@digitaldisaster

Quote:

You may run a VAT registered company that buys and sells computer parts but that is VERY different to this, do you buiy the chips in, design the boards then have them produced?

No but I do work for a company that does.

You don't see bPlan or Genesi taking "fund raising donations" so they can buy an evaluation board, do you? People will take this statement and remind us all of the phase5 preorder fiasco in order to prove me wrong but OH! You could not do this thread or my point a better favour.

I don't really care what the Amigans decided on in this thread, I don't really want to read 13 pages of delusion; accepting donations is NOT a business plan. Get a loan, buy the board, if it fails you can deal with it yourself. At least you will never have involved a single cent from a community member and you will not be held responsible for that money.

If the project fails, how will you refund the money if you ALREADY BOUGHT THE EVAL BOARD FROM MOMENTUM? The moment you commit to that purchase, and the Gerber files and the rest you get from it, you lose any chance you have to refund your potential customers.

If you go to a bank with a real plan which stands to make a profit, and you say "all it needs is $6000 for the Eval board now, and funding for the first production run", and tell them that you will make a fairly low but reasonable profit in order to pay back the loan with interest, it will take a very stupid bank manager not to accept it.

Don't you dare screw this community over, seriously.. if you stick with the donations and don't come up with a product, THESE PEOPLE ON THIS THREAD are going to be the ones to answer to. I don't think you have a good enough plan to be that confident that you won't have a problem. Remember I work for a company that does electronics layout and manufacture, you may not like us but *shrug* we know how the business is run :)

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Matt Sealey
Genesi, Manager, Developer Relations