Funding Garage had the privilege to interview Erik DeLeo, the co-founder of MIL.SPEC, the creator of the 100 Cell Catted Midpipe for the Nissan GT-R and the proprietary fully CNC'd high compression billet pistons.
Funding Garage (FG): Please tell us a little about yourself, your story, and why you're here.
Erik DeLeo (EK): Purchased an Evo. Ended up spending a silly amount of money on the car and decided I needed to figure out a way to make money instead of spending it. I wanted more power for my car, but didn't want to run catless...especially in California. So I sourced some cats to see if I could sell them. I could. Ended up getting kicked off the forums for selling too many cats, and was told to become a vendor. Asked another guy who had been kicked off the forums as well for selling too many parts, and MIL.SPEC was formed.
FG: Can you give us a definition of what you think "crowd-funding" or "crowd-sourcing" is, and could become?
Erik: Crowdfunding is a good way to get the masses to buy into a product. There are no focus groups. There are no VC's or angel inventors to haggle with over business plans or equity. You simply go straight to your target market. And it can work like gangbusters.
FG: What attracted you to crowd-funding?
Erik: It's another option for growing our company because, right now, a lot of our money goes right back into growing the business. There isn't a lot of cash for development work right now.
FG: Have you had any prior experiences, good or bad?
Erik: I have worked on one project, but it never launched.
FG: What do you expect from a successful campaign?
Erik: The ability to show our concept works and to line up real orders from the marketplace.
FG: What do you think of Funding Garage?
Erik: Seems like a brilliant idea. We'll see how things go in the execution phase.
FG: More importantly, what do you think of what we're trying to accomplish here (by building a platform for automotive enthusiasts to fund their dreams)?
Erik: To give smaller companies the opportunity to grow and also to potentially get more people into modding cars and the automotive aftermarket in general.
FG: Why Funding Garage? Or even, why pick a crowd-funding avenue with a niche presence?
Erik: It seems to be the only game in town for this kind of endeavor. For example, Kickstarter does not allow automotive projects on their site.
FG: In your opinion, what benefits does crowd-funding have over traditional forms of capital raising?
Erik: Like I mentioned previously, it's an opportunity to go direct to market avoiding the hassles of VC's, equity firms and angel investors.
FG: If you could build any vehicle (your dream ride), whether it be bike, dragster, hot rod, classic, rally car, you name it, and where budget really was no object; what would it be and why?
Erik: really love the Ferrari 288 GTO. A brilliant car way ahead of its time. It's a 400hp forced induction V8. What else can you say?
You can find MIL.SPEC's on Funding Garage at http://fundinggarage.com/projects/mil-spec-billet-e85-high-compression-pistons
