The Mindstream is DEAD!! I'm getting mine soon!

[Hobby Sci]

Hey Everyone,

Going to post this in a couple of different places just for discussion.
Brief story on my end is, I placed my mindstream order August 22nd (Roughly 2 months ago).

Everyone knows they are not shipping out units as promised.

I thought I'd draw up a hypothetical scenario based on the costs of the MS and the costs of monthly discs. See GRAPH and TABLES below. (Note* Units in the graph have been normalized for the sake of showing trends)

Assuming that they produced the same number of discs every month and that they only received money once they shipped something out. Let's say 300 / month (Which would be high).
This means every month they would have to ship out another 300 discs. This quickly adds up. If sticking to this model alone. You would be the end of the year have shipped out a total of 27,000 discs to the ~ only 4,000 units that are on the market. Theoretical numbers...

If you look at the graph drawn it's clear that the total number of discs made (Gray Line) has to increase exponentially, whereas the total money made (Green Line) only increases linearly based on the units sold, the RED line. One reason is that the money made from a unit is SOO much higher than the money made from discs.

Interestingly enough they already have the setup to make both discs and MS units and can probably create the same number of them every month pretty easily. But increasing the # of discs produced every month is probably a real challenge and probably requires a lot of money. Essentially what it looks like they have decided to do is to limit the number of units sent out so that they can keep supplying the current users with discs. Keep pushing mindstream adds and pre-order sales because it's their main source of revenue. Essentially moving up the GREEN line without moving up the GRAY line, until they have the capital & resources to supply enough discs to account for the growth. I doubt the MS is going anywhere because it does seem like a very good product. But, I would not be surprised if in the future the price of monthly subscription would increase. ANYWAYS all of this is just conjecture on my end! I will keep patiently waiting because I think the product is worth it. I do wish that they would be more transparent about what is happening...

 

[ClearLife]

That's a very pretty graph with all the colors and all. Looks much like the products producers graphs before going public. What's missing are the graphs comparing the units readings against several other brand name manual test kits. I just don't see any of those pretty graphs.

 

[MnFish1]

That's a very pretty graph with all the colors and all. Looks much like the products producers graphs before going public. What's missing are the graphs comparing the units readings against several other brand name manual test kits. I just don't see any of those pretty graphs.

I think several people have posted their results and their consistency. The issue here is not comparing the Mindstream to a Hanna. The issue to me will be (when I get mine) comparing the mindstream to a known. standard... Not sure pretty graphs are required

 

[Silver14SS]

Third disc is supposed to ship tomorrow.

@OLDREEFER44 Replacement disc show up yet or they give you a tracking # or shipping confirmation? I hope the discs still go out on time even if the monitor is backlogged.

 

[Oldreefer44]

@OLDREEFER44 Replacement disc show up yet or they give you a tracking # or shipping confirmation? I hope the discs still go out on time even if the monitor is backlogged.

I am told that they are running about 2 weeks late. I expect to have a lot of ,so far, uncommunicated information from them in the next day or two.

 

[Silver14SS]

I am told that they are running about 2 weeks late. I expect to have a lot of ,so far, uncommunicated information from them in the next day or two.

Thanks for the update. I guess the silver lining is you can test how far you can stretch a disc

 

[MnFish1]

Thanks for the update. I guess the silver lining is you can test how far you can stretch a disc

He got his disc today

 

[Hobby Sci]

I officially hit 8 weeks of waiting today. So just outside the window of the initial delivery estimate. I received an email saying I would be discounted 10% of original purchase price.

 

[reefwiser]

Just got this email from Mindstream

Dear MindStream Community, We have decided to temporarily suspend web store sales of the MindStream Monitor in order to catch up on the extensive backlog of orders we've received over the past few months. This is not a decision we make lightly, as we know it will be a disappointment to many of you who are considering a purchase, and since we are a small start-up company, we can always benefit from the revenues. But nevertheless, our financial position remains strong, and we feel it’s important to focus on delivering the orders we have before we make additional commitments to new customers. As we continue to invest in manufacturing systems to allow us to scale operations, we have experienced short-term capacity constraints that have made it difficult for us to keep up with the large number of orders we have received. We are working very hard to deliver on our anticipated shipping lead times and do not wish to cut any corners in manufacturing that might risk our ability to deliver the highest quality product and the best possible experience with the MindStream Monitor. Existing customers will not be affected in any way, and the web app will continue to provide unparalleled insights into the health of your reef tanks. We will continue to fulfill our current backlog of orders in the coming weeks and will let you know in advance when we will be reopening the web store. To be clear, this is only a temporary suspension of sales of new monitors in the web store while we continue to scale operations to meet demand. In the meantime, please sign up for our newsletter here so you can be sure to know when the store will open for business again. All of our MindStream team members are sincerely grateful for your patience! Gratefully yours, Brian Degen, CEO Subscribe​ ​ ​ ​ Copyright © 2019 Step Ahead Innovations, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you opted in at our website mindstreamh2o.com Our mailing address is: Step Ahead Innovations 6 Green Tree Drive #1 South Burlington, VT 05403 Add us to your address book Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.

 

[rushbattle]

Way too late is better than never.

 

[drsalomon]

looks like they just went belly up. is it safe to assume that disks will become permanently unavailable and all buyers are abandoned?

Thank you for your interest in the MindStream Monitor and for being a part of our community. Your early support for our mission has meant the world to us, and I’m reaching out directly to sincerely apologize for not delivering on the product we promised and to also update you personally on the status of our company. As you may have heard, Step Ahead Innovations recently had to cease operations and lay off our incredible staff due to financial constraints. We are extremely disappointed about letting our customers down and not being able to deliver on our vision for the MindStream Monitor and its ambitious technology. We are sorry for creating frustration and uncertainty, and we hope to provide some transparency around what led to this point and what will happen next.

After seven years of development, including two years of beta testing, and $10 million in investments into our technology, the Monitor, and the industry itself, we launched a revolutionary new approach to water monitoring that we were, and continue to be, incredibly proud of. We were elated by a strong early response and consistent positive feedback, and the orders came flying in. While we had tried to anticipate demand and were ultimately able to ship about a quarter of our initial orders, we were unable to scale our manufacturing processes and systems quickly enough to keep up with the pace of new orders, and we began to fall behind. We had a strong desire to meet our promises, so we proactively provided customer discounts for orders that were behind schedule and we quickly processed order cancellations when requested.

But we became concerned with lead times as the backlog grew, and after hearing similar concerns from our customers, we decided to close the web store to focus all our time and resources into catching up. Once we realized just how long it would take to deliver the product to customers in our existing backlog, we felt it was the right thing to do to stop taking additional customer money and ensure we took care of those who had already paid us. At that point, we fully intended to re-open the store as soon as we could catch up. Unfortunately, stopping orders led to a cash crunch that meant we couldn’t cover our operating expenses, and despite extensive efforts to secure additional capital from our investors to bridge the gap, we were unable to close the funding round. After exploring every available option to keep things moving forward, we had to make the extremely difficult decision to close our doors at Step Ahead Innovations. While it became unavoidable, we do understand how frustrating it is that our customers were left with a product they can’t use, or no product at all, and no one to contact in customer support for an explanation. For that, we apologize wholeheartedly.

We are all incredibly disappointed in this outcome and are now working hard to see that our groundbreaking technology reaches the market by other means. The science is sound, our approach is proven, we heard incredible feedback from many real customers, and the capabilities of the technology are limitless. Currently, we are actively seeking buyers for the product, technology, and considerable assets, including an extensive patent portfolio that includes 11 US patents, 8 foreign patents, and wide-ranging trade secrets and knowledge associated with real-time water quality monitoring, science, and technology.

Our ultimate desire is to bring this paradigm-shifting capability to reef keepers worldwide. While we had hoped to do it as Step Ahead Innovations, we are now diligently working to enable a new firm to realize the potential for this innovative technology to revolutionize water quality analytics in a wide variety of industries (including beyond saltwater aquariums), so that we can make things right financially with our customers, satisfy our obligations to our creditors and investors, and ultimately give the science behind the MindStream Monitor another chance to truly change how aquarists understand and manage reef chemistry.

There is no question that we were severely challenged by our ambitious goals, but at our core we are passionate scientists, aquarists, and lovers of this hobby, and I want to assure you that we tried at every turn to act in good faith with our customers and the reef keeping industry at large. We hope that in the coming months there will be good news to share for those who still believe in the power of the MindStream approach, but in the meantime, I want to thank you again for your support and understanding.

Sincerely,
Brian Degen
CEO, Step Ahead Innovations, Inc.

 

[ctbehm]

Yup, put a fork in it she is done! Unfortunate but man that email is painful. Using new order money to catch up with the backlog..

 

[reefwiser]

Aquarium hobby is not a big market.
Hopefully the IP will be picked up. I can see it’s use in Pool maintenance. Which is a way bigger market than aquariums.

 

[WWIII]

Did he say $10 million!?

I feel terrible for anyone who gave money towards this product. Hopefully there will be some recourse for all.

 

[Halal Hotdog]

Very disappointing to see. Running a business is more than just having a good idea. If they were not able to be successful. Without seeing their P&L, if they were not able to be successful with $10 million then no amount of money would have fixed the shortcomings for this company. I truly hope many of you get your money back.

 

[SandJ]

@drsalomon where did that email/letter come from?
I did not receive an email from them

 

[Bayareareefer18]

Aquarium hobby is not a big market.
Hopefully the IP will be picked up. I can see it’s use in Pool maintenance. Which is a way bigger market than aquariums.

There is already chemical automation for pools. Having automated testing of po4, no3, alk, ca etc wouldn't really be beneficial for the cost of a person running a pool company, which I am

We already have systems available to monitor and adjust orp, ph and ppm CL2. These systems can control salt chlorine generators, chlorine and acid feed pumps and co2 feeds. We also use them in conjunction with ozone and UV

We use them on commercial applications and high end residential

 

[chefjpaul]

@drsalomon where did that email/letter come from?
I did not receive an email from them

I got one today from them as well.

 

[SandJ]

I got one today from them as well.

I found it in my spam folder. Called the credit card company to update them.

 

[reefwiser]

There is already chemical automation for pools. Having automated testing of po4, no3, alk, ca etc wouldn't really be beneficial for the cost of a person running a pool company, which I am

We already have systems available to monitor and adjust orp, ph and ppm CL2. These systems can control salt chlorine generators, chlorine and acid feed pumps and co2 feeds. We also use them in conjunction with ozone and UV

We use them on commercial applications and high end residential

Reefbot is also Looking at the pool market.
Lot large market than aquariums LaMotte Spintouch is another testing system.

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Most testing companies cover all types of test. I spent years in the food industry. Tons of testing done there too.