Smach Z maker admits it "might soon enter bankruptcy"

[HEXUS]

A significant private investor pulled out. Cites delays due to tech issues and pandemic.

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[philehidiot]

I'd say COVID as an excuse may explain investor pull-out if they are predicting economic problems, but I'd also say it's a bad environment for a portable gaming device. If I have committed £300 to this and I'm now working from home and locked inside, I'm going to redirect that money to a console or something. I'm not going to spend it on something that's amazing on a commute or at break time but terrible at home.

Add that environment to all the problems they have had and bang. It's unfortunate that these start ups go this way. Really, the fund raising sites could do with some kind of consultancy service they can sell to the really sucessful ones. This might have all been okay if it were small scale but when it gets from an idea to a huge business in a month, you can't expect anyone to handle that. Some kind of Dragon's Den like service where they have a team to help out new businesses and stop them making loads of mistakes would do wonders for encouraging people to invest in kickstarters and also help prevent some of these well meaning people from dedicating years of their lives to failure and a ruined reputation.

[sonict]

This is what happens when you're not a tech giant with exclusives.

[LSG501]

This is what happens when you're not a tech giant with exclusives.

Nah, this is what happens when it takes over 6 years to bring an idea to life in the public eye... basically companies with bigger pockets can knock it out before you do.

[QuorTek]

It is first time I hear of it, no wonder no PR?

[ET3D]

As I see it, the problem with the SMACH-Z was the inexperience of the team. To me that was evident from the get-go. Things took too long, and at some point it was clear that the device will no longer be that worthwhile. A first gen Ryzen APU isn't that impressive after Ryzen 4000U CPUs were released. It was a nice idea.

[aniilv]

never heard of it
looks like one of a million failed kickstarter projects
don't care

[philehidiot]

Nah, this is what happens when it takes over 6 years to bring an idea to life in the public eye... basically companies with bigger pockets can knock it out before you do.

I suspect a lot of products do take nearly this long to bring to market. They just don't start hyping it until it's well through the process. The difference with a kickstarter is we know about it from the beginning and people are impatient.