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  "documentTitle": "Berkeley Lights (BLI)",
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  "presentationDate": "2021-09-15 00:00:00",
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      "text": "Lightning is a failed product at every level; BLI got the features, applications, target market, and pricing all wrong",
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      "text": "Given the Beacon’s prohibitive $2MM price, BLI launched an entry-level version in 2019 called Lightning, which we believe to be ~$750K. Ex-employees indicate it has been an unmitigated flop with a mere 6 to 8 units placed in the first 18 months.",
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      "text": "Lightning is still too expensive for universities who can't buy it without grant funding",
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      "text": "Lightning has been a total disaster with virtually no placements to date; has no target market; aimed at academic institutions who can't afford it; can take years to get a grant for it.",
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      "text": "“Consider that the Lightning was launched in 2019, a couple of years after the Beacon. By end of 2020, we probably had placed six to eight platforms. I think one of the reasons why was that we were still trying to find the optimal target for that one. Lightning is cheaper than the Beacon, but it’s still an expensive machine by academic standards.” –Former BLI scientist; “The choices that were made at the launch of the platform turned out to be not the best because the potential market that was targeted and the applications that were launched with the platform initially were probably not the ones they should have focused on. The platform was supposed to be the best of the Beacon with less automation, but also a more inviting price point. I think that's not what happened ultimately. The machine was still too expensive in comparison with others.” –Former BLI employee; “It's still a sizable amount of money and a fairly expensive piece of equipment for a facility, for a university. For academic purchases, it always had to be tied to some kind of grant application.” –Former BLI scientist",
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      "text": "Source: Scorpion Capital consultation calls with experts",
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      "text": "Part 2) Former BLI employees/executives: Launch of a lower-priced instrument has been a total dud",
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