Week #594
This week, we published an article about Jomon Pottery and are looking for someone/where local to try and get it 3D printed. They are beautiful flame pots, but also the juxtaposition of a 5000+ year old pot made from 21st century materials and methods also excites us.
Some of the team were in the UK this week. They travelled to London for a trade fair, then up to the Manchester region for meetings. Things went really well. We strengthened bonds with new and old contacts, acquired several new references, brought back plenty of samples and some stories to tell.
One of the items we brought back from London was another prototype. I’m not sure we’re allowed, or ready, to announce anything yet. This was a great step to see the progress and better understand why it’s not working. Their normal formula isn’t working with our material. It’s going to take more tweaking and compromises to get it right, but we’re making progress.
We’ve had our heads down, writing several upcoming newsletters and trying to figure out a business plan around a potential new venture. The numbers are not difficult, it is minimizing the risk which is problematic. There are fixed timeframes, fixed monthly costs, but the value of the work isn’t determined until a year later when it’s finished. One way to de-risk it is to sell lots of them, but that’s not the case here (yet). So we continue to explore the possibility space.
It was also the end of the month and VAT period. We spent a day collecting receipts, paying bills and invoices and prepping paperwork for the accountants.
Week #595
Monday was the 4th of July, US independence day. 🇺🇸🦅🗽 That means it was a slow day for those project. That gave us a chance to catch-up on VAT, writing and planning.
Our 02022Q3 newsletter went out to all the subscribers and posted online. We continue to migrate, little-by-little to making the quarterly newsletter more internal, longer versions of weeknotes: ♩Quarternotes and directing people to the Good Morning newsletter for intersting and inspiring links.
On Thursday, we finally managed to work out the company’s annual report with the accountants. They are new to us, we’re using software they’re not used too, and it will take a bit of time explaining our process and company. That’s now sent off to the US accountant where we’ll do it all again!
Last month, we were in San Francisco for meetings. One went so well, they want us to present again. The problem is that they are keen to do it really soon, like next week soon. We won’t be able to attend. Either we’ll push it back a month or other participants will go in our stead.
Our last prototype was due to be delivered via FedEx on Wednesday. It was sent from London to Paris, where it sat for several days coming in and out of the “operation center”. Finally on Friday, it was sent to Cologne, Germany. Who knows if/when it will finally arrive in Reykjavik?
Fluxcapacitor
Eight years ago, we posted a weeknote about Week #177. It is understandable why we need to be cryptic about projects, but re-reading this, we are struggling to guess who/what we were doing around then. Note-to-self: use codenames with an offline index!
Around this same time, we were in Lisbon Portugal for UX-LX conference. It seems like loads of people we know are currently flocking there for the NFT, Crypto scene, but also the tax benefits. 🤷🏻♂️ We love the city non-the-less. You can read about our time in Lisbon and some of the sights, sounds and smells we enjoyed.
13 years ago we wrote down our thoughts about our 02007 start-up Skólapúlsinn. 15 years later, we’re still going strong and growing the project a little bit each year. Maybe it’s time for an update to that post? There is plenty of documentation, updates, media coverage, etc. but it’s in Icelandic. Having something in English is also helpful.
Bric-à-brac
See you on the flip-side
Enjoy the summer ☀️. We’re now officially taking the rest of July off. We’ll be back August 8th, after Verslunarmannahelgin.