Kokoon are a mystery. They have raised enormous sums based on a product that is still to be completed and the Kickstarter crowd are baying for blood. We did warn you Crowdcubists.
We all know that Kickstarter projects get delayed and some never deliver. But it is unusual in our experience to find one that has pre sold on KS to the tune of £2.8m, with delivery for February 2016, and that then has raised £1.65m on Crowdcube in August 2017 and has to date failed to deliver anything other than excuses. In this Crowdcube pitch they, Kokoon, promised the product was now ready for sale and talked about a large retailer's purchase order arriving 'in weeks'. Delays were over. Regretably, that was all a lie.
We warned readers that the project was on the cusp of coming off the rails. Not because the product isnt any good or because it is some elaborate con. Simply because the guy running the show is a shambles. You still invested.
Now, as yet another deadline for production passes by like some endless goods train pulling into Port Headland, the volume of complaints on KS and the number of demands for full refunds, has risen substantially. There is still no set date for completion of the first production run - in fact there is no set date for its start. The product has changed (for the worse according to backers) beyond recognition. The £2.8m pre order cash has all been spent and this must now be considered a liability given none of the headsets have been delivered and people are asking for their money back. It is all going rapidly to shit.
Here are some of the recent comments -
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now, actually after a few month it became very obvious that project management isn't our developer's best skill ... so I didn't mind about all the delays and changes through the years. But from the first design concept I had hoped to get headphones which would be suitable to use while sleeping, especially as a side sleeper. I think the (almost) finished project is far away from that point ... and that is the real issue.
I sent a direct message to @Tim as well as the project yesterday asking for a refund. Tim came on 3 hours ago and didn't reply to my message. I also tried to send an email to the kakoon.io email address provided, but it is not valid.
Long story short, where is my refund?
Please do not ignore us.
I’m backer #12, I have lost faith on your product and your updates full of excuses. I would like to get refund!!!
Can someone call the police in England? Tim Antos is the name.
One word comes to mind....shameless.
According to your crowdcube documentation you envisage the headphones having a life of a mere 2 years - your backers have waited significantly longer for the product to arrive.
You need to stop the excuses & deliver what you promised.
When are y’all gonna get it? This isn’t “miscommunication” or “unforeseen” anything. They knew when they made that video they were misleading us. That they didn’t have the product anywhere near the level they said they did. Maybe they HOPED they could deliver, I don’t know. But they knew they weren’t presenting things as they were. They’re liars. Quit appealing to a conscience that they don’t have.
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There are 2,400 comments - most of them negative. It is what happens when you have a product developer in charge of a business - chaos. Kokoon for your own sake please ditch Tim and get yourselves a real CEO before it all goes tits up.
I have received an email from Brian Elgey - from Ikee. It is obvious that it was a con, since they also claimed that they have the prototype ready at the time they were pitching on Crowdcube.
ReplyDeleteHi Guys,
Hope your all well. Not much to report at present, but just wanted to give everyone a quick message to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year for 2018.
As you know I've recently been married and at this time of year we also have a lot of work on with our other businesses that have funded the works so far after the last issues without seeking further investment.
We are moving forward, however a few concerns remain in regards to the need for the product that has been voiced by several people due to ever changing technology making parts of the USP's redundant, however we are looking at how we can tweak this to keep the USP's or add possible new ones, unfortunately the speed at which the developers move and the speed of which the market moves are two huge factors, which is a massive disappointment not just to you guys but more so to us. We have a follow up meeting in early January to discuss options on the product. and will keep you all appraised of the next stages.
The worse case scenario maybe ending the project, however we have an R&D claim in so we would generate some income from this meaning if we did decide to end the project there would be some revenue in the business to distribute to the investors along with your SEIS relief to soften the blow where possible, we will of course have to look further into that to see how that would work, we also maybe look at selling on the project/business to someone who could bring this to market quicker than we could meaning everyone would keep there stakes in the project, either way we would like to see something come of this as its cost a lot of time, money and effort with a great potential product. We aren't at that stage yet however we wanted to put all possibilities on the table as we are aware there has been a great deal of time invested into this project.
Thanks again everyone, and all the best of the festive period, we will update you in Q1 2018 with the options and perhaps get your feedback on those to move forward.
All the best
Apparently Kakoon is back but this time on seedrs with higher valuation and backing on some VC/lead investor...apparently they have sold the product in the tune of £4.5M so it looks different story then above comments
ReplyDeleteCould you please clarify if people got their pre orders delivered??
You can find the Kokoon KS comments here - https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1861630723/take-control-of-your-sleep-with-kokoon-eeg-headpho/comments. One recent one sums it up - ''Backer 4,444. Totally sick of waiting... please refund.'' People who have received and commented are unhappy with sound/lack of software and quite a few have broken. Absolute mess as we predicted. Eyes way too large for stomach. And they are still selling them with a near delivery date on their site!! Fear for the future of this lot.
ReplyDelete