Hi guys,
I've recently checked my emails and see that a few people have been wondering what's been going on with the project.
In December of 2019, we noticed that the number of refund request began to increase from pre-orders in China. We did not know why this was happening, but a couple months later it became obvious. In February, I was fundraising for the project in the Northeast when things began to take a turn for the worst. As a result, I made the decision to put the project on pause for a few weeks, to see what course it would take. All investor interest was put on ice as a result of the NYC lockdown and lockdown in Korea.
I took leave from the company to work on a humanitarian project in New York that was focused on crafting a better response to COVID-19 in the future. I returned to the helm at LAFORGE on a non-paid basis about 2 weeks ago.
Here's is where we go next:
The only way to finish the project is to take on more investment, and we have renewed investor interest so I'm going to attempt to bring in that cash so we can resume at a faster rate.
The two primary parts of development that need to be completed are software development and refining our mold making process.
I originally was intending to un-pause the project in late July, but thanks to the resurgence of the virus, European travel-bans on Americans, and the need to fly to complete this project, I will be delaying the restart of the project by about 2 months.
We have created a new way to make molds and need to test this process overseas at our development partners' factories. This is largely to confirm that they can standup to repeated use in high temperature environments.
We are still honoring our refund policy, though we are not processing refunds until we officially reopen later in the year. Due to COVID-19, we are considering expanding the policy.
This project is difficult, but we remain committed to it. For those who think executing on normal-looking AR glasses is easy, please consider that no company (not ODG, Intel, Google, or North) has been able to sustain a business producing these.
Thanks for the information.
I appreciate getting an update!
Are you saying that people in China started requesting pre-order refunds due to COVID-19 (-- how does that work? they get sick and need the money for meds and cancel all of their pre-orders? --) or are you alleging some sort of industrial espionage resulting in China releasing a clone or resulting from people in China getting an early look at Apple Glass? The phrase, "I ... put the project on pause" sounds ominous; "pausing" the project is a thing that can happen? That second paragraph has me completely confused.
Do I understand correctly that LAFORGE is paused/frozen/non-active until September?
@Dan Guy I don't claim any direct knowledge, but based on the main site [1], Laforge Optical has never claimed to be more than about 6 employees. I notice, especially, that none of the members were listed as software developers. It's highly probable, watching a lot of U.S. small business during the pandemic, that Laforge shut down for awhile - I believe that's what Corey is saying, anyway. So yeah, if I understand things correctly everything's inactive until September (and maybe longer, depending on COVID-19).
I work for a company that does enterprise software, and at least for us _all_ travel, even domestically within the U.S., has been suspended for months. If Laforge needs fundraising and fundraising needs travel, then I definitely believe that nothing may happen for awhile to come.
With that said, I do want to ask @Corey | Founder | if you've considered asking your community for help on the software development front? I know there can be a massive difference between, say, SocialFLO apps and hardware-level drivers, but many developers relish the chance to be involved in a project they want to see come to fruition.
Speaking for myself, I'd happily volunteer some time at no cost if it meant I was no longer a passive observer.
[1] https://laforgeoptical.com/pages/company
Yeah, it was the bit about canceled pre-orders increasing from China that had me thrown.
As a software developer, I would be happy to contribute -- that's a great idea. If LAFORGE would release an API, or even if they need help writing the base software that will provide the API, I'm game to pitch in.
My take on the Chinese cancelings would be that the chinese saw the COVID crisis coming way before the rest of the world, and figured it could break the development completely...
Okay, that would make sense.
Nice with an update - good to get some information on the status of the project.
"The two primary parts of development that need to be completed are software development and refining our mold making process."
While I can see CVID-related problems with the mol making process, the software development should be reasonable unaffected, no?
Although an update is nice you should seriously consider a few things. There are hardly any updates. What you might not understand is this tells your customers that you don't care and/or the project is abandoned. Put yourself in your customers shoes momentarily ...you don't hear anything for a few months so one day you go to check the website and it's down (yes this happened recently), you send an email and get no response. I would highly recommend more regular updates, at least monthly. I get you are busy but never tell a customer that you forgot to update them or have been too busy to update them because you are involved in other projects. If i did that to my customers, I would be fired. All of us know there is risk in investing in a product, so we aren't foolish but my faith dwindled when you can't even communicate. Hell you could probably write a bot to communicate to everyone via email or on the forum.
Radio check, radio check... I don't even remember what year I invested in these glasses anymore.. I only remembered about this project, because it's time to get new glasses (for the 2nd time since I became a part of this project). I've all but given up on these. Well, the $$ been given, so maybe one day I'll see a pair of smart glasses. Until then, take care everyone, and good luck.
I still believe...
Give me a sign...