Wain: I dunno' how do companies manage to stay in debt for over 5 years but still be up and running
That just depends to whom you owe money. If you owe a bank, then forget it. Banks don't negotiate. Investors own a piece of your company, so of course they don't want to run you into the ground.
That assumes they actually release a product FIRST. If they never release a product, businesses go under pretty quick. It usually takes 5 years for products to start making money. The companies that plan for that stay in business, the companies that don't go under.
A lot of it is faith. If people have faith in your product, chances are you'll have someone willing to loan you money. Your ideas are your capital.
To get money, you need to deliver a proof of concept. Give a good presentation, and people will invest. Personally, I never felt Amiga's presentation of DE was very interesting (the concept was and still is, but their SDK was truly awful). If you can't get money, it's for two reasons: your presentation sucks, or your product sucks.
Then again... coupons, anyone? (I feel NO sympathy for anyone who bought one).
Amiga did a lousy job of getting investors' money, so they turned to the community with their stupid coupon scam, among other things. Now they keep everything secret to keep from bleeding more money, but this does absolutely nothing to generate outside interest in their concepts. At this point, they've already taken pre-payment for several products and have obligations to fill. Any investor would have to be rock stupid to give Amiga any money.
I don't want any Amiga company to go out of business, but they are to blame for their own financial situation.
