Flex operates within the AI spam MLM area of interest.
The corporate’s web site names Robert Sacco and Dan Putnam as Flex’s co-founders.
In its compensation documentation, Flex identifies itself as “a B-Epic firm”.
Putnam (proper) owns B-Epic and connected MLM corporations B-Eco and Govvi (suspected proprietor primarily based on exclusivity illustration).
Different MLM corporations Putnam owns/owned embrace O2 Worldwide, LurraLife and In opposition to All Odds.
Putnam can be a serial Ponzi scammer.
The SEC sued Putnam and Angel Rodriguez, his accomplice in crime, for securities fraud in 2020.
By way of numerous scams, the SEC alleges Putnam and Rodriguez defrauded customers out of a minimum of $12 million.
Putnam settled the SEC’s Ponzi fraud expenses again in January. Financial penalties and ordered restitution stay pending.
Robert Sacco’s FaceBook profile cites him as a Pruvit distributor.
In 2021, Sacco fell down the crypto bro rabbithole:
CluCoin was a typical short-lived pump and dump shitcoin rip-off:
Sacco (proper) additionally owns BitJar Labs, which claims it
fill(s) the voids and resolve the urgent points confronted by ALL DIRECT SELLING corporations.
As per Sacco’s BitJar Labs’ company bio;
For the previous 20 years President and Founder, Robert Sacco, has seen again workplace growth within the community advertising business fail to reply essentially the most urgent points.
Robert has constructed massive organizations within the business and has been a Grasp Distributor 5 occasions.
He has led in company roles as VP of Advertising and marketing, VP of Enterprise Growth, VP of worldwide Growth and President of a number of Worldwide Direct Promoting corporations.
He has consulted quite a few corporations in again workplace growth, worldwide growth, and IT all through the business and has written and collaborated on many compensation plans which might be stay within the business right this moment.
One in all BitJar Labs’ initiatives is Selfles, launched final yr.
Selfles mixed a humanitarian frontend, silicone bands and an NFT grift backend.
As of August 2023, Selfles seems to have flopped.
Learn on for a full overview of Flex’s MLM alternative.
Flex’s Merchandise
Flex has no retailable services or products.
Associates are solely capable of market Flex affiliate membership itself.
Flex affiliate membership offers entry to an AI spambot they’re calling Rubi.
FLEX Applied sciences is a cutting-edge firm revolutionizing the AI business with its flagship product, Rubi.
Rubi, powered by XO AI, gives an unparalleled content material technology expertise. It goes past conventional content material creation by leveraging microservices reminiscent of SPI, Xtract, and Personify.
Rubi offers a limitless alternative for companies and content material creators. It empowers customers to generate high-quality, tailor-made content material rapidly and effectively.
With Rubi, it can save you time, improve productiveness, and ship participating content material that captivates your viewers.
Entry to Rubi is priced primarily based on how a lot spam you need to generate every month
- Primary prices $15 a month and allows you to generate as much as 15,000 phrases
- Professional prices $25 a month and allows you to generate as much as 25,000 phrases
- Premium prices $50 a month and allows you to generate as much as 50,000 phrases
Flex’s Compensation Plan
Flex associates pay a month-to-month payment. Commissions are paid after they recruit others who do the identical.
Flex Affiliate Ranks
There are twelve affiliate ranks inside Flex’s compensation plan.
Together with their respective qualification standards, they’re as follows:
- Influencer – enroll as a Flex affiliate
- Model Influencer – buy and proceed to pay for a Flex product and recruit a minimum of one affiliate who does the identical
- Certified Model Influencer – preserve a month-to-month Flex order and recruit a minimum of two associates who do the identical (positioned one on all sides of your binary crew)
- Silver Certified Model Influencer – preserve a Professional or Premium tier membership, preserve two recruited associates with an energetic membership order and generate a minimum of 1000 GV per week in your weaker binary crew aspect
- Gold Certified Model Influencer – preserve a Professional or Premium tier membership, preserve two recruited associates with an energetic membership order and generate a minimum of 2500 GV per week in your weaker binary crew aspect
- Platinum Certified Model Influencer – preserve a Professional or Premium tier membership, preserve two recruited associates with an energetic membership order and generate a minimum of 5000 GV per week in your weaker binary crew aspect
- Diamond Certified Model Influencer – preserve a Professional or Premium tier membership, preserve two recruited associates with an energetic membership order and generate a minimum of 7500 GV per week in your weaker binary crew aspect (should qualify for 3 consecutive weeks in a row initially)
- Blue Diamond Certified Model Influencer – preserve a Professional or Premium tier membership, preserve two recruited associates with an energetic membership order and generate a minimum of 7500 GV per week in your weaker binary crew aspect (should qualify for 5 consecutive weeks in a row initially)
- Double Blue Diamond Certified Model Influencer – preserve a Professional or Premium tier membership, preserve two recruited associates with an energetic membership order and generate a minimum of 25,000 GV per week in your weaker binary crew aspect (should qualify for six consecutive weeks in a row initially)
- Double Black Diamond Certified Model Influencer – preserve a Professional or Premium tier membership, preserve two recruited associates with an energetic membership order and generate a minimum of 100,000 GV per week in your weaker binary crew aspect (should qualify for ten consecutive weeks in a row initially)
- Inexperienced Diamond Certified Model Influencer – preserve a Professional or Premium tier membership, preserve two recruited associates with an energetic membership order and generate a minimum of 250,000 GV per week in your weaker binary crew aspect (should qualify for twelve consecutive weeks in a row initially)
Referral Commissions
Flex associates earn a 25% referral fee on personally recruited associates.
Though not explicitly clarified I imagine this excludes the preliminary enroll payment, which is paid as a recruitment fee (see under).
Recruitment Commissions
Flex associates earn a 40% fee on the primary payment paid by a personally recruited affiliate.
10% is paid to the primary upline affiliate (the affiliate who recruited the affiliate who earns 40%).
Way of life Bonus
Flex associates who enroll on the Premium tier qualify for the Way of life Bonus.
The Way of life Bonus is a recruitment bonus that pays as much as $350 a month:
- recruit two Premium tier associates who recruit two Premium tier associates every and obtain a $50 month-to-month Way of life Bonus
- recruit three Premium tier associates who recruit three Premium tier associates every and obtain a $150 month-to-month Way of life Bonus
- recruit 4 Premium tier associates who recruit 4 Premium tier associates every and obtain a $250 month-to-month Way of life Bonus
- recruit 5 Premium tier associates who recruit 5 Premium tier associates every and obtain a $350 month-to-month Way of life Bonus
Residual Commissions
Flex pays residual commissions by way of a binary compensation construction.
A binary compensation construction locations an affiliate on the high of a binary crew, cut up into two sides (left and proper):
The primary degree of the binary crew homes two positions. The second degree of the binary crew is generated by splitting these first two positions into one other two positions every (4 positions).
Subsequent ranges of the binary crew are generated as required, with every new degree housing twice as many positions because the earlier degree.
Positions within the binary crew are crammed by way of direct and oblique recruitment of associates. Observe there isn’t a restrict to how deep a binary crew can develop.
On the finish of every week Flex tallies up new gross sales quantity on each side of the binary crew.
Certified Model Influencers and better are paid as much as 20% of quantity generated on their weaker binary crew aspect:
- Certified Model Influencers earn a ten% residual fee charge
- Silver Certified Model Influencers earn a 12% residual fee charge
- Gold Certified Model Influencers earn a 15% residual fee charge
- Platinum Certified Model Influencers earn an 18% residual fee charge
- Diamond Certified Model Influencers and better earn a 20% residual fee charge
Observe that no matter rank, Flex caps residual commissions at $20,000 per week.
As soon as paid out on, quantity is matched towards the stronger binary crew aspect and flushed.
Any leftover quantity on the stronger binary crew aspect carries over.
Matching Bonus
Flex associates earn a 20% Matching Bonus on residual commissions earned by personally recruited associates.
Generational Matching Bonus
Gold Certified Model Influencers and better obtain a Generational Matching Bonus.
The Generational Matching Bonus is paid out by way of a unilevel compensation construction.
A unilevel compensation construction locations an affiliate on the high of a unilevel crew, with each personally recruited affiliate positioned straight underneath them (degree 1):
If any degree 1 associates recruit new associates, they’re positioned on degree 2 of the unique affiliate’s unilevel crew.
If any degree 2 associates recruit new associates, they’re positioned on degree 3 and so forth and so forth down a theoretical infinite variety of ranges.
The Normal Matching Bonus is paid on residual commissions, earned on unilevel crew generations.
Flex defines a technology in a unilevel crew leg when a Gold Certified Model Influencer or greater is discovered.
This ranked affiliate caps off the primary technology for that exact unilevel crew leg. The second technology of that leg begins instantly underneath them.
If a second Gold Certified Model Influencer or greater exists deeper within the leg, they cap off the second technology and a 3rd begins underneath them.
If no such ranked affiliate exists, the second technology runs the complete depth of the leg.
Utilizing this generational construction, Gold Certified Model Influencers and better can earn the Generational Matching Bonus on as much as to 4 generations per unilevel crew leg:
- Gold Certified Model Influencers earn a ten% Generational Matching Bonus on as much as two generations
- Platinum Certified Model Influencers earn a ten% Generational Matching Bonus on as much as three generations
- Diamond Certified Model Influencers and better earn a ten% Generational Matching Bonus on as much as 4 generations
Diamond Bonus
Flex take 2% of company-wide gross sales quantity and place it right into a World Bonus Pool.
Diamond Certified Model Influencers obtain an equal share of the World Bonus Pool every week.
Observe that the World Bonus Pool is for Diamond Certified Model Influencers solely. Greater ranked associates obtain Rank Achievement Bonuses (see under).
Rank Achievement Bonus
Flex associates who qualify at Blue Diamond Certified Model Influencer and better with a one-time Rank Achievement Bonus:
- qualify at Blue Diamond Certified Model Influencer and obtain $10,000
- qualify at Double Blue Diamond Certified Model Influencer and obtain $10,000
- qualify at Black Diamond Certified Model Influencer and obtain $40,000
- qualify at Double Black Diamond Certified Model Influencer and obtain $75,000
- qualify at Inexperienced Diamond Certified Model Influencer and obtain $150,000
Becoming a member of Flex
Flex affiliate membership is tied to a month-to-month payment:
- Primary – $15 a month
- Professional – $25 a month
- Premium – $50 a month
Flex Conclusion
As an writer it’d be simple for me to method criticism of Flex’s AI spam bot from a creator’s perspective.
I’m going to chorus from that and method it as a substitute as a client, as I imagine that’s extra related to the general public doing due-diligence into Flex.
For the reason that AI hype practice took off in the direction of the tip of final yr (coinciding with the launch of ChatGPT launching final November), the web has been flooded with AI spam content material.
Given we don’t have AI able to producing new concepts, that is rewritten plagiarized content material stolen from third-parties.
In my very own web travels it’s gotten to the purpose the place it solely takes just a few paragraphs for me to understand I’m studying AI-spun spam.
I’d wish to see search engines like google and yahoo penalize this content material however with how deep into AI Google, Microsoft et al. are into AI, that’s most likely unlikely for a while.
The purpose is, no one needs to learn AI spam waffle and over time individuals are going to get higher at recognizing it and noping out.
Arguably, until precise AI comes alongside, the AI hype practice has principally died out since final yr (I’d say it peaked round March and April 2023).
This brings us to Flex’s Rubi;
As above, Flex is advertising Rubi as “the perfect ChatGPT different”. What they’re basing this declare on is unknown.
Name me a cynic, however it’s most likely simply search engine optimization key phrase stuffing for searches for “chatgpt options”.
Rubi is pitched as a option to publish content material showcasing “your model, your voice (and) your persona”.
All it actually does nonetheless is steal different individuals’s manufacturers, voices and personas.
Pertaining to my earlier feedback about search engines like google and yahoo cracking down on AI spam, beating detection can be one among Rubi’s promoting factors.
What I’m unclear on is who Rubi is meant to be for. Flex’s compensation plan incorporates “influencer” into its rank.
How dangerous of a social media influencer are you when you’re total “model, voice and persona” is stolen from different individuals although? Is that even going to go wherever? Will it final?
I’m going to make a distinction between AI avatar influencers, as I don’t assume big-titty Steady Diffusion avatar influencers are Flex’s goal market.
Outdoors of influencing, we wish to depend on authoritative sources for content material consumption. Regurgitating content material you’ve stolen from third-parties doesn’t make no matter you’re feeding Rubi’s output into an authoritative supply.
It’s spam, and over time is extra more likely to hurt what you are promoting over any short-term productiveness acquire.
AI as an automation software is ok however Rubi is particularly marketed as a stolen content material spinning spambot. It’s a extra superior model of the outdated “stealing articles and altering just a few phrases” bots.
That about sums up my ideas on Rubi’s AI providing from a client viewpoint. You may like having your time wasted by AI spammers, extra energy to you I suppose.
Both manner, when you’re prepared to pay as much as $50 a month that’s what you’re paying for.
Transferring onto the MLM aspect of Flex, we sadly have a pyramid scheme.
Flex cannibalizes its retail clients by making them associates:
Congratulations in your option to grow to be an FLEX Model Influencer.
With no price to start and no prior expertise required, you may have the liberty to work by yourself schedule and tailor what you are promoting to your distinctive life-style and wishes.
Signing up is a breeze, and with only one product order, you’re able to roll!
Primarily based by itself advertising, Flex doesn’t seem to separate retail clients from individuals in its MLM alternative (i.e. everyone seems to be an affiliate).
The FTC has repeatedly clarified that MLM corporations with out important retail gross sales quantity are working as pyramid schemes. MLM corporations with no retail gross sales quantity are most positively working as pyramid schemes.
That Flex is working as a pyramid scheme isn’t totally stunning given Dan Putnam’s previous.
Loads of crypto grifters have moved onto the AI bandwagon. Putnam and Sacco are simply two of them.
As with all MLM pyramid schemes, as soon as affiliate recruitment dries up so too will commissions.
It will see increasingly associates cease paying month-to-month charges, finally triggering an irreversible collapse.
The maths behind pyramid schemes ensures that after they collapse, the vast majority of individuals lose cash.