Thread: Helix Update?
View Single Post
Old 09-06-18 | 01:08 AM
  #1240  
Gibsonsean
Senior Member
 
Joined: Nov 2016
Posts: 229
Likes: 8
Originally Posted by avole
3 years of no income and only expenses is a long time for any company to bear.
It is, but without an in depth understanding of the company's financial position and business case I'm not sure that there are any conclusions to be drawn from that other than that there is a risk of running out of money and that this risk increases with time.

We can only consider what we do know:

Helix claim they are OK whilst acknowledging the ticking clock on funds.

They have had the backer funding and the interest on that, and pre-order funding. They have stated that they have had a private injection of funds.

There was initial outlay on standard components ( seats, seatposts, wheels, handlebars, cranksets, chainrimgs etc ) and Ti tubing immediately following the KS campaign.

In the early stages they partnered with an engineering/manufacturing firm but parted ways - commercial dynamic unknown.

They have stated that they sought to minimise up front costs through leasing of equipment. They have changed key bits of equipment as the manufacturing process was developed. They did splash out and buy a 300 dollar coffee machine.

They have leased space.

They appear (from team photos from time to time and names mentionrd in updates) to have kept staffing levels very lean - max 2 additional staff at any give time and from their CVs/linkedin profiles, where available/attributable, these staff have often been cheaper resources at early stages of their careers.

They are reliant on third parties in Canada and the Far East for manufacture of custom parts and securing these within tollerance at volume has been difficult.

I'm sure there is more, but ooverall the picture, to me at least, is that it is not unreasoanble to accept the reassurance on funding whilst continuing to consider it as a significant and growing risk. There is no way to assess when that risk would become an issue. Mitigations in terms of potential additional funding sources are conceivable and have been discussed before.
Gibsonsean is offline  
Reply