Tomas Baran
You may have noticed that we have stopped accepting pre-orders some time ago. We’re fully committed to fulfill our dream of forever changing how people interact with light. Pursuing it for more than a year now we’re not going to give up. This path has not always been easy and straightforward. Along the way we’ve had to make several adjustments. As explained in the following Questions & Answers, we’ve been forced to adapt to new circumstances. We have run into difficulties bringing the product from the prototyping phase into mass production. This means that our estimated shipping date will be delayed. Should additional questions arise that are not answered in the following Questions & Answers, get in touch with us at: [email protected]
I apologize to all our backers that have put their trust in us.
It is always a critical challenge to put dates on things several months in advance. We have run into a few difficulties in the last stages of finalizing our prototype and thus are unable to move forward towards the manufacturing phase. Since quality means everything to us, we’re taking issues that would deprive you of the quality you expect very seriously. We have to adjust and exchange some parts. More on that in the section What we’re doing now.
If this wasn’t enough we have experienced personnel issues within our hardware department. I've put my trust in the wrong CTO, who didn't live up to the challenge. Not disclosing critical information with me, has meant that I could not react in a timely manner. I made an important decision and terminated our cooperation.
Finding an excellent leader for the hardware department takes time. Amazing people capable of leading an entire hardware team are scarce. Luckily we have found a great interim CTO for the time being. As you see all this impacted our time frame and we have to make adjustments on the go.
Unfortunately, this is something I do not know for sure. I do not want to give you any more promises regarding the shipping date. All I can promise you is that from now on we are going to be providing you with detailed information about our progress through future blog posts.
Goldee Light Controller will not be shipped this year. I am very sorry.
We tried to manage the situation on the go. However, our hardware team has lost its CTO and things have gotten complicated. Now, we’re moving forward in getting our prototype ready for manufacturing. I understand that it has been a mistake not telling you sooner.
Our goal has not changed. We still want to deliver the best lighting experience out there. You've put your trust in us and unfortunately with hardware startups these things can happen as painfully as it is. You're part of our journey both in good and bad times, which means a lot to us. Please understand, that we’re putting all resources into finishing the Goldee Light Controller.
We’re thinking about a worthy means of compensation. Though, at this point we cannot compensate you, because we’re putting all resources into finishing the Goldee Light Controller.
There are not only downfalls to the delay. We took the additional time to carefully reevaluate our prototype and make several enhancements. The gesture control chip was upgraded so happily for you we’ll be using the latest version available. We’ve also found better WiFi and Bluetooth chips. Along with this comes a new CPU, improving our processing power.
Besides that, we’re having quite extended talks with our possible manufacturers. We have stopped negotiations with Chinese manufacturers. Now we want to fully produce in Europe. Not every manufacturer meets our high quality standards for the amount of controllers we're about to make. This makes business talks harder and longer, but we’re not going to back down from our quality demands.
Along this we are working on LIFX integration for the Goldee app and we've started developing an Android app as well.
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