I would rather have Lancelot comment on this issue because he is the secured lender, but I felt compelled to interject again to correct some factually inaccurate statements that GoneBad above and some other posters are making! Lance has been very kind to reach out to me privately and we have had a few email message exchanged and he was kind enough to confide in me the amount of the said loan plus the term. So please allow me make those corrections before this becomes a runaway train rife with the "sky has already fallen" speculative statements:
A- I am not going to be specific for confidentiality reasons, but the loan sum although not small by any means, is not something that a better business model could not have rather easily obtained from the local bank or the SBA, and to me it does not seem that Survive! if truly rich in assets, sold out the farm to Lance based on the purported amount (
this statement is purely subjective based on my own past business "unsecured" borrowings just based on personal guarantees).
B- More crucially: Lance had never intimated that Survive! had in fact defaulted on the said loan so again the rampant speculative statements are running wild here by the detractors. If you read what he had written, he had clearly said that he approached Survive! in the last Q of 2016 when he became enamored with another maker's D3V HT and decided that it was a worthwhile cause (to both Lance and S!) to engage in some form of private equity investment (
perhaps not the best terminology, but same semantics). Further, he had stated that he could accelerate the loan's repayment if he wanted to (
as every lender private or institutional could). Lance never said that he was going to do that and in fact whatever assurances he has received from Guy and the behind the scenes talks, he may even consider extending the terms. Now, he's the lender and quite frankly none of us: me, you, we; are going to be privy to the terms between a private lender and a private borrower. If you don't like this, well too darn bad.
Why am I putting so much time and effort into this mess? Primarily because I have gained quite a few invaluable friendships on with those whom I cherish being friends with. These friends on average have about $1K - $2K vested with Survive! on preorders or any other term which Survive! uses for taking money upfront in lieu of knives it has not yet made or totally assembled. I would love to see these fiends being made whole and I certainly am not the type who would wish for them to learn a valuable lesson by losing their hard earned moneys. Curse me if you will for my benevolent liberal nature
Otherwise, I don't know why I keep coming into the mix? Perhaps I have a proclivity for train wrecks or perhaps my benevolent nature is the antithesis of those who seem to be cheering for crash and burn. The Yin and Yang, if you will! I personally own no GSOs, I have sold them all (
mostly with a little profit) gifted the last one to an Ex since I found the knife too diminutive, will most likely never buy another GSO or S!K as I have taken my business elsewhere that the maker satisfies my personal needs and his products are superior IMHO. Some of my fiends who are more proficient knife enthusiasts do not necessarily agree with me on this last statement but we all understand both objectivity and subjectivity. This is precisely why I would like to see Survive! get their act to gather and indeed survive, because they do serve a purpose even if many find their products to be a lot of hype. To many others, S! has so far produced (
via mostly outsourcing right here in the USA) very good knives at very good prices.