Locking Orders for Backerkit, Scam Exposure Video
over 4 years ago
– Thu, Jul 29, 2021 at 11:20:03 AM
Hi Backers,
Quick update- we will be locking orders and charging credit cards for add ons via Backerkit this week- so please finalize all orders through there in the next 48 hours.
We’ve mentioned the small army of eCommerce Scammers in China have stolen our content and are selling knockoffs of our product.
Trying to get the ads ads and companies taken down 1 by 1 is like playing whack a mole in a football field with a toy hammer. We’ve been getting so many messages lately from people getting scammed that we decided to try another approach and make a Fluora Scam Exposure Video.
We just released the video on all social media platforms (Instagram, Tiktok, Reddit, Twitter, Facebook).
Please help us like, comment, share, and engage with these videos so we can FIGHT BACK and expose bigger the fake ad epidemic going on!
Here’s a link to all our social profiles- the videos should be the most recent posts.
Thank you!
~ The Fluora Team ~
June/July Update!
over 4 years ago
– Fri, Jul 09, 2021 at 05:45:33 PM
Hi Backers,
Hope everyone is enjoying their summer! Our EVT units are in and are looking great.
The first thing we’d like to share are updated pictures of our stem/leaf system. One amazing feature we’re excited to share is that each LED Leaf will be replaceable. We’ve designed an engineered a system to make plugging in and replacing individual leaves a breeze. Check it out below!
The final LED Leaf from our tool is in. The material we’re using in our leaf is a specialized polycarbonate made specifically for diffusing as much light as possible. The lumen output is actually 50% greater than our prototype leaves. This is great news, it means Fluora plants will produce even more light than we had anticipated! Check out the picture below- our prototype leaf is on top, and our final production leaf is on the bottom.
All of the components in our product have been finalized, even the boxes:
We’re in the process of doing some final hardware testing and supply chain work, and plan on kicking off the full production run by 7/12.
We did fall slightly behind our target kickoff date of 6/20, but made a conscious decision to push things back to ensure the product was exactly what we wanted it to be, and as high quality as possible. We’re thrilled with how it’s turning out. Because of the couple week push back, and increased ocean freight shipping times, we are going to have to push back our delivery date from September into October. We are feeling good about hitting the October date, but there are still 2 factors that may contribute to further delays.
- There is currently a COVID resurgence in China, and the government has been shutting down businesses in neighborhoods and cities with high COVID numbers. We are hoping our factories are not hit by this.
- Ocean freight shipping from China is extremely backed up and also being effected by COVID. We are doing our best to secure space on Cargo ships going out, but there are also backups as ships wait to unload at California Ports. We’ll be sure to update you on our process here.
Lastly, we’ve got another bit of exciting news- we’re officially launching the Fluora Online Store today! From now on, we’ll be selling Fluora units on our actual website and not a crowdfunding site. This is a big milestone for us- feel free to share the store with friends.
Thanks for sticking with us!
~ The Fluora Team ~
Fluora Plant Stands for Sale! BackerKit surveys are coming!
almost 5 years ago
– Wed, May 26, 2021 at 07:06:40 PM
Hi Backers!
Hope you all are doing well :) The Fluora team just moved into a new office space in sunny Oakland, California and are happy as can be!
Tomorrow, you’ll receive an email from us with a special link to your BackerKit survey. It’s important to respond to your survey as quickly as you can since we need this information to fulfill your rewards.
You don’t need to create a BackerKit account to fill out your survey.
When you receive the email with the survey, click the survey link to respond. Answer the questions about your reward preferences, provide shipping information, and purchase add-on items if you like.
You don’t have access to this survey link yet, but it will be available soon via email!
In addition to being able to buy more Fluora, one of the add on items we’re proud to finally make available is a custom Fluora wooden plant stand! Buying one of these will ensure your Fluora is the crown jewel of your indoor space. Check out a picture of the Fluora stand below:
After you respond to your survey, you can go back later and change your responses at any time before we close the surveys and get our final counts.
If you need to review your information or pledge status, you can return to your survey by clicking the link in your survey email or requesting your survey link under "Lost your survey?" on our BackerKit project page at https://fluora.backerkit.com/.
If you used your Facebook credentials to log in to your Kickstarter account, the BackerKit survey is sent to the email address you use for your Facebook account. If you have another email address that you prefer to use, please contact support at https://fluora.backerkit.com/faq.
We’ve got some exciting and announcements coming up in June, so stay TUNED!
Love,
~ The Fluora Team ~
April/May Update, Delivery Timeline News
almost 5 years ago
– Tue, May 04, 2021 at 07:38:59 PM
Hi Backers!
We’ve decided to do our April & May update together. This is because this will be the last update before we have our EVT (Engineering Validation Test) units in hand. Once these units are finished and tested, we’ll feel extremely confident about Fluora as a product, and start making preparations to start the first production run, which includes all the units that will ship to our backers!
The other exciting thing about the EVT units is that we will create much more content with them for our website & social media accounts, which have been relatively inactive as our whole team focuses on making Fluora the best product it can be, and finishing development.
Our leaf tool is finished, and we’ll be doing first article inspection next week (after the May holiday in China). Our stem color & finish has been finalized, as well as the connection system between the stems and leaves that allows for leaves to be replaced. Check out a picture of our stem finish below:
We’re also happy to announce our Fluora ceramic pot mold is finished- and are really happy to show off a nice debossed Fluora logo imprinted in the pot:
The Fluora Mobile app is also coming along, and we’ve verified the process of making an over the air update to Fluora’s firmware from the mobile app.
All in all, the Fluora team is jazzed about how product development has been going. The product feels very real now that we can control and update Fluora from our phones.
Now for some news about delivery date:
We’ve taken lots of precaution to de-risk our timeline as much as possible, and have been really happy with our ability to hit most of the internal deadlines in our product development schedule.
However, we’ve had a couple things come up that are leading us to push back the delivery date from July until September (8 weeks). The main driver of this schedule delay is second order complications from COVID’s global impact on Supply Chain, Travel, and Manufacturing.
2 things in particular are:
- Currently, global ocean freight shipping is backed up, due to complications from COVID (more US demand for goods shipped straight to home, and the container ship getting stuck in the Suez Canal in late march). All of our freight forwarders and shipping contacts are telling us to expect 2 months for Ocean Freight Shipping from China to the USA, instead of the normal lead time of 1 month. Because most of Fluora’s raw materials are coming from China, this has caused us to move our delivery timeline back a whole month.
- The increasing overhead of our engineering team not being able to go to China. A normal American hardware development cycle relies on engineers going to China to work closely with factories and partners who help design and manufacture our components and assemblies. With COVID, our team is not able to go to China. Currently, it is extremely hard to get approval to enter, and for those that do, China enforces a 21 day quarantine period, followed by a 7 day quarantine period in each city that you visit during your trip. This makes it unrealistic for our small team to send resources there. Being in China fast-tracks physical product development because we can get hands and eyes on prototypes and iterations of components as they come off the line, and communicate more directly with our factory partners. Instead, we have to wait 3-5 days for air shipping of components to California for each iteration we make. This lead time is continuing to stack up over the course of our product development cycle, and by the end of development, will lead to a 4 week delay.
Our team has been very proactive about not letting our schedule slip, and we apologize for having to push the delivery date back. That being said, we are more confident than ever that Fluora will be a quality product, and will be everything our customers are expecting it to be. We will also continue to update all of our backers regularly for the rest of our product development cycle.
One final risk we want to make aware to our backers is the global semiconductor shortage that become an increasing problem in the last couple months. We have identified the components that we believe will be affected by this shortage, and have already secured them for our first production run. However, there is still a chance that certain components that are in Fluora may suddenly skyrocket in price, or become unavailable. We are doing everything we can to prevent this from affecting our product and timeline, and just wanted to make our backers aware that we have identified this as a problem and are doing our best to mitigate it.
Please reach out to us at [email protected] if you have further questions about our delivery timeline.
That’s it for our April/May update. Until next time!
Fluora March Update
about 5 years ago
– Mon, Mar 29, 2021 at 03:20:24 PM
Hey Kickstarter Backers!
Here’s our March Update!
We’ve kicked off our Engineering Validation Build for Fluora, and are happy to report things are going well!
Our leaf tool is still being shaped, all the internal wiring for our Validation build has been ordered.
The Fluora PCB’s have been tested & updated, and we ordered the units for our Validation build on Monday.
We’ve gotten the first samples of the Fluora Packaging and have tested them and are updating them for the full production run.
The first version of our end to end hardware and software system from LEDs & motherboard to mobile app has been stood up! On the software side, our mobile app is coming along, and we’ve laid out the infrastructure for over the air updates for Fluora.
We’re also excited to share some pictures of product development below!
The first picture is of the Fluora PCB driving a prototype Fluora plant:
The second picture is of 3 soft tooled prototypes of the near final leaf design:
The last picture shows a prototype of the Fluora frame within a pot, and some different buttons inside the frame we were testing for turning the plant on/off, and a network reset button:
Don’t forget, we’re still selling Fluora plants on our Indiegogo InDemand Campaign in case you or any friends want to pick up another Fluora!
For fulfillment - we are going to wait until we've locked down the final wooden plant stand we are offering before following up with Backers. This way, we can give our backers the option to add the wooden plant stand onto their order when filling out their fulfillment information.
Until April!
~ The Fluora Team ~
