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I am still excited to receive my WakeMate, but why did they not send me this update via email? Why was this in a blog post and not sent to the email I used to pre-order?

Furthermore, what is the point of saying "still a long way to go" - I am literally almost 6 months past the date I was told I'd receive it. Did WakeMate not have any software or hardware done at all when they posted the pre-order?

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They probably didn't email it because people would then complain of spam. The industry standard is to grab an email address to make only a one-time notification.

All this is irrelevant anyway; Wakemate will get crap no matter if they remain silent, or write blog posts, or send email, or update twitter as long as a physical product is not out in the wild.

I'm actually in support of the Wakemates on this one; I wouldn't have sent out an email either.

I don't envy their position by any means, and I only hope them the best. However, there is nothing wrong with regularly updating the people that are making it possible to start your business. Due to a limited budget ($30k or so from YC?), the pre-order was necessary to get hardware ordered and shipped to the first customers; in essence it is an interest free loan to kickstart their business. As a result, I want to know when my loan is going to be 'repaid', hardly a standard situation.

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