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Pedal to the Mettle: The unbelievable, true story of Automoblox

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Re: Pedal to the Mettle: The unbelievable, true story of Automoblox

#2
What a depressing story.

The guy had an offer from Brio, a very reputable partner, to take over the manufacturing responsibility, and passed on it in favor of dealing with some shady, fly-by-night Chinese firms he stumbled upon, because he "wasn’t willing to let Automoblox out of my control at this point; I still wanted to achieve my dream of being a manufacturer."

Re: Pedal to the Mettle: The unbelievable, true story of Automoblox

#5
post #3

I can't believe this story got so few votes. It's great story of the ups and downs an entrepreneur went through to bring his product to the market. Worth the read.

I would say that it's not that "unbelievable." Guy does business with shady third world factory, gets screwed over... It's long and ends 5 years ago with a cliffhanger.

Re: Pedal to the Mettle: The unbelievable, true story of Automoblox

#6

What a depressing story. The guy had an offer from Brio, a very reputable partner, to take over the manufacturing responsibility, and passed on it in favor of dealing with some shady, fly-by-night Chinese firms he stumbled upon, because he "wasn’t willing to let Automoblox out of my control at this point; I still wanted to achieve my dream of being a manufacturer."

Yeah, and he learned a hell lot of important stuff. I think this experience shaped him to be a better entrepreneur.

Re: Pedal to the Mettle: The unbelievable, true story of Automoblox

#7

What a depressing story. The guy had an offer from Brio, a very reputable partner, to take over the manufacturing responsibility, and passed on it in favor of dealing with some shady, fly-by-night Chinese firms he stumbled upon, because he "wasn’t willing to let Automoblox out of my control at this point; I still wanted to achieve my dream of being a manufacturer."

Not too depressing, Automoblox are widely available on Amazon. Even if he had to fire-sale the IP his toy is out on shelves.

Re: Pedal to the Mettle: The unbelievable, true story of Automoblox

#10
Last year I bought two Autoblox cars, two months apart. First was of a very high manufacturing quality, it snapped together very tightly, everything aligned and it was just a pleasure to hold and play with. It was the reason why I bought another one. Got it from the same place, exact same packaging, authenticity label and what not. And what a wobbly piece of shit it was. Major quality problems. And what is strange, it left me far more pissed with the company than it wiuld've if the first toy were of a subpar quality.

I guess the point is that if you are going to differentiate by delivering high quality products, you just absolutely cannot let the quality slip. Ever. Otherwise it's an instant trip to the pile of "regular products" and a long a painful climb back up to gain back customers trust.

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