Is Northe Star a Pyramid Scheme or Legit? [COMPLETE Review]

Is Northe Star a pyramid scheme? If you’ve been approached by a Northe Star “affiliate” who wants to share a “business opportunity” with you then that’s the question you may have asked yourself. In fact, it’s probably why you’re reading this right now.

First, congratulations on viewing this potential opportunity with a skeptical (or at least, an inquiring) eye.

One of the best ways to avoid online scams is to do your own, independent research outside of what the company or representative tells you.

In this Northe Star review, I’m going to take a deep dive into the Northe Star products and the Northe Star business opportunity and share my honest opinion on whether I think it’s a good business opportunity or whether you should politely decline.

Northe Star Review Summary

Company Name: Northe Star

Product Type: Wellness Products

Founder: Ricky Villanueva and Demitrius Siruno

Price: Free to become an affiliate, but there are purchase requirements

Best For: The founders of Northe Star

Summary: Northe Star is a multi-level marketing company that sells wellness products including nootropics, protein powder, and “superfood” formula. Northe Star’s primary sales method is through the recruitment of “affiliates” who make a commission on the products they sell and further bonuses and commissions on the sales of people they recruit into Northe Star.

Rating: 10/100

Recommended: No

What is Northe Star?

Northe Star is a wellness/supplement company that, according to their website, claims to help their affiliates and customers “achieve their desired destination in life through our unique products and unmatched opportunity”.

While it is possible to go directly to the Northe Star website to purchase products, the companies primary method of promotion (and presumably the biggest driver of sales) is through their “Affiliates.” These are essentially commission-only salespeople who have been recruited to promote Northe Star products.

What Does Northe Star Sell?

Northe Star’s product range is small and consists of just 5 products that can be purchased alone or in a variety of packs.

The current product line includes:

• Pandora Pure Whey Protein Isolate
• Polaris Advanced Nootropic blend
• Pandora Latte Pure Whey Protein Isolate
• Stellar X Complete Nutritional Blend
• Northe Star Jet Shaker Bottle

The current packs include:

• Complete Nutrition Starter Pack
• Starter Pack
• Family Pack
• Couples Pack

For every product, there are two different prices listed on the Northe Star website – a “Onetime Price” and a “Recurring Price”.

Offering customers a lower price if they commit to a recurring order is a common marketing ploy used by many companies to increase sales.

Northe Star vs B-Epic – Are They Connected? What’s The Deal?

Northe Star and B-Epic aren’t the same company and they’re not officially connected in any way. But there’s slightly more to the story.

Prior to founding Northe Star, Ricky Villaneuva and Demitrius Siruno were both promoters of B-Epic.

In fact, according to Siruno’s own Linkedin profile, he reached “Diamond” rank with B-Epic and was with the company from December 2019 – August 2021.

It appears that Villaneuva and Siruno left B-Epic to start their own multi-level marketing company and thus, Northe Star was born.

Anecdotally, it appears that many B-Epic promoters jumped ship and joined Northe Star.

Northe Star Compensation Plan

If you’re considering becoming an affiliate for Northe Star, you’ll want to take a careful look at their compensation plan.

Before we do that, I wanted to touch on some interesting verbiage that Northe Star uses. Specifically, the term “affiliate”.

According to Investopedia, “affiliate marketing is an advertising model in which a company compensates third-party publishers to generate traffic or leads to the company’s products…”

It’s interesting that Northe Star chose to use the term “affiliate” for the people who sign up to promote their products, because Northe Star’s own compensation plan is clearly not an affiliate marketing setup.

It’s essentially the same as any other network marketing company (a term that Northe Star refers to themselves as on their website), with multiple ranks, levels, bonuses, team level commissions, etc.

To have the opportunity to earn money with Northe Star, you’ll need to join as an “Independent Affiliate”.

According to the compensation plan, Indpendent Affiliates “are monthly purchasers and promoters of North Star products.” So while it appears there is currently no joining fee, the verbiage does imply that affiliates are expected to make monthly purchases.

Northe Star Commission Rate

Like virtually all multi-level marketing companies, the most basic way that Northe Star affiliates can make money is through retail customer commissions. Northe Star pays 50% commission on retail customer orders.

Northe Star Ranks

There are 10 ranks that affiliates can progress through with Northe Star. The ranks and requirements are as follows:

• Unranked

No requirements.

• 1 Star

Maintain 30 PV per month.

• 3 Star

Maintain 40 PV per month, 3000 GV per month, two recruited affiliates or preferred customers.

• 10 Star

Maintain 40 PV per month, 10,000 GV per month, two recruited affiliates or preferred customers.

• 20 Star

Maintain 70 PV per month, 20,000 GV per month, two recruited affiliates or preferred customers.

• 40 Star

Maintain 70 PV per month, 40,000 GV per month, two recruited affiliates or preferred customers.

• 80 Star

Maintain 90 PV per month, 80,000 GV per month, two recruited affiliates or preferred customers.

• 100 Star

Maintain 90 PV per month, 100,000 GV per month, two recruited affiliates or preferred customers.

• 200 Star

Maintain 120 PV per month, 200,000 GV per month, two recruited affiliates or preferred customers.

• North Star

Maintain 120 PV per month, 300,000 GV per month, two recruited affiliates or preferred customers.

Northe Star Bonuses

Like virtually all network marketing companies, Northe Star has a variety of bonuses on offer, to encourage affiliates to sell more products and sign up more recruits.

The current Northe Star Bonuses are:

• Fast Start Bonuses – paid out weekly, amount varies based on rank and level.
• Unilevel Team Commissions – paid out weekly, amount varies based on rank and level.
• Infinity Bonuses – paid out weekly, amount varies based on rank.
• Shooting Star Bonuses – one-time payout upon achieving the ranks of:
  • 3 star – $300
  • 10 star $1000
  • 20 star – $2000
  • 40 star – $4000
  • 80 star – $8000
  • 100 star – $10,000
  • 200 star – $20,000
  • North Star – $30,000

As you can see, the Northe Star compensation plan is confusing and complicated, which seems to be a hallmark of all network marketing companies. If you’d like to read the entire compensation plan, you can do so here.

How Much Does it Cost to Join Northe Star As An Affiliate?

It costs nothing to join Northe Star as an affiliate, but if your goals is to progress through the ranks, you will need to make and maintain a monthly PV (personal volume) of 30.

The cheapest Northe Star products is the shaker bottle for $9.95. This won’t be enough to qualify you (and presumably, you don’t want or need a new shaker bottle every month.)

The next cheapest Northe Star product, if purchased on a recurring subscription, is the Pandora Whey Protein Isolate at $39, which would meet your monthly PV.

Essentially, this means that in order to progress through the ranks at Northe Star, you’ll need to spend a minimum of $39/month.

Is Northe Star a Pyramid Scheme?

Northe Star is a multi-level marketing company, and while it does have several characteristics similar to pyramid schemes, Northe Star is not a pyramid scheme.

According to Investopedia, multi-level marketing (the banner under which Northe Star falls) is a legal business practice as it involves the sale of tangible goods.

However, just because something isn’t a pyramid scheme under the legal definition of the term, that doesn’t mean it’s a profitable business opportunity nor a good idea to participate in.

How Much Money Can You Make With Northe Star?

If you’re like the vast majority of people who join a network marketing company, you won’t make any money with Northe Star. In fact, there’s a 99% chance you will lose money, instead.

The Federal Trade Commission published a study on MLM companies. Here are some direct quotes from the study:

“…MLM as a business model – with its endless chain of recruitment of participants as primary customers – is flawed, unfair, and deceptive.”

“…the vast majority of commissions paid by MLM companies go to a tiny percentage of TOPPs (top-of-the-pyramid promoters) at the expense of a revolving door of recruits, 99% of whom lose money.”

If you have a large, engaged social media following or network of people that you don’t mind recruiting into a scheme that 99% of people lose money in, then there may be an opportunity for you to make money with Northe Star.

If that doesn’t sound like you, the answer to “how much money can you make with Northe Star?” is, probably nothing.

Should You Join Northe Star?

In my opinion – no, you should not join Northe Star as an affiliate. Like all network marketing companies, there’s an extremely slim chance that you will make any money. To the contrary – there’s a much higher probability that you will lose money.

Of course, you’ll end up with some protein powder or nootropics, but if that’s the sole reason you’re joining Northe Star, there are many other options on the market that aren’t part of a multi-level marketing company.

Final Thoughts

Northe Star is a multi-level marketing company founded by two experienced network marketers who jumped ship from their previous companies to venture out on their own.

Like virtually all multi-level marketing companies, it’s almost impossible to make money with Northe Star, unless you’re fortunate enough to have gotten in before the company launched and have a large network to promote to or you manage to be in the elusive 1% of people who do make money from multi-level marketing.