The World’s most easiest way to eat healthy. Millo is quiet, convenient and stunning!
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What is harder, fundraising or running a marathon?
Running long distances is hard, but you know for sure that every step takes you closer to the finish line.
With fundraising, you need to sustain high levels of motivation, discipline and commitment until the very moment you cross the finish line, never really knowing whether your efforts would pay off. For us, it was a long and challenging process, which often felt like a race with an ever-receding finish line.
So, first of all, a huge thank you to each and every one of you for your patience. We’ve come a long way together!
We’re ecstatic that a venture capital fund and twelve investors have collectively invested over half a million of Euros, with an opportunity to increase the investment further in the future. And money isn’t the only asset we have gained. With their diverse business experience and world-wide connections, this group of investors brings an invaluable advantage to Millo. These entrepreneurs have built their businesses from ideas to highly successful companies, so it’s a great honor and privilege for us to be working with them.
One major lesson we have learnt last year is that product development and manufacturing requires a huge amount of time and effort. As the old saying goes “time is money”, and we finally have enough of everything to make this happen.
So what’s next?
Our initial plan was to launch a small-scale manufacturing process with our local partners. However, luck has it that, at the beginning of 2018, I got acquainted with the director of business development in Europe of the leading US electronics manufacturer. The company’s headquarters are in the US and they produce for the world’s biggest and most innovative brands, including Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, Google, Dyson, Bose and many more. Their quality guarantee is incredible.
Last month, we’ve held an engineering product evaluation meeting with the company’s representatives at our R&D office. Arranging all the necessary details with a company of this size takes time, but once it’s out of the way, it’s a smooth and efficient process. As soon as we receive the product evaluation feedback, we will announce a new shipment date. However, it’s worth noting that the preparation process will take no less than six months.
Launching production with this manufacturer would mean a huge breakthrough for us. Working with such an experienced partner would allow us to ensure the highest quality, predictable timelines and unlimited production scalability. Millo could quickly expand to a global company.
Another exciting news, Millo design has received a serious uplift as a result of the product development process. Typically, in the automotive industry, the pre-production concept looks much better than the final result. I believe that we have managed to achieve the opposite with Millo. Only a handful of people have seen the new look so far, but they all loved it. I’m confident you will love it, too! Here’s a sneak peek of how the production Millo looks like..
It’s smaller, lighter and in every way significantly improved!
As we are waiting for the pre-production version to be assembled for us, we will reveal all the product updates in more detail in the next announcement.
Stay tuned!
Yours,
Adam
Hi everyone,
amazing how fast time flies by when you are busy :)
Regarding the investment deal everything is going well and we have signed the Term Sheet with all the investors. At the moment we are tuning up the main contract which should be signed next week.
As I have promised earlier, I would like to introduce you some new team members who recently have joined us. Let’s begin with Lina. She is now in charge of Millo product design and UX/UI. Lina has an incredible product development experience obtained throughout five years at Lamborghini where she was responsible for Color & Trim solutions. Lina is working together with Mads, who is in the function of Strategic Advisor. Mads is a highly experienced Danish Senior Industrial Designer and Design Manager and he will oversee all design related items and decisions.
Regarding technological product development, our motor suppliers have build quite a few new prototypes. However, we are still pushing the limits of motor efficiency and asked for some more improvements. The final main PCB is up and running. We continue to work on some other parts of electronics, at the moment developing our own integrated BMS solution.
Thank you so much for those who provided feedback regarding selling Millo directly to end-users. We have started to work with some highly experienced marketing gurus and at the moment developing a long term strategy. Personally, I strongly believe that due to Millo unique nature we will be able to skip the middleman as people will fall in love with the product and naturally share their experience with friends.
Stay tuned,
Adam
Hey everyone,
Despite sub-zero temperatures outside, we’re detecting some good spring vibes in the shiny sky.
Here come the biggest news from the Millo camp: after a long process of meetings, discussions and negotiations, we are finally close to signing the first legal agreements. So far, I can share with you that we have been able to attract a group of seven investors along with a Venture capital fund.
As part of this growth process, some highly experienced designers, marketers and business professionals are joining Millo. Together, we will be working on building a strong and globally recognised brand.
On the product development side, we had a meeting with our motor supplier representatives at the beginning of February. We have run some tests on the latest motor models and discovered new ways how to improve motor performance. The improved motor versions should be finished by 12th of March.
The motor company has been building BLDC motors for more than 10 years and today produces over 100 thousand motors per month. Together, we have been working to develop a custom BLDC motor and looking forward to joining forces on mass production.
We also continue to work on the electronics. At the moment, we are transferring all the components from demo boards to the final all-in-one PCB.
From the very beginning of our journey, we have been showered with incredible feedback from lots of people as well as from the media, but criticised for our pricing.
The Millo technological solution is built on a brushless motor, electronic controls and high-power batteries - the same combination of elements as used in power drones, e-skateboards and e-bikes. Today, it is still an expensive solution, however, a lot of efforts are being made by various suppliers to make it more affordable.
Until that happens, we have challenged ourselves to find a way to make it more affordable today. We now have a very important decision to make... In a typical setup, distributors and retailers mark-up a product’s price by as much as 100%, meaning we end up paying double the original price. That’s why we are now exploring the option to skip the middleman and sell Millo directly to end-users.
However, this can only be achieved with the support and help from the Millo community that takes on the mission of spreading the word. I would love to hear your thoughts on this. Please leave a comment below or drop me an email at [email protected]
Stay tuned,
Adam
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