Hello all,

We’ve changed our website from www.cloudriders.store to www.cloudridersstore.com

thanks

Hello, and welcome to Cloud Riders Store, where I design, manufacture and sell accessories for Storz & Bickel Vaporisers (source manufacture). At the moment I’m working on few projects, the Mighty Grinder is the main one. It’s a Grinder that fits on the Mighty & Crafty vaporiser, using a similar filling aid device so you can grind right into it and savour every trichome. I’ve just moved from Melbourne Australia to the Netherlands and I’m almost finished designing and testing a Charging Stand for the Mighty.

It felt like I’ve hit a wall in my previous post and I believe I did but walls can be passed with various techniques, I’m not claiming that I found a way through but I’m still working on it.

In the last two weeks I’ve finished preparing a business pitch explaining all about my startup, the products, the market plus the finances and started approaching investment companies that invests only in Cannabis relaited products.

Saying that; If you know someone who is looking to invest in a similar startup please forward my details to them :).

I didn’t hear back from S&B, maybe they think the product isn’t worthy or maybe they will make their own grinder/filling aid combo. Nevertheless I did follow up with them today and I will keep my fingers crossed.

I have nothing else to say apart from that life is good here. The Netherlands is a happy place and I’m confident I will find a way to bring my products to market sooner or later.

Have a wonderful weekend, vape and be happy, peace out ☮️

Hello, and welcome to Cloud Riders Store, where I design, manufacture and sell accessories for Storz & Bickel Vaporisers (source manufacture). At the moment I’m working on few projects, the Mighty Grinder is the main one. It’s a Grinder that fits on the Mighty & Crafty vaporiser, using a similar filling aid device so you can grind right into it and savour every trichome. I’ve just moved from Melbourne Australia to the Netherlands and I’m almost finished designing and testing a Charging Stand for the Mighty.

It looks like I won’t be able to run the Indiegogo campaign, they’ve simi freezed my account and below is their email.

Hi Dirar,

We are reaching out to inform you that our payment processor, Stripe, sent us an update regarding your campaign “Herb Grinder fits securely on Might & Crafty Vapes“. We’ve provided their response below:

“Stripe unfortunately cannot process transactions on this account as it exceeds our present risk tolerance, as determined by a combination of local regulatory requirements, commercial partnerships, operational burden, and other pertinent factors. As identified in the Stripe Terms of Service, “any information we collect may affect our assessment of your overall risk to our business. You acknowledge that in some cases, such information may lead to suspension or termination of your Stripe Account.” Stripe may periodically update this information as part of our underwriting criteria and risk analysis procedures.

Effective today, this user will no longer be able to accept transactions on their account. We intend to refund any settled payments on the account back to the cardholders, if applicable.

We are sorry we had to take this action and regret the impact this decision has on you and your user’s business.”

Regards,

Oscar
Trust & User Operations

Indiegogo

I honestly don’t know where to go from here, I’ve appealed and waiting for an answer but I don’t believe that Indiegogo will allow me to run the campaign.

For that reason I’ve approached Storz & Bickel hoping that they might be interested in bringing the product to the market and they said they are curious to hear more so fingers crossed. I’ve emailed a link to the YouTube video and I should hear back from them after the 5th of October as the person who contacted me was going on a holiday at that same day so I will keep you posted when I hear back.

Maybe I just have to find a Co-founder to help me with this step. Or maybe the whole thing is a bust and it won’t go anywhere. As I said in the beginning I don’t know where to go from here at this moment. I might be able to fund the whole thing by myself early next year.

I’ve moved to the new place, actually it’s the roof of someone, I live in a Zolder as they call it here, It’s a bit height tight and I’m a tall guy 186cm so I’m finding navigating the space a bit challenging apart from that I live with a very nice and likeminded guy, and he is sold on switching to a Mighty or Crafty and ditching the joints (hear that S&B I’m literally working for you for free).

I’ve started learning Dutch and I’m really loving it here in the Netherlands, it’s a smart forward thinking country, plus you can find great weed here, and mushrooms; maybe this weekend. 🙂

That’s it for this week, have a good weekend and stay safe ☮️ ✌️ peace out.

Hello, and welcome to Cloud Riders Store, where I design, manufacture and sell accessories for Storz & Bickel Vaporisers (source manufacture). At the moment I’m working on few projects, the Mighty Grinder is the main one. It’s a Grinder that fits on the Mighty & Crafty vaporiser, using a similar filling aid device so you can grind right into it and savour every trichome. I’ve just moved from Melbourne Australia to the Netherlands and I’m almost finished designing and testing a Charging Stand for the Mighty.

And few steps Backward!

I will start with the bad news: Barkley Plastics is no more.

The good news:

I have recorded a video showing the grinder and how it work link to the YouTube video. You have to watch it on YouTube because it’s 18+.

I’m working on the Indiegogo campaign and although I’m not very optimistic I’m aiming to launch the campaign in the beginning of October. I will be moving forward quicker now that I’m here and I’ve recorded the first video.

Development news:

It was brought to my attention that my filling aid device doesn’t accomodate the capsules, so I will be editing thet so it can be used to fill the capsules like the OEM.

The Mighty charging stand will need a charging slot on the other side to accommodate the Mighty +.

These simple modifications will be done next week as I’m still living in Airbnb until Sunday when I will be moving to a bigger and more permanent room until I can find an apartment on my own, rent is an issue in the Netherlands.

Thanks for reading stay safe and enjoy your weekend and if you happened to be in Utrecht drop me a line, I would like to meet someone.

Peace out ☮️ ✌️

Hello, and welcome to Cloud Riders Store, where I design, manufacture and sell accessories for Storz & Bickel Vaporisers (source manufacture). At the moment I’m working on few projects, the Mighty Grinder is the main one. It’s a Grinder that fits on the Mighty & Crafty vaporiser, using a similar filling aid device so you can grind right into it and savour every trichome. Also I’m in the middle of moving from Melbourne to the Netherlands and I’m almost finished designing and testing a Charging Stand for the Mighty.

I’ve started writing this post Friday the second but that day I had a minor incident where I cut all eight of my fingers, nothing serious but typing wasn’t pleasant for few days, so I thought I’ll finish the post in the airport while I’m waiting for my plane, That didn’t happen as the queue stretched from the check-in desk to the airport’s door two hours before the flight.

Melbourne airport management has decided due to the massive staff shortage to open only three counters to check in around 420 passengers in two hours. the math doesn’t add up, eventually they opened few more counters and we started moving in queues all the way to the seat with no time to spare.

Next the plane was delayed for an hour and a half because they didn’t have staff to load the luggage into it, that was extremely pleasent in the upright position of the economy class seat.

Credit to Emirates though, the pilot was really apologetic and promised to make up for the delay, please don’t let your wild imagination wonder far and think it was because of our inconvenience! No. just so the connecting passengers which count for the majority won’t cause more plane’s delays.

So the pilot got to do what most men like to do, floor it!! we only lost half an hour, he made up for one full hour in a fourteenth hours flight. Impressive!

The Question will always stand though; why not floor it all the time? there are no speed cameras up there.

The next part of this post is what I wrote in Melbourne before leaving and I’ve decided to leave it as it was.

Yes! I fly to Holland today, I’ll spend a night in Dubai with my relatives and continue to Amsterdam the next day where a friend of mine will be waiting for me in the airport.

A new chapter of my life will be starting soon. It is so surreal! In my brain I can see the pictures and the end of an era of my life. I can see the faces of the people and all the major events that led to this discussion.

I had great last two days with my Family, took my son out today and we had a day together. His laughter will accompany me, I can always hear it ringing in my head. Pure and simple.

I’ve made some improvements to the charging stand. (but after buying the mighty+, I have to do more)

I’m going through heaps of personal issues as I’m moving by myself and I can’t really concentrate on working.

I’m hoping the car will sell before I go. (it didn’t)

I’ve ordered my Mighty+, it should be delivered today to my mate’s house in the Netherlands.

One night in Dubai and Hello Europe.

“In Amsterdam” I will be recording the grinder’s video this week. That’s all for now. I know this post is out of sync but it has to go.

have a great week and peace out. ✌️ ☮️

— Napoleon Hill

I came across this quote few days ago, and I found it realy helpful and uplifting, as I’m attempting a major change in my life. Advices from my social circle are becoming more like noise, it’s very distracting.

At the moment I’m reading a book about startup’s fund raising, looking into ways to obtain a working visa in Europe, trying to find a rental and part time job in the Netherlands, my car is not sold yet while I’m counting down the days and wondering; Why?

Why do I have this urge for change? Why am I jumping into the unknown? will there be any smooth sailing? is it all worth it?

Every and Each book I read about being an Entrepreneur speaks of the uncertainty. About how hard and lonely the path is. Not knowing if the end result will be what you gambled on increases the challenge significantly. You don’t know if you will get what you are fighting for.

Maybe I’m just too old. Trying to start over at 44. But there are more working years ahead than behind. Or maybe I’m just a Nomad.

Doubt must be the main reason why people settle down into jobs and relationships they don’t fancy. If I leave this, what will I find out there? that’s one scary question.

My feelings now are like those you get before a major trip, multiplied few times, the butterflies in the stomach, the longing for that first night out in the wild where it’s you and the adventure.

That was from my last adventure, for more landscapes from Australia you can visit this link

On a different subject, I’ve 3d printed a grinder and shipped it to Barkley Plastics, they were having troubles printing it and asked me for help.

I have to say the grinder is not easy to print, I’ve totally missed up the first few prints until I figured out the best orientation and how to setup the parts in the printing space then things became more straight forward.

Nothing has been done in regard to the Indiegogo campaign, I think this will be the first thing on my agenda once I’ve arrived to Holland. Record a video showing how the grinder works and kick start the Campaign.

At the moment I’m completely focused on selling, packing, and trying to find a place to live in the Netherlands, look like I have a nag for choosing very expensive cities. Dubai, Melbourne and now Amsterdam, Although to be fair Sydney is more expensive than Melbourne, and I’m seriously considering Rotterdam.

In a previous post I’ve mentioned that I was working on a charging stand for the mighty, it’s almost done, I’m going to buy a Mighty+ when I arrive to Holland, that way I can make sure the stand will fit both vaporisers.

It’s a simple charging stand, I’m hoping producing it will be less of a challenge than the grinder and I will be able to bring it to market quickly, maybe before the grinder.

This was the first design, as you can see you have to unplug the charger to be able to remove the Mighty, and this one was tight. too tight.

This is the latest one I’ve made, the base dosen’t look perfect, that’s a printing failure, but it’s not affecting the functionality, this one you can remove the mighty while charging and put it back. Very handy little gadget.

That was all for this week, I’m posting biweekly now as the news are rare and more about my journey than the products. Stay safe and have a good weekend, Peace ☮️

This was last week’s post, but my wife got stranded and I had to go pick here up which made me miss my usual posting time, also I thought the post wasn’t enough. This week though, I believe I have something to tell you, so buckle up because We are flying to Amsterdam on the 7th of September. Yes ticket is booked and paid for and I’m going.

I’ve even applied for a tour guide job in Amsterdam. Thinking, It’s a great way to learn the city, meet new people and do my daily steps. Fingers crossed 🤞 I get it. Will make the move less stressful.

I have to say that I love Uncle eBay, always giving me money for my used stuff. Not like Facebook where I almost feel bad for listing. On eBay, I have a store. Feels good especially when it’s making money. 🙂

Regarding Barkley Plastics, the designer is back and he asked me for some changes to one of the parts, So things are moving forward again. At the Moment they are on skeleton staff because the automotive industry is on summer break.

I’ve received the 3D prints, the SLA looks good, but not good enough to be sold, I won’t buy it. Therefore; this is a no go Option. 3D printing is not a solution.

Last time I had to take pictures of the filling aid with the mighty I had to hold the mighty with my hand as I didn’t have a stand, which got me thinking (as usual). Why don’t I make my own stand? Plenty of options out there I know.

So back then, I’ve made one, but I didn’t work on the subject until this week, this might become the first Cloud Riders’s product to be sold in the eBay store.

That’s all for this week, thanks for reading. Have a great weekend. Peace ☮️

It’s hard to start a business from scratch, especially if you are not loaded and well connected. Mostly it feels like pushing s**t uphill. The fun part though; because you are pushing, you can’t see clearly up ahead, so you don’t know how far you still have to push.

And although now, it’s a One-Man show, (and the answer to any problem is Upskilling so I can fix it), I’m going to try to bring outside help to launch and manage the Indiegogo campaign.

A couple of weeks ago, I was approached by LaunchBoom . They offered to run my Indiegogo campaign, and sent me links to campaigns they ran. As tempting as the offer sounded, I know I can’t afford them, so I offered them a post-pay arrangement, which wasn’t good enough for them.

This got me thinking, as I’m not a marketing specialist, why don’t I hire one and offer to pay a commission from the Indiegogo campaign? So I advertised the position on LinkedIn.

Happy to say that I’ve received a few resumes over the past few days, and I’ve been corresponding with candidates for the position of Campaign Manager. By the way if you know someone who is interested, please let them know, I’m looking for a Storz & Bickel user. Link to the job ad

The hope is after a successful campaign, I can hire this person as a Marketing Manager, allowing me to focus my time on product development and sales.

Speaking of which, I’ve been working on a Cooling Unit’s Automatic Cleaner, the device is in it’s first prototyping and testing stage, but I’ve been happy with the results.

The device will be able of cleaning up to two Cooling units at the same time, and while it will take around 45 minutes to finish it’s cleaning cycle, it will be buzzing by itself. All you have to do is diassemble and then assemble the clean Cooling Units.

The seals need to be removed and cleaned separately, or replaced depending on their condition.

Cleaning the cooling unit has been a problem for me from day fourteen, and I find it to be a dreadful task. For that reason, I went and bought two extra cooling units, so I don’t have to clean as often. One big dirty afternoon.

But now I don’t have to worry about it. I’ve been using the first prototype for couple of cleans, after a few modifications it will be 100%.

I’m aiming to bring this product to market for less than $100, which will make it a valid solution for the cleaning problem.

Apart from that, I’m still waiting on a few things before I can move forward. Like the 3d printing samples and a quote from Barkley Plastic, so we can start discussing any further cooperation.

I’m aiming to Launch the Indiegogo Campaign in August, anything before that will be impossible, I know it feels like things are slowing down, but like climbing the hill, things tend to slow down just before the top, just before rolling down hill. Or it could be just my wishful thinking 🧐

That’s all for this week, thanks for reading and stay safe, Peace ☮️

I tested positive for Covid on Saturday, so I wasn’t able to work to full capacity this week, especially with the Mighty sitting in the pit stop, as my lungs were given the Black and Orange flag the first few days.

Nevertheless, I have exciting news regarding Production: An important figure in the plastic industry has reached out to me and offered to quote the grinder, and I’m not talking about someone in sales, I’m talking about a Chairman of a major international plastic company.

I share my post to few Facebook groups and Mark Harwood the chairman of Barkley Plastics commented on my last post saying that “This product should be moulded and not 3d printed” and offered to quote the product.

At first I didn’t know who I was talking to as I was as sick as a dog. I continued answering other’s comments about moulds, cost and other things and not answering his offer as I didn’t want to say something wrong. I was so sick I wasn’t thinking straight. I just needed time and luckily he was patient.

The day after testing positive was the worst day for me. I couldn’t eat or drink, no vape and no sleep, it was an awful 24 hours. The race was good though, but that was it.

Monday when I was coming back to life, I started communicating and shared the CAD files with Mark on Tuesday. Now I’m waiting to hear back. I’m very, very excited and hopeful.

I’m sure that Barkley plastic is not after what’s in my bank account now, and a successful man like Mark will not bother with my product unless he sees a real potential in it.

Barkley Plastics, is a major name in the plastic industry and trusted by companies like BMW, McLaren, Jaguar, and Nissan, The list is long…

For the grinder to be made in the UK by such a reputable name will be a major leap forward. This will be a real high quality product.

Now to bring the product closer to market and achieve maximum customer experience enhancement, I had to use my “yet to be” assets to create a second product that will benefit my “yet to be” customers.

The product is a package of five Filling Aides, in five different colours, so you can tell what strain is in which Filling Aide. At the moment I’m thinking transparent, white, red, green and orange. Maybe we will release pink and blue on Valentine’s day.

The five Filling Aid package should retail around the $30 USD (price is not final yet) but in order to achieve this I had to consider a different material. I have been advised by industry experts to use food grade PC instead of Peek. So based on their advice I’ve decided to make the plastic parts out of PC, which will allow us to release the Filling Aids in different colours, so you can use a Different colour for each strain.

When starting an Indiegogo campaign, you have to choose the product’s stage.

As I want to choose prototype, I have to provide the video and the pictures mentioned above. While recording the video, the 3d printed plastic teeth didn’t fully function, not the way they should anyway.

As you can see in the picture my 3d printed teeth are not complete and not strong enough, (not as strong as normal plastic), so the video didn’t pass my quality control.

For me to be able to record a video I will need functioning teeth, so for that I’ve ordered the Aluminium parts to be printed using Selective Laser Melting (SLM) from Craftcloud3d. I have to say though that things don’t sound promising as they came back to me with a few serious problems.

If we manage to solve them, then the parts are supposed to arrive next week and I will be able to record a video with a fully functioning grinder. Otherwise, I have to find someone else to print or CNC the aluminium parts so I can record the video to use for marketing and start the Indiegogo Campaign, Link to the pre campaign if you didn’t sign up.

Thanks for reading 😊 🙏 and catch you next week ☮️