Maybe it’s very North American of me but I cringe when the author says “bad team”. Objectively, they didn’t have the skills, experience, or advisors to do this thing. And if the money truly disappeared, then someone crossed over into “bad” territory.

But hardware startups are brutal. Kickstarted hardware is torture.

Even experienced and well capitalized tiny teams go through this. A friend did one, rapidly realized the only option was to somehow get Chinese manufacturers excited about a small run of a strange product. Then two years later was trying to QA injection molds from across the ocean and switched manufacturers two times.

They delivered, but only after years of what must have felt like crawling over broken glass.

Maybe the NYC Train Sign team realized they couldn’t profit from the sign itself, but, unwilling to let the viral moment pass, were going to use it to establish themselves in consulting. You know… sell pickaxes.