10 months ago, I was at the lowest point of my life. I’d just lost my dad to cancer. Months earlier I lost my job too - for missing one senseless Zoom meeting while I was caretaking. I was struggling just to survive. But in all of it, I still found the strength to do the one thing I do best: create. I designed Pandora - a smart lid that turns an ordinary jar into a self-sustaining little world. I built the 3D model in Blender, rendered an animation of it, put up a landing page, and posted it right here on Reddit. Then 24 hours happened that changed my life. The post went semi-viral: 100k views, 1k upvotes, around 300 people on the waitlist. And then a DM. Someone (anonymous at the time) asking a simple question: how much would it take to get this Kickstarter-ready? Days later, he and a colleague - at one of the biggest companies in Silicon Valley - wired me the first money. An autistic no-one from a country most people can’t find on a map got a life-saving investment based on a single Blender animation. A Christmas miracle, basically. I promised them 4 review prototypes in 2 months. They said, “Take 3, there are always delays.” I started the very next morning. They were right about the delays. Tariffs, chip shortages, supplier nightmares. 10 months of around-the-clock work. One sandwich a day (we don’t have ramen over here). But I built a dream team along the way, including someone who’s worked on some of the biggest Kickstarter campaigns there are. And today, I’m holding the first fully working, virtually production-ready Pandora in my hands. A slick machined, brushed and anodized aluminium case (I’m told it’s aluminum, but I’ll keep spelling it the right way 😄) A gold-plated PCB covered in shamanic symbols (SHMN, read “shaman” is our brand name) A bunch of state-of-the-art sensors and actuators A black glass top 4K HDR Sony camera for timelapses And an ML agent inside that keeps whatever lives in the jar alive and thriving It’s real. It’s not vaporware. People want it. So here’s the hard part. The delays burned through the budget. My angels and investors have already extended my runway three times - and I’m endlessly grateful for that. But the money has hit zero again, and I need a four-digit amount for the finishing touches before the marketing push for the Kickstarter. I asked for a 4th extension. They said no. I don’t blame them. It’s fair. It’s on me to deliver this time. I’m running on fumes. My ISP cut me off over unpaid bills (I’m burning mobile data to write this). My team’s Google Workspace gets disabled in a matter of days. It genuinely feels like a dream I’m about to wake up from - straight back into last December's hell. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. I AM at the end of the tunnel. But there’s a thin, invisible, bulletproof wall between me and it. I’m stuck, I’m scared af, and I honestly don’t know what to do next. So I came back to Reddit - where all of this started. Maybe the Universe gives you one last chance when you’re this close. I’m linking my original post and photos below as proof it’s all real. If any of this moves you, drop me a line. Fingers crossed. And thank you for reading. Sincerely, Seb Original post: https://www.reddit.com/r/SideProject/comments/1pkspec/i_lost_my_job_and_my_dad_last_year_so_i_channeled/ Imgur gallery: https://imgur.com/a/lfU4BcQ   submitted by   /u/sebpelan [link]   [comments]