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I hope this is a good move, but I'm skeptical. One of the biggest killers of companies is the lost of focus and doing other things good or bad is taking focus

I hope this is a good move, but I'm skeptical. One of the biggest killers of companies is the lost of focus and doing other things good or bad is taking focus from one thing to another.

fock 2y ago
yes, if they really wanted to be part of a socially responsible open/repairable hardware economy they might rather start building a buyers cooperative with fairphone and others...
panick21_ 2y ago
After 5 years working towards a 3rd product line doesn't seem that crazy. Specially because as he points out, lots of the design people don't have to continue to work on those products.
- PedroBatista 2y ago
  The question is, are those existing product lines profitable now and in the future with the work done in the last 5 years? And if they take the foot off the gas now, how will their laptop business look like in ~3 years? I've seen too many carrot on a stick situations fueled by continuous VC money, until the whole thing implodes to be 100% behind this without questions. I hope this is one of the good examples where things work out.
  - panick21_ 2y ago
    They are not designing their own processors so they can't massively accelerate producing better laptops. Because of their philosophy they are constant on more models or doing to many changes to those laptop lines. They are not really 'taking the foot of the gas', there simply isn't a great way for them to sell more of those product lines. Their industrial designers aren't gone make those lines profitable. But yes, if their current laptop line isn't profitable, just adding new product lines likely isn't gone safe their business.
CoastalCoder 2y ago
I don't work in hardware development or manufacturing, but $18M seems pretty low for breaking into an entirely new category of consumer product. Especially if you're going to do that without burdening their existing laptop team. Am I wrong? EDIT: I'm guilty of commenting without reading the article first. See comments below for the answers to my question. Apologies.
- Timshel 2y ago
  Well the article mention the 13inch development was paid with $9 million seed round. And $18 million Series A later on paid for the 16. In the end it's twice as much as when they break in the laptop category.
- Archelaos 2y ago
  From the article: "Today, Framework has about 50 employees, and it plans to expand to 60 before the end of the year, with “a bit of additional team growth” in 2025." This amounts to $1M+ per new employee, which can get you pretty far. If the prototype of their new product looks promising, they may receive additional funding for production or form a joint venture.
- nrp 2y ago
  We operate with extreme efficiency because we don't want to form a dependency on venture capital.

I hope this is a good move, but I'm skeptical. One of the biggest killers of companies is the lost of focus and doing other things good or bad is taking focus from one thing to another.

fock 2y ago

yes, if they really wanted to be part of a socially responsible open/repairable hardware economy they might rather start building a buyers cooperative with fairphone and others...

panick21_ 2y ago

After 5 years working towards a 3rd product line doesn't seem that crazy. Specially because as he points out, lots of the design people don't have to continue to work on those products.

PedroBatista 2y ago
The question is, are those existing product lines profitable now and in the future with the work done in the last 5 years? And if they take the foot off the gas now, how will their laptop business look like in ~3 years? I've seen too many carrot on a stick situations fueled by continuous VC money, until the whole thing implodes to be 100% behind this without questions. I hope this is one of the good examples where things work out.
- panick21_ 2y ago
  They are not designing their own processors so they can't massively accelerate producing better laptops. Because of their philosophy they are constant on more models or doing to many changes to those laptop lines. They are not really 'taking the foot of the gas', there simply isn't a great way for them to sell more of those product lines. Their industrial designers aren't gone make those lines profitable. But yes, if their current laptop line isn't profitable, just adding new product lines likely isn't gone safe their business.

CoastalCoder 2y ago

I don't work in hardware development or manufacturing, but $18M seems pretty low for breaking into an entirely new category of consumer product. Especially if you're going to do that without burdening their existing laptop team. Am I wrong? EDIT: I'm guilty of commenting without reading the article first. See comments below for the answers to my question. Apologies.

Timshel 2y ago
Well the article mention the 13inch development was paid with $9 million seed round. And $18 million Series A later on paid for the 16. In the end it's twice as much as when they break in the laptop category.
Archelaos 2y ago
From the article: "Today, Framework has about 50 employees, and it plans to expand to 60 before the end of the year, with “a bit of additional team growth” in 2025." This amounts to $1M+ per new employee, which can get you pretty far. If the prototype of their new product looks promising, they may receive additional funding for production or form a joint venture.
nrp 2y ago
We operate with extreme efficiency because we don't want to form a dependency on venture capital.