Essentially we're swapping places, I will become a distributor while Ed will now handle the manufacturing as there is nowhere in the UK willing to do PoP work, so it makes sense that Ed is near everything and is also in charge of the funds in that location.
Exactly. There are a few reasons this makes sense:
1. German companies don't like UK Limiteds. The reason is because there were many people doing frauds using UK Ltd. as no money is needed to start one. So it's better I handle the things with them.
2. If you try to gather investors, it's really hard if you try to tell them "Yeah, I need money and want to produce... and there's that other company that might be able to handle things for me, etc.". The more complicated it gets, the more hard it will be to find investors. So while my company is handling everything for those units now (the same as OpenPandora Ltd. did handle the first 1000 until now), Craig will still get his units the same as I got units from him.
These are the main two reasons.
Some questions ED:
Can you share the total amount of money you need to make the project viable and what will happen if there is not enough interest?
300K - 350K EUR would be perfect to ensure a stable production.
We could start with a lot less, however, I want to be very careful.
We need to order and pay some parts while the first 1000 are in production to get them in time, so some extra is needed here.
There also might be people who ask for refunds while the production is ongoing, so we also need some money handy for that case as well (in the end, it will make more profit, but it's still money you need to have handy).
There might be other unexpected costs you also need to take into account.
So I added a up a lot more money than is really needed. But I'm rather safe than sorry, also for the investors. I don't want them to lose their money, that's why I'm very careful about that.
I'll continue to look for investors until I find some.
I'm pretty sure out there in the whole wide world are some who like OpenSource ideas and Linux and who HAVE money, so I'll search them (even if it's the last thing I do!)
Also, the money needed will shrink with the PCBs we get delivered from CircuitCo (we don't know how many and how fast they will send them), the iCP might also help here, etc.
There are also some other ways to fund like a bank loan, etc. I'll check out all options.
As long as the community backs me up, I'll try to get things going!
I can't offer much more than my full dedication. If I had the money myself, I'd throw it into the pot!
Do you prefer one big investor or you prefer having a lot of investors?
One or two big ones and maybe some smaller ones would be great.
I'd love to have one big one who knows about the project and can see the potential.
That's why I'm sending one business plan to notch. He followed the Pandora, he had one of the first preorders, he's got more than enough of the money needed, that would be the perfect guy.
Whether he wants to support it or not is a different issue, but in my opinion, the Pandora has a lot of potential so you could make some good money from it.
Is it first-come, first-served until you have enough investors?
No, I'll gather interested people first and will then take a look who's best suited.
Will we have to contact you again if we already requested the business plan (with a message instead of e-mail)?
No, I'll send it to you once it has been translated.
i shall not mention it anymore.
