Editing The Pen Addict 223/transcript (section)

== Lanier Ship Date ==


'''Myke Hurley:''' Talking about shipping, what's the ship date for the Lanier? By the way, am I saying it right? Lanier?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, it's Lanier. Lanier. But it's okay. I like how you say it. What if I say Lanier? You say aluminum, and that's just fine, too.

'''Myke Hurley:''' That's true. That is true. If anything, it's better, so.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, yeah. I'm good with that, so.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Ship date is probably the single worst thing about Kickstarter. Yeah. And the reason is, you have to estimate how many you're going to sell before you launch the project, which you obviously have no control over. That final number before you launch, but you have to say it ahead of time. So, we have to guess. How many do we think we're going to sell? And then how long do we think it's going to take to make them? So, we have our retail order in, so we know kind of what the time frames for the company are to manufacture certain quantities. And then you account for a 30-day Kickstarter project.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' And 15, 14 days for after the project ends to transfer the money. So, that's a month and a half from when we launch the Kickstarter before we have $1. So, that puts us at, what, mid-November before we get the money to be able to pay for the production to start. So, I have a question for you about that. Yep.

'''Myke Hurley:''' But in the changing landscape that we have now of Kickstarter projects and companies, are manufacturers not starting to wise up a little bit and are willing to do work based on the fact that the Kickstarter is successful?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' No.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Interesting. They don't care, right? They just want the money.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I mean, they have other business. I mean, we're not their only customer.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I mean, it's not a criticism. It's just a question. Because, you know, I think that, you know, within a level of acceptance, because orders get cancelled at last minute and don't go through, like, it's kind of like as good as gold, right? Right. Because the money is with Kickstarter. It's coming.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yes. So, like, one thing I say all the time is manufacturing is hard. It just is. There's so many variables. There's so many things that can go wrong. There's so many pieces that have to move together to get from point A to Z. And, you know, it's just hard. It takes time. So, the way our project launched, the timeframe, you know, we get the money right when we're going to have the end of the year holidays. There's going to be Thanksgiving, Christmas. So, we're figuring there's going to be a delay by the time we're ready to start making these cases.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Just to clarify, not a delay on the ship date you stated. No, no, no, no, no. Just a delay in general.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' No, I'm trying to, I'm trying to, yes, thank you. I'm trying to say why we put April 2017 as the date. Sure.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Just that word delay when referring to Kickstarter projects is a hot word to use.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So, it's a complete, you know, under-promise, over-deliver type of situation, what we're shooting for. So, I have to say April, knowing that that's very much in the realm of possibility of happening.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. We think it's going to happen earlier, and that would be great. But you very easily know it could go to April. Yeah. Yeah. Easily. That's well within the possibility of happening. So, when you launch the project and have to put that in advance, you just don't know. So, we tried to take our best guess at what we think we can for sure deliver on, and still could miss. You just don't know.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Because, like, it's funny, because, like, last time, when you guys were making them, you didn't know how many you could make, right? Like, realistically, at scale. Right. So, it was like, we're going to make this, we're going to kind of guess it. And you were a little bit late, right?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, like, two to three months late.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah. I mean, in Kickstarter terms, that's a little bit late. It's not a lot late.

'''Myke Hurley:''' And so, like, now, if you guys are making them, you could probably make a better estimation, because you know how quick it takes you to make stuff. But you're not making them. Right. So, it's back to square one again. It's like, you have a good idea how long it takes, but what if this happens, and this happens, and this happens? So, you have to overestimate again.