Dear Backers,
Thank you all for waiting patiently for our first official backer update. Without further ado, let’s jump right in to the exciting details!
Surveys
All surveys has been sent out! If you think you might have missed a survey email, please log in to your Kickstarter account to check — you’ll see a yellow notification bar at the top of the site for any missed surveys. Once you complete a survey, you’ll receive an email confirmation that includes a copy of your responses (if you don’t receive your email confirmation, make sure to double check your email address in Kickstarter’s system).
Manufacturing and Production Timeline
As most of you know, we began our manufacturing process (stock preparation, molding, tooling, and software development) during our two-month campaign period without external funds and resources. During this period, we almost depleted our own savings. Thus, the Kickstarter funds were crucial to complete manufacture and production.
Last week (two weeks after campaign ended), the Kickstarter funds finally arrived in our bank account, and we immediately started our first mold trial. Most of our molds are complete and we are just making small revisions and improvements to ensure the best quality of production.
The results have been great so far and while normally it takes five or six rounds of mold trial, we are on track to complete the mold used for mass production after the third mold trial. This is expected to happen by the end of May, which will be immediately followed by mass production.
In the mean time, we have been running lifetime tests (10,000 turns, equivalent to three years) on our prototype (made by CNC) and using our new funds to finalize hardware designs to make Sesame even stronger and longer-lasting.
New Shipping Date
As mentioned above, we will begin production by the end of May, and the production and packaging process will take approximately two weeks. This means that the first batch can be shipped as early as mid-June if everything goes smoothly. At the latest, the first batch will be shipped by the end of June.
We understand that this is a one-month delay from the promised delivery date, but it was necessary for us to use the Kickstarter funds to make final improvements to the hardware design to ensure the quality of the product shipped. We sincerely apologize for the delay in shipping and we really appreciate your patience.
Other Questions
What shipping/fulfillment company are you using?
We are still negotiating with several shipping solutions to select the optimal shipping method (cost efficiency, speed, and reliability). We will update the community as soon as we have our shipping partner confirmed.
Once again, thank you all for your support and we will keep you informed! If you have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us.
Best,
Sesame Team