Feld and the other aren’t “companies” throwing money around. They are INVESTORS.
An investor who doubles down on an investment has confidence that the returns will be significant. And putting more money into the pot means pulling more out of it later. Thus, it is a good call. Especially at a moment when having additional capitol on hand can lead to higher returns when the eventual payoff comes.
While the funding is impressive, the fact that there are beta testers other than @jkopel is intriguing. I think the fact that you are all investing so much in the Proofgrade is a huge indication that you are building a full ecosystem and are in for the long haul. And to think the Facebook group called Glowforge vaporware just yesterday. Congrats and keep it humming.
I did it! I decided to show my confidence in Glowforge by going ahead and upgrading to Pro now instead of waiting until just before it ships. Yahooooo!
Brilliant, Dan! Congratulations! I’m deeply impressed to see that Brad and the True crew were proactive about doing this. I agree completely with @jdodds–when you’re developing complex, LARGE hardware, to say nothing of inventory for both hardware and supplies, money disappears fast. I think they must have actually been quite frugal to make it this long with a staff of 35. I imagine that this infusion will allow the GF team to make some fantastic deals on large quantities of production goods. Speaking as a three-time startup gal, in many ways, taking a big infusion of cash like this is a major sacrifice for founders, who will lose an equivalent chunk of equity (or capital, if it’s a note). Thanks for doing it to make more attractive pricing on the Proofgrade goods.
From the Geekwire article - a statement from one of the investors "…Added Feld: “Given that we just had a board meeting and I saw their financial plan, production schedule, and shipping plan, I’m very comfortable with the path we are on…"
Oh to be a fly on the wall at that meeting
At least one of the articles was pretty clear that Feld provided the new funds proactively. Assuming that’s true, I think that the new funding is very encouraging and indicates that Feld sees a bright future for the product and the company.
I’m pretty happy at the news as well but we should be realistic. Until the product ships it is technically vaporware, though the vapor definitely seems a lot denser than it did back in April.
That being the case, if Glowforge had not needed the $22 mill to get to where they needed to be financially in order to get the job done the way they wanted it done, they would never have given up whatever they must have given up in terms of equity participation to make the plan move forward. So, one way or another, they needed/will need that cash to get to where they want to be. I’m THRILLED it seems to have come to pass without a major struggle or at least the appearance of one.
It is disappointing to read (at this late stage) that Glowforge needed more funding in order to just now begin distributing beta units! These were promised to go out starting last December! Why couldn’t the $27+ million (crowd funding) and the $9 million (initial private funding) be used for this? How is it possible that only after another $22 million is poured into this venture, that more beta units are now possible?
Beta units would’ve been essential way back (not just now a few months prior to the supposed Dec. 2016 ship deadline), essential to help discover bugs and shortcomings that could have been undergoing corrective actions NOW, not a almost a year later.
I predict that these Johnny-come-lately beta units will only help the Dec. 2016 deadline slip again, and the explanation will be (again): Oh, we discovered some issues that have to be corrected, so we need more time in order to ship you the best product !!!
I am tempted to cancel my order and use my money more productively on other tools that I can put to use now! I am thinking this way because I have no indication that things are progressing. Like someone else mentioned earlier, Dan has been asking the community to suggest features they’d want included in the laser cutter/engraver (it’s not a laser printer, people)!
Furthermore, why are people falling all over themselves every time a leather keychain or what have you is discussed? Where are the news regarding the REAL FEATURES that were promised last year? Features like the auto engraving of a long work piece, or auto focus on a curved surface, or two sided auto-registration, etc.?