Fluora Shipping Update
about 4 years ago
– Mon, Jan 10, 2022 at 06:41:09 PM
Hi everyone!
Wanted to send a quick update - as of our 12/16 update, our shipment was supposed to dock yesterday, 1/5/22. We got an update earlier from Flexport that the date has been pushed back to 1/17/22. The note from Flexport reads: “This can be due to a variety of reasons but is most often attributed to poor weather, delays at a previous port call, or arrival port congestion.”
Ocean Freight shipping is a mess right now- the delays we, and the rest of the industry are seeing right now are unprecedented and out of our control.
Again, this is just a new estimate and the actual arrival date could be pushed back again. We’re sorry to keep updating our customers with news of more delays, but it is just the way the supply chain is working at the moment.
We will continue to update you all as we learn more- but for now we are pushing back our expected shipping date to late January/early February.
Please let us know if you have any questions!
~ The Fluora Team ~
December Production Update
over 4 years ago
– Mon, Dec 20, 2021 at 04:46:57 AM
Hello!
The end is near! The ship with our Fluora units is currently sailing the Pacific Ocean, and is scheduled to dock in Oakland on 1/5/22. We expect to start shipping finished units out in batches starting 1/11/22.
Again, ocean freight shipping is crazy right now and the vessel arrival date may still get pushed back. We'll keep you updated as we get updates from Flexport. It’s not much to look at, but we’ll share a picture of our container, loaded up with boxes, and a screenshot of our Flexport Dashboard :)
Other than that, we’re putting the finishing touches on our app and software that will live on Fluora. We’re developing more Fluora content, and adding a scheduler.
We’ve also done some actual user testing and are streamlining the initial setup process, instruction manual, and app user experience.
Please keep in mind we’re a very small company with limited resources- expecting a Philips Hue quality/feature rich app out of the box is unrealistic. The app and software will continue to improve over time, and we will be able to push updates to your phones and the plants themselves. In addition, we're very open to feedback on the app/content and can take that into account for future development!
We’re very excited to be this close to shipping, and so happy you have all been so patient with us on this journey. It’s truly been a difficult time to try and ship a hardware product, so thank you all for being patient.
When launched our crowdfunding campaign last October, people told us it would be a long hard road, but we didn’t really imagine it would take this amount of effort. The mountains we’ve climbed since then have hardened our team and our company, and this is just the beginning of our journey together!
It's a huge priority for our team to make sure all of our first customers have an amazing experience with Fluora. We are experimenting with some ideas for the Fluora roadmap, including building a community of Fluora customers. We’d love for you to take our Fluora Community Survey and give us your 2 cents on these things!
That's it for now- the next update will be a notification of when we're shipping units out! Please go into your Backerkit if you haven't already and make sure all your information (especially shipping) is up to date.
We hope you all have an amazing holiday season spent with loved ones.
Looking forward to sending you all more good news early next year!
~ The Fluora Team ~
November Production Update
over 4 years ago
– Wed, Nov 10, 2021 at 12:26:23 AM
Hi all,
We are wrapping up our production run this week- the only thing left are the stems getting their finishing touches!
Here are some more pictures:
“Frames” are going into our ceramic pots and into boxes!
LED Leaves with PCB’s in them before the second leaf halves are attached.
Stems in Production
Some of the internal cabling inside of the frames
As for timeline, the container is getting loaded on 11/22, and the ship is scheduled to depart on 11/29. The good news is it seems like the container backups in California have cleared up a bit- the current ETA in California is 12/15. That is the date we’re receiving from our freight forwarder, but we are preparing for the date to get pushed back. We are planning for the realistic date we ship Fluora out to customers will be in early January, but we may get lucky and be able to do it sooner. We will keep you all updated!
Other that than, we don’t have much to report. We’re bringing in some mobile developer resources to beef up the app before its public release!
Here’s a final fun Fluora picture in a special destination :)
Thanks again for your support, we can’t wait to ship these units out!
~ The Fluora Team ~
September/October Production Update
over 4 years ago
– Wed, Oct 06, 2021 at 08:11:28 AM
Hi everyone!
Update incoming!
Our production run is still in full swing:
- Stems and Leaves are in production (see pics below)
- Our “Frames” that sit inside the pot and house electronics are in production
- Our custom PCBs are wrapping up next week
- Misc electronic components are mostly finished up
Pictures:
- Final Stem “First Articles”
- Foam Stem & Leaf Packaging (has been redesigned to use as little foam & be as environmentally friendly as possible)
Now for a timeline update:
- Our projected shipping date of Fluora from China to California is 10/29.
- We’ve been flagging COVID-19 delays in Global supply chain for months now, but things are continuing to get worse, especially related to Ocean Freight shipping from China to the USA.
- We have booked a full 40’ container to get our first run of Fluora Plants from China to California. Normally the transit time is 3-4 weeks, but the entire ocean freight shipping industry is seeing unprecedented delays that are the worst in history. Right now, Flexport Flexport (our shipping provider) is estimating 60-70 days for shipment from China to California. This puts our estimated arrival date around New Years. There may be further delays as these shipments will be competing with other vessels for Christmas delivery.
- Unfortunately, there is a good chance we will be missing shipping before Christmas, and shipping Fluora out to customers in early January.
- We have done everything in our power to try and prevent this, but unfortunately as a small self funded Hardware Startup pushing against macro global supply chain problems, we can’t do much.
- To back our news up with evidence from a reliable source- feel free to read this article from the Economist about the state of container shipping (you can register for a free account if it doesn’t let you read the whole thing)
Thanks again for sticking with us - I know it's been a long journey but we can truly see the light at the end of the tunnel!
Please reach out if you have any questions!
~ The Fluora Team
August Update, Fluora in the Wild
over 4 years ago
– Wed, Sep 01, 2021 at 08:30:41 PM
Hi Backers!
August Update incoming!
We’ve been having some fun putting up our beta units at bars/restaurants, and taking them to some events! Here are some spots where we currently have Fluora installed:
San Francisco:
Los Angeles:
New York City:
Feel free to visit these spots and check out Fluora in real life!
Our first production run of 700 units is fully underway!
- Our custom wiring, ceramic pots, and wooden stands are completely finished.
- Our leaves and stems are in production
- At this phase of a hardware product, normally we have part of our team in China to ensure products are built to spec and with high quality. Unfortunately, none of our team in the USA is able to go into China right now due to COVID-19. However, we have brought on a local Chinese resource to be our eyes and ears on the ground and ensure our specified quality control processes are implemented and followed.
We took some extra time to make some final improvements to the product before launching our production run. Because of these final changes, we had to push back our production schedule another 3 weeks, taking us into November Delivery for our backers.
We saw these changes as necessary to make to ensure Fluora is a good of a product as it can be, and both beautiful and robust for its customers. These are:
- Making the frame and exposed wiring black so that the visible parts of the product during assembly are sleek
- Etching information on the frame inside the pot that will help with assembly/control
- Changing our TRRS connectors in the stems and leaves to be gold plated, which is higher quality.
- Modifying the tooling inside our stems so they can be bent more easily and are more robust
- There was a small visible gap between our stem and our leaf due to the female Stem connector not being properly set right inside the stem. We worked closely with our factories to design a special tool to consistently set the perfect depth of the connectors to ensure there is no gap!
- Adding texture to our LED Leaf to improve the surface look and light diffusion
We just released a summer teaser video with footage from our beta plants.
A couple more exciting announcements:
- We are still selling units from our First Production run on our actual website. Let a friend know, there are only 75 units left for sale out of this run!
- We’ve partnered with payments platform Klarna to offer a financing option for Fluora
- We have officially opened up Fluora sales to Canada, our first international country! Canadian residents will be able to buy through the Store.
- Our fundraising round is still open to our Crowdfunding backers. Learn more about investing in Fluora here.
More Recent Pics Below:
