No "3D audio" headphones for you:
A California startup that sought [to] revolutionize audio headphones, promising personalized devices that would produce sound "indistinguishable from reality," has found that raising interest among investors was easier than delivering the goods.
Ossic raised more than $3.2 million in crowdfunding for its Ossic X, which it touted as the "first 3D audio headphones calibrated to you." But after delivering devices to only about 80 investors who'd paid at least $999 to for the "Developer/Innovator" rewards level on Kickstarter, Ossic announced Saturday it had run out of money — leaving the more than 10,000 other backers with nothing but lighter wallets.
"This was obviously not our desired outcome," the company said in a statement. "To fail at the five-yard line is a tragedy. We are extremely sorry that we cannot deliver your product and want you to know that the team has done everything possible including investing our own savings and working without salary to exhaust all possibilities."
Those who paid $199 ("SUPER EARLY BIRD: SAVE $200 (RETAIL $399)") were lucky. Later backers paid $219, $249, or $279.
Don't help crowdfund something unless you can make peace with your "investment" potentially disappearing into the ether.
Also at TechCrunch, Engadget, The San Diego Union-Tribune, and VR And Fun.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 22 2018, @09:32PM (10 children)
Doing it "over the Internet" does not make it a new invention.
(Score: 3, Informative) by PartTimeZombie on Tuesday May 22 2018, @09:43PM (6 children)
I "invested" in the PiJuice battery for the Raspberry Pi on Kickstarter, and after three years of cheery updates informing me that despite the latest setback I would definitely get my battery "soon" I finally got it.
It actually is everything they promised and works really well, but the hamfisted way they went about it did leave something of a sour taste.
Now of course the projects page on their website has had this page showing [pi-supply.com] for several weeks. Apparently they are having some "problems" which sounds familiar.
At least I stood to only lose $70 or so. Crowdfunding really is risky.
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Tuesday May 22 2018, @10:29PM (2 children)
Among their specialties was the listing of unpaid internships during the dot-com crash.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 1) by suburbanitemediocrity on Tuesday May 22 2018, @10:51PM (1 child)
Real engineering companies pay their interns very well. I know a number of people who decided to drop out of college and continue in the engineering aide career path.
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Wednesday May 23 2018, @06:19AM
She was a biology lab tech. She worked like a slave and got paid like one to boot.
"How can I earn more money?"
"Become a software engineer."
She took a couple community college classes then enrolled in a Berkeley program that assisted women to change careers into coding.
She was offered a perm job with a generous salary and generous options after she'd been an intern for about a month.
Now she's a director at a successful San Francisco company. Her specialty is beating outsourcing firms into submission, so she spends a lot of time in places like Ukraine and India.
She always hoped to visit India but when she was a lab tech that was an impossible dream.
Now she works there as she whiles away her happy days beating South Asian coders with brass knuckles.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 5, Informative) by Fluffeh on Tuesday May 22 2018, @10:33PM (1 child)
I would say a better statement would be "Investing in other people's stuff is risky". People who invest serious money (not a few hundred bucks) on a daily basis do due diligence and if those investments are doing via a share market, there are generally some pretty specific regulations about what reporting is needed and how often it has to be done. The only thing that crowd funding here does is lessen the regulation and push more of the risk to the consumer/investor.
Where it really does stand out though is how easy it makes it for people to invest/contribute. A fool is easily parted with his money is a great statement, but crowdfunding makes it easy for fools to be matched with con artists or folks with great intention and little skill in performing those feats..
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 22 2018, @11:43PM
This is why I no longer involve myself in crowdfunding. For the most part, if the idea is a good idea with adequate planning, then there's somebody that's going to be willing to lend the money. But, with crowdfunding, you don't get any of the profits and you shoulder the risks. The best case scenario is that you get the thing you were promised, which is usually worth less than what you're being asked to contribute.
(Score: 2) by epitaxial on Wednesday May 23 2018, @03:48PM
No wonder it took three years. It looks way over designed for a simple power supply and battery manager.
(Score: 3, Informative) by frojack on Wednesday May 23 2018, @03:08AM (1 child)
Nobody was claiming a new invention.
Just a new product.
With 3.2 million in funding, this product should have had more than enough to bring to market.
The problem here was that the developers had never brought anything to market before, and
plowed all the money into their own pockets.
Meanwhile at least 3 or 4 other companies who have actually made bluetooth audio devices in the past
ran several crowed funded developments of headphones.
I participated in one crowdfunding from Damson and got a nice replacement for my failing Bose.
But I also got burned by Jolla. The bastards all got yachts, and I got squat. And they are still in business.
But 90 percent of traditionally funded new startup businesses fail (according to some definitions of failure.)
Oddly, 80% of crowdfunded startups that meet their pledged participation threshold (that point where they meet the criteria that allowed them to take the money and proceed with development) are still in business [invesdor.com]according to one study.
The kicker is that 80 figure includes ONLY those that managed to find enough potential customers to fund actual development.>/b>
The vast majority of Crowdfunding bids never reach the point where they actually take any money. Less than 30% of campaigns ever get to the starting line. Of those that do start taking the money, 80% actually do succeed at some level. [entrepreneur.com]
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 3, Informative) by takyon on Wednesday May 23 2018, @05:50AM
Like you had mentioned in another comment, Indiegogo offers the "flexible funding" option, which allows the creator to scam money even if they can't hit the target. Indiegogo however takes a larger cut if you choose this option. So I cringe when a project picks flexible funding and then hits the target. Especially in the case of the smelly "Skarp Laser Razor" which was kicked off Kickstarter for not having a working prototype, and then showed up on Indiegogo with the flexible funding option turned on and beat their target in one day [popularmechanics.com]. Flexible funding is the perfect crowdfunding combination of greed and lack of confidence.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by bobthecimmerian on Wednesday May 23 2018, @11:26AM
Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.
There have been high profile crowdfunding scams. But in most cases the problem is just project creators that grossly underestimate the full set of obstacles and costs they have to handle to deliver the finished product. There are no guarantees, but your risk of losing all of your money with nothing to show is much lower if the project is mostly finished at the start of the campaign (the book, board game, or card game has an almost entirely finished PDF download you can get for free and print your own; the video game has a working demo that doesn't suck; the hardware project is version 2 of something that was already a successful physical project as version 1).
(Score: 3, Insightful) by stretch611 on Tuesday May 22 2018, @09:33PM (11 children)
Not into the ether, but into somebody's pocket who clearly does not deserve it.
And sadly, the only way to get it back in many cases is to put even more money into the pocket of a lawyer and hope that he can get it back before the original pocket finds a way to hide or shelter your "investment."
Now with 5 covid vaccine shots/boosters altering my DNA :P
(Score: 4, Interesting) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Tuesday May 22 2018, @10:00PM (10 children)
Define "clearly does not deserve it."
Someone who can clearly show that a project will absolutely be a success will not need crowdfunding - they'll get VC or bank money. Instead, the investor is being played for altruism or avarice to get something for cheaper (or is currently unavailable).
And an investment which is clearly speculative in nature... good luck on getting a lawyer to help with that. If you can prove outright fraud that would be one thing.
Maybe before getting into crowdfunding one should know that Kickstarter funded projects fail 9% of the time [theverge.com], and the same article notes that people get refunds 13% of the time.
This sig for rent.
(Score: 3, Touché) by krishnoid on Tuesday May 22 2018, @10:37PM (9 children)
Sure, but sometimes crowdfunding is the best choice [kickstarter.com] compared to VC or bank money, particularly for items with an established manufacturing process.
(Score: 2) by jasassin on Tuesday May 22 2018, @10:58PM (4 children)
Please forgive my ignorance, but what is VC in this context?
jasassin@gmail.com GPG Key ID: 0xE6462C68A9A3DB5A
(Score: 2) by realDonaldTrump on Tuesday May 22 2018, @11:05PM
Venture capitalist.
(Score: 3, Funny) by bryan on Tuesday May 22 2018, @11:11PM
Venture Capital [wikipedia.org]. Some rich guy or organization investing money into your company in return for stocks/rights/etc if you make it big.
(Score: 5, Informative) by VLM on Tuesday May 22 2018, @11:18PM (1 child)
Venture capitalist, as in make a startup company and sell for a lot of dough to some larger company making the VC rich.
I don't think it really applies to most crowdfunding.
One category of crowdfunding I've "invested" in is well-known experienced RPG sourcebook authors and board game producers who've created product number X+1 and merely need someone to front the dough for the printer and fulfillment operations. Not exactly a risky or VC-compatible business model. Yeah the dude could use any of a zillion print on demand providers at zero risk but there are discounts when printing 5K copies at a time which means the author keeps more profit in his pocket, which is OK with me as I'm buying a piece of art more than a pile of paper pulp and ink, so its all good. Sure the dude could use his personal credit card to fund the printing at a mere 29.99% interest but crowdfunding as a line of credit wastes less money. These type of dudes could use a business line of credit at more profit but then they'd have to spend more money on "free" crowdfunding marketing. Its a good business model fit.
Its interesting that the "crowdfunding" moniker is applied to ultra low risk financing operations like the above, along with crazy risky "I've never made anything in my life but a poop, so my first technical creation will be a working star ship with warp drive" first time product marketers.
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Wednesday May 23 2018, @04:06AM
Nibbler! So glad you decided to join us on the site.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 22 2018, @11:45PM (1 child)
A venture capitalist is supposed to bring more than just the funding for a project. They're also so supposed to bring connections and insight about how to get the project off the ground and successful. Between shouldering the risk, the connections and know how, a good VC can be well worth the expense.
But, that being said, there are good ones and bad ones and if you're not really careful, you can get fucked pretty hard.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Thursday May 24 2018, @08:14PM
Venture capitalists never go away. Crowd funders do.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 3, Informative) by frojack on Wednesday May 23 2018, @03:17AM (1 child)
Sure, but sometimes crowdfunding is the best choice - kickstarter.com
True, But Kickstarter has some of the best rules among all the Crowd funding programs.
With KS, you have to achieve a certain percentage of pledges before you can take one red cent, and if you don't get that minimum, you walk away with nothing.
So they make you prove a market exists.
Indeagogo, not so much. They have flexible options, where some campaigns can walk away with money without meeting their minimum production amount.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by bobthecimmerian on Wednesday May 23 2018, @11:30AM
Well, for some projects no minimum makes sense. An IndieGoGo campaign to raise money to fund an education program at some school can use the funds for education no matter what. If they don't hit their target, maybe they can't build the new classroom or hire the contractor to renovate the building, but the money is still useful. So it depends on the nature of the campaign.
(Score: 5, Informative) by MostCynical on Tuesday May 22 2018, @09:36PM (2 children)
basic truism of crowd funding, is: your money is a donation to a development. You *may* get something in return; you may not.
Thank you for your donation.
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Thexalon on Tuesday May 22 2018, @10:12PM (1 child)
And more to the point, the donation may be used to make somebody else rich, regardless of if the product in question is ever produced.
If I were a scam artist, I'd certainly think about doing something like:
1. Advertise a product idea that sounds cool and plausible, even though it's complete vaporware.
2. Crowdfund.
3. Give myself and a couple of family members a "reasonable" 6-figure salary to lead this "product development effort". Actually do nothing except occasionally produce a video that looks like you're doing something.
4. Wait until the money runs out, and tell the investors "Whoops, sorry, but failures happen when you're speculating."
And the best part is that this can be repeated as many times as you have people that don't seem connected to each other, and plausible-sounding ideas. For instance, in your first attempt, you put the patriarch of the Johnson family on camera to talk about the idea. In your second attempt, it's the eldest son, who doesn't seem connected because there are enough people named "Johnson" out there that most will assume they're unrelated. Then it's his wife, who kept her own last name, so she also looks unrelated. Then it's the second son. And then his wife. And by that point, the family has raked in something like $3-10 million and is comfortable.
Caveat emptor applies doubly for speculative investments.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Wednesday May 23 2018, @03:23AM
There are usually a few more rules to follow than you seem to suggest.
Go check it out:
https://www.kickstarter.com/rules?ref=global-footer [kickstarter.com]
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by tftp on Tuesday May 22 2018, @09:46PM (2 children)
(Score: 2) by frojack on Wednesday May 23 2018, @03:24AM (1 child)
Did anybody get them?
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 1) by tftp on Wednesday May 23 2018, @05:09AM
(Score: 4, Funny) by realDonaldTrump on Tuesday May 22 2018, @09:58PM (1 child)
Everybody has different ears, everybody hears in their own very special way. And the headphones that sound PERFECTO to the guy that made them, maybe they don't sound right to me or to you. When we put them on.
I did the same thing for supplements, it was amazing. I called it the Trump Network. We did custom supplements. We would send you a little bottle, you pee in it, you send it back to us. With the pee. And we would do very special tests on the pee -- we called them lab tests -- to see what supplements you needed to buy from us. That one was MLM, multi level marketing, very successful. And now there's crowd funding with computer. We live in the Age of Computer. And it's a great time to be a businessman!! youtu.be/XyRE5MN8jrA [youtu.be]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 22 2018, @11:09PM
So... What kind of supplements did the Trump Network prescribe for Hillary & Obama? And were they oral or the other end?
(Score: 1, Offtopic) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Tuesday May 22 2018, @10:24PM (2 children)
Help me out here, I'm begging you!
For a couple years now I've been puzzling over a crowdfunding campaign for The Global Computer Industry Index [soggy.jobs].
A problem is that I don't have the first clue what kind of swag to offer other than T-shirts. Can you suggest swag to me?
I specifically do not want to provide premium listings to anyone. There is no charge to list your company nor will there ever be.
When I first contemplated crowdfunding my Global Index wasn't very global. But it's getting there; I've focussed on some foreign tech hubs and I've listed a few multinationals such as Oracle and Synopsis.
It's only automation is a simple javascript that implements tiger striping in listings on the city pages. My chosen first task for automating it is to enter all the locations for a given company in just one form. A python module will enter that company's listings on each of the cities where it has a shop and will create new city pages if required.
If I had some money I'd hire a back-end coder.
There's quite a lot more that I could do with the help of someone with a clue about coding web applications. For example hovering your mouse over a company name would show its stock symbol if it's publicly traded. Clicking the stock symbol would take you to its page at Yahoo Finance.
I'd also like to hire a front-end developer who could implement much richer support for mobile devices.
And I'd like to provide RSS feeds for each city page, as well is a single feed for the whole site that will display links to the city feeds that have recent updates.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 3, Informative) by VLM on Tuesday May 22 2018, @11:27PM (1 child)
Sell access to your historical database? Someone must be interested in trends in dev hiring and trends in pay vs location. Or analysis of competitors stacks by examining their (historical) hiring reqs.
I hate seeing one job show up under 15 recruiters slightly differently for one position. Some kind of paid ability to cluster current jobs would be interesting. Are those five jobs five separate positions or five separate recruiters for one job? Good luck figuring out the backend programming for this kind of beast.
The problem with lack of developer resources is most of the "fun" stuff would require ridiculous levels of developer resources. Maybe people would pay to smoosh their linkedin resume up against the entire databases jobs to see the best market place right now. Good luck writing the code for that sounds like a nightmare to implement.
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Wednesday May 23 2018, @06:23AM
Also I can download CSV files from Bing and Google Webmaster Tools.
Thanks!
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 22 2018, @10:26PM (3 children)
I tried to browse the article. Instead of the story, I get a page that says "Data Protection Choices." The choices offered are "Agree and Continue", "Revoke Agreement" or "Decline and Visit Plain Text Site". With the first two I get an error about "** Bad HTML!! No form action defined. **." The third takes me to https://text.npr.org/ [npr.org] and I'm having trouble finding the story there. It's not a simple matter of changing the hostname to text.npr.org and it's not coming up when I look with a search engine.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by realDonaldTrump on Tuesday May 22 2018, @10:48PM (2 children)
I'm hearing more and more about the craziness that's going on with the GDPR. With the European GDPR. TAKE BACK YOUR COUNTRY, leave the EU. Britain did and it's been amazing for them. Migration under control, economy growing like gangbusters, £300 million a week in savings!!!!
(Score: 2, Touché) by snmygos on Wednesday May 23 2018, @05:30AM
How do you know? They are still part of the EU!
(Score: 3, Interesting) by ledow on Wednesday May 23 2018, @07:31AM
And already billions in investment in the EU satellite network Galileo lost - and we have nothing to show for it.
Technically Brexit hasn't even started yet and if they keep kicking it forward like they are, it'll be up before the next election and likely be killed.
Basically, Brexit is nothing but a legal headache and a large bill at the moment, it hasn't even begun to take effect yet, and likely we will be significantly worse off in everything.
(Score: 3, Funny) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Tuesday May 22 2018, @10:28PM
That way your CD or your movie soundtrack isn't optimized to be located inside your head.
Mastering is always done with stereo speakers, or for franchises that would be better off dead, TRX speakers on top of an earthquake machine.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]