Hello dear members of the MOD Community
It’s been quite some time I have not addressed you all and this time I come bringing much exciting news. Since early last year I’ve been sending updates mostly in regards to products but today I want to communicate some wider updates about our company and our future.
The first news is that we’re engaging in our third fundraising round and this time we’re kicking off with a crowd-based model.
For a company of our size and with the challenges we’re undertaking, financial muscles are a must. Just like many other start-ups, we suffer a lot with the chicken-egg dilemma and in order to overcome it, funds need to be injected until the wheel is turning on its own. Since June we have been preparing a big fundraising round and the first portion of it is coming in the form of crowd investment. Being a product of a Kickstarter campaign, the crowd-based financing is something to which we relate a lot and at this time we’re partnering up with seedmach.de for a crowdinvestment campaign.
Since our early days I’ve been asked by many members of our community about participating in the business side of our endeavour and thus I’ve constantly been searching for a way to make it possible. Our traditional investment schemes require minimum individual investments of 25.000€ and thus were not something everyone could easily participate, ending up, unfortunately, being reserved for people with deeper pockets.
It is with great joy that I inform you that with Seedmatch, the minimal investment is 250€, which makes the round accessible to a much bigger audience. The deal they offer is a very nice and transparent one, resulting in a mechanism that works well both for the investors as for the company.
Everyone is welcome to participate and I kindly ask you to help us spread the campaign as much as you can. The campaign is scheduled to be online on October 29th at https://www.seedmatch.de/moddevices
The fundraise will enable us to put important plans in action and I want to share with you some important items, especially in regards to our product line:
Last year we have expanded our portfolio towards electronic music with the introduction of the MOD Duo X.
At first, the Duo X was supposed to be a “low hanging fruit” and back in January 2018, it was envisioned as a “Duo with a redesigned controller”. Looking at both products side-by-side this becomes evident as it was designed to initially use the same mainboard and thus, both the side as the back connectors are practically the same. But during the design process, some misleading decisions were put in place and many desired improvements on the Duo were attempted to be sorted with the Duo X, turning it into a whole new beast which, albeit similar on the outside, is completely different in its guts. This whole process, as you all could see, resulted in multiple delays and many of us saw ourselves back into days similar to our post-Kickstarter phase, driving into the unknown with a huge undertaking on our backs. Luckily, the MOD Team is a group of very capable and resilient individuals and we overcame the challenges one by one. Similar to going on a battle, some soldiers fall and allies jump in mid-way but the foreseeable outcome is of a tasty victory.
Now there’s a new element coming and it is not part of the Duo family.
We’re already working on a new device that will serve as the “gateway” to the MOD platform. It will be announced in the 1st half of 2020 and we’re aiming to really shake the live signal processing sector.
I seriously mean it so stay tuned 
And still on the topic of the products, there’s the Expression Pedal. Probably the most awaited device for the entire community and my personal biggest source of shame, frustration, and discomfort. The priority on it was wrongly put behind in detriment of the Duo X and now I can only apologize and reassure you that we’re picking up on it. I have worked on it through the last few months, but the pace is far from being acceptable. With the Duo X related hurdles and our limited resources, the advances have been meaningful, but not absolute. It is moving forward and we’re picking up on the matter in a more solid way across the next few months.
Last, but not least, I’m happy to inform everyone that I am back to the CEO position.
The experience with Ronny, unfortunately, has not worked as we expected and, after a series of hiccups, we all came to the conclusion that I should come back to wearing the CEO hat. For a company of our size, a change of CEO is similar to a heart transplant and it can either go very well or very bad. Our case sadly fell into the second option but we luckily managed to keep the patient alive
For me, the entire process was a huge personal learning experience and I come back to this seat with an improved mindset in comparison to the one I used to have. The company is still my baby and no one will treat it as such but me. At the same time, I now have a clearer view of the organism we are creating and how I should proceed in order to have a healthy and long-living one.
Our team has grown very strong in the last two years and I feel much more confident to face the challenges ahead. From the 4 guys we were back in 2015 the team has expanded quite a lot.
@acunha oversees the direction where our tech should head to and keeps our cloud structures up and running. @falkTX , who needs no introduction, is back leading the software development and all Linux related matters. @Marie_Gauthier , our wonder coder of all things web related, takes care of the mod-ui, core software of our platform. @Jan develops our hardware and embedded firmware and @BramGiesen oversees the management and implementation of the plugins. Finally @jesse acts as a product specialist, providing the bridge between the usage of the product and its underlying technologies. @ricardocrudo has unfortunately departed in the end of 2018 but still stands as a consultant when hairy issues arise.
@Leo_Germani , who has worked with us while we were still in Brazil, is back and taking over the management of the community.
@Adriano heads our entire marketing department from branding to promotion and sales. @Andre takes care of all the design, Jesse Siminski covers artist relations and @dwek manages all communications. Felipe works with the social networks and Ivan does the analysis of the marketing performance.
Last, but surely not least, we have Eva Balabanova, our trusty office person, taking care of everything from accounting to shipments.
As you can see, there’s a lot of people working towards making our revolution happen
I hope to have managed to give you all a good overview of our plans and perspectives. I consider the MOD community to be our most valuable asset and there would be no company without you all. I am thankful for your support and keep myself open to receive your opinions and complaints. That is the only way to make our envisioned revolution happen.
Let’s all step onto the future!
thanks for that information
