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Peachy Printer Funds Embezzled To Build New Home Instead of $100 3D Printer (hackaday.com)
Reader szczys writes (edited): Peachy Printer made it big on Kickstarter, raising over half a million dollars on the promise to build the first 3D printer and scanner costing $100. The company has now collapsed due to embezzlement (Editor's note: BBC's coverage is better) of those funds. The original investor stole around $350,000 of backer's money and funneled it into a new home. This was discovered about 18 months ago but became public only now as the company is unable to meet their already delayed delivery dates. Peachy Printer has posted a video admitting the screw-up. Sounds familiar?
Like the electronic bay of thieves, Kickstarter seems fine with any type of scam as long as they get their cut. They only take token action when there is public pressure. Beware, if you get caught doing this on Kickstarter you may be banned, and will only have many other similar sites that you can run your scams on unless you decide to do so under a different name.
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
Well, a significant difference between this situation and the iFind is that the Peachy Printer actually works. It even works well, compared to the $800+ solidoodle at our hackerspace. It was working well enough to clean up the design and start shipping kits back in January 2015. Sadly, that also coincided with discovering the money reserved for actually making the printers was held up as collateral for David's house. (which turned out to not be the truth anyway) David kept stringing us along for a while, while Rylan explored other ways to raise some money to ship. And, if you've watched the videos and read the website you know the rest.
Peachy printer backers, don't fret. I'll be launching a Kickstarter soon for a printer which can print an entire house. Back me for $100 and I'll post an approximate sketch of the house. Back me for $500 and I'll send you photocopies of the plans. Back me for $1000 (top tier Rube Level) and I'll send you a postcard from the country it's located in. Act now!
Look on the bright side. At least this time something was actually built with the money.
Well, the really sad thing about this is we had a working printer in January 2015. It's finicky, sure, but so is our Solidoodle. Not only did we have a working printer, but it would have been profitable at $100.
"He worked in Northern Alberta as a heavy duty mechanic"
When I read this, I nearly stopped reading further, but curiosity conquered me.
Sorry, but the qualifications floor me.
"David hired an Accounting and Financial Consulting firm to assist in the management of Peachy Printer's finances."
Yup, surely THEY did a great job. Recourse here? I'm betting they did nothing but dip their beaks.
"Due to the fact that the Kickstarter campaign was over before Peachy Printer existed as a corporation, we did not have a corporate bank account set up to receive the funds. As a result, David’s personal account was set up to receive the funds."
Oh, here is where it went bad. I would have left it at Kickstarter until the corporate account was ready.
From here on, it's faith in others, failed human beings, and predictable outcomes.
deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
I think they need a rule that first-time project owners are only allowed to collect up to 200% of their "goal" amount. Once the project hits that number, the "PLEDGE NOW" button goes away.
That limits the amount of damage that a first-time project owner can do. It doesn't prevent them getting the money they need to get the business started - plus a healthy "win" for doing a great job. But it would prevent viral projects from dumping so much money into someone's lap that they become intimidated by the magnitude of the task and find it easier to take the money and run than to complete the project.
Once someone has proved themselves and delivered as promised, they can try again without the cap.
Having run 5 successful Kickstarters myself, most of them 400% or more over goal - I understand how daunting it can be. When the project is running, a kind of "red mist" descends and pushing the total higher and higher becomes highly compelling. When the countdown expires and you suddenly realize that you're tens of thousands of dollars better off - it's exhilarating. But the next morning, when you start to realize the magnitude of what you've just signed up to do...it can be very daunting.
It's also very difficult to plan a project when you don't know whether you'll sell 100 widgets or 100,000 widgets. When you go from "Oh - I can just 3D print that component at home - and solder that switch to the circuit board myself!" to "I've got to get a $10,000 mold made by a company in China and I have to fly out there to make sure it's OK - then find a factory that can solder that switch on for me."...suddenly things get much more serious.
It's exceedingly difficult to design, price and schedule production on a product where you have literally ZERO idea how many you'll sell.
So for that first project - make it so I'll know that I'm selling between 100 and 200 widgets.
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