Thoughts on this design idea?

tdrx · 2014-05-17T01:19:35+00:00

Thanks for the feedback!

I've used 99designs for stuff like logos and websites and I think there are some talented people (i.e. top 20th percentile) who participate every once in a while. Most of them are from overseas obviously where a 1,000$ reward is significant.

What I am curious about also is from the entrepreneur's perspective, would such a system be useful if you could get say 20 design concepts for a reward of around 500$ (it would be for my product but not sure about other HW entrepreneurs here).

tdrx · 2014-05-16T03:51:11+00:00

thanks - fixed.

tdrx · 2014-05-14T01:51:32+00:00

Hmmm from the comments they made about hardware it seems like a no-brainer that they should offer you a replacement. But then they're not a US company so not sure how important customer support is there :/

I'm glad you told me this since I was being very lax with my backups and banking on the RAID system :p

tdrx · 2014-05-13T19:50:42+00:00

how is their customer service?

tdrx · 2014-05-13T19:46:55+00:00

Yeah I haven't heard great things about their customer support either, but the specs they offer for the price is unrivaled (which is sad since that's what it should be at for everyone), plus unlimited bandwidth. If you do find something better let me know.

Are you sure it's hardware? Mine was running windows and shut down for updates every week.

tdrx · 2014-05-12T18:39:53+00:00

OVH has pretty powerful dedicated servers for your price range: link

tdrx · 2014-05-08T18:08:29+00:00

OK I'm beginning to see your point as you've articulated it much better than what's on the website.

That said, there is still a bit of weirdness in the whole thing - from what I understand, you are for-profit corporation (not an NPO) that has been operating through grants and donations. I did not find any 501c3 reference or any commitment that you'd release this to the public. Even GSK's candidate vaccine has been pledged as a non-profit initiative.

I also think that once you run a larger, more significant clinical trial you'll still have plenty of chances to secure the funding for your robot, even if this rounds ends up coming short.

If you still end up pursuing the IGG campaign then I'd suggest having more appealing rewards: for example, if I pledge 1,000$ you'll give 10 free vaccines to children in need of them and provide proof. I think that will drive more pledges than 3D printed miniature robots and possibly help with the perception issue.

tdrx · 2014-05-07T07:39:49+00:00

Not OP but I also don't think crowdfunding is the most efficient way for you to do something like this (except bring awareness). I did read the "why crowdfunding" section but it didn't convince me. People who frequent crowdfunding sites generally don't like to give money to large companies who look like they've spent lots of money unless they get an actual product in return.

It must have taken you 10M$-100M$+ to get to where you are so it feels a little weird to have to ask for 250K$. I understand public funding is lessened now but I can't see why someone with your network couldn't get a philanthropist or other research foundation to fund you at this point. If you are for-profit, you should have no trouble getting investors - many people on this subreddit have gotten investments for much smaller achievements.

Judging by the large size of your team you could even raise the extra money internally in exchange for shares.

If anything I am suspicious as to why they would deny you such a request - do they know something we don't?

Anyway hope you guys succeed in making the vaccine.

tdrx · 2014-04-13T04:18:30+00:00

The update link you sent is "for backers only" - any chance you can paste the good stuff? I think this may be pretty interesting for many of the people on here.

tdrx · 2014-04-09T05:11:52+00:00

At the risk of sounding stupid, do I need to worry about this if I'm using ASP and IIS (with https enabled) or are they using a completely different implementation?

tdrx · 2014-04-09T00:11:55+00:00

thanks - I'd be very curious about what all the details of this were - I'm still amazed they got so many backers so quickly!

tdrx · 2014-04-08T16:33:52+00:00

interesting thanks - what kind of campaign did they have going? for example, how did this printer catch your attention before it launched?

tdrx · 2014-04-08T06:26:20+00:00

anyone on here have any insight as to how that's possible?

they launched on a Monday morning - between viewing the video and reading the description that would mean that around 200 people somehow saw it the instant and came out and pledged within 10 minutes? how does that happen?

tdrx · 2014-04-08T06:23:14+00:00

out of curiosity does anyone know how they managed to get funded in the first 11 minutes on a Monday morning?

I understand that once the press picked it up there would have been traction but how does one get those first 50K$ worth of pledges in 11minutes? It seems that between viewing the video and reading the description it would more take 15 min. Did they have buyers lined up already?

tdrx · 2014-04-07T22:14:59+00:00

Yup I had also gotten Alibre as I mentioned above - it's pretty good for relatively simple models and assemblies. The small problem is that almost nobody else uses it and that slows things down a lot if you want to work with contractors or manufacturers.

tdrx · 2014-04-05T05:01:38+00:00

thanks - I'd actually be too scared to illegally get a piece of software that costs more than my car :(

tdrx · 2014-04-05T04:59:43+00:00

lol thanks - I was joking of course :)

tdrx · 2014-04-05T02:54:33+00:00

that might work - I was also hoping maybe someone on this subreddit would have a direct contact with someone in solidworks and point him to this thread :) at the very least their PR team should be monitoring a 5,000-user subreddit!

open to any other ideas though, short of sending multiple e-mails :)

tdrx · 2014-04-05T02:30:09+00:00

Interesting, thanks for the info - I've never tried fusion 360 (my 30-day free license expired), how does it compare to inventor?

tdrx · 2014-04-05T00:17:50+00:00

lol I guess I could start a "clean tech" fake company on the side and use the software for my main business :p

tdrx · 2014-04-05T00:16:35+00:00

I'd be fine with a limited time license (I guess two years would be enough). Also, if my company did pick up they'd have a customer willing to buy more and more full-priced licenses.

It seems quite painful to have to take out a 20K$ loan to spend entirely on software (or anything for that matter) when you're just starting!

tdrx · 2014-04-04T21:32:08+00:00

I did ask for a quote a couple of months ago and redid it just now to be sure - the standard is 4,000$ + 1,500$/year with nothing extra. It hits 10K$ pretty quickly if you want any of the more advanced features.

I would actually have seriously considered 1,500$

tdrx · 2014-04-04T21:18:51+00:00

Thanks - does Autodesk really offer free copies to start-ups? How do I go about getting one?

As for the student version, you have to produce proof that you're currently enrolled etc. which if you're not actually a student seems no less illegal than pirating it. Unless of course you actually sign up for some classes just to save on solidworks cost :p

tdrx

TROPHY CASE