What ever happened to the Vertex Cerebra?

[ca1ore]

What a joke wonder how long they knew they were going out of business.I wasted 3 years waiting for the cerebra

Who knows. No company is going to say so of course, then it becomes a self-fulling prophecy. Agree with the observation earlier about this being very different than mindstream. Vertex was an established company with a broad range of products. Hard to see how even a poorly managed controller project would bring them down .... unless their other products weren’t all that profitable to begin with. Hard for me to think of a business I’d be less interested in pursuing than equipment for the reef hobby. Addressable market is too small for any economies of scale and customers always think stuff is overpriced.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Who knows. No company is going to say so of course, then it becomes a self-fulling prophecy. Agree with the observation earlier about this being very different than mindstream. Vertex was an established company with a broad range of products. Hard to see how even a poorly managed controller project would bring them down .... unless their other products weren’t all that profitable to begin with. Hard for me to think of a business I’d be less interested in pursuing than equipment for the reef hobby. Addressable market is too small for any economies of scale and customers always think stuff is overpriced.

Being a former business owner, this failure does not happen in an afternoon But over several/many months. They saw this coming a LONG time ago and rather than admit that they were falling down, they continued to play the Bluff until they secretly/mysteriously vanished with no notice even to their vendors what says consumers.
They are a cruel and disgusting entity and thieves for conducting themselves the way they did.
Sorry...…………. But glad they failed. NO sorrows from me !

 

[robbyg]

Who knows. No company is going to say so of course, then it becomes a self-fulling prophecy. Agree with the observation earlier about this being very different than mindstream. Vertex was an established company with a broad range of products. Hard to see how even a poorly managed controller project would bring them down .... unless their other products weren’t all that profitable to begin with. Hard for me to think of a business I’d be less interested in pursuing than equipment for the reef hobby. Addressable market is too small for any economies of scale and customers always think stuff is overpriced.

It's very simple and it happens with large companies also.
They borrow money based on equity value of the company. When they cant pay back their loans nobody will lend them anymore cash because the equity is now zero. Long R&D processes like those of the Cerbra and MS will often get several injections of cash from either venture capitalist or Angel Investors as they go along. When the accountants determine the equity is getting near Zero they will all pull out and try to liquidate the company to at least gain back some of their investment.

It's not like you get a call by some guy telling you by the 22nd of Dec and if you don't start turning a profit we are pulling the plug. You do get concerned calls but you don't get a cut off date. Typically the people involved will keep working feverishly to get the product out the door. At some point even if they are weeks away from success the cold hard numbers trigger alarm bells with the investors and at that point without warning they just come in and send home the employees with reminders of their NDA's and padlock the doors behind them. This sudden maneuver is so that no one has time to leave with any of the assets or IP.

 

[ca1ore]

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.

 

[robbyg]

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.

Well they invested in the Mindstream. It could be because the product had application potentials far beyond that of just Aquariums.

 

[ca1ore]

Well they invested in the Mindstream. It could be because the product had application potentials far beyond that of just Aquariums.

I was under the impression that most of the $7 million Step Ahead frittered away, uh raised, was from individual investors.

 

[robbyg]

I was under the impression that most of the $7 million Step Ahead frittered away, uh raised, was from individual investors.

No Comment

 

[Smarkow]

I’ve owned 4 vertex products and they all underwhelmed. I sought customer service in two of them and was treated poorly. I posted some pictures of manufacturing defects on their calcium reactor earlier in this thread and on some other posts along with emails from them that were... less than helpful. My Cerebra V1 literally shocked me a few times.
It’s unquestionably sad when a business fails and people lose jobs, but if a reef business in this hobby had to fail?? I’m literally thrilled that it’s vertex.

 

[jwilliams860]

I would like to go on record and say they had some of the best boxing for their products.

I'm a fan of the media reactors and dosing vessels.

 

[Sleepydoc]

I would like to go on record and say they had some of the best boxing for their products.

I'm a fan of the media reactors and dosing vessels.

Maybe the boxes are worth something?

 

[jwilliams860]

Maybe the boxes are worth something?

Lol I burned all my ones from the cerebra but I kept the ones for the other stuff I have

 

[kouma]

I was wondering why the VIP Cerebra forum was showing permission denied. So I guess Cerebra did break the company. As a Cerebra owner who stuck around all these years and through their BETA crap. Is there anything I can do to recover my losses? I feel sorry for Joby who purchased 23+ of these Cerebra controllers he must be ticked

 

[TheHarold]

I was wondering why the VIP Cerebra forum was showing permission denied. So I guess Cerebra did break the company. As a Cerebra owner who stuck around all these years and through their BETA crap. Is there anything I can do to recover my losses? I feel sorry for Joby who purchased 23+ of these Cerebra controllers he must be ******

yup..... Sucks big time for tobe. Trusted Jason and vertex, and got screwed.

 

[petestewardson]

I just got notified on FB by someone commenting on a comment of mine saying this has all gone belly up.

Has anyone tried looking into programming the Cerebra with DIY firmware? I don't have one to play with but if anyone has one that they are throwing out I'd be willing to try and see if we can at least get it to do something.

 

[vetteguy53081]

I just got notified on FB by someone commenting on a comment of mine saying this has all gone belly up.

Has anyone tried looking into programming the Cerebra with DIY firmware? I don't have one to play with but if anyone has one that they are throwing out I'd be willing to try and see if we can at least get it to do something.

Unfortunately this party is over And they’re the ones that celebrated with our money

 

[petestewardson]

Unfortunately this party is over And they’re the ones that celebrated with our money

Well that's my point really. It's not great if there are people with kit that they can't use. As a previous Software Engineer and now a connected devices systems architect it peaks my interest to see what could be done still with it. I imagine there's no way to get the official SW if they are not talking to anyone but maybe some opensource project to get some FW up on the HW. I can't promise anything but I'm willing to get one of my guys to take a look at possibly being able to flash some code into it.

 

[TheHarold]

Well that's my point really. It's not great if there are people with kit that they can't use. As a previous Software Engineer and now a connected devices systems architect it peaks my interest to see what could be done still with it. I imagine there's no way to get the official SW if they are not talking to anyone but maybe some opensource project to get some FW up on the HW. I can't promise anything but I'm willing to get one of my guys to take a look at possibly being able to flash some code into it.

They had users send in their motherboard to “get replacements”. (Which they never sent out). That ensured nobody could go that route.

 

[petestewardson]

They had users send in their motherboard to “get replacements”. (Which they never sent out). Just to make sure that nobody could go that route IMO

Oh I see

 

[vetteguy53081]

Well that's my point really. It's not great if there are people with kit that they can't use. As a previous Software Engineer and now a connected devices systems architect it peaks my interest to see what could be done still with it. I imagine there's no way to get the official SW if they are not talking to anyone but maybe some opensource project to get some FW up on the HW. I can't promise anything but I'm willing to get one of my guys to take a look at possibly being able to flash some code into it.

I sent the chipbosrd in, filled out paperwork, etc and said I missed the first shipout of new version to find there was NO SHIPOUT hence seeing no feedback and many of us left with a shell having no chip or motherboard
Talk about DIRTY DEEDS DONE DIRT CHEAP!!

 

[Cyricdark]

Wow I didn't even think about you guys sending in all your motherboards, I'm not much for too strong a words on the forums but this is really despicable and all involved at vertex should be very ashamed of themselves and don't need to ever show their face in this industry again unless they got money in hand to make things right. it's one thing to fail in a project and throw in the towel it's a whole nother thing to sabotage it so no one can pick it back up and make it right later.