How to Respond to a Crippling Error in Your Business [e153]
The guys talk about the costly mistake made by one business owner and discuss the legalresponsibilities of handling major errors. Full Podcast Transcript NASIR: All right. Welcome to our business podcast where we cover business in the news and add our legal twist for the benefit of you, the listener. My name is Nasir Pasha. Thank you for joining us. MATT: And I’m Matt Staub. NASIR: And Matthew Staub is here again, joining us for the 153rd time, I believe. MATT: Correct. NASIR: I think that’s a new record, right? I mean, I think last week you were at 152. So, I think you just broke the record, man. 153 in a row. Congratulations. MATT: I’m pretty proud of that. NASIR: I wouldn’t get too confident there, you know. You don’t know what’s going to happen next week. MATT: Yeah, it’s true. Well, it’s bad because we’ve had the other three people that have been here the whole time. And so, they haven’t really said anything, or they haven’t said anything, but it still counts because they’re here. NASIR: Yeah. MATT: So, if I screw up and don’t show up, they can just step in and say something and then they’re going to have the record. NASIR: Correct. MATT: Yeah. NASIR: The record committee just requires presence. You don’t have to actually say anything. MATT: So, I hope I don’t make a mistake like the mistake we’re going to be talking about today. NASIR: Classic transition. MATT: Yeah. So, there’s this guy who’s an artist, Cameron Moll, M-O-L-L. NASIR: Moll? Moll? MATT: Moll. Moll. Okay. Spend the rest of the episode just trying to guess his name. So, he’s an artist. He’s started a Kickstarter campaign and he was looking to raise $10,000 and, actually, as of recording here, oh, I guess it’s already over. So, he raised just under $65,000 – well above what he was expecting to raise. Nearly 600 people backed the project and he was essentially doing this really cool letterpress printed version of the Brooklyn Bridge – really, really cool thing. People funded it. He gave them a copy of what he created and, after the $65,000, after he spent all the time and money sending out these prints to everyone, he had about $15,000 left. And then, he realized he made a big mistake. When I first saw this story, I assumed he, like, screwed something up with the numbers or something. His mistake was it was a typo. He misspelled the word “Brooklyn.” NASIR: Whoops! That’s a big one. MATT: Yeah. So, B-R-O-O-K-Y-L-N. So, he switched the Y and the L there. So, what he had to do obviously was go back and reprint and reship. Essentially, he cut his profit in half. At the end of the day, he still made money because it was free money that he got so I don’t feel too bad. NASIR: But did he have to resend it all? I mean, yeah, okay, you misspelled it, but, you know, it’s a piece of artwork. Maybe that’s part of the art – misspelled words. I mean, if you think about it, basically, you guys, it’s hard to picture it, but the Brooklyn Bridge image is made up of different letters which has different words in it, and he displayed that on the Kickstarter, but I don’t think he actually showed the word because, basically, when the final product had “Brooklyn Bridge” kind of in big letters and so it wasn’t on there. But, if some of the words were misspelled on the original poster and people bought it, well, apparently, they can’t spell either so he didn’t have to send it, I guess. I don’t know. What do you think? MATT: I don’t know if that’s technically a contract. Is he obligated? How Kickstarter works is people back your project and you can give different incentives. So, he had any pledge of $80 or more, he would send an early bird signer posted – you know, a copy of this Brooklyn Bridge poster. Is he obligated to even send that in the first place? Because people are just sending him money. I think that agreement might be with Kickstarter. I’m not sure. NASIR: I don’t know how that works but let’s say he was just selling it on his website and,