January 27 Update
over 3 years ago – Thu, Jan 28, 2021 at 01:03:33 AM

Dear Early Backers,

Hope you’ve had a great start to the new year - let’s hope 2021 will be the best year yet (or at the very least, better than 2020!!).

After a month of silence and incredibly hard work by everyone on the team, we have some exciting news to share and I’ll cut right to the chase because I know what most of you will want to know: the delay that started back in October because of one single component, forcing us to go through retooling and more iterations, has finally been contained.

We are happy to announce that we can put a definitive end date to the delay. The production line will officially start by the end of February. We feel confident that this is the last production schedule announcement we’ll need to make. Read on for the details.

First, a recap: as many of you already know, back in October we were faced with a challenge with one of the components of the device that wasn't quite right in the first (T1) revision. Because of this, we made the decision to work on retooling (basically rebuilding the tools used to produce the components). This takes a lot of time, and delays are not something we take lightly, but we were convinced that this was the right call to make so we could produce the device according to our specification.

Last week I joined co-founder Rickard to visit the production plant in Småland to, among other things, review the component in question. After two additional iterations (T2 and T3), the component in question still isn't quite right. If you compare the measurements of the CAD blueprint with the produced results, they differ by about 0.8 millimeters due to the high temperatures during the molding process. That may not seem like a lot, but it has a minor impact on the structural integrity of the final product, and we can’t compromise with quality.

As you can imagine, we have not been happy with this delay. We know that it’s been challenging for all of you who are patiently awaiting your Mendi. No doubt, we will be reviewing alternative manufacturing solutions for this component in the future to ensure we don’t run into problems like this ever again.

The upshot of all of this is that, after some pretty intense discussions with the manufacturer and production plant, we finally identified a solution that they will be able to manage and that ensures we can start the production line as soon as possible.

That is our #1 priority: getting the production line started so we can ship devices to all of you patient backers.

We have come up with both a plan and a backup plan to solve this problem once and for all:

•  Primary plan: the manufacturer will build a cooling fixture that ensures that the component retains its physical structure after the molding process is complete.
   
•  Backup plan: even if the components we receive aren’t 100% according to spec, we have found a way to correct them during assembly, with zero compromise of structural integrity and product durability.

What this means is that we JUST gave the go signal to start mass-production of the first batch of 5000 pieces of each component of the Mendi device. By the time you are reading this, the first components are being produced, and by the last day of February, all of the individual components of the Mendi device will have arrived at the assembly line. The first production week will then start on that same day, and the goal of the first week is to produce the first 100 devices, which will immediately be picked up by EasyShip for expedited shipping. This is just 1/10th of the “full” capacity and is designed to allow us to confirm and tweak all processes as needed. The following week, we’ll double our capacity, and then we’ll double it again until we reach a capacity of 1000 devices per week.

If the primary plan goes well, we should be able to increase production velocity even further, which means we could catch up with the earlier delivery estimates that I communicated on December 15 - at least for the majority of all of you early backers.

In other words, the production timeline that I'm presenting above is not just realistic, it's conservative. Especially after the first 1500 backers, we should be able to increase velocity and beat this timeline.

On the topic of doing everything we can to get the devices into your hands, we are also exploring better shipping options, in partnership with EasyShip. Among other things, we have changed our fulfillment center from Elogistics to U-Freight, which should ensure faster shipping times (more on this in the next update).

I hope this update was informative and helpful. We really can’t wait to shift our storytelling into the real reason why we started this company: to improve the brain health of millions around the world. We’re extremely excited about starting the production line in exactly 32 days from now!

One last thing: to ensure that you always have the very latest info from us, we will be posting an update here every week from now until the first Mendi devices arrive in the hands of the first 100 backers.

Thank you once again for your patience and understanding. If you have any questions, hit me up in the comments section where Moha, Robert and myself will do our best to respond as quickly as possible.

December 29 Update
over 3 years ago – Wed, Dec 30, 2020 at 09:42:28 PM

Dear Early Backers,

It’s been two weeks since the last update, and since then, I’ve personally gained an additional two kilos of weight thanks to the holiday candy and too many Swedish meatballs.

Today I want to give you a sneak peek of the upcoming new Mendi app that our CPO Simon Persson and his team have been busy working on for the past months. They have put together a short product demo for you all, below.

As many of you already know, this is the first time that fNIRS neurofeedback technology is available for home use. This is groundbreaking technology, and there are dozens of potential applications for neurofeedback to improve brain health and mental well-being.

We are working with top neuroscientists and early adopters to gather evidence of how Mendi helps people. Our first intended use cases are going to be:

• To measure your brain activity
• To enhance mood control
• To improve focus
• To preserve and enhance general brain function

Over the months and years ahead, we are committed to extending this list of uses and developing new experiences to make it easier for you to manage your brain health and improve your mental well-being. Of course, not all of these features will make it to the first release in January, but here are some of the things we are looking forward to in 2021:

• Use case-specific games and exercises, for improving things such as focus and mood regulation. The team has rebuilt the foundations of the app to enable some really cool customization opportunities for our developers. This way, we will be able to fine-tune the experience to maximize the impact it has on your training.
• Tools for tracking your progress and performance. We’ll make it easier for you to optimize your mental well-being over time.
• Tools that allow you to export and play with your data. In the same spirit as our commitment to Open Science, we want to ensure that you have access to the data we collect about your brain. It’s your brain, after all. :)
• Levels and educational insights to keep you motivated. We know that the frequency and long-term commitment of neurofeedback training, or really any habit-changing activity, promotes neuroplasticity, and our job is to make it easy and fun for you to keep going.

Here is a short product demonstration video:

Those are some of the new features on our roadmap for the upcoming year. Keep in mind that things might change as we go and these features will be rolled out to you gradually as soon as they are tested.

What do you wish to see in the app? What’s a must-have feature in your mind? Please let us know in the comments below and we’ll make sure this gets taken into consideration in our product roadmap!

December 15 Update
over 3 years ago – Wed, Dec 16, 2020 at 02:51:17 AM

Dear Early Backers,

It’s David again with another update on our production line and product development.

We just passed an important final milestone last week when we completed the electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) and radio emission directive (RED) tests for Mendi V4, with just the safety tests left! With that out of the way, production and shipping is just around the corner. Here are some photos from the emission and immunity testing - the work there isn’t very glamorous, but it’s a critical part of taking our updated Mendi device to finalization:

As I explained in the previous update on November 20, we are waiting for final versions (T3) of a few plastic components. We received many of them last week, and we are still waiting for some others that will be produced within the next week. As soon as they have arrived, we will test to confirm that they all work according to spec, and then the production line ramps up. Based on the delay of these components, I’m providing a slightly updated timeline for when production will start, below.

In the meantime, we have already successfully started a test production on our available T2 components. T2s are basically the same plastic components as the T3 ones we’re waiting for, except they're rougher around the edges. In other words, they’re not at production-quality standards, but they’re certainly good enough for us to produce the very first ten V4 devices. We’re also heading down to our production line in Småland today (Tuesday, Dec 15th) for a pilot production run of 30 devices with T2 parts to trim the production line and give improvements in the assembly process before we start mass production.

We’re happy to announce that the first produced devices work perfectly! They have already been sent to our engineers across Europe so they can accelerate the software development and quality assurance of the exciting new app we’re developing (more on that in the next update).

When should I expect my Mendi?

Step 1: Find your backer number and pledge type inside your backer info (for detailed instructions see update number 15).

Step 2: Video clip below will help you determine the production interval for your Mendi

Step 3: Once you’ve determined your backer number you can read the table below to find out when your device will be produced (based on your backer number and pledge type):

I hope this was a helpful update that clarifies the production timeline. In the next update, I will share more about the new app we’re developing. In the meantime, thanks again so much for being part of our journey to improve the brain health of millions. We really appreciate your patience and understanding and can't wait to ship your Mendi to you very soon!

Thanks,

David

November Update
over 3 years ago – Sat, Nov 21, 2020 at 01:37:49 AM

Dear Early Backers,

Hope you’ve had a great week so far. I'm David and I recently joined Team Mendi as Head of Operations. As many of you already know, transparency and openness are core values at Mendi. In that spirit, I wanted to take a moment to update you on where we're at with the production of your Mendi device. My aim is to provide these types of updates more frequently from now on, so you always have the latest info from us now that we’re so close to shipping devices.

The short story is that our ETAs have not changed from what we’ve communicated already.

Pretty much everything is good to go  as far as our production line goes. The only thing left to solve is a few plastic parts that we need to iterate on. Yesterday (Nov 19) we received plastic parts which have been updated to include larger areas for adhesion between the inner and outer parts to ensure that they can be glued together. We're evaluating this over the next few days.

We've also updated the lenses, which should give better light throughput in the system (Rickard is evaluating this today at Skanstull, Stockholm, and he says the electronics is working great).

I realize this may feel like a slightly underwhelming update, but the point here is to keep you posted so you have a better sense of what we're working on to get the production line ready. We're in the final stretch here. I hope the spirit of keeping you posted feels helpful.

Thanks so much for being part of our journey to improve the brain health of millions. We really appreciate your patience and understanding and can't wait to ship your Mendi to you very soon!

Thanks,
David

October Update
over 3 years ago – Sat, Oct 31, 2020 at 01:35:17 AM

Dear Mendi Early Adopters,

My name is Alexandru Stoica or Alex as most people call me. I am a computer science student at KTH University in Stockholm, and like all of you I am a Kickstarter early adopter (no. 5845) of Mendi. Back in September, 2020; I saw an Instagram post by Mendi welcoming people to come by their office to try the device for themselves.

I showed up to Mendi Headquarters together with my friend who is also a backer. To my surprise we were greeted by the CEO of Mendi, Moha Bensofia himself. He told us all about the headset and the software  and even joined us for a Mendi session as we tested V3.5 devices.

We met the team including one of the founders who is an alumnus of the same university that I study at. Almost immediately, I knew that all Mendi is and stands for is something I wanted to be a part of. I reached out to Moha, and asked him to schedule me in for an interview. Just like that, in less than a week I was at Moha’s home, sitting across from him on the couch discussing the future of Mendi and where I fit into it. I went from being a backer to being an intern, and what a journey it has been since then!

I love being a part of Team Mendi because they put their end users at the center of everything they do, and the spirit of full transparency is something that resonates with me personally. Today, I get to provide them with a backer’s perspective and work towards delivering these devices to people who like me believe in this venture, the technology, and it’s uses.

 My friend who came with me to test the device, also ended up joining Mendi and I believe he even introduced himself in the last update when he showed you how to find your pledge type and backer number.

I can assure you that this company truly cares about its early adopters and wants nothing more than all of us to have access to a product (the v4) that can evolve with us for the years to come . I am so happy that I get to be a part of this journey everyday, see both the struggles and the victories, the commitment and the drive that will bring this technology to you.

It is a great privilege and responsibility to be a part of this journey with this team. The team is working day and night (sometimes quite literally) to build the most complete brain health system for you and your loved ones. Thank you for being a part of our journey and supportive of our commitment to raise the bar on brain health for everyone!

I wish all of you and your families the best of health.

Best Regards,

Alex