- Joined
- Apr 12, 2021
Hacker News member scammed his Kickstarter donators and justifies it with "muh mental health":
He didn't refund the money that he stole or give his customers what he promised them despite having had TEN YEARS to deliver.
Source (Archive)
This appears to be the Kickstarter:
The final update:
It sounds like he spent the money on unrelated crap (donations to some school, a foreign trip, a rover project, a booth at a convention, and writing a book). I also don't understand how he had $80k in loans he can't pay back when he raised $149k from the Kickstarter.
Some more comments from happy customers:
He didn't refund the money that he stole or give his customers what he promised them despite having had TEN YEARS to deliver.
Source (Archive)
This appears to be the Kickstarter:
The final update:
And the comments:UPDATE #60
June 2018 Flutter Update
Flutter Wireless
June 3, 2018
Hey there Flutter fans!
It's June and you're all due for an update on Flutter's goings ons.
First, a TL;DR:
- I was having some trouble getting a good sales rep at Seeed Studio, but I think that's sorted. The next 70 shipments are still on hold until I can get the Explorer board order placed, so please await further updates.
- I am officially looking to wind down this project. After five years I want to move on, and I'm asking all who are willing to send an email to info@flutterwireless.com with the subject "SATISFIED" to relieve me of any remaining commitments to you. Please read below for more on that.
- My Rover project is going well. Version 2 is complete and I'm entering it in to the Hackaday 2018 challenge. I would appreciate any and all positive support on its project page. Incidentally if I won the $50k grand prize I would satisfy all refund requests.
- I ran a booth for Reboot.love at the Maker Faire and compiled some of my writing in to my first book. See the PDF of the book here.
The Reboot booth at the Maker Faire. Reboot's mission is to make robotics accessible to all people.
The Important Bits
As I mentioned in a recent update, I have another 70 shipments ready to go but I have been waiting to order more Explorer boards from Seeed Studio. I have still had trouble getting the quote I need, and I finally emailed the CEO today to see if I need to take my
business elsewhere. He replied and connected me with a rep he says he can help, so fingers crossed I can get that order placed soon.
As far as what's up with Flutter and my life, I've written so much I think I need to summarize here:
Essentially, I feel like I want to surrender. What renewed excitement for Flutter I had when I wrote my February update has waned, and I feel like I want to move on. I've spent five years trying to deliver what I promised and I can't deny that it's been a near total failure. Some people say Kickstarter is meant to be a place where backers risk loss, but I've tried to prevent that by promising, for years, that everyone will get their hardware or a refund. It has always struck me as the right thing to do. But the burden of continuing is wearing on me. I want to focus my time and my money on my life, my career, and my friends, family, and partners. I really want to admit that I failed and move on. I want to see an end to this.
Still, my instinct is not to cut and run. I question if this will work for me, but I'd like to ask each of you for your consent to wind down my obligations to you. If you still want your hardware and you feel you will use it, I'd love to still ship it to you. Despite the recent delay, shipping hardware that I have is one of the easiest things I can do. But if you don't think you'd use the hardware, I'm asking you to consider relieving me of my obligation to you.
For anyone who is satisfied with what I have done - whether that's my updates here, a partial shipment you have received, the source files I have published, or anything else - then I would really, greatly appreciate it if you send me an email with the subject "SATISFIED". If you choose to do this, then I will consider my commitment to you satisfied in whatever form it is currently in. ANYONE THAT DOES THIS IS WELCOME TO CHANGE THEIR MIND. If in two years I've become rich somehow, you can bug me about that refund. If you think you'll never use your Flutter reward but in a year you realize the perfect project for it, you can request that hardware.
So if you are willing to close out my commitment to you, please email info@flutterwireless.com with the subject "SATISFIED", and please include any comments you have in the body of the email.
That's about it for the update, but if you want to learn more about my rationale for the above, please see my more detailed explanation below.
Elaboration on the state of things
It's been a slow couple of months for Flutter. Back in February I was feeling bullish on Flutter's prospects. With my 3D printed robotics really starting to look good, I thought I would work on a new product for Flutter; a brushless motor controller. It's an idea I have been kicking around for some time, and I thought it would be good for me to turn out another electronics product, work on building a store on Amazon, and try to breathe some fire in to Flutter after years of stagnation.
Three weeks ago I went through all of your emails for refund requests, added the requests to my database, and tallied up the results. So far, there's over $15,000 of refund requests. I don't talk about it a lot, but I ran out of money from the Kickstarter campaign in 2015 after delivering just 1000 of the 4000 boards ordered (and none of the accessories at the time). About $80k of loans in 2015 helped me buy most of the remaining hardware that was due, and I have been funding Flutter out of my own paycheck since then to repay the loans and pay for shipping costs, additional hardware like lithium batteries, and other expenses. In my November 2017 update I noted that I had spent about $4k on Flutter in the preceding four month period.
$15,000 in refunds was not really unexpected but it's still a bit hard to face. When I was invited to my volunteer trip last December, I knew it would be costly. Between airfare, hotel, rental car, and lost wages, I estimate that the trip cost me $5000. Just before leaving for the trip, I received mail from the State of California informing me that all the hardware I imported for Flutter in 2016 required $5000 of import taxes to be paid, with rising fees and interest requirements if I don't pay soon. I also donated about $1000 in robotics supplies (Raspberry Pis, batteries, motors, motor controllers, sensors, wires, Flutter boards, and a functioning robot) to the school in Mauritius, to ensure the students had plenty of hardware to work with. My hobby - trying to make DIY robotics easier through open source and 3D printing - is a bit pricey for me as well, and I am always questioning what makes sense there.
The hard case with some of the supplies I brought to the school in Mauritius.
These are the facts of my life, but I still can never forget that you all did pay a great sum of money and I've almost totally failed to deliver on my own promises. In 2013 I promised an array of hardware and software in just six months time, and I utterly failed to deliver that. Five years later and I've got many backers frustrated that much of what I offer are delays and emotional pleas. In 2017 hundreds of backers receive their rewards, but 2018 has not been so productive.
I find myself recently wanting to surrender: to wave the white flag and admit defeat. Indeed I must admit that this project has been a failure. I wanted to make something people can use, but if I can't ship the hardware, answer emails, or invest the time needed to complete updates to the product, then I have failed to create something people can use.
My mind has changed on the motor controller project, and I currently do not feel bullish on the idea of reviving Flutter, trying to salvage the business, and continuing on. I'm exhausted; mentally and physically. I thought I could make some money selling motor controllers, but recently I've been looking at other ways to earn more. I have no savings and live in Silicon Valley, so if I ever expect to settle down here I must earn more. But running a business at home is exhausting and I realized that instead of spending six months of my spare time designing a motor controller, I could invest that time into learning machine learning and making myself a more valuable employee. Instead of splitting my energy between my business and my job with the hope of a combined income, I can focus on employment and grow my opportunity there.
I have been trying to figure out for some months how to unravel my life. How to ease the stress I have been feeling. Many backers have reassured me over the years that "Kickstarter is not a store," and it's okay to fail. My insistence over the years on refunding or shipping every reward has been seen by some as a noble but unnecessary effort. Someone else mentioned to me that if one were to start a corporation, operate at a loss, and then fold, the founders would typically not be considered liable for that corporation's debts.
But I have for years been insisting that everyone who wants a refund will get one. Regardless of the expectations of Kickstarter or the legal climate I am operating in, I gave my personal word about what I would do, and have failed to uphold it. It's not too late, but like some bad form of "Elon time" my schedule has slipped and slipped.
It's hard for me to keep giving my energy and money to this project. To keep propping it up at my own expense. Yes, you all funded me with your hard earned money, and I have been promising to make you whole for some time. So after more than five years of investing my time and money in to this, I wonder how many of you might simply consider my efforts "good enough?" Would you feel satisfied with the efforts I have made? Could the journey I have shared with you trying to run an open hardware business be enough to make your Kickstarter pledge worthwhile?
As I said above, I am asking all backers who are willing to consider if they could be satisfied with the work I have done on the campaign, and to let me know by emailing me at info@flutterwireless.com with the subject "SATISFIED" and their personal comments in the body of the email.
The money and energy I save will be spent on myself and on my work to lower the cost of robotics through open source and 3D printing. I love open source robotics, and I want to expand the field with my own work. This year I paid to fly myself to the other side of the world to both teach and learn what robotics means to people far outside my bubble. I arranged for a booth at the Maker Faire to promote my work, and spent time making posters, stickers, t-shirts, and my first self-published book leading up to the Faire. The full mechanical redesign and 400 hours of 3D printing for my flagship robot, Rover V2, was finished just in time for the Faire. Amongst all of this, I still managed to fit in some time with friends—Maker Faire ended and I had just three days to stow all of the booth's supplies and pack up my SUV with equipment and supplies for camping with six other friends over six days (which was a lovely event!), where I'm the person with most of the camping stuff.
My first book! I had 250 copies made for Maker Faire. Click through for the PDF.
I want to focus on myself. When I do hack on things I want to keep working on low cost robotics; it's hard to see how continued time spent on Flutter would have a similar impact. If you're willing to forgive any remaining commitments I have to you, it would go to help a guy who doesn't feel as though he deserves it, but would appreciate it all the same. It would help me draw this 5+ year project to a close, and focus on friends, family, and new frontiers in robotics. It's one last thing you could do to help me, after all these years of your support. It would make a huge difference in my life.
Thank you.
Taylor Alexander
It sounds like he spent the money on unrelated crap (donations to some school, a foreign trip, a rover project, a booth at a convention, and writing a book). I also don't understand how he had $80k in loans he can't pay back when he raised $149k from the Kickstarter.
Some more comments from happy customers:
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