2026 08 21

no engineering today. this is a plan change, decided deliberately, not slippage.

school has started and my job has ramped up. i don't have the hours the august–november plan assumed, and i'd rather move the dates on purpose than keep missing them by accident.

decisions:

• kickstarter moves to the beginning of march 2027, not early november 2026. 30 days, closes end of march.
• ship target moves to september 2027, communicated to backers as october. (i first said august/september, then decided to take one more month.)
• advertising budget: $2–5k total, spread across now → the campaign. i want an actual advertising spend during the run-up rather than pure organic.
• the point of the shape is sequencing: market and finish the nRF redesign for the next six months, prove demand with the campaign, and only then start FCC certification, which is the expensive irreversible part. i don't want to spend money on certification before i know anyone wants this.

what i want out of the extra time: the nRF redesign actually done rather than rushed, a content cadence i can sustain alongside school and work, and a real list before the campaign instead of hoping for one.

claude: adjust the timeline and everything downstream of it.