Hello,

I hope you can spare 5 minutes to fill out our end-of-project survey; a link was sent out last night via Survey Monkey...

It's an important part of preparing for our next Kickstarter project - any input you can give would be helpful.

Thanks in advance!

Dave

PS: Some more great photos of 1Q in the wild....

All,

Had a great 2012 here at Vers... thanks in large part to you! 

Have a GREAT holiday season, see you next year!

Dave

(A gallery of photos from our international backer team - enjoy!)

Hi!

Well... here we are, the official end of our 1Q Kickstarter project. The last of the 1Q's that we have payment and addresses for are now out the door and on their way to you! T shirts will be coming along soon as well...

Please note that international shipments can take 3 - 4 weeks, but we have been seeing less from our pledge community - so please be patient! Also, we've sent out a final email to those of you who still owe for international shipping or who have not sent us a survey response with finish choice and shipping information. We will ALWAYS honor your pledge, but have no other way to get your attention at this point.

Product or support questions? Interested in becomming a reseller or collaborating on a project? Please send them directly to me at dave@versaudio.com. You are all at the very top of our priority list!

What's next?

We have an interesting project that we are working on at the moment which we hope to launch on Kickstarter early next year. We want to make sure that it goes as smooth (or even smoother) then 1Q, so we have alot of homework to do before we can talk about it in more detail. It was inspired by your comments on 1Q, so we know you'll love it. You will be the very first to know once we are ready to go live.

It's going to be fun - I simply can't wait!

You've been hearing allot from me since we launched in July, but the truth is, no one designs, develops and ships a product alone. We're wicked small, but have a diverse extended family of true experts in their respective fields; we couldn't have done it without them:

Graphic & Package Design: Steve Smith

Instruction Design & Illustration: Mark Wing

Mechanical Engineering, Software Development & Production: Vincent Xie, Lepide Technology

Public Relations: Karin Whiting Burgess & Max Borges Agency

Sourcing & Project Management: Danny Hui, SmartShape

Warehouse & Fulfillment: Harodite Industries

Web Development: Bill Stansky

Photography: Gary Sloan

Our own truly amazing team:

CEO: Mano Fathi

CFO: Stefan Josefsson

Director of Logistics & Customer Service: Laurie Armstrong

Director of International Sales: Laib Kaplan

Director of NA Sales: Chris Wuerfl

Photography, Video & Studio Support: Calvin Laituri

If you haven't figured it out by now, we simply love the Kickstarter concept and have really enjoyed all of the energy and enthusiasm that we got from you; we like to call it crowd 'finding'. We got alot of GREAT ideas on how to improve 1Q, as well as GREAT Kickstarter project management advice from the experienced backers amongst you - it's been a true collaboration! So if you love your 1Q, tell a friend - better yet, post your reviews here, on Facebook or even Amazon.com!

You can ALWAYS find us at:

versaudio.com

...and don't forget:

KS2012

...to save 20% on 1Q or 2Q through the end of December!

Please keep in touch!

Dave

Hello! 

We’re not quite done yet here, still shipping every day! To date, we’ve received and shipped 1,631 1Q’s (about 81%), leaving about 381 to go. We have our next shipment arriving on Monday, and will be packing boxes again as soon as they land. I know you’re all anxious to receive your 1Q’s – thanks so much for your patience! 

As you know by now we’re pretty serious about the pursuit of sustainability here; far more then most, particularly in the audio world. It’s an integral part of everything that we do, from how we develop a new product like 1Q to how we run our business. We hope to someday be a model for others – particularly in notoriously ‘dirty’ categories like consumer electronics.

So while you’re soaking in the look, the details and the sound of 1Q, I thought it would be helpful to give you some background on the sustainability dimension of 1Q as well.

Share the knowledge! 

I had a call with Tammy Miller of Hartzell Hardwoods of Piqua, Ohio today; they supplied the Walnut for all of our 1Q’s. Founded in 1875, they are a 137 year old, family owned mill, working in the same location, with the 5th generation of family members running the business. Hartwell is what’s called a ‘concentration yard’, milling and drying larger quantities of stock delivered from smaller sawmills within a 200 mile radius. They specialize in Walnut and are located in the center of the main Walnut growing region in the US. They’re also fully certified in sustainable forest management practices through a number of regional and international organizations. 

Why is this important? Tracing our wood sources as far back in the supply chain as possible is part of our verification process. We like working with companies like Hartzell, for example - being family run for 137 years in the same location says a lot about how they view and practice sustainability! 

Check them out: http://www.hartzellhardwoods.com/index.htm 

The formula here works something like this: maximize the use of renewable and recycled materials + minimize non-renewables + replace what we use where possible + make sure what comes out at the end is beautiful, lovable & has a long life. We’re always tweaking and refining; it’s a never-ending process!

For example, your 1Q cabinet is 87% sustainably sourced hard wood (or Bamboo), which we in turn replant 100:1 through the Arbor Day Foundation. The remaining 13% is 20% recycled ABS content that can also be recycled again at the end if separated properly. When it comes to repairs (or disassembly at the end of a hopefully long life), 1Q is held together with carefully placed screws, making it easy to service. 

For comparison, many compact sound systems (no names!) are formed with virgin, un-recycleable materials. That cool, squishy rubber skin? 100% virgin, 0% recycleable. They also tend use exotic plastic/glass blends for rigidity, often bonded or glued together, making them impossible to repair or separate at the end of life – all practices that make land filling or incinerating the only option for disposal. Not good. 

So – besides all of the other GREAT reasons that you supported the 1Q project, you have also helped bring to life the lowest impact sound system on the market. 

Now it's your turn - use your 1Q OFTEN and spread the word!

Dave 

Still shipping every day, almost half way through now… that’s one heck of a lot of cardboard boxes! Bamboo 1Q’s will finally show up next, they were randomly selected for a customs inspection on Friday – passed, no issues, just another couple days delay getting them to our warehouse. 

Your reviews are beginning to flood in the comments sections, on Facebook and in emails direct to us – what can I say, we’re utterly speechless! We’re truly humbled by all of your enthusiasm and positive response to 1Q; on behalf of the whole Vers extended team, a very deep and sincere thanks! Please keep them coming – we’ll be sharing all your reviews and comments with our potential retailers! 

A couple end-of-project activities for you: 

1Q in-the-wild photos! 

This is a fun one for you: send us a photos of your new 1Q out in your world, doing its thing. We’ve shipped 1Q to over 38 counties – Kenya, Japan, Russia, Australia, and many of you will be on holiday vacations soon. We’d love to see 1Q in as many interesting, diverse, fun places as possible – be creative and have fun with it… where are you? what are you listening to? – tell us your story! Unboxing is nice, but an ELEPHANT in the background would be awesome! Send them directly to us at info@versaudio.com or even better – share them on our Facebook page: 

http://www.facebook.com/Vers.Homepage

I really can’t wait to see what you all come up with! 

1Q project survey! 

In a month or so, once the holiday shipping season has quieted down a bit, we will be sending out an entirely optional email survey about all things related to 1Q, our Kickstarter project and projects we might do in the future. It’s 100% anonymous, so please give us your thoughts – it will help us improve our future game! 

As a group, you’ve been extremely helpful with tips on running our project, as well as providing MANY great ideas on how to improve our product – you can collectively take credit for the 1Q + 1Q stereo feature, for example! Many of you have more experience with Kickstarter then we do - your shared past experiences on other projects have been a helpful guide. We would love to find a completely voluntary, ‘non-spam’ way to continue to tap this great group of supporters as we go forward… to us, KS it’s not just about crowd funding, it’s crowd FINDING – and we’ve found a great crowd! Open to any and all thoughts here...

1Q Green Sunday! 

I know it’s a little bit early for Thanksgiving, and many of you are still waiting to receive your 1Q and power it up for the first time… but we’ve decided to offer our Kickstarter supporters a special ‘friends’ discount deal on both 1Q and the new 2Q of 20% off retail through the holidays! We just launched the latest version of our website earlier today – check it out, and when you’re ready to order, use the coupon code below. 

We really want to see as many 1Q’s out there this holiday season and to transfer as much of the excitement for Q out into the market! 

Remember: 

versaudio.com 

Code: KS2012 

Thanks again – really, REALLY looking forward to your photos! 

Dave