WizardStan said:
Craig, for the sake of your sanity, DO NOT TAKE MONEY FROM ANYONE AS AN INVESTMENT IN THE COMPANY!
I don't think I can stress this enough. If you think people are complaining now about "lack of information" just wait until they actually have some kind of legal right to at least some of that information. Even private investment comes with certain responsibilities, responsibilities which will add to the stuff you need to know, responsibilities it is apparent you aren't prepared for because you're a private company and haven't had any need for them. Someone asked exactly how many had been shipped. You didn't know, you didn't have the numbers. If an investor asks, you need to be able to tell them. Investors don't always get say in the company, but they do need to be able to judge whether their investment is sound, otherwise any Joe could just start a company, take private investment, and then just cease all communication with no fear of legal retribution. They need to have some way of gauging your success and, if they deem it insufficient, a means of disposing of their shares, either through return or resale. Are you prepared to handle those? Got a good lawyer?
Long story short, unless you are really, really desperate, and about to lose the project entirely, do not take investments. It will kill you. Or at least rape you for several hours a day.
If you do need money and think the community can help, do a donation run, a bake sale, or even have your lawyer draft up a small loan contract that users can digitally sign. Do NOT use the word "investment" anywhere!
This.
Even as kindhearted and well meaning as most of the forum dwellers who offer to invest are, it can't work. I should go dig into the search feature to look for some of those posts Craig made about a year ago (maybe a little more) in which he was VERY anti-investment... I remember him saying things along the lines of not wanting any debt for the project and not wanting investors overshadowing their decisions... thus why they did preorders instead of seek out a loan to get the production done.
I'll edit some real Craig quotes in if those posts haven't been deleted.
My two sense on investments:
I too would invest if it was possible, my reasoning being that if some people are able to buy their way into having more say on the project than I darn well better be one of those people... I'm sorry guys, but I just DON'T trust most of you to make the right decisions. MOST of the people interested in this project DON'T have any kind of manufacturing background or experience, just like the core team you might say. Look at how many pitfalls the OP team have gotten themselves out of? If the OP team were now 1000 people we'd be hitting 200 times more pitfalls because we'd have 200 times more people with no idea of what it takes to do high-tech manufacturing making calls about the project.
On the flip side, there's plenty of us here who maybe had MORE experience than the team with high-tech manufacturing and could have helped avoid a lot of the pitfalls in the beginning (past tense because I'm sure Craig and co. are now Mr. Manufacturing Expert and co.)... at times I go to bed feeling like the only difference between Craig or ED and myself is age, number of posts, and being in the right place at the right time with a good wad of cash and a pre-established webstore... sometimes I hate myself for not being more involved 2 1/2 years ago. Not because I'm after that spotlight of being part of the main team (that's the one thing that makes me glad I DIDN'T get more involved), but more because I'm good at these kinds of things and could have contributed a lot in the beginning.
I'm sure we all kinda feel this way, right? Like this is OUR project, because it sorta is... but at the same time now it has very much become the OP team's project and we are just the customers. Kinda funny how the luck of that works out, really it could have been ANY five of us random forum dwellers who decided to jump gung-ho right into this project. So yeah, investments COULD offer an opportunity for some expansion of the main team in a good way too.
Overall, I still feel that investments would be a bad thing and could harm the project very deeply... because lets face it, if the supermen that the core team are couldn't get it right on the first few tries, then neither could any of us. By the time 8000 have shipped the core team will have all the kinks ironed out and the last thing we need is new people making new kinks.
Of course, this is ALL assuming that investing would mean a greater say in the project. If the investments were VERY CLEARLY defined in a good contract so that they were just a loan and nothing more then it might not be too bad. Like WizardStan said, do NOT use the word "investment" anywhere! Investors typically have a SAY in their investment and now you're THEIR bitch... you really want that Craig? I thought people treat you like they own your firstborn child enough already man... and right now you just owe them a console!
edit: argh! stupid boards only saving the last 200 of Craig's posts... well you can believe me or not, he said it. You DO remember saying that you didn't want debt or investors back in the day, right Craig? Did you mean just for the launch of the project? Or maybe now since you guys are already in debt the attitude there has changed?
