It seems what you consider “digs” - we see as providing information based on our personal experiences. The industry and manufacturing landscape is quite large and so there may be sources that we have yet to discover. We certainly don’t know 100% of the entire supply chain in China, but we can share what we know. Therefore, there are manufacturers that have been focused on this area far longer may have well-established suppliers that are much more reliable than we have discovered to this point. That’s great if you have!
Just because we don’t have an “all ceramic” in the market today should not disqualify us from sharing what we have experienced and do know about all ceramics in general, right? If so, does that also prevent customers or potential customers from responding or sharing information as well? Be it positive or negative? Isn’t any or all feedback welcome if you’re a designer, manufacturer, distributor or representative of a vape hardware supplier?
You are correct. It takes larger companies a longer time to evaluate and develop solutions that are based on newer trends because we have many more factors to consider - such as a reliable supply chains because there is a significant difference in producing 100K pieces per month versus 1M pieces.
We look at the industry and our product development from a macro-level that does cause us to be slower than smaller operators. Additionally, our costs are often higher because of our brand is known and so we include additional costs such as product liability insurance and the necessary certifications and testing that far exceed smaller players. For example, we have developed our own localized testing that allows us to replicate California heavy metals testing right here in Shenzhen with CCIC, a state-governed environmental testing agency. Nobody does this as we have an exclusive contract with CCIC. This is the same group that is doing localized testing for Marlboro as well.
We also believe that open dialogue and discussion make us ALL better. Better and safer supply chains improve the entire vape industry and protect consumers as well. The last thing we want is VapeGate II. While we have our own factory, we also have weekly meetings teams from ALD, Deep Union (First Union), Vapeez and Joyetech - to discuss technology trends and commonly known issues that need to be solved within the industry. Why do we work with them? To help educate and teach them how to make more stable products that promote better practices for the entire cannabis industry and to offer the industry more selection. We also learn a ton from them as these factories have years of experience in manufacturing and the e-cig space that we lack.
We believe there is a ton of space in this growing industry for everyone to prosper. We are also incredibly confident that our team can contribute positively to this industry regardless of what competition exists in the market today.
As far as copying… well we don’t focus too much on external design and collaborate with brand partners. Nearly 90% of our customers are CCELL customers from Jupiter or Kush Bottles. Because they don’t want to change their packaging, filling and capping solutions, they often want a form factor that is identical to their former CCELL carts. This is more about making a product that is easier for transitioning their operations. As former owners and operators of state-licensed cultivation, extraction and vape cartridge brands ourselves, we take on a perspective that is slightly unique as a developer of vape hardware today.
We care more about what is inside of it. This is where our innovation lies. We spent over a year to develop our OWN ceramic formulation within our heating elements with a ceramics factory here and consider our overall flavor and user experience is preferred by many of the largest brands in the industry today - hence the migration from authentic CCELL to AVD by major brand partners such as Blue River Terpenes, Friendly Farms, Connected, Bloom Farms, NUG, Chemistry, Medipharm, Etc.
We’ve been working on a ceramic offering for the past six months and while we may be slow to market, we prefer to get it right the first time when bringing a new product to market. We often sit back and watch trends take form and see if they have lasting potential before we make focused investments on new product offerings. We don’t see this as not being able to react faster, it is simply a part of our business model of not being first to market, but also not being last to market. IBM made the first PC. Apple made the first PDA. MySpace was the first Social Media Platform, and Motorola made the first cellphone. When does first mover advantage work?
You were talking about your supply issues
