I can't go into a lot of detail for obvious reasons, but:

- We've sold many more than 300 players, plus have done consultancy work and produced custom versions for a major car audio OEM.
- We've not used any VC (yet). We've just done things in a much more English way - as opposed to a Silicon valley startup: ie, we don't have pots of cash, so we just work smarter instead. Money is obviously required for some things, but if you're careful enough you make sure that every prototype works first time by doing a lot of careful checking...
- We're privately funded by one investor. As with all UK companies, all the details are in our limited company accounts filed with companies house, uk.
- Most of our money is used for financing component stock as you guessed!
- Up until the beginning of 99, we only really had one permanent employee (me), though Mike was contracting and Rob was working from home too, plus Patrick working on hardware when needed.
- Up until the August 1st 1999, the hub of empeg was my house in Cambridge, which at one point had Mike living downstairs and both of us working in my spare room. We had some get-togethers with everyone (including Toby and Patrick's cat) staying at my 2-bedroom house, but it did get a bit cramped. Mike still remembers sleeping & working near Pixel (the cat's) litter tray!
- Myself & mike still work on our own machines - I don't have any company toys (this is about to change, though ;) )
- Our future plans expand into many areas, and they're all must-have toys. They still run linux, too...

It's not that we havn't been able to find investors - we've had them falling over themselves - but we want to make the *right* partnership. When things happen, you'll know :)

Hugo