100M Views. $200K Raised. That’s It.

100M Views. $200K Raised. That’s It.

Going Public’s Series 3 promised to “invest while you watch” with a massive X Originals partnership and claimed 100M+ video views.
The result? One public Reg CF raise is limping at 20% of its goal, and two issuers have no retail offering at all.

The gap between hype and reality has never been more visible.

Going Public Series 3 promised “invest while you watch.” The reality: slow raises, absent offerings, and controversy behind the scenes.

From Series 1 to Series 3, the TV-meets-crowdfunding format has promised access for everyday investors, yet delivered sluggish raises, missing offerings, and radio silence.

When Going Public returned with its third season, the production leaned hard on spectacle. Backed by a partnership with X Originals and boasting that its video content had amassed over 100 million viewers on X, the show promised a breakthrough in democratizing startup investing while inviting viewers to “invest while you watch.”

Three seasons in, the results are damning. The exposure is enormous. The capital raised is not.

From my perspective, Going Public Series 3 is a clear case study in the gap between marketing promise and measurable investor results. Of the three featured companies, only Nutcase Milk launched a Reg CF raise for everyday investors, and by mid-August, it had reached only 20% of its $1M target despite months of exposure. The other two issuers had no public offerings for retail investors at all.

The situation was compounded by a credibility hit: the finale was postponed after Barron’s exposed regulatory red flags around a guest entrepreneur, raising questions about the production’s vetting process. Without timely communication or transparency from producers, the audience was left with slow raises, absent offerings, and no clear explanation.

When you break down the numbers, the conversion rate from claimed reach to actual invested capital is minuscule. The pattern of high visibility but low investor participation has been consistent across multiple seasons, suggesting a structural issue in the show’s model: storytelling and reach without the sustained, targeted investor marketing needed to convert interest into commitments.

Credit to Shane Liddell for excellent reporting that pulls together the facts, timelines, and regulatory context to show why the Series 3 outcome is not just a one-off miss but part of a repeating cycle.

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Here’s the Solution

If you’ve read this article, you understand why we’ve built Pre-IPO Hype, Kickizer, and Invst Guru.

The problem isn’t that retail investors don’t care. The problem is that campaigns keep chasing views instead of building genuine investor communities. In equity crowdfunding, trust and connection drive investment, not anonymous eyeballs from ad algorithms.

Our approach flips the model:

• Pre-IPO Hype focuses on building a founder’s investable story and delivering it to the right audience through precision targeting and compliant funnel design.

• Kickizer delivers the data advantage. We identify, segment, and activate real investors who have the interest and capacity to invest, then track engagement down to the click.

• Invst Guru powers the education and content layer, giving investors the insights and confidence to take action.

It’s about nurturing interest into conviction. Turning awareness into conversations. And conversations into commitments.

Not a million bot views to no one. But a tight, engaged investor base that believes in your mission and is ready to back it.

Ready to raise with real results?
Stop chasing empty views. Start building the community that will fund your vision.
Connect with us at Pre-IPO Hype and see how we turn your story into investor commitments.