(gray out non bolded items)Talk about highlightsSingle Family Homeowners: Target customer are single family homeownerPayback period: We offer a renewable electricity generation device that has a much faster payback period than competitors. Manufacturing: We can offer this because our product is cheaper than competitors, due to our unique manufacturing process, without compromising performance and aesthetics. Direct Sales: We will sell our product directly to the customer to maximize savings to the customer. Partners: In order simplify the installation of our product, we will need to partner with local permitting officials to facilitate the permitting process. The idea is once the planning department is comfortable with our product, then there no longer needs to be a lengthy review for each installation.
Due to many limitations with residential market for wind turbine applications – decided not right market
Week 6 – ChannelsWhat we learnedNew customer segment -> cities instead of home-ownersRetrofit streetlights with VAWT, with faster payback period than alternatives and competitorsDecrease customer acquisition costChange relationship with City Council – need to get their approvalHOA not as powerful
Interviewed city staff members and utility commissioner to understand if they are interested in product (Assistant Director of Utilities,Purchasing Admin,Project Manager LED-Retrofit,Former City Council Member and Mayor)Came to understand city and its processes to see how to sell to city.City has long review process for project. Large projects need to fit under cities budget plan, which are planned out 2-5 years in advanceSaboteurs can include staff members or city residents who don’t want changeCity’s typically not interested in owning large amount of electrical generation assets, In CA, utilities also typically do not own their own generation units b/c of decoupling industry?Wind developer would own assets, potentially funded through investment bank or nontraditional sourcesDo we want to be manufacturer or wind developer?We will need to initially be the developer for initial pilot projects to prove concept works, before getting large amounts of investments to scale-up businessHigh liability to be developer b/c wind potential difficult to predictBusiness model that relies on cities to own asset is problem They don’t have the budgetConstantly evaluate your value prop