Having run multiple small businesses that have struggled and failed I get you, but I also think it’s important to remember that very few things really take off fast in a way that can support even one person.
Most businesses require significant investment and take multiple years to even turn a profit. As far as I can tell you’re ahead of the game there, just not where you need to be yet. For a lot of small businesses that is the end because people just can’t continue to put the time and money in hoping that it will pay off later. A lot of times sadly it never does.
I think if you’d had the first small ball vape on the market instead of just in your head/prototypes, and if you’d got some buzz on reddit and with reviewers/influencers I think you could be selling more than any of the competition.
As it is, I think more people need to hear about it and understand why it might be better for them.
I try to tell people some things I think are advantages over others, but some people are stuck on specific issues like the 14 vs 18mm size and I think they just have to either try it or hear from enough people that the size is more of a positive than a negative. Having bowls that natively fit 18mm glass easily available could also help…
Maybe we should have a discussion here about what people might be concerned about and whether or not we think those are real issues?
I can start by saying that on size I can fit at least as much as I’d put in a conduction oven into the standard P3 glass bowl and it extracts it so much faster I can’t imagine being able to handle more vapor than I’m getting.
I’ve got a low tolerance so I probably put more like 0.05g or less in at a time and I still get a lot of vapor out of that fast.
If I fill the bowl I turn the temp down and use it much slower but I still have to take a shorter draw. A full bowl at a high temp would leave me coughing like crazy and not being able to stand anymore just due to the sheer volume of vapor.
Maybe some people can handle a lot more and more dense vapor than I can, but it’s hard for me to believe they could outpace a Phase 3 vaporizer.
If you have to pack it in
@invertedisdead I get it, but I think you’ve got great stuff here and I think we’d all be better off if you could instead adjust your expectations, keep them available as a side project rather than your main focus since I know you need money, and maybe keep looking at other ways and places to get the name out there and build a solid reputation.
It might take some adjustments, or it might just need time to reach enough of the right people…
I think the reason sales dropped off is there was a lot of pent up demand from those of us who were waiting for this exact device to be released and people who buy and compare tons of these things, and since we don’t need 10 or even 2 of them those sales have slowed a lot (apart from potential accessory sales).
Now this is the period where hopefully our evangelism can start to build out a broader base of people who know and love the ZX/etc. who will hopefully in turn spread it to another round of buyers and so on.
If that works, and I think there is some evidence in this and other threads that it is starting to work, I still think there’s a very legitimate path forward if you want to take it.
If you want to talk about more ideas or if I might be able to help keep things going, just DM me and I’m happy to see what else we could do.
Whatever you decide, thanks for creating some awesome stuff and getting it into the hands of people who love it and will use it for years to come. We appreciate you man.
I hope I didn’t ramble so much no one reads this…