Without resorting to legalese, crowdfunding is a full-risk investment in which you can actually lose the entire amount invested and there is no legal way to enforce responsibility or liability. You trust a company and give them money, they can succeed or fail.
Now this current offer, unless backed by a binding contract of some kind, is just a gentleman’s agreement between you and MOD. Does the survey offer any hint as to a guarantee for backers? I would think that, to make it a sound and attractive offer, there would be some kind of assurance on their side for your new payment.
@gianfranco before i fill out the survey, i have one question:
which option is more beneficial for the health and longevity of MOD Audio UG? if a backer chooses to wait for fulfillment, does that have the effect of allowing another unit to be prepared for commercial sale, ultimately helping the company?
…that question is, for me, more important than getting my Dwarf sooner.
The most beneficial for us is that people go for the 150€.
When going for the 150€ option, the company’s cashflow impact is contained and we get the following upsides:
more units are around making music and making the platform grow
more users are enjoying their Dwarfs and showing to their friends
our production contractor has a bigger volume to work with
There is a consideration with the production contractor, as it has a maximum capacity. But, in the way we planned sales, there is space to produce enough crowdfunding units in these first six months and the enclosures are already here in Germany.
So, if you have the means for the 150€, I’d highly advise to go for it
Hi gianfranco,
Are you calling us butts ? That’s the only translation of “asses” I got from Google.
More seriously, I have several questions :
I’ve read that the delivery of the units for those who will pay the extra 150€ will start around November. Will the process be quick enough so that the last unit won’t be shipped several months after the 1st one ?
If we don’t know what to choose at the moment, will we be able to choose later ?
This sounds very confident that things will go this way. I was considering paying the extra 150€ as it seemed the most cautious way to make sure I receive the Dwarf. Don’t we take a risk by waiting ?
Although I’m not a wealthy person and it hurts my ass to pay extra 150€, knowing that it helps you could make me push the button. I’m still not sure at the moment so I don’t know what to choose in the survey.
Would it be possible for it, instead, to be purchase of the Dwarf itself?
I picture myself explaining the situation to my friends: “Yes, I gave 360€ to this company. No, I didn’t receive anything, because the company folded. Yes, they asked me for 150€ more, so the device is more expensive than the store-bought price (Thomann has the Dwarf at 427€ here). No, the money is only for store coupons that are useless without the device.”
My rule of thumb is that if my friend would make fun of me, then surely it is a bad financial decision. If what I’m effectively purchasing is the Dwarf, and you only have the best of intentions, then why would you not have the legal situation reflect the actual situation? I generally do want to trust MOD, and were I in person with the device on the counter, I would hand over the money. But, online, I would like some more guarantees, if possible. Let us dream: how about I sign a promise to pay, but only send the cash when I get the package and check its contents?
I really don’t want to come off as aggressive, because it is not my intention. But MOD’s vague and over-promising communication on the “Dwarf production updates” thread and the crowdfunding updates set a really bad precedent over any trust regarding “ready to ship” status. For reference, I am an unlucky tier 2 backer who didn’t get a device but was repeatedly told it was just around the corner until it turned out the company was bankrupt.
@gianfranco I am on board with the additional 150€ to get the unit (now) sooner rather then never, however I have to ask - what happened with the voucher that was promised foe the tier three backers? You will honor that as well, right?
And will there be any additional VAT or taxes for delivery tho Germany?
We can give more precise information soon, when we place the order that we are quantifying now, but the rough idea is to place one big order with the contractor that will serve, between November and December, all forecasted sales and all crowdfunding units for these next three months.
Once the units are ready to ship, we will notify everyone that opted in for the payment and serve on a first-come, first-served basis.
Sure. The option to pay for the 150€ remains open, but you might need to wait for a new production batch.
You do. As we explained in the Reboot planning, we will have a further fundraise in 6 months and it is a risk. Going for it now is the safest way to secure a unit although it has the burden of the extra payment.
No. We are not making a new sale to avoid triple taxation. These Dwarf units, although crowdfunded and not technically a sale, are considered sales by the tax authorities. So, due to this tax perspective, the former company has already collected VAT for all the “sales” of the campaign. Once users make use of their 150€ coupons, we will again collect taxes on the sales of the plugins. So these 150€ are also going to be taxed. If we “sell” again these Dwarf units, we will be taxed for a third time and the 150€ will not be enough to make this a cash-flow neutral operation
I understand the skeptcism but I am not sure how we can overcome this apart from delivering what we promise. I think it is clear at this point that there are no bad intentions here and we are purposedly not collecting prepayments.
The best I think we can do it to have the units ready to ship and then collect the payments for immediate shipment.
Sorry if the second option is too vague, but I am not willing to make promises I cannot keep.
At the current stage, the only three things we can affirm are:
we can send a unit if there is a 150€ cashflow injection
if the finances improve we can send units against a smaller payment. When and how much? I don´t know. If plans go as expected, we shall decrease payment to 100€ in 6 months.
we will keep this option of 150€ indefinitely, so people opting to wait are not giving up their Dwarf and can, at any time, enter the 150€ solution.
Hi @gianfranco,
Thanks for your detailed answer. This one brings me another questioning. I understand that the production process can be quite quick. How about the testing and shipping that takes place on your side, knowing that the team is reduced ?
Thanks, it helped me make a decision. It wasn’t easy but I remember my frustration when I thought I would never receive the Dwarf and I prefer making sure that it won’t happen again.
Thanks for explaining in more detail, @gianfranco.
I would ask, however, about the following:
If users start cashing their coupons upon receiving their units, isn’t that an impact on your reserves? If part of MOD’s future plans is to have a marketplace that generates revenue, what are your revenue expectations in the short term if most of new sales are not generating income? Was there a steady flow of sales from the store before?
Only our core team has reduced. We have part time freelancers that execute these tasks and will continue to do so. Furthermore, the contractor has matured a lot with the Dwarf and we shall move some of these tasks to his side.
As we explained in here - Survey results, Reboot or Hibernation - this reboot is a 6 month runway and we will fundraise again. It is part of the reboot tasks to prepare for that. But yes, it is a risk.
The community is moving in this regards and, in the case that all goes south, it is almost a certainty that there will be a self sustainable solution for the open source plugin store and pedalboards sharing.
There is an impact. That is one of the reasons that the 150€ are split into 3 coupons that become valid at later stages. Furthermore, the current revenue from the shop, although growing, is not yet meaningful enough to generate an impact we cannot manage.
While waiting for the start of the 150 euro option, I have a little question. In prevision to receive my dwarf I asked in the forum for the possibility to buy an expression pedal.
Now I know that the first units will go to the crowfunder and to the one that have already paid.
So the question is… Do you plan to produce more than needed? Can I register to buy one?
At first we will get the DVT batch (the pilot run) with a couple dozen units to validate everything and polish what needs polishing.
We’ll create the marketing material with these units and collect interest from dealers and new users.
At that point, you will be able to reserve one from the first actual production batch. We want to accomplish this in the next 6 months, but it is likely that the actual delivery of this 1st production batch happens after.