TLDR: Project will likely not be released until Q2 2022 – a former employee lied to the manufacturer about the sales volumes and who was responsible for engineering costs and we had to come up with $150k to cover those costs, which took us a bit as it wasn’t budgeted. Pre-orders can be refunded if you’d like.
Update: The time has come where I feel the need to give an update on this project and I will preface this by saying the project is not going anywhere, we’re just running into some red tape that I will address below.
Please also note before I go down this path that we have set aside all money related to pre-orders so if you do request a refund due to the delay, we will of course honor it. The way our payment processor works is that it charges up front instead of when it ships. I know it’s dumb, but it’s the way BigCommerce and Stripe work.
That said, here’s where we’re at – and I’m going to be as transparent as possible so that everyone knows what’s happening.
Background
This project officially kicked off back in January 2021 (I know this thread started in Sept 2020, but the project was approved in January) as a project that we were working on with a separate company as they wanted a 5-Button switch.
Part of the agreement we had with our current manufacturer was that there was to be no new innovation allowed until we pay off our debt with them (they will continue to ship products we’ve already created, but no new innovation).
A former employee who was originally in charge of this project pitched the project to our manufacturer as this was a project that was going to provide a very large amount of volume and was being made for a very large company. He told the manufacturer that this company would pay all associated engineering fees, firmware fees, etc – totaling around $150k.
After some convincing, the manufacturer agreed with the fees to be paid in April 2021.
Well, April comes around and the manufacturer asks to be paid and I asked the former employee when this other company is going to pay, to which he replied, “they never agreed to pay those fees – I thought we’d have an investment by now, so I figured we could just pay”.
Naturally, this gets us in more trouble with the manufacturer as the hard work they’ve put into this project now is not being paid for – from a company that promised them this was going to be paid for.
This, among other things lead to this employee’s termination right then and there.
I then get on the phone with the company we’re making this switch for and find out that this former employee told them this is an Inovelli switch and we’d pay for it. To top it off, the massive volumes that were promised initially were also a lie and the company I talked to said they were going to order a test of 200 units… 200 units… this is a far cry from the 10k unit initial order we promised the manufacturer.
Great. So, I was duped, the manufacturer was duped and now I’m having to cover $150k worth of fees that were not budgeted.
Next Steps
Over the course of 3-4 months we’ve been working behind the scenes to get this project on track and continue to try to deliver on time – or at least by the end of the year.
Recently, there was a problem with the PCB where all the samples we received popped when we tried to test the initial firmware. When we requested additional test units, the higher ups at the manufacturer caught wind that they were lied to and they said that until we pay the fees, they were going to stop working on the project.
So, we paid the fees and this is where we’re at today.
At this point, we’re basically having to start over from a PCB standpoint and this project is looking like it will not be released until likely April/May 2022, but I also do not have a firm timeline.
Pre-Orders
Due to not having a firm timeline, we closed pre-orders. Once I have a definitive timeline and better optimism for a release date, we will open them back up. But I/we can’t, in good faith, keep taking pre-orders.
For anyone that has placed a pre-order, we can certainly refund you and I sincerely apologize for this. It’s likely the worst case of project management that I’ve ever seen and I definitely take responsibility for putting my trust in our former employee.
I will continue to work with the manufacturer to get a timeline locked down, but my best guess is Q2 2022.