today I want to talk about a large
Announcement by framework the
manufacturer of laptops known for a few
things here including things like
longevity repairability and probably the
most important customizability for those
of you that are unaware of framework
laptops they're known in the consumer
electronics Industry as a company who's
trying to tackle the planned
obsolescence of other companies that
design laptops by creating laptops that
are modular and that you can easily
repair upgrade even individual
components rather than having to replace
the entire device think swapping out
CPUs motherboards various different
peripheral ports screens what have you
however you want to customize it you can
do that the big announcement here is
that they've received a series A1
funding amount of $17 Million by big
names they're announcing that $18
million in new funding from investors
are going to be made with $17 million in
the series A1 round which is led by
spark Capital Buckley Ventures anzo
Partners Cooler Master which a lot of
you might be familiar with and path
breaker Ventures that are participating
we're going to talk about this but let's
first talk about what a series a round
in a series A1 round is for those of you
who aren't investors but there's
actually something interesting because
you you're yourself may be actually able
to invest in framework and we're going
to talk about some other people who have
in the past but anyways a series a is
typically given to a company's first
significant round of venture capital
financing it can be followed by a word
round investment or financing the name
refers to a class of preferred stock
sold to investors in exchange for their
investment it is usually the first
series of stock after common stock and
common stock options issued to company
Founders employees friends and family
and Angel Investors so here it says a
tradition Al a critical stage for
funding of new companies typically
there's somewhere between 10 to 30% of
the company given up at this particular
round this is a big commitment by the
investors here and framework says
they've continued to increase sales and
market shares substantially each year as
the industry broadly has struggled it's
a clear commitment to the longevity as
it is resonating with with other people
clearly and the series A1 round came
after a series a round which was made
two years ago we shared a strategy
around fundraising which is to raise as
little as possible and focus on funds on
effectively expanding the reach of their
mission now a big player in here is The
Cooler Master a key strategic partner
turned investor so they were partnering
and clearly have seen some sort of
potential in having an investment into
framework having been both A supplier
for our framework laptop 16 thermal
system and the first company to join the
framework ecosystem with a compatible
product a case that enables laptop main
board reuse we have additional
collaboration ation with The Cooler
Master team in incubation now for those
of you who are unaware Cooler Master
actually sells a bunch of computer
peripherals and products as well with a
pretty terrible website in my opinion
because it takes forever for it to load
after about 10 seconds I can finally
view the products here to tell you they
have cooling cases power supplies
peripherals Furniture monitors and other
system components Cooler Master actually
has been a around quite a while so it's
a fairly large company that's investing
in framework and framework Mission with
places all around the world including
the Asia Pacific North America Europe
and South America so what's the point of
this investment and this series A1 round
well there's definitely a few things
most companies that do this are focused
on a few things so let's talk about
those things number one companies that
look for investment are typically hoping
for expansion and growth by getting
investment hopefully framework will be
able to expand its operations production
and even enter in New Markets number two
market and sales if you can get more
brand awareness and sales from that
awareness then you reach a broader
audience again important you need a lot
of money in order to do marketing
another big reason you get Investments
is for infrastructure growth this is a
computer manufacturer therefore a
manufacturing facility is important
things like improving supply chain
efficiencies getting a product out with
better quality and faster delivery is
always important it's another thing that
they can invest with with this money
another reason companies are
organizations do these types of
Investments are for Partnerships not
only do you want the cash that comes
with the investment but you also create
strategic Partnerships with these other
companies that are investing in you
which can help lead to collaboration
sharing resources or even accessing
newer markets and finally a little bit
different and we're going to get to this
because we haven't talked about it yet
there's some Community engagement that
may be happening and this one isn't
typical of these types of instest
funding but in order to fuel the growth
of this seemingly growing and growing
company and to keep it afloat for
longterm success it is of a great value
that they were able to secure These
funds again 17 million but they talked
about 18 million the other big wild
thing is if you smash that like button
it'll really help me out so make sure to
do that yes you might be able to invest
in framework yourself in addition to the
17 million of funds they've raised from
traditional investors they're raising $1
million from a community round to enable
100 people to invest $10,000 each into
framework now don't go crazy and start
pulling out your credit cards as there
are strict rules for this and who is
actually eligible to invest these
$10,000 into framework we're going to
get into that in just a moment as it
says here investing in startups is
approximately the riskiest Place
imaginable to put your money and
statistically the most likely outcome
for any individual in an early stage
startup investment is to become
worthless so keep that in mind because
not only that you have to meet the
qualifications by the SEC or the US
Securities and Exchange Commission an
accredited investor is qualified if they
reach certain Financial Andor
professional criteria and what is that
Financial criteria well you have to have
a net worth of $1 million excluding your
primary residence AKA where you live
individually or with a spouse or partner
so if you have a n worth of $1 million
you can invest that 10,000 otherwise
another criteria is going to be income
over $200,000 individually or $300,000
with a spouse or partner in each of the
prior two years and reasonably expects
the same for the current year now that's
going to knock a lot of people out but I
want to briefly talk about another
person who has invested in the past with
framework and that's right Linus from
Linus Tech tips let's take a look at how
much he invested they promised
upgradeability they promised sustain
they were going to change the industry
and all they asked for was a small loan
of I wait how much was that a small loan
of well what's almost exactly
$225,000 that seems to be linus' stake
in framework now this is over a year ago
at this point who knows if lonus has
more into it and I don't know if it's
disclosed on how much percentage lonus
or Linus's Media company owns in this
but lonus has some sort of stake here as
this closed in the framework invest
investment update video called I made a
bad decision I'll put it in the
description below if you want to check
that out but this is a big deal for a
seemingly small company trying to break
into the computer manufacturing industry
and the way it seems to be doing this is
things like competitive advantages
focusing on that longevity reparability
and sustainability being different from
the rest no one else really offers a
good modular and customizable laptop
like framework does they're clearly
following consumer Trends and this all
seemingly is making for a good
investment at least for
the investors that are participating in
this joint effort anyways if you don't
meet that threshold that we talked about
earlier there is a way you can still
help and join the team it says right
here there's one other way you can
participate in our mission which is to
join our team to actually drive the
growth that our new funding enables
we're adding a few key roles across
framework including a product man
marketing manager a supply chain manager
and you can check out all the open roles
at the careers page we're eager to fix
this industry together as quickly as we
can just like I was talking about
marketing and supply chain are going to
be important commitments so it makes
sense why they're looking for people to
fill those roles now I haven't
personally used a framework laptop but I
know one great thing is that the
do-it-yourself addition that isn't
pre-built comes standard with Linux and
you can actually configure that however
you want including which type of Linux
operating system you want AKA none you
bring your own you don't have to have
Windows on it you can install whatever
you want they show Ubuntu and Fedora on
the left but the great part of this is
they're actually focused on making
Hardware that is compatible and works
right out the gate with Linux can't say
that about many Hardware vendors as it
is typically a afterthought but I do
want to know what you think about this
framework Venture and investment round I
also want to know from those of you who
have used a framework laptop what do you
think can these seemingly powerful and
customizable laptops really break in
through the market and get their mission
across for the freedom of repair and
customization I'd love to hear from you
think about subscribing below for more
content like this I'll catch you in
another video thanks for watching Linux
can be hard to understand but I take the
most commonly used terms commands and
subjects in Linux and I break them down
into simple to read documents including
Linux terms flashcards a checklist a
cheat sheet and a mind map and if you're
ready to level up your Linux experience
and knowledge go to learn. saavy
nick.com now and get access to these
sheets