Why do you need pre-order money if you have a venture capitalist?
They may not have funding from a typical high-tech venture capital.
They may have secured bridge financing from one of hardsrabble financial outfits that typically fund gas stations, convenience stores, computer repair shops, various car maintenance shops and other sundry franchises. The BFL CEO Nassim G. is most likely Middle-Eastern in origin and the Middle-Eastern finance networks in USA (and other Western countries) control significant funds, but also have quite minimal managerial skills at their disposal.
The loan could have some sort of treshold matching covenant, e.g. for each $100k in preorders we front you another $250k payable not to BFL but to BFL's vendor.
