Hello
Sorry if you guys feel I've been absent, to be honest I'm not really sure how to respond to all the speculation and the sudden burst of negativity. If you look back through the thread, you'll see we've been doing our best to answer all your questions. As a result, many of the answers are already there. There is also information on our blog regarding development and announcements.
As we've mentioned, another video is on its way out, and will be done before the end of the indiegogo campaign! We're also working to get a unit into the hands of reviewers. Thank you for your patience.
The Grasshopper you see in my profile pic and in the videos is a functioning prototype. As with many prototypes, it is not perfect. Continuous testing and modifications to our prototypes have them in rough shape. When a user on the forum asks whether or not we can include a "stealth mode" where the LEDs do not light up, we take it apart and we try and figure out how it can be done. Any small improvement we can make that will enhance the experience, we will attempt to implement. So understandably we're not in a rush to show a reviewer our battered prototypes, we'd like to get our next batch ready and show those off. It isn't fair to the reviewer or to the Grasshopper to have it reviewed at the moment and asking them to try to ignore small deficiencies. (example: people have noticed the button is a bit sticky in the video, that tends to happen when you accidentally melt a little plastic part with your soldering iron!) We want them to experience it as a whole and at its best. Many crowdsourcing projects don't have functional prototypes yet, or even proof of concept! I don't know of any that have third party reviews. Few have as complete a prototype as ours. At this point we're not even trying to "sell" anyone a Grasshopper, this is not a pre-order, it is a crowdsourcing campaign.
So why support the campaign?
Because you want something better. Like us, you most likely feel that there isn't a single portable vape out there that combines an elegant form factor with high performance. From the videos we've already shown, you can see it has those two things.
How is it possible?
Well after studying thermodynamics, heat exchangers, fluid flow and materials science for 4 years we've learnt a few things about heating things up. Other vaporizer companies don't build their own computers to run heat flow simulations for days on end to optimize the design of their heating element or use 3d printing to create geometries that are otherwise impossible to manufacture. They don't use our insulation, a state of the art nano structured material that we manufacture in house. The manufacturers out there right now, to be honest, have been lazy. They could be doing a lot better, but they don't think there's a big enough market to warrant spending too much on R&D. We believe that the use of vaporizers is about to take off, and we want to be ready.
mod note: Comments lumping the competition into a ball of lazy and claiming that you know what they're thinking are not what we want to see on the forum. Please restrict your posts to your own product instead of disparaging the rest of the industry.
Do your thing guys! We can't wait to V-Reape the benefits!
