Billion Dollar Bully, the upcoming Yelp exposé by Prost Productions, reached its $60,000 funding goal after only 7 days on Kickstarter.
Businesses often claim that Yelp salespeople call them to sell them on advertising services, and when they decline Yelp responds by burying positive reviews and surfacing negative ones to the top. Yelp denies these practices, and frequently points to failed lawsuits, an FTC investigation, and a study which it says prove that these stories are nothing more than conspiracy theories.
The team behind "Billion Dollar Bully" want to bring a factual, research driven documentary. Many are expecting it to be extremely critical of the review site.
This week, Yelp responded to claims in the film's teaser trailer, and sent a representative to defend Yelp's claims of innocence. You can see a video of the CNBC interview here.
With 23 days left to go, Prost has extended funding with a $100,000 stretch goal, that when reached, would allow the team to extend production expenses to include:
- Research, research, and more research
- Traveling expenses to follow up on all research!
- Graphic Art
- Marketing
- Principle Photography
- Contract Work
- Promotion
- Legal Work
We at TalkToTheManager have helped fund the effort, and we are considering an additional, larger contribution toward the stretch goal.