Two more thoughts:
They've already said they aren't taking any more wood for Raleo for the time being. I'm prepared to sell my lumber locally or whatever I have to do. I just want to get it thinned and sell it. As ma has said, give us the bad news. It is what it is - keeping it a secret won't make it any better, it just erodes confidence.
Ab seems to imply that letting competitors know how we are adding value to lumber in order to sell it will hurt us. Won't they figure it out eventually? It's hard to sell something without telling SOMEBODY that it's for sale. Sure, they will try to duplicate and undercut or whatever, but if the products were ready to launch as said in last TON, then where are they? I would consider buying some just to get my trees moving...
Ab also said that they only sell to the trade (as Raleo site still indicates). I thought that was being changed as said in last TON. I thought they decided custom one-offs weren't going through wood quickly enough. The TON indicated two retired tree owners helped evaluate and select new products. As gistheman indicated, I'm sure there are a ton of committed tree owners who would be willing to help in many, many more ways to help get and keep this thing going. I hope that if there are problems, TATF will reach out to tree owners somehow to help respond to issues. If Steve has trouble picking reliable and useful staff, there have to be hundreds of people that could give him a hand. If there are problems marketing the wood, responding to potential wood buyers, engineering the product assembly, etc. I would bet there are many tree owners with very significant useful experience. So what's the holdup? It would be so helpful to know what the problems are and to have an opportunity to contribute. Trees are such an awesome idea and I still believe in the potential of this company. How can we help?
