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Boosted Boards: from flight risk to $70 million failure - YouTube
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skateboards have always been cool but
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when someone decided to put a motor in
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them they became even cooler hazards
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aside of course and with this latest
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trend of micro mobility and last mile
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vehicles it might come as a surprise
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that the first motorized skateboards
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exist since the early seventies but in
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recent years Millennials have taken to
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Electric skateboards and scooters to
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move about and upload tic TOCs while
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doing so and this is largely due to one
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company boosted yes other motorized
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boards existed before but boosted
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elevated the game they took an old idea
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made it slick 3d and high quality the
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control system was easy to use and as a
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company they sought to form strong bonds
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with their customers but in march 2020
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who's that laid off many of its
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employees and sought a buyer so it begs
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to wonder if this company had successful
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products with millions in investment a
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cult-like following and even the
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endorsement of one of YouTube's biggest
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stars why did it fail sure there was the
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china-us trade worthy but was that all
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of it not quite this is company
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forensics boosted
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Stanford engineers students sanjay
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Dastur John almond and Matthew Trent
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came up with the boosted brand of
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Electric skateboards in 2012 though they
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had toyed with the idea for years they
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wanted an electric skateboard that was
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portable lightweight and easy to use and
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their idea was so well conceived that it
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was backed by Stanford's own startx
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accelerator program and then went to a
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very successful Kickstarter campaign
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with a goal of $100,000 in just 24 hours
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they reached the goal and ended up with
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over 460 thousand dollars in pledged
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money not only that but they also
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graduated from the Y Combinator program
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a hotbed for innovative products and a
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source of a lot of our forensics videos
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anyways having succeeded in getting
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investors boosted launched at its first
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products the single the dual and the
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dual plus boards in 2014 the models had
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one or two motors and varied in range
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power and of course price part of their
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almost immediate success was their
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outstanding quality and attention to
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detail
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ready users consider them the apple of a
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boards vestments that's compared to
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other brands boosted boards weren't
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cheap as models went from $1000 and
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above still people bought them and the
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company was working hard on its second
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generation of a boards which had more
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power improved aesthetics and more sizes
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once again boosted boards garnered a
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cult-like status writing groups reddit
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threads YouTube channels you name it
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boosted was there and right around this
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moment they got a 10 million dollar
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investment so the ship was sailing in
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the right direction but a lot of it is
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also due to one youtuber you might have
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heard about Casey nice dad he used a
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boosted board in many of his videos and
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this got people hooked but let's talk
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about one particular video which
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involved Aladdin that's right Casey
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produced and directed a video called
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Aladdin magic carpet prank and it was a
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hit the numbers at the time well upwards
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of 17 million views right now that video
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stands at 28 million views Aladdin
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chilled on his board and cruised around
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New York City and bystanders stood in
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wonder what was he writing it's so easy
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to write the video certainly got people
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interested marketing agency overdrive
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makes a very compelling case for the
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impact this video
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on boosted but it was also a
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double-edged sword because what would
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happen if it's suddenly nice that didn't
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promote his boost at board and even with
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all of this going for them some bumps
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appeared on the road is that smoke in
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early 2016
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Rick bras not Rick Ross Rick bras and
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avid boost that user reported that his
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board emanated some sort of smoke in
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fact the conversation with his roommate
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is quite funny your board thing is
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smoking the first thing that bras told
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his room it was videotaping because you
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know viral videos he then rushed to his
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house only to find the board's battery
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overheating on the verge of exploding
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his apartment was filled with a heavy
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chemical smell so he put on a gas mask
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he bought as a joke shirt that's why you
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have a gas mask he then posted the
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entire situation on a reddit thread and
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guess what boosted contacted him
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immediately offered spares and asked to
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get the damaged parts back but it didn't
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stop there
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boost its CEO Sanjay dostler flew from
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California to New York to meet up with
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bras and analyze the damaged board and
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it wasn't a one-time thing as another
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user reported a smoking battery boosted
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was forced to issue a recall and told
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its users to stop using the boards all
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together and to disconnect the batteries
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doused or recognized that the problem
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stemmed from their own quality control
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standard which meant stopping production
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in November and December the peak of
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consumption though they had hoped to
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restart production in January 2017
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boosted took a big blow to their sales
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and times didn't really improve for
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dastoor he had always wanted to see
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boosted grow past electric boards but
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his efforts weren't yielding results so
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in mid 2017 has stepped down a CEO and
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another Stanford graduate came in Jeff
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rusik off a new era
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Bruce ACOG looked to grow boost that and
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as soon as he arrived injected resources
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into the company he practically doubled
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the work first around a hundred sixty
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employees moved to a new office and
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worked hard to launch the third
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generation of boosted boards those who
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worked hard to increase employee health
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benefits he told the meeting of the
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company had grown four hundred and fifty
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percent in 2017 and planned to keep
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growing with cheaper and smaller boards
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like the boosted meeting these new
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products had a price of $750 compared to
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pricier larger boards and yes Rosica was
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also adamant in expanding from only
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words into other products like scooters
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but even with apparently such a strong
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year in 2017 and new products boost it
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needed money so 2018 was also a year of
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raising capital part of the capital
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would be funneled towards launching the
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rev a $1600 scooter and finally breakout
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from the skateboard market the rev was
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different from most electric scooters in
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the sense that its build quality was
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above average steel frames not a hint of
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plastic big wheels and a solid braking
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system if meant the Rev was serious
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business but so was its price and a
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weight of 46 pounds the idea was good
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enough for investors who dished out 60
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million dollars to the company but even
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with the new product about to come out
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hefty investment and interest from the
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public Rosa Cowden stand still he aimed
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to grow and by 2018 the company had
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vendors in 34 countries trade war
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competition and cost the promising new
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scooter Rev was to be entirely produced
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in China in fact all of boosted's
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products were manufactured in China it
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seemed that boosted would be directly
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affected even if Bruce account assured
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everyone otherwise he told the verge
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boost that could eat the tariffs
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implemented during the trade war but as
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soon as the trade word started to heat
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up boost it applied and was granted
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exclusion on the products the US
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government wasn't paying retributions
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immediately in fact they were taking a
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lot of time so boosted wouldn't see
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these benefits in the short run then
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word got out that boosted wasn't paying
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its vendors on time turns out that Rev
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the Savior scooter had been delayed and
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some vendors were owed up to $100,000
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plus it's not like they weren't other
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scooters in the market competition from
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Asia mitts cheaper options were
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available which weren't all that bad
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so in reality boosted was stalling in a
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very fast-moving market cost cots and
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downfall by this time Goosen was a big
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company most of its around 150 employees
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were engineers commanding good salaries
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and this meant a hefty chunk of change
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just on payroll and yes their products
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were great but micro mobility is still a
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niche market with stiff competition
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reverse engineered products coming from
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China ironically filled the market and
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some cost half as much so in order to
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stay alive in late 2019 and early 2020
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the company started shedding cost they
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reduced employee benefits such as
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providing lunch they instead cordially
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asked the employees to bring their
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lunch to work and this might seem like a
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small change but it was an indicator of
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how things were doing the company then
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lost many of its top management the CMO
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left and the VP of engineering then the
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VP of quality the VP of Operations and
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the customer experience manager just to
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name a few signs were pointing to
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troubled very troubled times and it was
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just a matter of time before the
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inevitable happened but no one expected
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it to happen so fast with a brief
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declaration and boost its website Rosa
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Cao told the world that it will continue
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to pursue strategic options on their new
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ownership but also there it was between
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the lines the real reason why boost had
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failed
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unfortunately developing manufacturing
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and maintaining electric vehicles is
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highly capital intensive it is just ask
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Tesla and it will continue to be for a
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long time so if you want to store your
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own product my advice is to start with a
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make hundreds of stickers and slap them
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onto Chinese products you'll be better
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link in the description thanks a lot for
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watching it's been around six months
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since we published our first forensics
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video on we work we have over twenty
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stories of failed companies and new
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stories coming every single week so hit
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that subscribe button to stay tuned see
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you next week
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