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For hardware devices that raised >$100mm before launch, how have they gone? Successes: * Tesla Non-successes: * Magic Leap * Juicero * Nuro * Segway Wha
by tikkun 3y ago
For hardware devices that raised >$100mm before launch, how have they gone?
Successes:
* Tesla
Non-successes:
* Magic Leap
* Juicero
* Nuro
* Segway
What else am I missing? I suspect there are other successes that raised >$100mm pre-launch that I'm not thinking of.
I wonder why they wouldn't start smaller. That said, I still expect they'll succeed, and I hope they succeed. I don't believe in any rules of thumb, great startups always defy the odds.
- alsodumb 3y agoA bunch of VTOL/eVTOL and space startups also probably raised >100$ pre-launch I guess? Skydio raised way more than 100 million and I'd call them success, although I'm not sure if they raised that much pre-launch.
- mdonahoe 3y agoWe raised ~$60m before R1 launched in 2018. And we were still under 100 total when S2 launched at the end of 2019. I'm not sure how things would have played out if we had 100m+ before we launched anything. We may have delayed launch even further and missed out on valuable market feedback and brand awareness.
- dkyc 3y agoAccording to public sources Tesla has raised 'only' 60.5m before delivering the first roadsters in February 2008. Though that total increased to 100.5m by the summer of that year. But I get your point. [0]: https://www.startupranking.com/startup/tesla/funding-rounds https://www.startupranking.com/startup/tesla/funding-rounds
- brucethemoose2 3y agoThe original roadster was a Lotus Elise with laptop batteries. It was essentially a prototype, albeit a production prototype.
- mushufasa 3y agoand it kicked ass
- brucethemoose2 3y agoIndeed. But partially because the Lotus Elise kicked ass :P
- sebzim4500 3y agoI don't think it makes sense to include Juicero in the list. There is no way that whatever Ive and Altman are cooking up is going to be as obviously stupid as Juicero.
- raverbashing 3y ago"There is no way" famous last words...
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- jkestner 3y agoI dunno, I'd take a glass of juice over cryptocurrency from a retina-scanning orb.
- sebzim4500 3y agoAt least the creepy orb is trying to solve a problem that actually exists. Namely how do you know the guy you are talking to is a real person? And especially, how do you know the guy you are donating money to is a real person?
- quickthrowman 3y ago> There is no way that whatever Ive and Altman are cooking up is going to be as obviously stupid as Juicero. Worldcoin is easily 10x more stupid than Juicero. A glass of overpriced juice is much more benign and far more useful than retina scams and cryptocurrency.
- ToucanLoucan 3y agoOh man Juicero. Still remember watching someone tear one of those down. Absolutely incredible amounts of wasted work, materials, ludicrous overengineering to squeeze a damn bag.
- haroldp 3y agoThat was AvE of course: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Cp-BGQfpHQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Cp-BGQfpHQ
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- wslh 3y ago21 Inc, $ 116m: https://cointelegraph.com/news/bitcoin-startup-21-inc-reveals-industry-record-funding-of-116-million-dollars https://cointelegraph.com/news/bitcoin-startup-21-inc-reveal...
- JumpCrisscross 3y ago> What else am I missing? Now filter for SoftBank.
- kyawzazaw 3y agoFirefly Space
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- ant6n 3y agoWhat I wonder is, how do you raise 100M before launch? Like, they can’t possibly have a 100M valuation. So do they just dilute like crazy or what? (I guess Tesla was largely funded by Musk kn the beginning, but I doubt that’s the standard)
- TekMol 3y agoIf you had invested $1B in each of those 5 companies, you would probably still have made a great return, now that Tesla is at $770B.