View Single Post
Posts: 1,335 | Thanked: 3,931 times | Joined on Jul 2010 @ Brittany, France
#3140
Joerg is still leader, and a significant improvement to the situation if I understood correctly the last news in March is that Privateinternetaccess (PIA) has hired him and agreed to let him devote part of his work time in the Neo900 project. While this means he has less hours in a day to work on the Neo900, it also means that he *can* work on the project and is actually supported for that. After years into the project and the acknowledgement that the hardware won't be bleeding edge regarding today's performance standards, I am all for this trade-off that ensures he can continue to work on the project and doesn't have to abandon it all of the sudden because all resources are depleted in food supplies and electricity bills over the years. Our down payments can be more focused on sourcing parts and paying production batches.

http://neo900.org/news/joerg-pia-2018-03-01

By the way, the discount to Neo900 backers from PIA really is encouraging. A company has deemed the Neo900 project relevant and wants to support both its leader and its backers, despite the very limited visibility this extremely small community brings to them in return.

Originally Posted by endsormeans View Post
And as far as "a crowd funding campaign" goes..

even by the outdated timeline ...we are way past that ...and into orders.
http://neo900.org/static/plan.png
Not yet, we're still in partial orders since down payments are still open to new backers, and orders (crowdfunding: https://neo900.org/news/neo900-update-2017-07-18) will happen next when the final prototype (v3) is done. This news is now one year old, but it replies to some of your questions regarding the current resources, albeit a bit vague.

What I think would be more useful at this point is getting information on the progress on prototypes v2 and v3, since they were already mentioned last year, the layout for v2 is done, and v3 is the keystone for the crowdfunding step.

[Edit]
Originally Posted by pichlo View Post
Oh yes, the crowdfunding. The inconspicuous transition from "we are fully committed and guarantee the delivery in the given time frame or your money back" to "nothing is guaranteed, don't ever complain". I don't know about you, but I lost the last remaining shreds of any confidence in the project the moment the word "crowdfunding" was mentioned.
Yes, I remember that this keyword brought a lot of confusion in this thread when it was first used. However, let's be pragmatic, it really is a good idea and probably the best way to maximize chances that the product can be delivered in the end, and minimize the costs in case of failures:

- Start a crowdfunding campaign featuring a working prototype v3, i.e., the final product before batch production; if this prototype ever happens one day, then it proves the project can be completed as long as people buy it, and that investments are not investments anymore, but real orders
- Set a goal that covers costs for the minimal production
- Let people back the project at either the max price (minimal production) or reduced price (bigger production), making it clear that the reduced price is only possible if the following streach goal is satisfied
- Set a stretch goal corresponding to a lower per unit cost if the production is bigger, and offer a discount to all backers that chose the max price option if this goal is reached
- Check the option in the kickstarter/indiegogo plan to give the money back to backers if the goal is not reached (failure = no loss for anyone)

Last edited by Kabouik; 2018-07-24 at 12:30.
 

The Following 4 Users Say Thank You to Kabouik For This Useful Post: