Tuesday, May 22nd 2018
3D Headphone Startup Shut Its Doors After Raising $3.2 Million in Crowdfunding
In the business world, companies fail all the time, and startups are no exception either. Ossic is the latest startup to make the headlines after announcing over the weekend that the company is shutting its door. The audio startup had successfully raised $3.2 million through Indiegogo and Kickstarter campaigns to produce their high-end "3D sound" Ossic X headphones. The headphones, which costed between $199 to $299, incorporated special head-tracking technology to deliver surround sound in VR environments. Apparently, they were also capable of determining the shape of the user's ears and customize the sound profile to match the user.
Ossic had received over 22,000 pre-orders over the company's life. Unfortunately, the company only managed to produce 250 pairs of their Ossic X headphones and delivered around a dozen of them to Kickstarters. As the well has run dry, Ossic has no other alternative but to cease operations. Kickstarter backers are extremely angry - and with right as they will not receive their headphones or refunds. A Facebook group with over 2,500 members threaten to pursue a class action lawsuit against the company.
Source:
TechCrunch
Ossic had received over 22,000 pre-orders over the company's life. Unfortunately, the company only managed to produce 250 pairs of their Ossic X headphones and delivered around a dozen of them to Kickstarters. As the well has run dry, Ossic has no other alternative but to cease operations. Kickstarter backers are extremely angry - and with right as they will not receive their headphones or refunds. A Facebook group with over 2,500 members threaten to pursue a class action lawsuit against the company.
58 Comments on 3D Headphone Startup Shut Its Doors After Raising $3.2 Million in Crowdfunding
This company managed to collect millions of dollars ( goal was " only " 100k ) and then they disappear instead of delivering the product but some of you find normal to blame the customers ? Are you kidding me guys , what's wrong with you ?
That is called a SCAM and unless Kickstarter has become a scuming platform then this is everything but normal ! Those scumers should be prosecuted not only by the backers but by Kickstarter as well since they are seriously damaging this platforms reputation.
Yeah. If you fall for this nonsense you kinda deserve it. Consider it an expensive lesson learned.In all fairness no. Kickstarter is a no guarantees endeavour, which is exactly the reason that it can exist. If you lock this down in any way, you also destroy the projects and start ups that ARE real drivers for innovation. The problem is with these buyers who think they are 'investors' - they are not, they toss money at some product they'd love to see. They are NOT stakeholders even though they believe they are. If people want to be deluded they will, you can't stop that.
If they really did run with the cash then the numbers will pop up at some point but right now no one can really tell. Its also just a fact that many startups fail and many ideas die after the initial hype. Regardless, the backers who overspent on something are always mad, and for them, the lesson learned thing applies.
Star Citizen was mentioned in this thread, well, apply the above logic to that project, especially to its 'whales' and surely you can see what I'm getting at ;)
When a project is successfully funded, the creator must complete the project and fulfill each reward !!!
Needless to say more .
I can't read the future you seem to be able to do so......
At some point, the SEC will wake up to the fact that ICO's are unlicensed, unregistered securities and the game will be over, but until then, it seems that even the most rotten garbage is still worth hundreds of millions (looking at your Verge).
So in the off chance that they were not exit scamming and just ran out of money, an ICO would have given them a lot more runway.
With Kick starter projects it is risk venture capitol, invested with the potential of realising a product as a reward
if the company succeeds.
WOW!It was not 3.2 million... it was a total of $5,932,914
Indiegogo = $3,224,442
Kickstarter = $2,708,472
Plus (not included) approx. $100,000 plus at StartEngine
TechTimes : 3D Headphones Start-Up Ossic Shuts Down After Raising Almost $6 Million: New Entry In List Of Crowdfunding Failures
Quote from TechTimes article:EDIT: They updated the info after I had already posted... It was, only, $3.2 million +
TechTimes has not updated the article there, yet.
Quote from business insider: