Re: Looper development and production costs?

[Mark Sottilaro <sine@zerocrossing.net>]

I'M NOT TALKING ABOUT CUSTOM MOLDED PLASTICS I'M TALKING ABOUT A NEW SILK
SCREEN WITH BETTER LOGOTYPE DESIGN

Kim Flint wrote:

> hypothetical scenario:
>
> ok, so we take our tiny budget and devote a significant portion of it to
> pay for industrial designers, graphic artists, NRE on custom molded
> plastics, extrusions, fancy sales literature, etc.
>
> Sadly, we now don't have enough money after that to pay for another
> software engineer and software QA person that we desperately need. We've
> already announced a shipping date and our nifty looking hardware is all
> done and ready to go, but our woefully understaffed software team is
> struggling big time.
>
> The project ends up being delayed an entire year while they try to finish
> coding and debugging. Meanwhile, some crank on the internet is harassing 
>us
> regularly for being incompetent and unable to deliver according to our
> schedules.
>
> We run out of cash, and have to take desperate measures to keep ourselves
> afloat long enough in order to get our product out. We hold out as long 
>as
> we can and finally ship anyway even though we know it is not really done.
> Same internet crank now berates us for shipping buggy products.
>
> And to top it all off, same crank still doesn't like the visual design of
> the product after we spend so much on it, and even complains about that!
> Apparently you can't win.
>
> hmm, wait that sounds kinda familiar....
>
> yet another fiscal reality check:  these are small companies doing this.
> Tiny companies really. Or maybe tiny divisions of small companies. 
>Usually
> just 3 or 4 underpaid people tops, without sufficient budget. There is 
>not
> a lot of capital available. There is not a large market available. There
> will not be a large return for your investment. You have to manage these
> issues to make money. In fact, you will be lucky not to lose money. You
> make choices.
>
> In Mike Patton's best nasal sneer:
>
> "You want it all, but you can't have it."
>
> hopefully you enjoy doing it, because you won't be getting rich in this
> business. No matter what choices you make, some people won't like it and
> they will harass you with surprising passion. A small number of them will
> even devote significant energy to trying to disrupt whatever paltry sales
> you might have made. Do they even understand that there are only two or
> three people behind the curtain, and how much damage they cause? probably
> not. But at least there are others that come by and seem to like what you
> did, and make it seem worthwhile.
>
> kim
>
> At 06:00 PM 10/15/2001, Mark Sottilaro wrote:
> >Now frankly, the look of the EDP says to me, "Small company, maybe not
> >going to be around very long.  Ran out of cash and didn't do any
> >industrial or graphic design."  I know this isn't true, but when this is
> >at your local music shop in a rack of other gear screaming for my
> >attention, unless I'm looking for it, it may be easy to pass by.  Now,
> >if it looked interesting, a young pre looper might ask the salesman,
> >"Hey, what does that thing do?"  (if it's designed correctly, the look
> >would elude to it's function as well) A quick demo, and they're running
> >visa cards.  They all live happily ever after.  Next year a stereo
> >version comes out.
>
> ______________________________________________________________________
> Kim Flint                     | Looper's Delight
> kflint@loopers-delight.com    | http://www.loopers-delight.com