.90
Total	£284,291.93

At May 2008 the total funds raised were calculated to be £215,000. Since then, as detailed in the table above, a further £284,292 has been raised. The grand total now stands just shy of half a million pounds. So the suggestion that the SEE scheme has never been properly funded may seem slightly bizarre. But, given the extent of the debts accrued to 2008 and the subsequent investment in a major rebranding and rebuild of our websites, we have had less than £200,000 at our disposal over the last 31 months, an average of around £6,400 per month. Mr Halloran's investments were made during the credit crunch, so it is an indication of his staunch commitment that the they were completed. But it was unavoidable that the investments were made in no less than 14 separate and unpredictable instalments. It has never been possible to anticipate when funds would come into the business, how much would come, or when. The constant uncertainty has made long term planning practically impossible.

Nonetheless, and while impatient for further success and for faster growth, we are proud of SEE's achievements and progress. We are excited about our current position and our future prospects which will be detailed in our next blog entry.