I finally caught up on this informative and interesting thread - thanks for documenting and sharing your journey to route operator. Whew!

I had no idea there were so many bureaucratic hoops to jump through to put a machine on route. For contrast, I started a (non-pin related) LLC in AZ a few years ago. IIRC, it was $50 for an Arizona Corporations Commission application for an LLC, $40 (?) to publish a public notice (in... some AZ newspaper), and $0 to get an EIN from the feds. So, for $90, I was (literally) in business. No fingerprints, no background checks, no "privilege" tax fees. Wow. I'm curious to know if soda machine vendors have to go through the same process you did, or if there is some (legal) residual prejudice against pinball machines because they were deemed "gambling devices" for most of the mid-20th century (bow to Roger Sharpe).

Not to dampen your enthusiasm for originality, but I can offer an anecdote about logo, font, layout, web design, etc. that might give you a pearl to ponder regarding your marketing. You've been given some sound advice in this thread about branding and web presence. I tried to diy all that for my own biz (and, like you, I preferred to code my own html, etc., except HTML 5 and meta data coding is not like it was when I was whipping out geocities pages in the late 90's w html 2+). I spent many hours trying to tweak my page to function on most browsers (desktop and mobile) and that was one helluva a challenge for an amateur OL programmer. With grit and brute force, I finished it all up and showed my work to my wife (her BA is in Commercial and Graphic Design) and, well, she tore my design apart. I was frustrated because (1) I didn't want to hire anyone to do work I thought I could do, and (2) I wanted to do it myself. My pearl for you: Sometimes what you think looks good - no matter how much you think it represents you - isn't what will catch the eye and gain the top-of-mind presence you want your clients to have. I'm not trying to be negative - in fact, I want you to succeed! However, when those quarters start rolling in (and they will!), I implore you to hire a brand manager to smooth out the rough edges of your marketing package.

Finally, congratulations on becoming a full-fledged operator! Maybe one day I'll be at a bar in Tucson and I'll see a Honey or #Moulin Rouge .