About Us
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Events of 2012
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Occurred in March
The Birth of the MiniDrive
Where we forgot about health & safety
At 6:42pm a newly assembled, hand-crafted chunk of metal, fiberglass and silicon was put excitely into an oven (5 minutes at 230°C / 446°F for best results). 3 months of exam procrastination, planning and design had paid off: the MiniDrive Mark 1 was born.
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Occurred in July
A Really, Really big Kick[start] Awake
Where we spent 20 days manically refreshing the screen
Optimistically we asked for $11,000 over 28 days, planning on oven-cooking a few more. A month later we‘d raised $384,319 from 9,805 backers in 78 countries around the world.
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Occurred in August
A Not-So-Nifty Beginning
Where we were suddenly running an electronics company
Ever written a manufacturing plan? Neither had we. We found ourselves in China, learning the hard-way how to create a reliable product at scale and to a deadline.
While we were out there we took on our first proper employees: two amazing customer service guys who helped us try and answer our (incredibly patient) backers.
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Occurred in March
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Events of 2013
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Occurred in January
Back To The Drawing Board
Where we almost gave up
Turns out trying hard doesn‘t always count: Mark II was a bit of a disaster. For two months we barely slept, drowning in manufacturing errors and tragicomic cross-cultural misunderstandings.
A week back in England to cry it off and we launched into another month of frantic redesign – a big shout out to Tim & James at DCA Design for their help – and prepared to try again.
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Occurred in February
Manufacturing The Right Way
Where we met a guy who was friends with a guy who knew a guy
Somehow, somewhere in the mess that was this period, we found ourselves sat down with a representative of Foxconn – y‘know, the ones who make those Apple things… – taking them on as our principle manufacturer. The MiniDrive Mark III was go!
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Occurred in August
Let‘s Talk Funding
Where we remembered to wear ties
A few days before the first shipment of finished MiniDrives arrived we were lucky enough to get funding for our company. A mini-hiring spree later and we had our team in place and a hefty chunk of veteran industry experience on the board.
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Occurred in August
Kickstopped
Where we made good, finally
24 hours, a couple of pallets of MiniDrives prepped, packed and sent out around the world. Champagne followed by exhausted back-clapping. Our baby was all grown up.
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Occurred in September
Open For Business!
Where we got excited all over again
In the early hours we launched this website, hoping against hope that our Kickstarter backers weren‘t the only people interested in what we‘d been making. Within a week we‘d sold our 3-month estimate of MiniDrive stock and had to close down the store.
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Occurred in January