What ever happened to the Vertex Cerebra?

[shred5]

I’ve worked with venture capital companies so know how the game is played. None of the ones I know would touch anything for the reef industry. Addressable market is too small. Just seems like Vertex must have made some very poor business choices for a controller project to bring the company down. Unless, as I noted, their other product lines were also not performing well. I guess we shall never know for sure.

If you’re going to try to take on apex and GHL either you’ve got to go bare bones like coralvue with their new gizmo (name escapes me) at a ‘budget’ price or the app approach like möbius.

Why do you think the Coralvue Control 2 and Control 4 are going to be basic?

 

[ca1ore]

Why do you think the Coralvue Control 2 and Control 4 are going to be basic?

Yup, seems like a sensible strategy ...

 

[vetteguy53081]

I often wonder if they had us send in our boards to disable us from attempting to program these ourselves for use.

 

[AKReef]

I often wonder if they had us send in our boards to disable us from attempting to program these ourselves for use.

I think their plan was to permanently disable all the controllers in order to remove any liabilities stemming from product claims for faulty equipment.

 

[vetteguy53081]

I think their plan was to permanently disable all the controllers in order to remove any liabilities stemming from product claims for faulty equipment.

And how sneaky they were - Message was " customers can screw themselves" . .. We're out

 

[petestewardson]

I often wonder if they had us send in our boards to disable us from attempting to program these ourselves for use.

Its a shame it's been left like that. I'm sure it wouldn't have been hard to get some of our own FW running on it fairly quickly had we had the boards.

 

[petestewardson]

Would anyone that has a Cerbera be willing to take some photos of what you still have and email them to me so I can see what we may have to work with?

 

[BZOFIQ]

So it's official?

 

[vetteguy53081]

So it's official?

Formal announcement made. Theyre off the industry msp

 

[BZOFIQ]

Wow!

....on so many fronts.

 

[Sleepydoc]

Formal announcement made. Theyre off the industry msp

Did vertex actually make an announcement? The only ‘official’ announcement I heard was from BRS. I do see that their Facebook page and web site have been taken down.

 

[jwilliams860]

Did vertex actually make an announcement? The only ‘official’ announcement I heard was from BRS. I do see that their Facebook page and web site have been taken down.

Nothing from vertex directly other then complete disconnect and silence. No retailers have anything of substance in stock.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Did vertex actually make an announcement? The only ‘official’ announcement I heard was from BRS. I do see that their Facebook page and web site have been taken down.

BRS and I was a former retailer and Pet Age who is an industry giant said they were officially gone and another source I cannot disclose said their facility is a ghost town and facing foreclosure

 

[joseserrano]

Why would the announce anything, what would they have to gain? I don’t think the owner will be trying to do anything in the industry again.

 

[Sleepydoc]

Why would the announce anything, what would they have to gain? I don’t think the owner will be trying to do anything in the industry again.

Financially they would have little to gain but it does let their customers know what is going on so they are not left hanging. Many people were already quite angry with Vertex over the Cerebra, but the way Vertex handled its closure all but destroyed any reputation it had left. Many companies, brands or products do get picked up and resurrected by other companies at a later time, and the brand was probably the only thing of value they had left.

At this point you’re probably right that the owner won’t be in the industry again, but if he had hopes to be, doing things well would help that. Also, how many reefers know the owners of the companies they buy products from?

Compare Vertex to Mindstream - the owner of Mindstream put out a letter clearly stating he was shutting down and offering apologies. Vertex shut its Cerebra web sites without any notification to the beta testers, didn’t answer emails or voicemails. They left their facebook and web sites up for a month. There wasn’t even an automated reply for email. The community only got confirmation from BRS.

For me, letting customers know is just the honest and right thing to do. Putting a notice on facebook or your web site costs nothing and only takes the time to write it. Not having the decency to take a few minutes to let your customers know is just shameful.

 

[Pauley]

Sad. I figured that after the horrible V1 launch, they earnestly tried to make things right with the controller, but eventually realized that it was a money hole and not feasible. The only way out was bankruptcy. Believe what you want, but my opinion is that they knew this was coming for a while, and strung people along while they secretly got things in order for an exit. They might not have known the exact timeline, but even a drunken monkey CEO could see where the train was headed. S*** happens - the angering part to me is the 3 years of deception. My gut feeling is that Jason/Ali/whatever his real name is will lay low for a while and then attempt to launch a “new company” in the industry. Hopefully, if that happens, he’s outed immediately. Meanwhile, I’m using my Cerebra to prop up a shelf in the garage. At least it’s finally found it’s purpose.

 

[Reefcowboy]

I've followed this thread and others on same topic for years...feel sad for some that got burned with the investment and not so much for others who after buying the beta talked so much trash to other companies already in the game, who actually knew how hard the controller investment and markets are.

Vertex dragged a whole bunch of people for years with empty promises and proved again when something seems like bs, investing in it is a bad idea.

For those reasons seeing Vertex burn in the trash is actually nice

 

[Tobe71]

Hello all. I was temporarily banned from posting on this thread after it got a little heated between myself and another poster.
After that I barely lurked as I had as much info as anyone, which was minimal.
In short, I truly believed in the Cerebra and put my money where my mouth was. Was even buying up until November and I’m glad I was able to help some people recoup some of their expense.
I essentially gambled and lost.
I also felt I had developed a friendship with the owner over the last few years, even sharing drinks with he and his lovely (now former) wife at MACNA in Vegas. His passion and intellect bolstered my support and I was a vocal advocate for Vertex from then on.
Unfortunately, he decided to ghost on everyone so I don’t have any additional information. He’s changed his number twice and wasn’t returning my calls or texts anyhow so I’ve given up trying to track him down.
Seems like a class action would be throwing more money after bad, but if anyone gets one going I’d entertain joining just to see if we could get a response, but I’m sure whatever assets were left are long gone.
For me it’s more about the lack of respect for myself and others that kept the faith than it is about the money.
I wish we could have at least gotten a statement like Mindstream put out for its owners. But businesses fail all the time and I think he just got in over his head. I do not believe there was ever malicious intent and it’s my understanding through the grapevine that he’s broke, looks like hell, and even lost his marriage.
I, for one, am not out for a pound of flesh. However it would be nice to have some sort of official or unofficial statement from the man that really was a huge innovator in our beloved hobby for years. But I doubt that day will come.
Personally, I’m eagerly awaiting the Xepta Abex and have even considered going over the to dark side and getting an Apex, but I’ve been ok this long without a controller. GHL looks good but I’m holding out for something better and with how quickly tech advances, I assume there will be something better around the corner sooner than later. But I WON’T be an early adopter, whatever it is!
Happy Reefing!

 

[Tobe71]

Would anyone that has a Cerbera be willing to take some photos of what you still have and email them to me so I can see what we may have to work with?

I have 5 of the V7s. PM me and I’ll try to get some pics for you. They are buried in the garage since around Christmas when things went silent.

 

[Tobe71]

I’ve worked with venture capital companies so know how the game is played. None of the ones I know would touch anything for the reef industry. Addressable market is too small. Just seems like Vertex must have made some very poor business choices for a controller project to bring the company down. Unless, as I noted, their other product lines were also not performing well. I guess we shall never know for sure.

If you’re going to try to take on apex and GHL either you’ve got to go bare bones like coralvue with their new gizmo (name escapes me) at a ‘budget’ price or the app approach like möbius.

My understanding from some discussions with Jason and Flavio that they only anticipated about 10% of the Cerebra revenue to come from the aquarium hobby. Apparently they were planning on cross marketing to the hydroponics industry and hobbyists. That seems like a MUCH bigger market, but it’s all dust in the wind now.