Delayed Drake KS

[ahayford]

He has proven he can't handle money or planning. Who would give him money?

[NomadZeke]

I backed II unfortunately...I'm very tempted to email the production company for that show...and actually let him on so they can put him through the wringer?

[SamuraiJack]

If they are anything like Shark Tank, I'm sure they already know...

[Maledrakh]

If the Canadian Dragons Den is anything like the UK Dragons Den, the production company will have thoroughly researched the participants, I do not know if the actual businesspeople (who are investing their own money if we are to believe the show) get any brief beforehand though. I would expect they do, but have to act like they don't.

 

(If it were my money, I would demand a full briefing on the participants beforehand at a minimum. I do not believe these people will invest such large sums on the basis on a single presentation.)

 

Since the british businesspeople seem to be quite on the ball and have BS-detectors set on "High", I would expect the Canadians are too. So I would not get my hopes up about Drake getting funded this way,

[ahayford]

Never deal with a dragon.

[MonkeySloth]

Even though I don't think it would happen it would be nice for him to get funded. I actually do believe he's been working on a real business plan and learned something from his mistakes as I'm pretty sure he's been trying to secure funds from banks and other outlets since the KSer debacle.

 

I don't believe Benji set out to fail, he just had no idea what he was doing and then got stuck with that reality after he ran out of money and lots of angry people and I'd like to see him have the chance to actually fulfill rewards. If he gets the funding and does deliver the rest then he goes on my list of "good but over their head people" if he gets the money and doesn't then he has assists to seek.\

Edited April 17, 2015 by MonkeySloth

[SIGIL]

MonkeySloth......man if this guy had been working on a plan of any kind, if anything this guy has said were true you woudl see pictures and be reading much more regular updates. Giving him more money will not fix the problem it will only make more people angry at him and delay the inevitable admission of absolute failure due to never having really understood what was needed to make this project deliver and woefully mismanaging the funds that were gathered to that effort.

[MonkeySloth]

Make no mistake, I'm not expecting to ever see anything else from this. That being said, if a bunch of investors want to give him money and he does fulfill I will be happy for everyone involved. If they give him money and he screws up again its no hair off my back outside of what he already got.

[Beagle]

I have mixed emotions about this. I feel Benji is deluded if he sees the Dragon's Den as a solution, but I do sort of admire his tenancity

[Berik]

 

 

There are thousands of beautiful minis sitting around me and they look freaking amazing. International distributors are inquiring regularly about their product shipments. The demand is exceeding our capacity to produce.

The portion I quoted above is what really seems like a red flag to me. If he actually has thousands of beautiful minis sitting around him then those should be going somewhere surely. And demand exceeding capacity to produce is pretty obviously going to be the case when you don't currently have the funds to be producing anything.

 

If he's really been taking advice from more business-minded people then great, maybe even a Dragon's Den style backer pushing him along would help him. But to me he just doesn't sound realistic about the situation he's in. Certainly I really hope he gets out of it, wish him all the best and hope this gets released, I just don't really realistically think it will.

[NomadZeke]

Until I have good quality minis in hand, I really see him as a con. Might change my tune then, but right now, I don't want to play nice. Pictures to prove their not all miscast, but in hand is the only thing that might change my mind.

[ahayford]

I don't think he's a con. I don't think there are many folks that get into hobby minis just to con. There are much more profitable ways to con people. I think it is mostly incompetence and wishful thinking.

[SIGIL]

Well, certianly both of those in spades, but Drake II was a denial of the obvious and then operating his store there after was outright fraud. Continuing to tell backers he has got the minis but not the money to ship?? That sounds like fraud to me. Now he is goign on to a TV show to try to secure funding to create new product to pay off existing orders for product that does not exist in a new MUCh more expensive material outsourced to a foreign country for production with tons of new flaming hoops to jump through.......Thi shas gone WAY beyond his original starry eyed exuberant ignorance. This is just crazy now.

[dwarvenranger]

Hope springs eternal

[ahayford]

Well, certianly both of those in spades, but Drake II was a denial of the obvious and then operating his store there after was outright fraud. Continuing to tell backers he has got the minis but not the money to ship?? That sounds like fraud to me. Now he is goign on to a TV show to try to secure funding to create new product to pay off existing orders for product that does not exist in a new MUCh more expensive material outsourced to a foreign country for production with tons of new flaming hoops to jump through.......Thi shas gone WAY beyond his original starry eyed exuberant ignorance. This is just crazy now.

I can't argue with any of this.