Have you guys seen this ? Doesn’t look good at all.
TLDR: We ran out of money, please please please don’t ask for refunds.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Sc7vOWf7ZY&feature=youtu.be
Wowch.
Wow. No, that doesn’t sound good at all. That made me sad for him, the company, the backers and the community.
Brook
Yuh, seems like the only thing worse than a failed 3d printer kickstarter is a successful one (from a backing perspective) @Brook_Drumm and printrbot being a notable exception. This tends to reinforce my assertion that makers generally don’t make good business owners.
Ouch. At least he’s taking ownership… Unlike QUBD and their R.P.M. fiasco.
@Eric_Cha what happened with that? I saw that they were shipping them with extruders that needed to be replaced immediately, did it get worse? Hang on, let me guess. If it’s QU-BD I’d guess at defective or doa hardware, poor end user support and aggressive pr/marketing to distract from the actual issues.
Better to promise a fix even if you may have to charge to provide updated parts. Minor fix instructions are probably all that is needed. Just stating that and reminding people of the nature of crowd funding would go a long way.
Pity, Jonathon Buford seems like a genuine guy. I know he had some business experience before, but it always looked like they were trying to grow too quickly, they should have limited the orders taken.
A common cause of failure for many small business trying to grow is running into cash flow problems, it’s a hard lesson to learn but should have been foreseen.
I don’t think people realise how much of a gamble Kickstarter projects are, and there is zero consumer protection. As we see more big failures, the regulators will surely step in.
Up to now I backed speakers being made by an already established speaker manufacturer and a relatively cheap collapsible colander from an established industrial designer. Both already had working products. Always weigh up their history and the risks.
@L1111 That’s a sensible approach.
Not directly related to 3D printing, but there is an interesting breakdown here http://www.statisticbrain.com/startup-failure-by-industry/ About 50% of manufacturing startups fail within 5 years, biggest cause of failure is lack of business competence. So regardless of Kickstarter, backing a startup can be a 50/50 shot. I’d like to see Kickstarter put THAT in their banner.
Makibox website is still taking orders, and still stating 6-10 weeks lead time. That was a lie two years ago, and is even a bigger lie today. I can’t say I have a lot of sympathy at this point.
EDIT: They took money that was intended for shipping and used it up. This is why they have inventory but no funds to ship them. In many countries this is illegal.
I think this is also a blow for the “3d printing association”.
https://www.the3dprintingassociation.com/the-board
The board has 2 prominent makibox evangelists.
They have failed to protect/warn the community.
Tbh, I don’t really get what the 3DPA is for anyway.
@Justin_Nesselrotte1 - do you have an RPM? I sincerely hope that it works out for you. I mean that in all sincerity.
@bob_cousins I wonder if there is a business in that… Either integrated into the kickstarter model or an affiliated service that kickstarter folk can subscribe to. It would certainly increase my confidence to back if I knew there was someone with a business/commercial background involved.
Perhaps some sort of business incubator model.
@Justin_Nesselrotte1 - and therein lies the rub… People have literally been waiting for well over a YEAR for their RPM’s (and we’re not talking about kickstarter backers)…