jpb wrote:
Canadian wrote:
Actually no. When we made this public we were on track to go into full scale production. It was impossible for us to know that our factory was going to... for lack of better terms... screw us. We lost a ton of money and our molds were useless to other factories. We were forced to start over.I hate to be a dick, but getting screwed over was not an unforeseeable risk. It's a fact of life when you do business with low cost suppliers in China. In fact when you asked opinions on this forum a year and a half ago it was mentioned:
http://forum.slowtwitch.com/gforum.cgi?do=post_view_flat;post=2662123;page=3;sb=post_latest_reply;so=ASC;mh=25;#2662945
Good on you for having the capital, determination and resourcefulness to survive in spite of getting hosed. But getting hosed is a fact of life for everyone. Even the 800 lb gorillas like Apple.
Getting hosed is a "risk". We always new and continue to know that this is a "risk". What I said above is that it was impossible for us to "know".
"Risk" is merely a "possibility". There is no certainty in risk, meaning it could or could not happen.
"Knowing" is a fact. It's either yes or no, right or wrong, black or white.
When we released the news about our company, getting hosed was certainly still a "risk", but based on our conversations with our factory, import/export team, and progress to date, it seemed like a very small risk. As a company who needed to start creating brand awareness, we decided the risk was small enough to start spreading the word. In the end the risk still got us.
Now if I would have "known" that this was going to happen, we would have postponed our process of creating brand awareness.
I hope that makes sense,
Chris Thornham
Co-Founder And Previous Owner Of FLO Cycling