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Crowdfunding is an incredible means of raising money for particular projects or goals that require money to accomplish. Kickstarter is one of the oldest and most successful platforms to offer crowdfunding, which has helped many companies get their big breaks towards better things. Unfortunately, it’s also where backers are now getting robbed after supporting a $200 headphone being made a company that is now closing.
Ossic was the company that promised luxury earphones to its backers that were supposed to come with amazing features. Among them is how the accessory was supposed to customize sound profiles based on the shapes of the ears of the users, Business Insider reports. This was intended to make sure that each person would get the best sound quality that won’t be hindered by ear shape.
According to early reviews of the products, it would seem that it had worked quite well. The feedback by those who were able to take it for a spin likened it to VR for the ears.
Unfortunately, it seems the company is shutting down because it ran out of money as it notes in the company post on the subject. It had shipped only 250 pairs of headphones out of the 22,000 preorders that the company got.
“Over the last 18 months, we have explored a myriad of financing options, but given VR’s slow start and a number of high profile hardware startup failures, we have been unable to secure the investment required to proceed,” the company writes
“This was obviously not our desired outcome. The team worked exceptionally hard and created a production-ready product that is a technological and performance breakthrough. To fail at the 5 yard-line is a tragedy. We are extremely sorry that we cannot deliver your product and want you to know that the team has done everything possible including investing our own savings and working without salary to exhaust all possibilities.”
To make matters worse, it is also refusing to refund backers. This is now a cautionary tale for those who might also be thinking of supporting certain crowdfunding campaigns.
