Deeproot trashing on Stern and JJP is just really suspect and petty and shows absolutely no humility in entering a pretty tough market. Stern and JJP have built and shipped thousands of machines, working through all kinds of design, production, supplier, and manufacturing issues. Of course they are far from perfect but these are real companies selling real products to mostly happy customers for years if not decades.
Deeproot has shown nothing, built nothing, and proved nothing to anyone. The default should be that they build the trust and support of the community, and not they have an inherent advantage and assume that everyone is going to buy into their hyperbole and that they are going to revolution everything.
I'll believe it when I see it.
Oh, and 15 million is not a terrible amount of money for a startup "technology" company with a sizable team of employees that has been in operation for over three years and needs to build and maintain a sizable supply chain for manufacturing. How many internet startups have burned through 5X that and have barely been able to get a website or viable software application out the door.