Corporate Responsiblity

[richc]

Starting angry threads on the forum because a kickstarter is slow to ship like almost every other kickstarter out there doesn't seem productive to me.

On the other hand, it is helpful to hear that someone else out there is frustrated too. It makes those of us waiting quietly realize we're not alone?  Reading the posts daily regarding the experimenting with their boards and remembering our CCs were dinged quite some time ago without many details regarding a delivery does have  us a little angry and wondering if there is any rhyme or reason regarding Kickstarter number, billing dates and shipping?

[shouldhaveorderedaraspberrypi]

---

Starting angry threads on the forum because a kickstarter is slow to ship like almost every other kickstarter out there doesn't seem productive to me.

On the other hand, it is helpful to hear that someone else out there is frustrated too. It makes those of us waiting quietly realize we're not alone?  Reading the posts daily regarding the experimenting with their boards and remembering our CCs were dinged quite some time ago without many details regarding a delivery does have  us a little angry and wondering if there is any rhyme or reason regarding Kickstarter number, billing dates and shipping?

Thanks rich. As you've pointed out, it is helpful to hear from the community. I appreciate your response, and hope to contribute to a more productive thread re: experimenting with the board soon. Although, given the response from Nitrogen_Widge and others, I would be wise to abandon expectations.

[shouldhaveorderedaraspberrypi]

---

I wouldn't mind so much if it was late. Here is what I do mind. Order some more stuff, we haven't even seen prototypes of yet but lets not mention that. Now your order is even more late. That is no way to do business. That has nothing to do with Kickstarter. That is a total lack of understanding of proper business or simply not caring take your pick.

gubaguba- thanks for your response. It sounds like a portion of the funds generated by the Kickstarter campaign were leveraged for an unrelated product. Do you have any more information on this?

[Nitrogen_Widget]

Starting angry threads on the forum because a kickstarter is slow to ship like almost every other kickstarter out there doesn't seem productive to me.

On the other hand, it is helpful to hear that someone else out there is frustrated too. It makes those of us waiting quietly realize we're not alone?  Reading the posts daily regarding the experimenting with their boards and remembering our CCs were dinged quite some time ago without many details regarding a delivery does have  us a little angry and wondering if there is any rhyme or reason regarding Kickstarter number, billing dates and shipping?

I actually agree with what the pine team has done wrong with communication and agree people should voice they haven't received their pine's yet.
I waited & waited & waited and basically just forgot about it.
But, I had my RPI3 to play with in the mean time.

[gubaguba]

---

I wouldn't mind so much if it was late. Here is what I do mind. Order some more stuff, we haven't even seen prototypes of yet but lets not mention that. Now your order is even more late. That is no way to do business. That has nothing to do with Kickstarter. That is a total lack of understanding of proper business or simply not caring take your pick.

gubaguba- thanks for your response. It sounds like a portion of the funds generated by the Kickstarter campaign were leveraged for an unrelated product. Do you have any more information on this?

No but if I ordered just a board I would probably have it by now, however that is not my case, or more specifically ABS case. I added the ABS case and the monitor to my order, both were still in development and not close to production or even in stock ready to ship. This further delayed my order. This was clearly known by the team but they choose not to communicate it. I was an early backer scheduled for first round of delivery.

[TheMonkeyKing]

Here is my dissenting opinion.

You have an idea, you get people on board to develop hardware and software. Is this it though? Are you looking to see it through as a long term strategy, looking to be bought out, or is this just your way of getting your foot in door of the hot mess that is today's San Fran tech scene?

Today's inventors are queried by (large scale / angel) investors to answer questions like:
- What is your out?
- What is the company's pivot?

Both of these questions are a simple truth that no one expects to become another Apple or Microsoft. No, today's products are disposable and do not have much shelf life until the next big thing comes our way. By the way "your out" is the question of what do expect exit strategy to be as in, are you expecting this to be sold or are you looking to take your equity and cash out? The latter "pivot" is asking well, your idea won't be what you or others can realistically expect to achieve so what can you actually make with the resources you have on hand? (Usually the answer is invariably, yet another email service.)

All this started from the OLPC XO (look it up, youngsters) when they had the idea to create a computing (hardware and software) platform for the masses with a $100 per unit target price. Microsoft and Intel scoffed until they realized that this was the last untapped market for them. So while the idea was to maintain a long term project and company, it became undone by corporate greed and the failure of an educational institution to understand this greed. But this project did indeed open the floodgates to what we have now.

With all that in mind, what did the Pine founders actually think and believe they wanted from this? Clearly we've seen one move on, using this as his foot in the door to bigger things for himself. And I have no illusion that the Pine will exist as long as Apple or even Arduino as a separate company. It might just fall into the BTO category for place like Adafruit or MCM where you order the SoC and they send the order to a manufacturer in China to kit it together for you.

But it does make me wonder, if they seriously though about the Pine as a company, then any of those business courses they took or any of those early investors would have told them upfront, more than anything, that communication is vital to a company. In fact most people will tell you that the biggest lump of work does not come from actually designing and building the unit but more from customer and marketplace communication.

So with Pine I've had two beefs, both have been about communication. First, what is the plan for shipping units and backerkit add-ons, (would ordering parts or extras jeopardize the order fulfillment). Second, well you goofed, and that's okay but when you do, please provide updates. I don't want mea cuplas or stories; I want to know how you all are handling the issues and what steps you are taking to mitigating them.

Also, if you want to learn more about communication skills, check out the Onion.IO group who were another successfully KS funded venture. They've had issues with a LiPo (battery) dock add-on. Yes, they thought they would have had it ready by ship date but things happened and it still has not come out yet. (Fully 12 months from being funded last year, May 2015) But no one is having a cow over this and their community board is not flooded with all these types of forum threads.

Just adding my two cents that the overwhelming complaint is in fact not receiving the goods but the lack of good, steady communications. It makes us, the small time backers, feel as though this project is indeed a one-off for the creators as a resume builder instead of a community builder.

Maybe I'll make my own company that specializes in communication support for people who suddenly find their KS projects have been fully vested.

[tllim]

Here is my dissenting opinion.

You have an idea, you get people on board to develop hardware and software. Is this it though? Are you looking to see it through as a long term strategy, looking to be bought out, or is this just your way of getting your foot in door of the hot mess that is today's San Fran tech scene?

Today's inventors are queried by (large scale / angel) investors to answer questions like:
- What is your out?
- What is the company's pivot?

Both of these questions are a simple truth that no one expects to become another Apple or Microsoft. No, today's products are disposable and do not have much shelf life until the next big thing comes our way. By the way "your out" is the question of what do expect exit strategy to be as in, are you expecting this to be sold or are you looking to take your equity and cash out? The latter "pivot" is asking well, your idea won't be what you or others can realistically expect to achieve so what can you actually make with the resources you have on hand? (Usually the answer is invariably, yet another email service.)

All this started from the OLPC XO (look it up, youngsters) when they had the idea to create a computing (hardware and software) platform for the masses with a $100 per unit target price. Microsoft and Intel scoffed until they realized that this was the last untapped market for them. So while the idea was to maintain a long term project and company, it became undone by corporate greed and the failure of an educational institution to understand this greed. But this project did indeed open the floodgates to what we have now.

With all that in mind, what did the Pine founders actually think and believe they wanted from this? Clearly we've seen one move on, using this as his foot in the door to bigger things for himself. And I have no illusion that the Pine will exist as long as Apple or even Arduino as a separate company. It might just fall into the BTO category for place like Adafruit or MCM where you order the SoC and they send the order to a manufacturer in China to kit it together for you.

But it does make me wonder, if they seriously though about the Pine as a company, then any of those business courses they took or any of those early investors would have told them upfront, more than anything, that communication is vital to a company. In fact most people will tell you that the biggest lump of work does not come from actually designing and building the unit but more from customer and marketplace communication.

So with Pine I've had two beefs, both have been about communication. First, what is the plan for shipping units and backerkit add-ons, (would ordering parts or extras jeopardize the order fulfillment). Second, well you goofed, and that's okay but when you do, please provide updates. I don't want mea cuplas or stories; I want to know how you all are handling the issues and what steps you are taking to mitigating them.

Also, if you want to learn more about communication skills, check out the Onion.IO group who were another successfully KS funded venture. They've had issues with a LiPo (battery) dock add-on. Yes, they thought they would have had it ready by ship date but things happened and it still has not come out yet. (Fully 12 months from being funded last year, May 2015) But no one is having a cow over this and their community board is not flooded with all these types of forum threads.

Just adding my two cents that the overwhelming complaint is in fact not receiving the goods but the lack of good, steady communications. It makes us, the small time backers, feel as though this project is indeed a one-off for the creators as a resume builder instead of a community builder.

Maybe I'll make my own company that specializes in communication support for people who suddenly find their KS projects have been fully vested.

Thanks on the good article, agreed that we should have a better upfront communication.Pine64 still maintain as a ground up company and until now no accept investment so that the company can maintain as "independent". My goal is reducing "digital gap" but not as ambition as OLPC.

[RichT]

The fact that I could just go get a Pine64 off eBay while I'm waiting forever for my own genuine order rankles somewhat.

[Rick]

First time backer for any project here. I won't be doing it again and I sure as heck won't be doing business with this company EVER again. Lesson Learned. A bit of an expensive lesson, but they'll never get another dime from me.

I hope it was worth it.

[psychedup]

The fact that I could just go get a Pine64 off eBay while I'm waiting forever for my own genuine order rankles somewhat.

Only if you want to spend more than twice as much.

Unless you mean this beauty which I'm now thinking of getting.