IO Fund Review – Beth Kindig Scam?

IO Fund is an investing service that focuses on tech stocks.. it's run by Beth Kindig (it used to be known as Beth.Technology).

Before spending money on it I'm sure you want to know if it's a scam or not.

If so, you're in luck..

I spent the entire day reviewing this product and researching everything there is to know about it.

I investigated background information, took a look at the lead analysts and broke down what IO Fund actually offers.

By the time you're done reading everything below you'll know if this newsletter is right for you.

Let's get started!

6 Facts About IO Fund

Before we get into what IO Fund is offering, let's take a look at some background information.

Here's what I think is most important to know about IO Fund:

1) It's Created By Beth Kindig

Beth Kindig is the creator of IO Fund.

She originally called this company Beth.Technology but according to her the team grew so big she simply couldn't market it under her own name any more.

Beth seems to have taken an odd route into the world of investing.

According to her Linkedin she got her degree at Naropa University in Buddhist Studies.

Just three years later she started working as a venture capital analyst - it doesn't seem like Buddhist Studies pays the bills.

Next, she worked as a content creator for VSERV (mobile advertising company).

After that Beth started a website where startups and tech companies share news - the website is called CitizenTekk.

Around this time she started what would later develop into IO Fund.

So she really didn't have too much experience with stocks it seems but does have a good amount of experience in the tech industry.

2) Meet The Rest Of The Crew

There's a lot more people at IO Fund you should know about.

Here's some of the main people:

Knox Ridley

Knox Ridley is the portfolio manager at IO Fund and like Beth his college degree has nothing to do with finance.

He majored in English and then got a Master's in Philosophy in 2007.

That same year he got a job as a sales representative selling ETF's - I guess the philosophy degree wasn't paying the bills.

He started working for Beth in 2019.

Bradley Cipriano 

Bradley is the equity analyst at IO Fund and got his degree in accounting from Northern Arizona University.

After working at various companies he began his career as a forensic equity analyst at Gradient Analytics.

This company specializes in risk management.

He joined IO Fund in August 2021.

Royston Roche

The last person at IO Fund is Royston Roche.

Royston is an equity analyst and he actually has a finance degree.

Before working at IO Fund he worked at BNY Mellon and Deutsche Bank.

3) I'm Not Buying The Returns

The big selling point at IO Fund is the amazing returns the company has gotten since inception.

Here's Beth bragging about their returns and comparing them to competitors:

She goes on to share a chart comparing her returns to ETFS and the market:

However, if you actually check out the comments under the Tweet a lot of people aren't buying these numbers.

Frankly I'm not either.

If you click the link Beth links to it's just a press release that doesn't prove anything.

The following is the only proof and verification that IO Fund puts forward in regards to their returns:

There's no link to the audit or anything like that.

Basically they're just saying "trust me bro."

I'm not the only who found this odd either. The great Twitter account Guruleaks (which debunks the scams many financial gurus put out) had this to say:

Beth replied to a few comments in this thread so most likely she saw this comment.

She chose to ignore and not clarify anything.

This is a red flag!

Never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever under any circumstance just trust what an investing gurus says without verifiable proof.

EVER.

There's so many snakes and scam artists in this industry.. it's hard to really comprehend how bad it is unless you do the work I do (reviewing these offers everyday).

I come across horrible scams daily where people lie about their returns.

Last week I reviewed a program of someone who has made millions lying about their returns for 15 years.

There's millions to be made in the investing newsletter business - IO Fund is already likely making millions or on its way to making millions.

People will lie or mislead to make millions.

Maybe IO Fund is, maybe they're not.. but they haven't proven anything with their returns.

4) You'll Get Sued If You Talk About Their Returns

I always like to dig through the terms and conditions of a company when reviewing.

You can learn a lot going through the fine print.

One of the JARRING things in the terms of service actually has to do with their returns.

Check this out:

Amazing.

Basically Beth puts out an unverified post that IO Fund gets massive returns and claims the auditors request she doesn't release their results.

Weird.

There's plenty of places that can do an audit on returns - how about finding an auditor that wouldn't make this bizarre request?

Doubly weird is threatening to sue anyone that actually reports on the real returns.

5) Crypto Returns Likely Mixed In

Many people are theorizing that IO Fund actually mixes in their crypto returns to juice the return figure.

This is likely what's happening and if it is Beth is being misleading with her claims, which is why she threatens to sue anyone who actually post the results.

The reason this is misleading is she's comparing herself to other funds that only focus on stocks, like ARK.

In Beth's press release she brags about recommending Bitcoin at $7,700:

This isn't really that impressive to be honest. Bitcoin was as low as $7,770 in May 2019, when everyone knew about Bitcoin.

But Bitcoin is up 570% since that recommendation.

If IO Fund put a lot of money in Bitcoin then that would make the returns seem higher than they are.

For this "audit" to be accurate it would have separated stock returns from crypto returns.

Then you can compare the results of IO Fund to top stock ETF's and top crypto funds.

The fact that's not happening here is a red flag.

6) Everyone Is Genius In A Bull Market

This is a quote from Mark Cuban. 

Mark's point is the market is being superficially inflated from Fed intervention and he said this right after the first covid bailout (which was trillions).

He claimed that "people are chasing performance. I mean, it is a momentum-based market. I do not think this is a fundamentals driven market."

Mark is warning people that 2020 and 2021 are not typical for investors.

That people are ignoring good trading habits for bad ones because the market is overinflated.

Basically reality will soon come back and those returns you got from 2020 and 2021 will be disappearing.. and since you never learned real fundamentals, you won't be able to replicate your success.

Shortly after Beth released her misleading returns claims the market started to self correct and this showed up in tech stocks big time. 

I imagine the IO Fund portfolio has taken a big hit lately.

Beth Tweeted this out a few days ago, reaffirming Cuban's point and reaffirming their returns aren't as high anymore:

A lot of Beth's and IO Fund's success came from buying and selling stocks relatively quickly.. usually in a few weeks or months as one customer points out:

This may have been successful with the Fed pumping the stock market up but I don't think it's going to work as well going forward.

Guessing where a stock will be in a few weeks or months is extremely difficult, especially when you're not in a bull market.

I'm not sure the crew at IO Fund has the experience to navigate what's coming.

Recommended: The Best Place To Get High Return Stock Ideas

What Does IO Fund Offer?

The offer from IO Fund is pretty straight forward.

You get the following with this service:

1. Research reports - Every week you'll get a full breakdown of the markets. Additionally, you'll get stock ideas in these reports.
2. Portfolio - You'll get access to the entire IO Fund portfolio if you sign up. You can expect around 30 positions.
3. Alerts - If a position needs to be closed or there's a good stock idea you'll get an alert through text and email on what to do.
4. Community forum - There's a forum where people talk trades and get advice.
5. Webinars - You'll get access to regular webinars that break down certain stocks.

There's also a free newsletter that you can sign up for.

My Thoughts On IO Fund

There's a lot to digest with IO Fund.

Here's what I think about it:

The Price Isn't Bad

The cost of this newsletter is only $65 per month or $499 per year.

That's not bad compared to other newsletters and there's no upsells either.

So you're not going to buy this product and get hit with a marketing campaign to buy another service that costs thousands.

However, there's different prices depending on who you are.

If you're just a retail investor the cost is what I said above.

If you are a blogger or journalist or financial blogger you have to pay $2,4000 per year.

Same if you work for a competing service.

First time I have ever seen anything like this.

Couldn't Find A Refund Policy

I looked all over the website and couldn't find anything about a refund policy.

I scanned the terms and conditions and couldn't find anything either.

This usually means there isn't a refund policy.

I usually don't recommend joining a stock picking service that doesn't offer some sort of refund if you're dissatisfied.

Customer Reviews Seem Positive

There's not too much out there about IO Fund from customers but I did find some insights.. most were pretty positive.

For example, I came across this on Reddit:

This user believes the service is legit and pairs it up with a couple other newsletters, like 7investing.

The negative reviews focus on the style of trading. Many people believe they buy and sell too fast and that it's not going to work as well going into the future.

Recommended: The Best Place To Get High Return Stock Ideas

IO Fund Conclusion

I'm so close to recommending IO Fund.

There's enough positive buzz out there that I think it could be worth checking out since the price is low enough.

But man..

The red flags are really blaring here.

Claiming you get verified results and then not actually showing the results is crazy.

I kind of laughed out loud when I saw that Tweet from Beth.

It immediately makes me suspicious when people do things like that.. it's too lawyerly... almost something a politician will do when they want you to believe something that isn't true.

Also, Beth needs to get rid of the part in the terms that threatens to sue anyone who shares the actual returns at IO Fund.

That's a very strange thing to threaten.

Here's A Better Opportunity

IO Fund isn't the worst but I'd probably skip over until the red flags are fixed.

The good news is there's plenty of other places to get stock picks.

I've reviewed all the best..

To see my favorite place to get high return stock ideas (that's affordable), click below: