So , if two years ago Glowforge had said that they will put the 25 million and invest it in the stock market for safe keeping you would have said: “sounds good to me?”
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Now there’s a thought.
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you are changing the scope and then in turn infer I am a idiot? It may have not been the entry strategy, but it can be a exit strategy. I do believe they are not wanting to expend the money to certify in the listed counties because the ROI is not justifiable at this time.
please continue to use insults where I have not. I have applied logic to this situation is all.
also, maybe just maybe the range of “quality” is a reflection of the frustration of a company missing there delivery dates?? we the lowly people who don’t have our machines yet can simply “eat cake” right?
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First off, GF was never represented to be a financial investment. So you can’t really compare what you could have earned in two years if you invested the $2000 or $4000 in various financial markets instead of putting in an order for a GF.
In any event, most people don’t invest in the stock market, and those that do typically see a return of about 8%. Some people make fortunate investments (such as I did last year when I bought $100K of NVIDIA for $40/share, and it is now priced at about $200/share, or when I bought Amazon at $85 and it’s now over $1000/share). That’s not the norm, and neither is your own fortunate investment results. While some people do receive a higher return than is the norm, many others fall well short of it.
By the way, the earnings rate on a typical savings account in the US has been under 2% for a few years, and I suspect that is what GF factoried in their 5% compensation to cancelled owners.
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Money market savings have been under 1% for as long as the Fed was doing the effective 0% interbank rate. 5% is actually not awful and is better than the historical norms. I don’t expect it was really as much as they could/might have done but perhaps they’re considering the precedent it sets as well.
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You’re exactly right. My wife does find banks that pay 1.5% to 1.95% from time to time, and then she moves our money around for as long as that rate is in effect. If we just let it sit in our BofA or Chase account, we get less than 1%.
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Not at all. This is a business. However, I would have also expected Glowforge to have crossed their T’s and dotted their I’s prior to launching the campaign.
Generally speaking, this kind of research should have been done PRIOR to the start of the campaign. That’s all I’m saying.
Because that wasn’t done, I’d expect there to be grounds for some kind of lawsuit. However, because I didn’t receive the email, I didn’t know Glowforge was returning an additional 5% of the purchase price to those that they can’t ship to. To be fair, I think that takes care of all the issues I have with this bit of news. It still bothers me that they didn’t do their due diligence BEFORE HAND, but they are taking care of their customers with the 5% return. Great job Glowforge on that!
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I keep almost no money (relatively speaking) in the bank. It’s just for money I might need with a week’s notice or less. Anything else is in various other financial instruments that pay far better than a bank but require a week or more to liquidate for access. Banks are no longer really beneficial for consumers.
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100% Agree.
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They’re really not. But neither is the stock market.
(Nothing like having to recover from a painful 85K+ loss in a dot-com bust when you’re just getting started. Hubs has decided he’s not picking stocks anymore. I concur wholeheartedly. Best place to put your money is to sink it back into your business if you happen to have one. The gains multiply like rabbits.)
The stock market is gambling with a stacked deck…sooner or later, you’re going to pay for the better gains that you get in the good years.
I think the 5% was a nice touch if true…it wasn’t required, and it makes a nice little apology.
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Well they didn’t have to say that, because they were legally required to do so. They can’t recognize the revenue until they ship product, so that money has to be kept safe. Which means not in the stock market, in a bank account.
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Why are they legally required to do it? I thought it was just their choice to do that.
Most of the money that we have to invest came from putting all we had into our business several years ago. We’ve had greater control and returns on that than other investments (real estate, money market accounts, stocks, etc.), but we’ve done ok with them, too.
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As I understand it, various accounting rules in US don’t allow them to book the income from the pre-orders until those orders ship.
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Below market rate interest? Savings accounts and CDs are no where close to 5%. Am I missing something?
Well, until the revenue is recognized, it’s not revenue - it’s a liability. It maybe technically legal for them to spend the money, but it would end up potentially putting the company and/or investors in a potentially bad legal situation. Since Dan is responsible for, first and foremost, looking out for his investors, it would be a bad and perhaps illegal thing to do.
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Terrible headline. Scams are when someone set out to trick you. Why wouldn’t they want to complete the sale? Your country’s backwards laws most likely causes the problem, lobby for regulations that are “accept USA safety standards.” A scam would be if they asked you to cach out fake money orders and send them the difference via western union.
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How is saying “most likely” rude? It wasn’t a scheme by me, or by Glow Forge, heck GF is losing these sales. They too are losing out. I just think folks should lobby for more open and free trade, less protectionism, lower taxes and tarrifs. That’s were the problem sits, not at a manufacturing company that would LOVE to be in more markets.
If you think I was being rude, I am shocked.
Yep. Go look at the top 10 stocks or funds or investors every year and then look to see if they’re still in the top 100 even after 5. I spent a few years doing institutional financial investments and we would kill for a 100 basis point edge; sell our mothers for 200 
Somebody was telling me about what I “should” be investing in earlier this week (he was doing a recap for one of the boards I’m involved in) and I noted that yep, aware of the opportunity, and made my first million that way…and lost my first million that way too. Really painful.
I would have kicked 10% or maybe 15 if I were in their shoes and only doing it for the 20 countries (different if they’re worried that they may have to do more and the precedent matters) since they don’t have the $50 gift card and the $20/mo delay credit liability for those folks anymore. That would likely have shutdown any “unfair” noise (well almost all of it anyway).
Why would he have said he felt scammed if he wasn’t in a impacted country? Are you feeling ok? How is lobbying for freedom a bad thing? You think American standards allow for shoddy, deadly laser products? I doubt that’s the case, many countries put up barriers that hurt their citizens under a banner of protection that usually is just for taxes & protectionism.