They built a legitimate product that some people wanted and managed to get it manufactured and shipped. That's a lot farther that most go.
The product sales weren't able to get to enough volume to support the company and the needed lowering of costs that comes with volume manufacturing. That's not uncommon. Sometimes hardware devices do better with large corporate backing because they can afford to take a loss longer while they build up a market. For small operations, this is the perfect case for venture capital where outside money is needed because of high costs of doing real manufacturing.
I see no need to hate on them like the article does. It's sad the founders turned on each other at the end, that can't have helped things. If these guys pull out, have the right insights about what they have learned, and do another round at something else, their chances of success will be much higher than someone without their experience and ability to actually envision and execute a product that people wanted. Just not enough people this time.
The product sales weren't able to get to enough volume to support the company and the needed lowering of costs that comes with volume manufacturing. That's not uncommon. Sometimes hardware devices do better with large corporate backing because they can afford to take a loss longer while they build up a market. For small operations, this is the perfect case for venture capital where outside money is needed because of high costs of doing real manufacturing.
I see no need to hate on them like the article does. It's sad the founders turned on each other at the end, that can't have helped things. If these guys pull out, have the right insights about what they have learned, and do another round at something else, their chances of success will be much higher than someone without their experience and ability to actually envision and execute a product that people wanted. Just not enough people this time.