First Rotary Un-Smartphones Shipped

[Justine Haupt]

The first 11 Rotary Un-Smartphone "Option A" kits are in the mail. These 
went to the earliest people in the order list to respond requesting 
"option A" after my previous update on 2/26. If you don't know what I'm 
talking about, that update is linked here: 
https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vStu3hiSf4eTU2jQZlVvSnf705lEXHDhnUbiKYKYmJXbANFgoZfriXxqhFQGwmSfip3tGTp8Um8wYtK/pub

I'm still working through responding to all the emails I got since 2/26. 
There were more than a 1000 in just the first couple days, so if you 
replied and haven't heard from me yet, I'm working through them slowly. 
IF your response to that update was that you wanted a refund (Option D) 
and I haven't responded yet, please email me at info at skyedge.com with 
the word "REFUND" in the subject so I can address it more quickly. So 
far I've been able to process every refund immediately, but I expect 
I'll need to start pacing them at a certain point.

Considering my current email backlog, if you would like to to respond to 
this email but don't necessarily expect or require a response, the 
letters "NNTR" in the subject would be appreciated to let me know 
there's No Need To Reply.

To keep it simple we're goin' "Q&A" style for the rest of this email:

*Why 11 kits?* After getting burned with my production flow so many 
times, I only made 15 for this first batch and 4 failed quality control 
(yes, there's a test fixture).

*When will more "Option A" kits ship? *I'm ordering more blank boards 
soon but want to make some small tweaks that should dramatically improve 
the fraction of boards that make it through the quality check. I'm 
working this out now and expect the next production run to cover about 
50 kits and to go out in early June.

*The open source spirit (empowering the "Option A" customers):* I need 
help, and this is an open source project after all, so I'm hoping that 
now that these phones will be appearing in the wild we'll get some early 
maker energy helping move things forward. Many of the emails I've 
received since 2/26 have made the importance of this sink in. Other 
brains working on this will be really good. I've linked a working draft 
of my development notes on the website, we're keeping the forum pruned 
from spambots, and I'm working on finishing the assembly guide and 
detailing a development roadmap.

*I haven't ordered. Can I still?* Realizing that many people are OK with 
the currently experimental nature of the kit (even energized by it), I 
re-activated the order link on the website with a note about the 
regulatory problem. In this sense, all new orders are essentially 
"option A" by default, but of course these won't go out until the 
current option A backlog is filled.

*What's the status of the regulatory approval effort? *I've mainly been 
doing research and working on growing the business for the past couple 
months so that I have a team for this journey. It seems like lab testing 
takes months, not years, but some significant upfront money is required 
as well as a lot of consultation with the testing labs, so I don't yet 
want to project when I think this might be done. This leads into...

*BIG NEWS: *I'm excited to announce that I now have a business partner 
(I remain the majority partner) to function as a CFO and help with other 
things. We'll be moving up from the "basement/garage phase" in the 
coming months, too, with our new headquarters/manufacturing/fulfillment 
facility in Riverhead, NY. With this move I'll be able to take on 
employees (my dream right now is to have a manufacturing technician, an 
administrative assistant, and at least one additional engineer). We'll 
also be able to entertain more serious investment. Doing this all alone 
isn't, and hasn't been, sustainable, and I realized that going "all in" 
is the only way to make this happen. On a personal note, I also have a 
lot of ideas that aren't the RUSP and would like to be able to get to 
those at some point, hah.

~Justine


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