Balloon Girl
Regulation CF: Testing the Waters/ Type: Revenue Share / Raise: $20,000-$25,000 / Min. Investment: $50.00 / Dev Plan: Middle Grade Book Series, Animated Web Series, Mobile Game & Apps / Est. Launch: October 2026
“Discover The Upfalling, Jen Pachabell’s middle grade science-fantasy series about Stella Vega, a young scientist uncovering the truth behind a world that is losing its gravity.”
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Thirteen years ago, the Earth began to let go. Gravity is fading a fraction of a percent each year — everyone calls it the Lightening. Rain drifts down like snow, tides slump, children grow up clipped to tether lines, and the dead are no longer buried. They're given to the sky.
Thirteen-year-old Stella Vega lives in Moorings, a village of retired hot air balloons anchored to a mountain valley by steel cable — homes that once burned fire to rise and now wear chains to stay. Five years ago her mother, an engineer for Zenith Power, was lost in a "tether accident." Stella watched her rise.
Stella copes by measuring. Every dawn she times pendulum swings and falling bolts, filling notebooks with the planet's slow surrender. The official story is that the Lightening is natural, uniform, unstoppable. Her data disagrees: some days the decay stutters and doubles — always when the wind carries the hum of Zenith's distant extraction spires.
The only adult who'll read a girl's notebook is the one nobody else will speak to. Dr. Elias Nadir, the disgraced physicist exiled to the highest balloon on the Line, has been blamed for the Lightening ever since his "gravitic induction" research — drawing power from gravity itself — surfaced in Zenith's patents. Stella's measurements complete his stolen equations, and the answer terrifies them both: gravity isn't dying. It's being mined, converted into the "clean, limitless" energy Zenith sells back to a frightened world.
Doing science without permission, they loft kite-borne sensors, replicate the stutters, and find a pattern that predicts a null-storm — a drifting pocket of near-zero gravity headed straight for Moorings. The council dismisses her. The storm comes anyway. Cables snap, homes tumble upward, and Stella saves the village with ballast sequencing, cross-lashed tethers, and Newton's third law. The rescue makes her a hero — and makes her Zenith's problem.
In the wreck of her own home, Stella finds her mother's journal sewn inside the balloon's envelope. Her mother charted the stutters first. She was preparing to go public. The accident wasn't one.
Book one closes with Moorings condemned as a hazard zone, and Stella, Nadir, and hotshot tether-pilot Juno cutting their balloon loose to follow the coordinates in her mother's final entry. The girl who spent her whole life tethered chooses the sky.
Across books two and three, their balloon crosses the Lightened world — drifting forests, half-abandoned cities, silent research stations — as Stella builds the Ballast Society, an underground network of dismissed scientists, students, and one Zenith defector carrying core-spire schematics. The finale delivers the series' hardest truth: the harvest can be stopped, but what's taken can't be restored in Stella's lifetime. There's no reset button, only stewardship. The world steadies at its new, lighter weight, Zenith's lie collapses under published, replicated data, and Moorings' tethers finally slacken. Stella releases one last balloon for her mother — by choice, this time.
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Proposed Terms of the Offering
The summary below highlights current proposed terms of the Offering. Terms are subject to change and will be set forth the offering statement.
Type of Security: Revenue Share. (How it works: Basically, your investment is a loan which we pay back to you over time from the revenue generated by the franchise, until we return to you the entire amount, multiplied by the Payment Multiple.)
Min. Investment Amount: $50 (increments of $50)
Anticipated Offering Amount: $25,000 minimum / $50,000 maximum
Revenue Share %: 20% of net revenue.
Payment Multiple: 3x. For every $10 invested, we repay a total of $30 (i.e., the amount invested multiplied by the Payment Multiple). Macguffin makes annual installment payments on this amount from the Revenue %. So in this case, Investors receive $0.20 of every $1 of net revenue generated by this franchise during the year, until the full $30 is returned.
Payment Deadline/Maturity Date: None
Use of Proceeds: Macguffin Co. will deploy proceeds toward the implementation of the initial phases of a multimedia franchise development strategy. Initial plans are outlined below, but subject change prior to Offering launch.
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RSVP to reserve an invitation to invest in the future revenue of this franchise. We’ll send you a link to the intermediary platform hosting the Offering, where you can access the offering statement for the franchise once the Offering is launched.
Note: This a solicitation of interest (“Testing the Waters”) for the securities related to this franchise. No money or other consideration is being solicited, and if sent in response, will not be accepted. No offer to buy the securities can be accepted and no part of the purchase price can be received until an offering statement covering the securities is filed and only through an intermediary’s platform. A person’s indication of interest involves no obligation or commitment of any kind.
RSVP to learn more about the development plan and upcoming Offering for this early-stage IP. Just fill some stuff in, Macguffin, and we’ll send you the full pitch deck, works-in-progress, and updated creative materials. (Indication of interest involves no obligation or commitment of any kind.)
Pitch Deck>>>
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Thirteen years ago, the Earth began to let go. Gravity is fading a fraction of a percent each year — everyone calls it the Lightening. Rain drifts down like snow, tides slump, children grow up clipped to tether lines, and the dead are no longer buried. They're given to the sky.
Thirteen-year-old Stella Vega lives in Moorings, a village of retired hot air balloons anchored to a mountain valley by steel cable — homes that once burned fire to rise and now wear chains to stay. Five years ago her mother, an engineer for Zenith Power, was lost in a "tether accident." Stella watched her rise.
Stella copes by measuring. Every dawn she times pendulum swings and falling bolts, filling notebooks with the planet's slow surrender. The official story is that the Lightening is natural, uniform, unstoppable. Her data disagrees: some days the decay stutters and doubles — always when the wind carries the hum of Zenith's distant extraction spires.
The only adult who'll read a girl's notebook is the one nobody else will speak to. Dr. Elias Nadir, the disgraced physicist exiled to the highest balloon on the Line, has been blamed for the Lightening ever since his "gravitic induction" research — drawing power from gravity itself — surfaced in Zenith's patents. Stella's measurements complete his stolen equations, and the answer terrifies them both: gravity isn't dying. It's being mined, converted into the "clean, limitless" energy Zenith sells back to a frightened world.
Doing science without permission, they loft kite-borne sensors, replicate the stutters, and find a pattern that predicts a null-storm — a drifting pocket of near-zero gravity headed straight for Moorings. The council dismisses her. The storm comes anyway. Cables snap, homes tumble upward, and Stella saves the village with ballast sequencing, cross-lashed tethers, and Newton's third law. The rescue makes her a hero — and makes her Zenith's problem.
In the wreck of her own home, Stella finds her mother's journal sewn inside the balloon's envelope. Her mother charted the stutters first. She was preparing to go public. The accident wasn't one.
Book one closes with Moorings condemned as a hazard zone, and Stella, Nadir, and hotshot tether-pilot Juno cutting their balloon loose to follow the coordinates in her mother's final entry. The girl who spent her whole life tethered chooses the sky.
Across books two and three, their balloon crosses the Lightened world — drifting forests, half-abandoned cities, silent research stations — as Stella builds the Ballast Society, an underground network of dismissed scientists, students, and one Zenith defector carrying core-spire schematics. The finale delivers the series' hardest truth: the harvest can be stopped, but what's taken can't be restored in Stella's lifetime. There's no reset button, only stewardship. The world steadies at its new, lighter weight, Zenith's lie collapses under published, replicated data, and Moorings' tethers finally slacken. Stella releases one last balloon for her mother — by choice, this time.
Book 1 - Under Construction
Game Prototype
Offering Terms
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When you invest in a character franchise with Macguffin Co, you’re investing in a share of the future royalties generated by the licensing of the intellectual property, at the terms detailed in the Prospectus for each franchise.
Investing in character franchises is an opportunity to be involved in the first phases of a creative process, bringing character concepts to life, and enabling the commercialization that creates royalties for the creators and investors.
Like any start-up business, early investors receive access to an investment at its very beginning stage, when potential returns are greatest. But investing in our franchises involves risk, and you may lose 100% of your investment. If you can’t afford to lose your investment, don’t invest.
In the case of Macguffin Co., investing in our characters is meant to affordable, with minimum investments as low as $10, and accessible to anyone over the age of 18, regardless of investor accreditation status.
Our goal is to create characters that can be enjoyed for generations and allow investors of any size budgets to build a portfolio in an entertaining and hopefully profitable investment class, and to build a community of long term investors who help bring these characters life for children of all ages.
Investments are offered in accordance with the Securities and Exchange Act of 1933, managed via an FINRA registered intermediary, and conducted in full compliance with all SEC regulations.
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The Macguffin Co. business model is meant to make investing in characters accessible to everyone, but that doesnt mean it’s everyone’s cup of tea. Investing in characters is speculative. While speculative investments can offer the potential for high returns, they also come with a high level of risk. It is important to understand that the value of these assets can fluctuate significantly and there is a possibility of losing some or all of your investment. If you can’t afford to lose your investment, don’t invest.
The possibility of returns relies on the strength of the underlying concept, the execution of the idea, and Macguffin’s ability to license the intellectual property rights to media partners, and the ensuing success of the products created in the marketplace. None of which is a sure thing.
It is crucial to carefully consider the risks before making any investment decisions.
At Macguffin Co., we’re looking for long-terms investors interested in engaging with the creative process, building a portfolio of characters, and staying involved as we bring new characters to the world. If that sounds like you, we’d love for you to join us. If not, this might not be the platform for you.
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Capital raised will be deployed toward:
Creation of a 7-book chapter book series, with an approximate word count of 20,000 words per title, for children ages 9-12.
1 ten-minute, animated short film pilot.
“Schrödinger’s cat may or may not be dead. And Schrödinger’s mice may or may not have something to do with it.”
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The Upfallung Franchise
Balloon Girl, Gravity’s End
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Macguffin Co.
