LitiHolo rebuilding and restarting (hopefully!) after the flood

As you know, LitiHolo was hit hard! As of today, it has officially been 8+ months since our massive office flooding (see the video here, if you haven’t), and almost 6 months since we were forced to move.

I wanted to finally share some details…

…of what has been happening since the flood, and some plans for (hopefully) restarting our unique hologram products.

Insurance uncertainty and moving pains

Everything has seemed very uncertain! First, you try to comprehend the amount of water involved (the extraction team said “swimming pools,” plural). Then the insurance paperwork flood (pardon the pun). Then being forced to move everything for a hologram technology company from one (wet) location to another (smaller, completely different layout) location. And in between, lots of uncertain waiting, and planning, and plans changing, and insurance phone calls, etc.

One of our first concerns after the flood was to make sure we could take care of our customers who could not be fulfilled. The insurance wheels move very slowly, and it has been very difficult to plan or understand what would be covered, and what would not be. In the end, we have been able to refund all our customers that we could not fulfill due to the flood, including refunding our Kickstarter backers who had backed our first production run of 3D Hologram Printers. While there is still some uncertainty on whether our insurance will reimburse us to cover all the refunds, this was the right thing to do, and we wanted to see it through!

In terms of our offices, we have moved everything to a new location (see the new address here). If you’ve ever moved an optical table (or a grand piano!), you know this is no easy task – especially since we had 3 optical tables! Not to mention trying to rebuild a darkroom, cleanroom, and other production infrastructure that we had developed over 14 years at our previous location.

Next steps…

With all this said, we are trying to look ahead to what the future holds for LitiHolo. We still do not have operations back to functional, and it still will take some time. But we are starting to plan. Our plan is to have Hologram Film back in production by the end of June, along with our single-color Hologram Kits and Upgrades. Following that we hope to have Full-Color Hologram Kit production back by the end of the year. Finally, we hope to address production for our 3D Hologram Printers by the beginning of next year possibly.

There are still a lot of unknowns, including what resources are available if our insurance decides not to cover some or all of our refunds from the flood. And the exact timing of when we will be back to fully operational similar to pre-flood capabilities is still subject to a lot of variables as we rebuild. Because of this, we are hesitant to start taking on customer orders again, but at the same time it would be helpful to develop some projections for sales and demand as we bring operations back online.

We are asking for your help and support to start planning. We have opened a simple “make a reservation” system for our Hologram Film and our single-color Hologram Kits and Upgrade Kits. The “reservation” system uses our existing shopping cart, but will only charge you $1 for “reserving” an item (sorry for the need to charge something upfront, but this reduces any spam requests and allows easy use of our existing ordering system). Once your items are ready (we are projecting production and ramp up to start near the end of June), we will contact you for the final payment of your order (minus the $1, of course) before shipping.

It is our hope that this “reserve a Hologram Kit” or “reserve your Hologram Film” concept will allow us to project and plan LitiHolo’s path back to production in the near term, while protecting customers if any challenges arise in the process.

If things go well, this process will allow us to plan funds and resources for getting back to full operation. And also hopefully allow for the next stage of production for our Full-Color Hologram Kits towards the end of the year, and the potential restart of the 3D Hologram Printers beginning in the new year.

Thanks for your help!

I can’t believe it has been over 8 months since our complete operations were shut down by water! (And I’ve heard many stories from supporters who have their own flood stories!) Thanks for your help and support as we push to continue forward! Here’s to high hopes for more holograms in the future!

– Paul

(As I was writing the details above, and getting twisted up in the frustration of the last 8+ months, I was reminded that I have many, many things to be thankful for. Despite the significant property damage and loss, no one was physically injured! Despite the overwhelming stress involved, I have a lovely wife and kids and family and friends who have helped me throughout. And despite the uncertainty that still exists for next steps, it’s just a part of a bigger plan that I haven’t seen yet! Sorry for the dramatic ending, but had to be said.)