Mon Jan 14 '19 Announcement
over 5 years ago
– Mon, Jan 14, 2019 at 10:39:29 AM
Dear members,
Happy New Year !!
Because you are supporting the Mirabook project, we owe you some explanations. This story is about failure, like every good entrepreneur experience.
To tell you the whole story of Miraxess, we have to turn the clock back in 2012 when I was student in Business school. It was the golden age for new smartphone functionalities and Motorola just released its Motorola Lapdock which I found great and in advance on its time. I kept this lapdock idea in my head until I will finish my studies. In 2014 I started to find the right engineer that could participate to the project and help me create this. During the IoT trade show in my city, I met Paul-Emile that I knew from High school, and he immediately understood the potential and the challenge. Based on the Motorola Lapdock I had, we created a prototype and started to win startup contests.
End of 2015 we create the company Miraxess and started to work on a real prototype with different french engineering offices. During one year, we lost time and our personal money, working with the wrong people (around 100K€). This was a bad experience but at least we learned a lot. Then, To participate to the CES 2017, we started to work with China after we were introduced to the right person. We succeeded in doing a big ugly prototype in 2 months after failing for 1 year.
Based on this, we thought we were 6 months prior the production because that’s what our Chinese partners had estimated.Then we decided to launch a crowdfunding campaign to support the development and find customers for our solution. After this success (thanks to you), we raised money through private investors to strengthen our team. During the whole year of 2017 we pushed the engineers to get the final product but each time there were a problems and modifications. In 2018 we managed to have few dozens of prototype for CES in January, since that we have built a strong range of business opportunities, but as long as the production was delayed, we lost more and more money in salaries and other expenses. Early 2018 we have begun an intensive research for investors but we failed. The 2 main reasons are:
-Nobody wants to invest in Hardware startups
-The ones who do, wanted to wait for the production
We lost more money trying to find investors while the electronic board was close to being stable. At this time we were all very very frustrated and close to bankrupt. We barely managed to launch a batch of 50 units to test before launching the production. It appears that there were some mechanical finishing issue and some software bugs that we tried to solve. It seems that the Force finally went back to us because one of you, a backer, invested a big amount of money into Miraxess to restart the machine :) Thanks to him.
Finally, we have now a qualitative product that satisfies the team, and when we try to launch the production, we face a new issue: the parts pricing and availability. This will be solved shortly but still, it delays the production to march.
All this fails are part of this entrepreneurship journey and my associate and I will not pay ourselves from the project until everybody is satisfied by the product. We have now a competent and motivated team which faced hard times, dedicated to you. I totally support the Sentio team who struggled to deliver and that’s why I never criticized their work. If we had to do things again, I would do things completely differently and save time of course. We never intend to disappoint you, it’s the opposite. Having no revenue since 3 years is tough, but Paul and I would not change this for the world.
2019 is definitely the year of lapdocks and they will all pay a tribute to the Motorola Lapdock :)
Thank you for your support.
PS: When we started the project, I would have never thought it will be so hard, I can understand people and investors hesitating before going with a hardware startup but we need them otherwise nothing happens.
Yanis- CEO of Miraxess
Thu Nov 22 '18 Announcement
over 5 years ago
– Thu, Nov 22, 2018 at 09:38:10 AM
Dear Backers,
Here is a status on the Project:
We had to make electronic board modifications in order to pass the ESD and EMC certifications ( ElectroStatic Discharge and ElectroMagnetic Compatibility). Unfortunately, by making those changes, the bord started to get unstable and we had to rework it to reach a reliable experience, so we wasted few weeks doing trying to solve all issues. For instance, some very rare note 9 were not detected 100% of the time, or sometimes screen resolution was downscaled to 1336p without reason.
Believe us, it’s not easy to realize that. We thought we were close to manufacturing, but sometimes when you make a step forward, you actually make 2 steps backward.
After discussing with some people in electronic industry, they say it’s normal in the process of creation, but still, it is very unpleasant.
Like we said to some of you, the product exists, and the difficulty is to scale to thousands of units, keeping the same level of quality.
What will happen now?
Currently we are solving the last software issues, defining the quality control process, writing the assembly factory contracts and preparing our next trip to China to seal off product development.
December will be the month to prepare everything at the factory and January will be dedicated to assembly.
We are very disappointed each time we give you false promises for deliveries, that's why giving you a new delivery date will not help us go faster. Mirabooks will be ready when they will be ready, do not expect much on the time, expect much on the quality, because we are aiming high-end standards. In return we will communicate more on what we do and share moments to show you we still exist.
For those who say Miraxess has bankrupted
Our startup has officially raised $500 000 with private investors who believe, like you, that smartphones will replace PC.. They also understand that we have a big partnership to play with a big brands…
We had the opportunity to be invited for the Samsung Developer Conference where the Foldable was announced few days ago. It was a great opportunity to finally meet the Korean and American DeX team in charge of this awesome feature. We had a great talk on how to improve the experience and all kind of software interactions. We had the opportunity to test Linux on DeX which is a great technology progress. Some of us at the office are trying to work full time on it and it’s really amazing. We are going to send you a video on Linux on DeX + Mirabook.
We know you are disappointed again, but let’s stay positive for the good of the project that we all support. This future that we are building takes time, but it’s coming because of your strong support. Without you, there would be no adventure.
Take care,
The Mirateam
Tue Sep 25 '18 Announcement
over 5 years ago
– Tue, Sep 25, 2018 at 09:43:59 AM
Dear Backers,
When we started this project in 2015, we didn’t expect that it would take so long to release the Mirabook. We discussed with different hardware entrepreneurs to get their testimonies and advices and thanks to them we were able to avoid many issues along the adventure. Things are not progressing as fast as we expected nor as we would like but they are progressing, and all the team members have made great sacrifices to reach that point. Most of us have worked for free for 3 years and we had done it for you and the dream we share: Making mobile convergence happen, and it will.
1/ 50 units out of production
The most difficult has been past, we have produced the first 50 units. This is a test production to detect any eventual issue and optimization that can be done on the incoming mass production. It took a lot of effort to release these devices, but we are very happy with the result.
“With Paul, we worked every day from 8am to midnight at the factory with all the technicians writing an assembly document to learn the best way to build the units and check every component. It was 2 intense weeks but, in the end, we are very happy with the building material. It feels premium like we wanted and there’s very few optimizations.” – Yanis CEO
Here are the different optimizations remaining:
-Shell production process optimization because we have detected a tiny axial issue due to too much material that could alter the longevity of the product.
-There is too much material on the colour touch mold that we need to reduce to ease the clipping method to put it in and out.
-We need to fix the keyboard layouts because Android does not support some keys.
-A new board version is in production to improve the stability and compatibility.
-We have some software optimization to do to improve the trackpad latency that is very acceptable but detectable for some experts.
-We will add some conductive tape to pass the ESD/EMC certifications.
2/ New Timeline
Since early September we already work on all of this. There’s a week of vacation in China in October so we expect to be ready to make the mass production purchase order for the 2nd week of October. In that case you will receive your Mirabook in December. Be aware that at this point we may encounter a new problem to solve that can delay a bit the deliveries. Again, we are as frustrated as you for this and we thank you for your full support so far. Thank you also to the big companies and partners willing to pay between $500 to $1000 to buy these test units and help us improve the product.
Please keep in mind that because we are a small team of 5, it takes a lot of energy and time to respond to all the negative message and it takes us away from working on the real production. The most important thing is that we are 100% commited to this task, everyday.
Hope you guys are all good, Peace.
Fri Jul 13 '18 Announcement
almost 6 years ago
– Fri, Jul 13, 2018 at 07:42:23 AM
Dear Miraclub members,
Just a few words to keep you updated.
In June, a part of our team went to China in order to monitor and validate the quality of the Mirabook.
The color touch - 6 colors
Fabien, our designer, is really satisfied with the overall quality and the improvement that have made since the beginning:
“We have improved the trackpad soft touch according to the feedback we had at trade shows. The backlit keyboard was a bit weak, so we used a laser method to print the keys and brighten everything. The mechanical stiffness and the finishing are amazing, that’s why I’m so impatient for you to use it.”
The assembly plant in Shenzen
Paul-Emile, Our Chief engineer, worked on the software stability to allow you to switch the plugged devices instantaneously without any crash:
“We had an issue with the battery manufacturer because his cells were not sustainable and couldn’t pass the certifications. We have changed the supplier and now we’re good. My main concern was to have a plug and play experience, and now we have it.”
Everyday we receive your support message and we read all of them. The team mood is between frustration and impatience. Frustration because everything would go a lot faster if we had 10 million dollars, and impatience because we want you to experience our 3 years of work result.
Thanks for your patience,
Do not hesitate to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram Linkedin and our Youtube page if you want to have more news about Miraxess and our projects.
Tue Jun 5 '18 Announcement
almost 6 years ago
– Tue, Jun 05, 2018 at 09:56:55 AM
Dear Miraclub members,
June is already here and you asked several times for an update, which is completely understandable. We would like to apologize for this momentary lapse of communication. The Mirateam was busy solving problems and we didn’t have much to tell before finding the appropriate solutions. The main announcement is that we have launched the first step of production. We nevertheless had to briefly interrupt it to ensure the perennity of the company.
So here we are, the June update of the Mirabook is here.
1°) Why it takes time to release the Mirabook:
- Fundraising
It is no news for anyone, starting a project from scratch is no easy task and finding money was the main issue we had these past few weeks. All your contributions and pre-orders accounted for around $200K, which is amazing. We are extremely honored and thankful to all of you for that. As you may know, we expected things to come through sooner and because it took more time than initially planned, it also cost more money (wages, research and development, to mention a few). In December, we tried to raise money from banks and corporate investors to compensate for the additional costs and we expected the funds to come through during the course of May. Unfortunately, we learned the truth of what it takes to be a hardware project the hard way. None of them were willing to invest because hardware is considered too risky a venture. We had to proceed to making some major overhauls in our team, in order to focus specifically on certifications and fundraisings. That is the reason why we didn't communicate as much as before, even though it is always a pleasure to talk with you guys and we will always remain available to discuss or answer any request you may have.
As we specified in the last update, we started supplying some components in April, which is phase 1 of production. That being said, we could have pursued the production in May and June but it would have endangered the financial situation of Miraxess and its employees. We have now found a solution, and the team took advantage of this delay to turn it into something positive for our product.
- Futureproofing
Since the beginning, Miraxess has always wanted to create “the last laptop you will ever buy”, meaning that we want to make our product as future-proof as possible. This implies being compatible with the incoming generation of devices and the new trends of this fast-growing market can sometimes be hard to anticipate. Because we waited a few weeks to launch production, our team was able to calibrate the Mirabook to be compatible with the incoming DeX devices and others… (Unfortunately we cannot give any more details, as we are bound by confidentiality). We also added the update feature, which will soon be able to update your Mirabook through your phone. All of these new functionalities are here to ensure that our product is as future-proof as possible.
- Certifications
Running the beta test phase was essential to identify the specific points we needed to work on. Thanks to this process, we have been able to fix many issues. Reliability is a keypoint and that is why we decided to run some additional quality certifications in May.
Here is the tailor-made cable for the Mirabook
Your satisfaction and experience quality remain our top priority. These certifications are also pivotal to concluding partnerships with major smartphone brands, which would be a fantastic opportunity for the small startup you have supported.
2°) New roadmap
We are well aware that multiple delays suck and we are as disappointed as you are. We are nonetheless very excited to announce that a small first pre-production batch will leave the factory in July to be sent to some partners for testing and to conclude partnerships. The objective is to evaluate our capacity to both scale the production and experiment the product on a larger range. The reason why we cannot start sending these first units is because the cost of each unit is extremely high.
Indeed, the companies which paid for this want to test our product before ordering more units. We will then produce a batch of 2000 Mirabook which will get certification in September before being shipped in October.
3°) Meeting with backers
On a brighter note, we were really happy to meet some of you in our headquarters in Lyon and during other events. Two of you came to Lyon in our office to say "Hi" and to get an opportunity to try the Mirabook with their smartphones. It was a very rewarding meeting and we would like to meet more of you! It is always interesting to have the opportunity to chat with you and benefit from your feedback.
If you are travelling to our beautiful country/city for business or even for holiday this summer, do not hesitate to send us a message on our social media or via email.
We will be working full time this summer to deliver your Mirabook as soon as possible!
4°) New DisplayPort smartphone available
You may have seen this already but the list of smartphones compatible with the Mirabook keeps getting longer. After the P20 from Huawei, it is now AsusRog which will be bringing DisplayPort on their lineup!
5°) Thank you for your patience
Creating a product from scratch is a long and hard journey and every day we receive messages of support from you guys. Without you, none of this would have been possible and we are doing our very best to make it happen. We have been very lucky to have all of you on board with us since day one.
And here is a message from our CEO: “I know it’s frustrating but we are trying to balance production, finance and product quality to the best of our abilities. It is not an easy thing to do and so far we have made a lot of personal sacrifices. Without your constant support it would not have been possible and I am really honored to have this responsibility. Be sure that we are 100% dedicated to Miraxess and to you.”
