If you were an investor, what would your business model be in buying Alta? Would it make more sense than doing your own startup?
I see any investor needing lower costs, better volume capacity, and a continual stream of improvements.
I would get out of Cali 1st, and that means a new HQ. I'd also need to double the production capacity at minimum. The improvements may be the easiest part, since this owners forum has already identified items in need of attention.
I'd suggest the important propietary "secrets" are the frame, the battery casing, motor and gearbox and the controllers. The rest is bolt on stuff. The advantage is the ability to move quickly into a HOT market without years of development time to a platform that has an immense buzz about it. Keeping the ball rolling allows the speed to market that will allow a buyer to capture not only the early adopters but the multitude of riders that intended to go with Alta on their next purchase after the incredible demo tour and testimonials from real owners.
What is it worth? That must be the question. What are the patents? Imagine this company on Shark Tank, they would never get a Shark. If someone took the company public, it might generate enough buzz that it could float stock prices even though it will take years to actually show a profit. I think that is the most likely solution.
If you sold 2000 units a year at $2500 gross profit, That's 5 million. Overhead, marketing and non production payroll will eat up a lot of that. This thing will not be a money machine out of the box, it will take a longer view to grow it, and after a few years the competition will likely catch up and be fierce.
Demo tours and dealer development teams, race programs, press launches, are expensive to establish a brand, and it's a shame that the hard part was done and apparently the production couldn't keep up with the orders. I'd assume that with the HD $ and the investors like Bob Fox, they believed there was enough cash to do it all, and somehow when it came time to pay suppliers for additional inventories like batteries, there just wasn't enough left?