Glidance Secures Contract Manufacturing Partner for Glide

Hi everyone! It's Kyle Buzzard here again - Co-Founder of Glidance and Head of Product - with some big news to share. We are excited to announce that this month we formalized a partnership with our contract manufacturing partner for Glide. They are a top tier contract manufacturer based in Taiwan, with a brand new factory in Thailand.

There are a number of factors that played a role in our decision to partner with this manufacturer. Firstly, we have an existing relationship with them, as I have experience working with them previously at other startups. This relationship brings along with it a very positive transactional business history, operational understanding and efficiencies, and most importantly, trust.

Second, they are bought in personally at the executive level on our both our mission and the business opportunity that Glide represents. This resulted in start-up friendly terms for us on margins, deposits, MOQ volumes, NRE structure and payment terms.

Lastly, they made investments starting in 2019 to move their manufacturing capability out of China, relocating their operation in a new facility outside of Bangkok, Thailand where Glide will be built. This greatly de-risks the business from future geopolitical issues that may arise with China, and improves our access to the production line and our capital assets.

We had the opportunity this month to visit the Taipei headquarters, where we met with the CEO, alongside the management team and our account directors. We had a positive and productive day together discussing our partnership, the mission of our companies, synergies, and project planning, as well as a tour of their R&D lab and in-house testing facility, which were extremely impressive.

We also had a chance to visit the factory in Thailand and spend a day with the executive team there where we toured the facility, including their warehousing, SMT and assembly areas, and inspected the manufacturing and testing equipment that would be used for Glide. We also discussed gaps and concerns that each side has in the upcoming project together to emphasize the importance of trust and transparency in the partnership.

All in all, we return from this trip energized and confident that we have made the right decision. We believe we have a very capable and committed partner that will play a critical role in helping us bring Glide to market!

Here are a few of our favorite photos of the trip!

Until next time,

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