Business Plan finished, ready to gather investors! (2011 - 09 - 09)


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?


Do you prefer one big investor or you prefer having a lot of investors?


Is it first-come, first-served until you have enough investors?


Will we have to contact you again if we already requested the business plan (with a message instead of e-mail)?


Thanks.
 
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.
 
what the current status on notch interest? has he shown any interest in supporting the Pandora if i may ask? or if hes interested in porting any of his games to pandora as well, or at least mention the pandora in his blog when its ready to start selling massively? getting any kind of support from notch would be a great incentive for investors
 
what the current status on notch interest? has he shown any interest in supporting the Pandora if i may ask? or if hes interested in porting any of his games to pandora as well, or at least mention the pandora in his blog when its ready to start selling massively? getting any kind of support from notch would be a great incentive for investors

Last time I was in contact with him was February and he was interested.


I didn't manage to get any replies from him since then, but that's probably because he's stuffed with eMails... I can imagine that.


I'll send the final business plan via snail mail to him.
 
I've tweeted many times to Notch and Jeb_ about the Pandora, stating that the only thing it needs is an OpenGLES target of LWJGL, but have yet to get a response. I will keep trying.
 
well ... I guess I'll better wait then if there will be one or a few big investors, instead of bothering you with offering a minimum amount (which is basically just a drop in the ocean).


If it turns out that many drops are needed to fill the ocean, I might be interested though.
 
[offtopic]

I've tweeted many times to Notch and Jeb_ about the Pandora, stating that the only thing it needs is an OpenGLES target of LWJGL, but have yet to get a response. I will keep trying.
There is an OpenGLES branch of LWJGL. From the looks of it, it hasn't been merged into the main branch yet. Is anyone familiar with LWJGL? I wonder if the OpenGLES branch involves a major API change on the application side.


[/offtopic]
 
I hope Notch will get involved, he is the perfect candidate for this Project. He is open for Indie of all kind, has alot of Money and a wide fan base. One Blog entry or Tweet of him is enough to move mountains. :D If he mentions the pandora again (he made a pandora review over a year ago because he HAS a Pandora) then the OP-Team would drain in Pre order willing people. ^^


I hope, someone can reach Notch, he tweets alot and even replies to total useless tweets, so the chances are high that we will get his attention to our much more important project here. :)
 
Yes, Notch supporting this project and a blog post from him at the moment that production is sorted out is exactly what could really launch this project forward.
 
I'm interested in investing, but of course will be waiting for the English version of the business plan before further consideration.


Some of the things I'm interested in knowing, and I imagine the business plan will cover:


1) Will the investment money be used towards any currently outstanding non-BOM related debt for Pandoras, or will this basically be a clean break starting from scratch with batch 2?


2) I'm sure there will be excess components already purchased that will not be used in batch 1; will you effectively be purchasing these components from Craig using the company's new capital?


3) What, if any, say in the business making decisions will investors have? Will any items be up for vote by investors, and if so will the votes be weighted against total share? Or will this all be moot by ED maintaining majority share?


4) Since you're paying for some parts in USD and of course would benefit by not having to convert can we invest directly in USD? I'm sure this would get complicated pretty quickly but it'd be great to avoid conversion charges on either side wherever possible; maybe you could have separate shares with their own caps in USD and EU. Otherwise I'm hoping that the community can find some of the best deals for conversion.


5) Will there be a limit to how many any one person/entity can buy? I'd hate to see the entire pool bought up by some rich individual or company.
 
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I'm interested in investing, but of course will be waiting for the English version of the business plan before further consideration.


Some of the things I'm interested in knowing, and I imagine the business plan will cover:


1) Will the investment money be used towards any currently outstanding non-BOM related debt for Pandoras, or will this basically be a clean break starting from scratch with batch 2?
non-BOM? This may seem like a silly question but what is BOM in this context? all that comes to my mind is Bureau of Meteorology and that doesn't seem to fit. :)

3) What, if any, say in the business making decisions will investors have? Will any items be up for vote by investors, and if so will the votes be weighted against total share? Or will this all be moot by ED maintaining majority share?

Erm... unless I've misunderstood one or both of you (which is entirely possible) I believe ED already answered that one:

One thing is sure: I'll only accept silent investors. That is: Investors who get their share of profit each year, but are not involved in any decisions. We all want to keep the Pandora the way it is!


I'm happy to share the success of the Pandora with anyone, who helps to make the Pandora successful :)

I'd interpret that to mean you'd get exactly the same level as input as an investor as you do now as a respected member of the community.


- Neelix
 
non-BOM? This may seem like a silly question but what is BOM in this context? all that comes to my mind is Bureau of Meteorology and that doesn't seem to fit. :)
Bill Of Materials, the actual physical parts that make up the Pandora. Exophase is asking if investor money will be used to pay outstanding debts or only for future debts.

I'd interpret that to mean you'd get exactly the same level as input as an investor as you do now as a respected member of the community.
ED will be looking for either a bond or a preferred share. Probably recallable preferred shares.
 
1) Will the investment money be used towards any currently outstanding non-BOM related debt for Pandoras, or will this basically be a clean break starting from scratch with batch 2?

All current customers will still be looked after, it isn't a 'clean break' to leave behind our responsibilities.
 
non-BOM? This may seem like a silly question but what is BOM in this context?

Bill of Materials. In other words, the parts needed to make a Pandora.
Bill Of Materials, the actual physical parts that make up the Pandora. Exophase is asking if investor money will be used to pay outstanding debts or only for future debts.

Thanks for the responses. :)


I'm looking forward to seeing the English version of the business plan, but as I have never ventured into this type of thing before I can see that I have a steep learning curve ahead of me.


- Neelix
 
All current customers will still be looked after, it isn't a 'clean break' to leave behind our responsibilities.

That wasn't my question. ED has said this is an investment towards his shop, not Pandoras in general; I can see how the money could apply to RMAs and what have you on Pandoras purchased at ED's shop, but I want to know if it'll be used to pay for outstanding design costs. ED has said he's 400,000 EUR in Pandora-related debt and I imagine this applies to more than merely "looking after" the existing customer base.

Neelix said:
Erm... unless I've misunderstood one or both of you (which is entirely possible) I believe ED already answered that one:

Yes, that answers it.. I hadn't seen that post, since I guess it was buried in another thread a while ago.

WizardStan said:
ED will be looking for either a bond or a preferred share. Probably recallable preferred shares.

Do you have a source on what this means exactly? Google isn't bringing up much. Does this mean that ED can buy back the stock at its current value whenever desired?


Expect me to be asking you more in the future, since you're not clueless about investing like I am.
 
All current customers will still be looked after, it isn't a 'clean break' to leave behind our responsibilities.

That wasn't my question. ED has said this is an investment towards his shop, not Pandoras in general; I can see how the money could apply to RMAs and what have you on Pandoras purchased at ED's shop, but I want to know if it'll be used to pay for outstanding design costs. ED has said he's 400,000 EUR in Pandora-related debt and I imagine this applies to more than merely "looking after" the existing customer base.

I think he means there is 400,000Euro required to make (or make a start) the next 4000. There certainly isn't 400,000euro debt, there isn't much apart from the outstanding orders, well assuming CC deliver the remaining boards they owe us.
 
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1) Will the investment money be used towards any currently outstanding non-BOM related debt for Pandoras, or will this basically be a clean break starting from scratch with batch 2?

Except for the remaining orders we have to deliver, there are no outstanding debts from Batch 1.


These remaining orders are included within the business plan, of course.


I calculated very carefully. i.e., people might ask for a refund until the Pandoras are actually being delivered.


While this actually makes us money later (they paid less than new customer), money is needed for that, so I need to include that as well.


Also, as some stuff is being paid in USD, I have to make sure we'll have additional money if the conversion rate changes.


Lastly, while Pandoras are being produced, we already need to order the next parts, so there also needs to be some money left.


So basically, we wouldn't need that much money to get things going, but we want a STABLE and fast production.


If we can't order the parts before the Pandoras are being sold, there will be a 3 - 4 months break before the next batch.

2) I'm sure there will be excess components already purchased that will not be used in batch 1; will you effectively be purchasing these components from Craig using the company's new capital?

Craig offers me these parts and gets Pandoras back.

3) What, if any, say in the business making decisions will investors have? Will any items be up for vote by investors, and if so will the votes be weighted against total share? Or will this all be moot by ED maintaining majority share?

I'm looking for silent investors and will keep the majority, so no investor will be able to change the Pandora itself.

4) Since you're paying for some parts in USD and of course would benefit by not having to convert can we invest directly in USD? I'm sure this would get complicated pretty quickly but it'd be great to avoid conversion charges on either side wherever possible; maybe you could have separate shares with their own caps in USD and EU. Otherwise I'm hoping that the community can find some of the best deals for conversion.

I will check that out, good idea.

5) Will there be a limit to how many any one person/entity can buy? I'd hate to see the entire pool bought up by some rich individual or company.

No one can buy my company without me selling the shares, I'll keep the company and the decisions.
 
Do you have a source on what this means exactly? Google isn't bringing up much. Does this mean that ED can buy back the stock at its current value whenever desired?
Callable, sorry, not re. But yeah, basically. It gives the issuer the right to buy back at some value. Doesn't necessarily have to be the original sell price, but it probably would be in this case.
 
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