Hi all,
I'm only going to post once, and would ask the moderators to consider locking this thread so it doesn't turn in to a long, drawn out shoutfest that can often happen...
Shutting Adire came from a variety of issues:
1. A partner in the Chilean venture ran off with an extremely large sum of funds, leaving essentially zero. As I shut it down, I made sure that I personally covered all paychecks and expenses of all employees - the ethical lapse of my partner was not their fault and they did not bear any repercussions from it.
2. Having a key member of the creation of the Chilean venture (chief engineer of another company) quit right at the beginning, seriously impacting the start of operations.
3. Another partner who became seriously hands-off and essentially didn't want to work in the business, but still expected full compensation and benefits.
4. Two dealers who ordered and accepted very large shipments of product, only to promptly go out of business, and having another dealer still running an extremely large outstanding balance over the last few years.
5. A few users who destroyed their drivers (we're talking screwdrivers through surrounds, frames cracked from being dropped, voice coils turned to charcoal) and refused to pay for any repairs claiming it had to be from defective products, and loudly claiming such over the forums (for the record, we still have 7 drivers here waiting to be paid for repair work; that's it).
6. A dealer who, only after threat of legal action, finally admitted to lying and slandering us about product quality, deliveries, authorization and pricing. Just made things up to better his own position at the expense of ours.
7. A state and federal tax system that has gotten extremely onerous and difficult to work with (including having random EINs newly assigned every year, for 9 years running - imagine being told you now have 10 tax IDs and why haven't you paid on 9 of them you little tax cheat?).
Aside: Terry, Kevin and I spoke at length about this issue simply because it's what older men do - drink coffee and complain about the government. That and shake our fists and yell at the kids to get off our lawn.
But in reality this was one of the smaller - but more irritating - issues.
8. A realistic look at where the aftermarket car and home DIY markets are heading. It's not pretty.
9. A realistic look at where our income is really coming from; having clients and licensees from tiny operations like CSS to big guys like Microsoft (yes, both a licensee and client) really sets where to focus efforts.
Given the above, it was pretty much in the best interest of all involved just to terminate and go our seperate ways. XBL² is still covered via US Patent 7,039,213 and new licenses are being negotiated every week. Multiple new products are being designed, from drivers to electronics to systems for a wide variety of clients, worldwide.
Basically, I got tired of all the drama, and watching everyone wanting to jump on board when times were good and bail the second we hit a pothole, so I decided it was best to just shut down. So that's what happened.
If anyone has a product that's in for service and wants it fixed, the e-mail address is posted on the website. Most of these products have been finished for over a year, just waiting for the client to pay a reasonable fee ($99 - flat rate that has been for 3 years) for parts and labor.
Anyway, it was a good run, I met a lot of great folks - TerryO, against my better judgement, being one of them - and am happy in what I am now doing. You'll hear more of what I work on in many ways, just with me and my new team working in the background.
Dan Wiggins
