I guess we're going to have to live in a world where there's a SEVERE shortage of leather bags.
rolls eyes
Kickstarter suspends project 10 hours from successful funding
11–20 of 82 posts
Re: Kickstarter suspends project 10 hours from successful funding
#12tl;dr - Person who mentored these guys didn't realize they were going to compete, takes legal action, Kickstarter complies. Since Kickstarter is walking into the same land mines that eBay did, albeit with a slightly different flavor, it will be interesting to see how this plays out. The Vinted Goods folks can show pretty clear economic harm from the action, the mentor clearly thinks there is some sort of trademark, t…
"So what happens if you decide to make a Kickstarter Movie about a couple of anthropomorphized robots who end up on a dessert planet only to discover one of the inhabitants is destined to overthrow a totalitarian dictator?"
That depends. Does the plot involve one of the robots taking a bite out of the dessert planet?
Re: Kickstarter suspends project 10 hours from successful funding
#13A little Googling finds the founders - Jason Sun [1] and Ben Yi [2] - both worked at KILLSPENCER [3] before starting Vinted Goods [4]. While it's true that both sites have a top nav, I couldn't find any pics of someone operating a sewing machine on either site. Either way, the products seem similar, but what would you expect from a mentor/protege relationship?
[1] http://www.linkedin.com/pub/jason-sun/20/84a/124
[2] http://www.linkedin.com/pub/benjamin-yi/16/662/662
Edit: The owner of KILLSPENCER, Spencer Nikosey [5] has a few interesting interview nuggets [6][7]:
WHAT ARE YOU MOST PROUD OF? I'm most proud of the upcoming products and relationships I've built with the members of our SPECIAL PROJECTS INNOVATION TEAM. (This is the team Jason and Ben were on.)
WHO DO YOU BOUNCE IDEAS OFF AND/OR GET INSPIRED BY? I have a small group of mentors. These people are amazing at what they do. I give them products and they use them, and give me feedback on how to improve the designs, construction, etc. I'm so lucky to have such amazing people interested in supporting the vision.
TAKE US BRIEFLY THROUGH YOUR PROFESSIONAL BACKGROUND. WHERE HAVE YOU WORKED BEFORE LAUNCHING YOUR OWN COMPANY? I launched my business straight out of school. While in school, I had the opportunity to intern for some great people. Scott Robertson (Design Studio Press) is where I got my first work experience. I spent so much time observing and picking his mind on the business of design and watched him build his business from the start.
[5] http://www.linkedin.com/pub/spencer-nikosey/12/5a6/866
[6] http://swipelife.com/2009/04/15/the-newcomer-an-intervew-wit...
[7] http://www.carryology.com/2012/04/12/interviews-spencer-niko...
Edit 2: Google Cache of the Kickstarter campaign page: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:jQYA_YU...
Re: Kickstarter suspends project 10 hours from successful funding
#14tl;dr - Person who mentored these guys didn't realize they were going to compete, takes legal action, Kickstarter complies. Since Kickstarter is walking into the same land mines that eBay did, albeit with a slightly different flavor, it will be interesting to see how this plays out. The Vinted Goods folks can show pretty clear economic harm from the action, the mentor clearly thinks there is some sort of trademark, t…
"So what happens if you decide to make a Kickstarter Movie about a couple of anthropomorphized robots who end up on a dessert planet only to discover one of the inhabitants is destined to overthrow a totalitarian dictator?" That depends. Does the plot involve one of the robots taking a bite out of the dessert planet?
lol, gotta love spelling correctors. Ya know I did see one where the princess had a couple of sticky buns on the side of her head. So its entirely possible :-)
Re: Kickstarter suspends project 10 hours from successful funding
#15It feels like there's got to be more to this story than is actually included in this post with regards to the mentor suddenly opposing the startup.
More likely -
"Mentor" was training (grooming) these interns so that they would eventually work at his company.
Interns decided to move out on their own (nothing wrong there),
Interns signed some kind of overly general internship / employment contract that included some form of non-compete which he's leveraging to strengthen his lawsuit.
If I'm mistaken and the mentor's lawsuit really is as weak as the founders exclaim - this should be thrown out fairly quickly - the increase in PR will probably lead to a larger Kickstarter round - all will end well.
Re: Kickstarter suspends project 10 hours from successful funding
#16IANAL, but if the "mentor" is acting in as bad of faith as it appears, there may be grounds for a counter-claim of "tortious interference."
Great legal term. Makes me think of a tortoise chewing on ethernet cables or something.
Re: Kickstarter suspends project 10 hours from successful funding
#17Earlier quoted context omitted.
"So what happens if you decide to make a Kickstarter Movie about a couple of anthropomorphized robots who end up on a dessert planet only to discover one of the inhabitants is destined to overthrow a totalitarian dictator?" That depends. Does the plot involve one of the robots taking a bite out of the dessert planet?
lol, gotta love spelling correctors. Ya know I did see one where the princess had a couple of sticky buns on the side of her head. So its entirely possible :-) [1] http://www.flickr.com/photos/walkerspace/2828387761/
"gotta love spelling correctors"
Figure out a way to route all of your writing through your search engine, and have it flag phrases which do not occur in its database, or which occur much less frequently than similar ones. So, in this case, it would ask: "Did you mean 'desert planet'?"
Alternately, you could just have your secretary check everything before it goes out. You know, like they did in the old days. But then again, I still program in PL/I, and tie handwritten notes to the legs of pigeons.
Re: Kickstarter suspends project 10 hours from successful funding
#18Earlier quoted context omitted.
I agree: > He laid claims to a number of our designs such as our website utilizing a top navigation bar, our photo of the designer operating a sewing machine, etc. > In short, the claims are as outlandish as we perceived If the claims are so ridiculous why haven't they posted the claim? Why are we supposed to trust what they have to say? Also this line reads very curiously: > the mentor gave them words of blessing fo…
"Thanks for all your help help, Mentor. We'll be off!" "Sure thing kids, go crazy. Do whatever you want! Good luck! You'll need it!" [Kids post to kickstarter and get tons of funding. Mentor decides that maybe he wants some of that action.] How much funding had been pledged before Kickstarter pulled the plug?
They had reached $74,000 I believe.
Re: Kickstarter suspends project 10 hours from successful funding
#19Tsk, it stings that the timing is so poor. It's almost malicious to pull the rug in the eleventh hour like that. I agree that the story is pretty one-sided here. The posts reeks of PC, sanitized writing which is to be expected, considering they will be going to court soon. Motives are well hidden and the overall tone of how each interaction between the Vinted and their mentors sounds way too congenial.
Re: Kickstarter suspends project 10 hours from successful funding
#20Earlier quoted context omitted.
lol, gotta love spelling correctors. Ya know I did see one where the princess had a couple of sticky buns on the side of her head. So its entirely possible :-) [1] http://www.flickr.com/photos/walkerspace/2828387761/
"gotta love spelling correctors" Figure out a way to route all of your writing through your search engine, and have it flag phrases which do not occur in its database, or which occur much less frequently than similar ones. So, in this case, it would ask: "Did you mean 'desert planet'?" Alternately, you could just have your secretary check everything before it goes out. You know, like they did in the old days. But the…
> Figure out a way to route all of your writing through your search engine, and have it flag phrases which do not occur in its database, or which occur much less frequently than similar ones. So, in this case, it would ask: "Did you mean 'desert planet'?"
Or, one could build a table of trigrams and bi-grams for English words and use that in the spell checker. It would be helpful to have some sort of approximate indexing, so you can catch things like 'dessert planet' which is just 1 edit step away from 'desert planet.'