Opt: How Would Investments Help You?


mali said:
^ If they had more money they could hire more production capacity from the Texas factory, I suppose. Small fish tend to get pushed back in the queue.
I guess, the Texas factory don't do this on purpose, otherwise it would be really mean. For me it sounds like they just can't do more than ~200 Boards a week, even with a gazillion more bucks, at least not with the current quality control. Otherwise they already accelerated the process of their own for free, because as sooner they are through the boards, as sooner they can finish and went to another projects. They are not interested in taking ages for the Pandora Boards, I'm sure. At least I hope they work as fast and good as they can. :)
Well, from the logical point of view, the Case Factory also schouldn't be interested in taking ages for the case but there my "internal logics" simply don't work... :ph34r:
 
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Eniko said:
I'd be interested in buying some shares, actually.

Me too.... as a long term supporter and believer in the concept. I admire the way the team have held fast and delivered.... I would hate to see that eroded by unsympathetic investment.
 
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A lot of people have emailed me an expressed an interest in shares/investing/us floating the company.

It's something we will look at and speak to you all about after Christmas.

I think we need to have a good ~8000 units out there and have proven we can do it before we do anything else.

I do kind of love the idea of you all being even more a part of this though, we would make one amazing, massive force.
 
craigix said:
A lot of people have emailed me an expressed an interest in shares/investing/us floating the company.

It's something we will look at and speak to you all about after Christmas.

I think we need to have a good ~8000 units out there and have proven we can do it before we do anything else.

I do kind of love the idea of you all being even more a part of this though, we would make one amazing, massive force.

Sounds great, I'd love to invest in OP.

Bring on the Pandora Collective!
 
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The American military-industrial-intelligence complex understands the need for enemies only too well, even painfully.

Grunt: “Sir...that's right, you heard me correct the first time".

"Nuclear Smurfs from Pandoria".

"There's significant chatter Sir and some intelligence"

"We're gonna need much sharper radar though, as they're small, both in size and number Sir”.

“Infra-blue aswell Sir, as.... well, they are truly cold blooded and blue as the lagoon their lost in. On the bright side Sir, we can at least have a reason to justify our budgets again”

Gen Petraeus : “Good, good”.

“Finally I don't have to justify my existence to non believers like old Gen Dennis Long, back in the day of '92".

"These pose a real threat, small but spreading".

"The corporate toys brigade will be happy when we wipe them out". "

"So get me trillions in weapons research and a glass of water..."

....THUD.....

Grunt: “Sir?....Sir?..Shit not again”.

Here is U.S. Col. Dennis Long, speaking in 1992, shortly after the end of the Cold War, when he was director of "total armor force readiness" at Fort Knox, Kentucky:

For 50 years, we equipped our football team, practiced five days a week and never played a game. We had a clear enemy with demonstrable qualities, and we had scouted them out. [Now] we will have to practice day in and day out without knowing anything about the other team. We won't have his playbook, we won't know where the stadium is, or how many guys he will have on the field. That is very distressing to the military establishment, especially when you are trying to justify the existence of your organization and your systems."

There are perhaps parallels for the corporates and Pandora?
 
fair enough, but NO assimilating Microsoft ;) , just everybody else, deprived of their natural prey MS will soon die out B)
 
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?
 
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I don't want any people who would change the course of things. Investors of any kind would not have any say in what we did, but I could assure them of our total devotion to making everything a superb success.

I'm absolutely certain we would obliterate any competition.
 
I don't figure I am the only person who looks at it this way,but I can't guess how many do, but here it is:

I would take the same approach as when I preordered a Pandora.
1) Do I have enough money? Yes? proceed.
2) Can I afford to lose that much money? Yes? Proceed.
3) Order Pandora. Wait. Lurk forums.

That's about it. Go in planning for a loss, and hope for the best. Let them do their job how they think it best, I'm just helping pay the way with hopes of a return greater than what I have invested.
 
TBH, if you were to sell investments and become a significant force all that will happen is OP will bling on the radar of all the US patent trolls / big tech companies who will just launch a whole host of spurious law suits to consume any funds the company may have in legal costs.
 
Sugar_Kane said:
Like the smurfs?

Oh my!! Thanks SugarKane, that was a great laugh for me :D
 
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craigix said:
I'm absolutely certain we would obliterate any competition.

There are no binding oaths between men and lions--wolves and lambs can enjoy no meeting of the minds. (Iliad, 22.310-11)

Hubris much?
 
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vadsamoht said:
...<snip>There are no binding oaths between men and lions--wolves and lambs can enjoy no meeting of the minds. (Iliad, 22.310-11)
Hubris much ....<snip>
Never heard of him. What did he ever do (apart from that quote)?
 
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I was thinking people who put money down now could receive discounts periodically at the store (whether that be software, accessories, whatever). I think it would be a creative way to raise funds. But would it be practical? I don't know.

P.S. Preferred stock is nonvoting. That would mean the investor does not really gain any say, correct? Sure, they could complain, but all they can really do is sell it to someone else. <obvious>Of course, if this road were taken, you would want to talk to an expert in the area.</obvious>
 
Nation.A.List said:
vadsamoht said:
...<snip>There are no binding oaths between men and lions--wolves and lambs can enjoy no meeting of the minds. (Iliad, 22.310-11)
Hubris much ....<snip>
Never heard of him. What did he ever do (apart from that quote)?

:blink: Serious? Cannot tell. The Iliad, written down by Homer somewhere around 800 BC. Something of a literary classic :D
 
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based on my belief in the OP company, id be more than willing to invest some of my personal money into the project as i see it profitable and if it could help OPT, why not? now im not saying look for MS or Apple investors to a point where they own the company, i love the idea of a small community building something huge
 
Moxie said:
:blink: Serious? Cannot tell. The Iliad, written down by Homer somewhere around 800 BC. Something of a literary classic :D
Haha, I _love_ The Simpsons :D
 
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