If you read everything in it’s entirety again, you might see that the funding was not requested…or for that matter needed. It was offered. And none of us know whether or not there are beta units out in the world, with the one exception of Josh Kopel. There could be many already out there.
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The articles don’t seem to indicate that this extra financing was needed, but instead was offered/accepted as an insurance policy to get the production done in time to meet the deadline. We know that the beta units couldn’t be rolled out until the power source issues were fixed, and as soon as that was handled we got to see @jkopel put a unit to work. As someone said earlier, in design there’s 3 things we strive for, Fast, High Quality, Low Cost. You get to pick two. In this case we have seen time and time again that @dan refuses to compromise on quality, so that’s one item, and they really don’t want to miss the deadline so there’s two. Which means IF something came up they would need some capital to make it happen fast, which, with an extra 22M they now have. I’m not saying you need to jump on the band wagon and start singing kumbaya, but maybe give it another couple months before you cancel your order? It could obviously still go either way at any time, but there’s a pretty positive picture being painted. Take the couple months to do your research for plan B and if things DO fall apart you can come back here and tell us “told you so” and you’ll be ready to get something else. If things go as planned, you’ll have a pretty impressive machine on your hands and you won’t have to wait till march or later after losing your place in line. Just my 2 cents
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The way some of these naysayers spout off reminds me of the saying, “Some people brighten up a room just by leaving.”
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+1 to everything you said.
I’m pretty sure that a couple of the recent GF articles mentioned multiple folks beta testing right now.
Just a guess, but maybe GF and investors are now seeing units working so well that they foresee demand for GFs after release increasing substantially and want to be ready to ramp up production quickly.
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Glowforge didn’t need the extra funding and didn’t solicit it.
That was pretty clear from the article.
No one is “falling all over themselves”.
When someone is kind enough to post a creation they made for the benefit of the forum members, being civil enough to acknowledge their effort, to compliment and thank them is common courtesy - especially if you like it.
We are all anxious waiting on the forge, and sharing ideas and designs are a way to placate ourselves in the interim.
Personally I am very appreciative of the staff sharing items they have crafted with the tool we invested in! Thank you @madebynick, @Shell, @bailey @Tony and @dan. Please continue to share!
We have all felt the frustration that flavors your post, but personally, the article had the opposite effect on me - I found it reassuring that not only are the backers still happy with the progress, but want a bigger piece of the action. The opposite of worrying about their investment.
That tells me all I need to know.
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Just a quick question for those who might not have thought of it…do you think that Glowforge is going to just fold up shop after delivery of our pre-ordered units in December and March?
That perhaps they didn’t need the additional 22$ mil for delivery of our units, but for the delivery of the next ten thousand units, that people will be screaming for, when they see how absolutely awesome our machines are?
An outside investor came in, looked at what the machines can do, saw demos of more than we have been able to see so far, and was so impressed that he wanted in!
This can’t be anything but good!
Investors do not hand over money out of the goodness of their hearts to make sure that other investors (which we are) get the return they were promised.
They invest in things that they see making a profit for them down the road. So there is a product under development that could just be taking off here. Meaning a lot of future sales that they have to gear up for now.
We have the option of cancelling our orders any time before they ship. What we don’t have is any guarantee that the units will ship by a certain date. We never did. Those were target dates.
(December is a target date, it is not a promise. That date might slip too. Just pointing that out for the still nervous among us.)
They likely do have Beta units being tested now, and probably by more than just Josh. Josh is the only Beta tester that has been given permission to tell us about it, but there are probably quite a few others locally.
And i know it’s hard to wait, but there is also nothing that says they have to spend time telling us what stage of development they are at, and doing so takes time away from the actual work of figuring out how to make all the parts mesh together with the software and fixing bugs they might run across.
So lets all have a nice cup of Chamomile and dream good things…this thing is happening! 
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I don’t care if the funds were not requested (I read that). What bothers me is that beta units are just now becoming available, 7 months after the fact!! So how can I be confident that the initial features are working??
Thank you!
But the beta units couldn’t be produced until after the power source issues were addressed. We know that JoshForge came online shortly after the issue was resolved. The beta units have been out there for a while.
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I’m not quite sure where you got that information…the 'just now’ part.
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From the Felder blog, “Units are now coming off our US manufacturing lines and we are starting to get them into beta user’s hands each week. We are trickling them out slowly to make sure that we’ve got the manufacturing process nailed for the hardware,” could be construed as something like that.
Either way, Feld had a beta unit several months ago. I can’t remember how long Josh has had his but a decent amount of time. Folks will infer what they want to infer - but no need for picking on others.
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There is “beta” and there is “public beta”. Dan has made that distinction. Josh is the only public beta we know of, but we have no indication of other beta units out there… Other than Dan specifying “public”.
I guess I was surprised at your pessimism, as the article had the opposite impact on me.
Just goes to show that we all see things differently.
I know (in my heart) that Tony betas the sh!t out of one continuously! I would be surprised if the designers on staff weren’t in the foxhole too.
I just take a deep breath and imagine the laser in my shop, reflecting on the long road to get there, and how glad I will be that I waited.
That being said, as much of a fanboy that I am, I would seriously have to reconsider my position if the date were to slip again.
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Definitely a good thing for the consumer. I’ve been in the startup game a number of times myself as well and completely agree with what you’re saying.
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IMO. . . .
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When you hear anyone hereabouts say Glowforge doesn’t (or won’t) need that $22 Mil. it’s akin to them saying “Click your heels together three times and say ‘There’s no place like home’ and you’ll be there’.”, they’re dreaming in technicolor. They do or will need it, period. There is no way in “H - E - ‘double hockey sticks’” Dan and the other co-founders want to give up equity WAY in excess of the value of the $22 Mill to obtain funding that funding if they don’t or will not need it. Like it was said, the VC’s are doubling down, all or nothing. And for that, they would demand WAY more than the double down amount on the upside. That people is how things work on the finance side of business.
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The only people that are hurt by the second round financing are the co-founder, dan et al as, like I said above, they no doubt had to hand over a lot more upside value than the value of the round 2 funding.
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The crowdfunders are winners as, based on the obvious assumption that the funding was or will be needed, now see the project with more cash to see the venture succeed. Woo Hoo! ! !
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There can be a minus of Foundry Group et al jumping in, in that they have WAY more equity now and WAY more control (I’m guessing here). With the objective of venture capitalists to flip for the big win (e.g. the $403 Mill sale of Makerbot), Dan et al will likely have to go bye-bye at some point when the venture has maximized its capitalized value. That could be way bad for the crowdfunders as they could find themselves in a position where new ownership says “hey, we don’t like Dan’s original ‘soft contract’ deal whereby he let you have the cloud server services for free, they are now $25/month. Pay up or we shut you off and you have a nice big paperweight”.
But hey, on the Beta side of life, give it a rest. The information about how many beta testers are out there or who are beta testing units makes no difference when it comes to crowdfunder’s getting their GF units by December. It just doesn’t matter. If it were me, I wouldn’t be dipping into this pool as we are mostly the group looking for the ‘push the button’ functionality. I’d be putting my beta units out with laser tech/support professionals that can kick the bejeebers out of the Glowforge and keep quiet about it at the same time.
Once again I’d like to thank who participated for opening up this can of worms again as it provides me with a lot of entertainment value before I head down to the lake for a swim in comfortably warm lake on this humid +80F day at the cottage. 
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Just speculation, but I would expect they may want a seat on the board for that level of infusion.
Aside from the occasional update, entertainment is all the forum offers until we get our machines.
Enjoy your swim!
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According to the Glowforge account on Linked In, Brad Feld is already sits on the board. There are other information sources out there that also speak to Foundry Group’s board presence. It’s about control and potential high margin returns, being on the board is just part of the VC protecting its investment.
Look at it in another way, the VC groups are not stupid, so they are going to demand participation for their cash injection to compensate for risk and maximize potential payout/reward. Dan et al are also not stupid, so if they didn’t see the need for the cash, they would not take it as what they would be asked to to give up has much greater potential value. At the end of the day, both groups will be happy with the balance achieved in order to see the venture through to its maximized capital value.
The $22 Mill injection is the best thing that could have happened to us the crowdfunders IMO. Happy, happy, happy. . .
Swim was very nice! 
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I can barely imagine the elation of having poured all of yourself into a high stakes gamble, bleeding along the way and seeing your efforts culminate in a blazing success.
Considering these guys track record of startups, I expect that sitting atop the success of Glowforge will be a bit tame for their liking. After years of full throttle and winning, sitting back and putting your feet up would be a difficult transition. Yeah catch your breath and bask in the glow of having done it, but after successfully surviving the pressure of bringing a dream to the market yet again, the startup battlefield beckons - and these guys are warriors.
So it wouldn’t surprise me if the founders sold out and prepared themselves to feed on the addictive adrenaline of the next venture.
(Their Wives might argue that idea) 
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We’ll said. My thoughts exactly. 
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Well, to be fair, if you do decide to drop, it’ll move everyone behind you up a spot.
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