Biz & IT

Europe’s most-funded Kickstarter project just lost its CEO

Few customers received a drone at all.

Cyrus Farivar – Nov 10, 2015 9:42 PM | 48

Ars held this Zano prototype at Torquing Group's office in April 2015. Credit: Cyrus Farivar

The CEO and co-founder of Torquing Group, the Welsh drone startup that remains the most-funded European Kickstarter project ever, resigned suddenly on Tuesday.

The departure of Ivan Reedman suggests that the company is in serious crisis mode and may be on the verge of collapse. Despite claims that it had begun shipping—months behind schedule—in September 2015, Ars recently spoke with several backers who either never received their drone or were very disappointed in its performance. Notably, the company still has yet to release an iOS version of its drone-piloting app.

"It’s such a shame as I think the project will now die—the project was Ivan [Reedman]," David Black, a Cornwall-based customer who picked up his Zano at the Pembroke Dock headquarters in September, told Ars by e-mail.

While many Kickstarter projects don't quite come to fruition, few this large are beset with such significant problems, particularly those that are manufacturing a hardware product. (Ars previously covered another project that raised $3.5 million to build a USB key that never materialized.)

Kickstarter's terms of service only provide guidelines if such a project falls apart: "The creator is solely responsible for fulfilling the promises made in their project. If they’re unable to satisfy the terms of this agreement, they may be subject to legal action by backers."

As of October 15, Reece Crowther, the company’s head of marketing, wrote on Kickstarter that the company had shipped just 600 of the over 15,000 that had been ordered.

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“Irreconcilable differences”

In a five-paragraph message posted Tuesday evening GMT to ZanoForum.com, Reedman wrote that he had left the company "due to personal health issues and irreconcilable differences." That website has become an unofficial place for backers and fans to discuss the company and its Zano handheld drone after the company recently shut down its own forums. (Others have included Facebook groups, such as ZanoOwners.)

Ivan Reedman (left), was the CEO of Torquing Group. Credit: Cyrus Farivar

In January 2015, Torquing Group concluded its Kickstarter campaign to fund production of the Zano. It raised more than £2.3 million ($3.4 million) in under two months, becoming the most crowdfunded European project ever. When Ars visited in May 2015, Reedman promised that the company would be shipping in July 2015, which it did not.

Reedman continued in his Tuesday post:

I still fully believe in the project, the product and the enormous support from the backers. As I no longer act in any official capacity and am not associated with TG, I will of course continue to do my best to support the project and the community that made it all possible.

To say I am devastated pales when compared to what I am feeling. The last 7 years of my life are in TG, everything I have worked so hard for is in TG and to no longer be able to be part of everything I have built only makes me suffer even more.

I wish TG all the best and hope with continued support and hard work they can deliver the project despite the hurdles.

With deepest regrets,

Ivan

Neither Reedman nor Crowther immediately responded to Ars’ request for comment. On Tuesday afternoon, Reece Crowther of the Torquing Group told Ars in an e-mail that the company would release a statement in the next 48 hours.

"I will say we are still digesting this news internally and we are in a state of shock at present," Crowther wrote.

Failure apparently is an option

Ars heard from several customers who are very frustrated with the company that appears to have gotten in over its head and failed to deliver what it promised.

Bill Bonomo, an American customer, simply told Ars: "WTF? Delayed Duped Conned Robbed," adding that he spent $275 and had yet to receive anything.

An Italian backer who spent €250 ($267) on a never-received Zano said that he has been sending the company frequent e-mails with no reply.

"Very, very few backers received their Zano ; you may know already that they failed to give pledges to backers, instead due to ‘logistic problems’ they begun to ship pre-orders first!" Frederico Bernardi e-mailed.

"All the production-schedule that Reece from [Torquing Group] or Ivan wrote were false. NO ONE reported a nice flight experience. NOTHING promised work: it even fails to fly like a $50 cheap drone."

Another customer, Matthias Rosch, said he was willing to forgive some delays, but after he finally received his Zano, there was a larger problem: "it didn’t really fly."

"There were just too many issues with it: You had to adjust the fitting of the props as they were touching the case, if the Zano launched it either only did some ‘bunny hops’ (launching a few centimeters above the ground and shutting down again) or just crashed into the next wall, not controllable at all," he told Ars by e-mail.

Rosch, who is based in Germany, continued:

The first users reported broken Zanos because of that—the little drone is very fragile by design as all the sensors were supposed to avoid crashes. People started to buy protection frames and smaller props meant for other drones to avoid their Zano to break during the first test flights. Torquing’s solution to that: fly it outside for now. OK, fair enough, I went outside and… surprise: It worked! Kind of. For a few seconds. Hard to control. Not anywhere near a $30 drone from China - but hey - still early stage and at least some progress, right? But that’s me. The Kickstarter backer. The early adopter, willingly facing those kind of issues.

But what about the majority out there that received a Zano that they pre-ordered? Are they entitled to expect a working product? And are they entitled to ask for a refund if the product doesn’t deliver what they promised? I think the answer should be: Yes, of course. And people asked for those refunds. But guess what—as of today I’m not aware of a single user that received a refund after they shipped the Zano. Some vague communication from Torquing, again asking for patience.

Rosch added that he has already sold his Zano on eBay and bought a rival made by Micro Drones.

Listing image: Cyrus Farivar

Cyrus Farivar Editor at Large

Cyrus is a former Senior Tech Policy Reporter at Ars Technica, and is also a radio producer and author. His latest book, Habeas Data, about the legal cases over the last 50 years that have had an outsized impact on surveillance and privacy law in America, is out now from Melville House. He is based in Oakland, California.

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