 In this box is the first laptop that I've bought for myself since high school. You heard me, right? I've certainly obtained new portable computers since 2005 through work or my connections as a youtuber, but I have gone 16 years now without ever feeling compelled to actually buy one for myself until I saw the Framework laptop. I don't remember the last time I saw a device that so clearly rejected the trends towards disposable Upgradable non-repairable electronics while still managing to maintain the premium feel that we expect from a modern ultrabook I was so impressed during my initial impressions that on top of ordering one on the spot I publicly offered to invest in the company. Surprise! They called my bluff offering me a chance to put up or shut up and I never shut up About sponsors like iFixit. Oh, wow, what an appropriate sponsor. From iPhones to Nintendo switches iFixit has your repair needs covered with their lineup of fix kits. Find out how iFixit can help you repair your devices at the end of this video The point of this video is threefold to disclose my position as a long-term investor in framework to explain why I decided to make this unprecedented move and to talk about what this means for LTT going forward and as we go along I will be building up the bare-bones framework laptop that I ordered to my exact specifications This is actually my first time opening this I've got my packing slip my framework laptop DIY edition core i7 1165 g7 My accessories love the recyclable packaging. What's the padding? Oh, wow, it is It's shredded paper. One of the coolest things about the framework laptop is that you choose your own I.O. They come in these little cardboard containers and I went with a single USB type A two USB type C's and an HDMI Drove me crazy not having one of these when I was daily driving the XPS 13 2-in-1 I also got totally unsolicited this envelope a couple of weeks after my framework laptop arrived So we're not only gonna be building it We're gonna be fixing it because there's an issue with some of the early units Of course none of this would even be worth talking about if the machine itself wasn't any good It's got surprising stiffness for a laptop that is missing a bunch of pieces all aluminum construction 2256 by 1504 display easily swappable bezel you can even change the color if you really want to and a Surprisingly good keyboard considering that it's like modular overall good machine at a fair price But of course the laptop isn't the only thing that I bought my preferred shares in the company cost me exactly 224,000 998 dollars and 37 cents and they give me a small but significant Stake in framework computer ink my investment was part of a seed funding round that will hopefully give framework the cash It needs to reinvest in its core business by building out its team and designing and stocking new products Something that we've learned the hard way over the last three years is that supporting a growing physical goods business is shockingly expensive Let's use LTT store comm as an example our gross margins are Somewhere in the 60 to 70 percent range But that doesn't mean that every time we sell a $30 water bottle we make $20 out of that gross margin comes business overhead Like storage and handling fees employee salaries and benefits rent insurance consumables customer support shrink platform fees I'm sure I'm forgetting some but the point is that our net profit what remains before we pay the tax man is in the 30% Neighborhood I'm not complaining. That's a healthy business, which is kind of a confusing message How can LTT store be both profitable and expensive to support? What sinks a fledgling company more often than not is a lack of cash flow not a lack of profit margin Let's open up this computer and talk about how this applies to frameworks business. I ordered the DIY edition So just add your own Wi-Fi SSD RAM and operating system they charge $1,049 for the mid-tier core i7 model that I chose and if we wanted to know the actual cost of all of this or the Bill of materials we would need to add up every single little capacitor and wire TDS thankfully we can take some shortcuts the bulk goes to Intel who lists the CPU in this unit at 426 US dollars in quantities of a thousand most of the major cost contributors like the battery keyboard trackpad screen and cooler We can approximate based on the street prices of similar replacement parts and for the motherboard Anon tech did a wonderful write-up back in 2009 that we're just gonna borrow. Let's say 120 bucks that puts us at 770 US dollars and we haven't accounted for the chassis or any of the other odds and ends yet But it's also common knowledge that Intel never charges OEMs list price for their CPUs So I'm gonna say that the cost of this finished package is somewhere in the neighborhood of 800 US dollars That's certainly a lot less than $1,049 so good business plan here we go, right? Hold on the first run of let's say a thousand units of this thing will easily cost north of a million dollars once we factor in Production setup costs like tooling and molds much of that or sometimes all of it needs to be paid upfront Let's be optimistic though and say that on top of fronting the R&D to design this thing The founder happens to have a million dollars in the bank and that order takes just eight weeks to get through production and reach frameworks warehouse Now we make another assumption that demand is strong and all 1,000 units sell out in two weeks with a cool quarter million dollars of gross profit damn That's a lot of money sort of remember all that pesky business overhead. We got to deal with that now leaving Half if we're lucky a hundred grand profit is certainly better than a kick in the teeth But if you want to grow your sales Well, you need to take all of that profit and put it back into your second order Which is gonna give you a little over 1100 units You'll get them eight weeks from now if you are insanely lucky and in the meantime you have Absolutely nothing to sell and no money in the bank to pay your staff while they twiddle their thumbs waiting for the next shipment So even if my numbers are way off and framework is netting twice that let's say $200 a unit on the spare bones the best case scenario for them after a year of utterly flawless Execution is three million dollars in cash. That's enough to increase their bi-monthly order from just a thousand to three thousand units But they still wouldn't have enough to meet customer demand and keep orders flowing smoothly from the factory and They wouldn't have saved a penny to reinvest in facilities equipment or R&D their competitors would bring new products to market slowing demand for this now out-of-date design and unless they adapt they will eventually have nothing but a warehouse full of laptops that nobody wants and an empty bank account GG now let's do it again But with a big bucket of borrowed cash at 8% interest compounding monthly in this scenario framework now gets to place four Separate 1 million dollar orders spaced two weeks apart right out of the gate after eight weeks they start to get these orders in generating both the cash that they need to restock them and a cool $200,000 in profit every time an order sells through a year into this scenario assuming zero sales growth Which is very unlikely framework has now paid $330,000 in interest which sucks, but they also low-key shipped 26,000 laptops and made over four million dollars net party time, right? Not quite remember that four million dollar loan whoever lent them that money needs something in return Or they're gonna start looking for some legs to break framework could pay it back But that would completely wipe them out. So they make a deal How about instead of the money we give you guys a chunk of this company? And then we can just keep using that money to expand our product portfolio the same way we did last time We eventually grow so big that we go public and you can sell that portion of the company that you bought on the open market For way more than you paid or you can just keep it forever if it suits you Maybe you just like the stock well now instead of a loan It's an investment and if all goes according to plan framework grows faster So more customers get super cool laptops and the investors get paid back their original money and then some everybody wins by the way I need to invest in some RAM and an SSD I bought the bare bones on it, please conveniently framework includes the only tool that you'll need to assemble the device But I'm sure I fix it's not too upset about it because these guys are 100% on the same team and you'll need one of these for almost any other laptop It's refreshing not to be treated like I can't be trusted with my own hardware And you know what? There's going to be costs associated with that because people will break them and they will complain but it's worth it to have more open Devices available for consumers and what's cool is for repair shops They have even committed to providing the schematics of the boards if they want to do board level repair Which is super awesome the labels in each slot indicate that it supports up to 32 gig modules But rather than go all the way to the limits I've actually just gone with two 8 gig 3200 megahertz modules from crucial and for storage It supports up to a single PCI Express Gen 4 m.2 2280 SSD I decided not to go Gen 4 though because I'm more concerned with good enough performance and excellent battery life So I went with the SK Hynix gold P31 SSD now at this point in the video We've nailed down that framework clearly needs money so they can build more of these things But I haven't explained why they need mine and the truth is they don't they actually closed the bulk of this funding round back In q2 and one of the other investors was already in line to take the remainder They could have accepted that offer, but they didn't instead both framework And I decided to take a leap of faith and I call it that because both of us are taking some big risks here Here are their risks in no particular order I could bring my own ego into internal discussions and try to have an outsize influence on their direction as a company Compounding that risk I could take my disagreements public or worse suffer some kind of Catastrophic fall from grace Zheng Shuang style ultimately damaging their brand by association Association far more than I ever could have boosted it the thing is dropping an influencer from your ad campaign Pretty straightforward affair ousting a shareholder It's a little more complicated meanwhile. I carry my own bag of risks starting of course with the most obvious one I could easily lose my entire Investment of nearly a quarter million dollars because unlike a loan Investments typically carry no personal guarantee or other securities if we win we win big if we lose It's tough luck brah and second if I pump this company's tires only for them to turn around and abandon their open approach to Repairability and upgradability I'm gonna look like a complete asshat and finally since we're on the subject of my credibility This move creates an enormous conflict of interest any time. I'm covering or commenting on any laptop Can I really be trusted to speak my mind about a competing device when it directly damages the prospects of a company? I'm financially linked to can I handle being pulled in two directions like this I? Think so but even if that's true a portion of you won't believe me And it means that I'm gonna have to clutter up our videos with non entertaining disclaimers disclosing my position all the time so then Why do it well the bottom line is that I fell in love with the vision behind this product the moment? I saw I want a framework in my backpack and I want a seat at the front of this crazy ride and as a shareholder I get to throw my weight behind framework in ways that you guys might not consider believe it or not I have some connections in the tech industry. I know I know I know crazy right I don't find much time for personal relationships these days I mean you all know about my friendship with Taryn from Corsair actually Dell now But he doesn't even work in press relations I talked to John from unread on a fairly regular basis But we usually talk shop and the same goes for Gary Keefer me sus by the way was one of my idols when I was a young Tech reviewer. I'm not a sociopath or anything I've just always believed that I have a finite amount of time and if I focus that on making the best content I can with my writing team Eventually I'll reach the point where whether I enjoy schmoozing or not people can't really ignore me anymore And I'm hoping to use that to help framework get connected with partners You'd think of like AMD a rise inversion is the number one request They've received since my original video and ones you might not think of like dbrand the co-branding opportunities of working with someone like dbrand on A skin drop are huge however prickly their public persona might be those robots are absolute genius level mad lads now to be clear Framework would have sorted this stuff out on their own But in the same way that bringing in outside money can accelerate growth I'm just hoping to pour a little bit of gasoline on my relationship fire speaking of fires by the way Please do not light up our support email asking when the LTT backpack is coming it is coming confirmed here But not until sometime in the mid to distant future the cleanest way to handle this is to recuse myself From all decisions related to our editorial coverage of notebooks with the size and talent of our team That's a legitimate option these days frankly I've had very little to do with it for a long time since there's been so little in the space That's excited me, but my only issue with that is that means I'll be giving up the opportunity to talk to you guys about Truly incredible machines that I am excited about like the asus rg flow x13 that I've been daily driving for the last few months Aside from some yeah, we sent you a prototype buggyness. I absolutely love that thing it is so cool So for that reason I'm reluctant to completely butt out when there's still gonna be stuff that I'm gonna think is cool And I'm gonna want to talk about what I know for sure is that even though I'm not ready to make a firm commitment to Covering or not covering notebooks in the future I will make a firm commitment to maintain the same level of honesty and transparency that you guys have come to expect from me I will never say that I like something I don't I won't hold back from anything I love and I will keep you guys 100% apprised of the situation my second commitment to you is that if framework Renegs on the promise they made to me my breakup with them will be swift Absolute and in public here it is I got this in writing from the founder Nirav Patel We do promise not to fuck up from a pro consumer and pro environment perspective And you would be fully justified in holding us to the fire if we break that promise Sounds good to me just like our sponsor. I fix it. Thank you. I fix it for sponsoring today's video This is totally on message you guys I fix it is all about consumer rights and repair ability They make it affordable to fix or upgrade your devices using their custom. I fix it kits for example The Nintendo switch has an all-in-one kit to fix joy-con drift for just 20 US dollars They've got iPhone screen replacement kits from 75 US dollars and the kits include all the parts You need to do your repairs including precision bits opening tools and suction cups to make the installation as easy as possible I fix it also has numerous repair guides with clear photos and instructions to prevent you from getting lost while you're deep inside your Repair so check out our link to I fix it down in the video description to get your kit today If you guys enjoyed this video Maybe go check out my original video on the framework laptop where I went into a little bit more depth about Who these guys are where they came from and how it actually all goes together speaking of which I forgot to put my IO in and I forgot to fix my touchpad cable issue because I was so busy posting the video the only reason other companies Can't do this and framework proved it is because they don't care