6. Example: for rural areas
installing hydropower solutions
in remote off grid areas there are
several pains:
1) The high construction cost,
2) Long construction period;
3) Landscape/wildlife disruption;
4) Long payback.
7. PRODUCT/TECHNOLOGY FIT
*To describe technology/product stage of development and provide a written testimonial as
evidence that the technology is validated by any third parties and that product design can
work.
9. What does it
do?
Function not
the technology.
e.g: Our turbine
configuration
eliminates the
need for costly
installation.
What it solves
and how big?
Refers to the
pain section
e.g: %80 of the
cost emerged
from
installation.
How better
economically?
Than current
solutions?
e.g: Up tp 75%
decrease in ROI
period.
*Please put the picture
of your product/service
PRODUCT
State clearly where in the development cycle the product is.
o What has been developed? What remains to be developed?
o Has an initial prototype or full-scale prototype been developed?
o Has the prototype been validated by a pilot customer?
What are the features of the MVP that the beachhead segment has told you it will buy?
If you have initial customers, is the product ready, or near ready, for manufacture at scale? Says who- -what credible third party?
o What are residual technical issues needing to be resolved before profitable manufacture?
o What is a credible estimate of the manufacturing cost at scale?
Explain the specific elements of the technology. We utilize NLP, Machine Learning, Deep Learning, Data Mininng. We use simulated annealing, beam search and random optimization. Machine Learning; Naïve Bayes Classification, Ordinary Least Squares Regression.
Explain why your technology is better than others. You may say currently submarine operators utilzie sound signals (Sonar), but we will utilize laser or lidar.
Patents: Is it patentable? How do you know it is patentable? Have you consulted (validated) with an IP attorney? What patent search have you done?
Does the Technology (the physics) work and how has it been credibly validated by third party organizations (e.g. National Labs, Universities, research organizations or certification organizations)? Which? And what did they say?
Do you have “freedom to operate”? i.e. full Access to the technology and the ability to commercialize it.
Is the technology defensible? How and why?
Does the Technology give the product a clear advantage over alternatıve solutıons? Has that product (not the technology) advantage been validated by pilot customers?
What installations with what pilot customers do you have?
Pharmacies, university marine faculties, defence industry companies, drone operators, restaurant owners, municipalities etc. (have the pain)
Identify innovator and/or the early adapters.
Seperate into sub-segments to identify your innovators. Take into account urgency, importance and the budget of your product/technology for them. Your task is to prioritize them for «low-hanging fruit».
Demographic or Psychographic analysis can be done.
e.g. Dairy farms in Eastern Anatolian Region of Turkey that are high users of hot water and that do not have access to natural gas and therefore are paying very high rates for hot water requirements.
What is the total size of that beachhead segment? (e.g. 2200 dairy farms in the Eastern Anatolian Region in my beachhead segment)
What is the name of the most likely first (“pilot”) customer in the beachhead segment? AOÇ in Ankara.
How soon can you contract for a pilot installation for that customer? Indicate what benchmarks you expect your pilot installation to achieve.
What sales do you expect from the beachhead segment over the next two years?
What are the features that your pilot customer has indicated constitute the Minimum Viable Product? In Turkish, tutarlı ürünlerin en sadesi.
Identify «Adjacent Segments»
Could be for future of could be a snapshot of today. Means the geographical expansion of your sells.
It should be consistent with you application of Tubitak.
Could be for only Beachead and/adjacent segments.
Should be based on purchasing drivers not technical features.
Never say «I do not have any competitors» you definitely have at least one. It may be indirect.
If you do not, that may mean the technology is yet to be addressed in the market and hence there could be a few potential buyers.
Danger is competition based on price or cheapness. Not based on your competitor prices. Be careful!
What revenue model (business model) is most likely to get beachhead segment customers to buy? How will you charge the beachhead customer? Sale? Rental? Pay as you go? Bank Financed? Business Model Examples: https://www.boardofinnovation.com/business-revenue-model-examples/
What is their pricing strategy? How did you decide your price?
Pricing should not be cost based; it should be based on economic value to the customer so you need to find out from the customer what the value (size of the pain) is to them. Note too, import substitution at a lower cost is not enough for sustained competitive advantage.
- What specific marketing/social media/advertising tactics will you use to create awareness among the second 5, 15, 50, 500... customers in your beachhead segment? (e.g. what magazines, websites, tradeshows, conferences, blogs, newsletters webcasts or white papers do your customers care about?)
- What are the points in the customer’s buying process at which you can influence the purchase decision? (e.g. how they become aware of the product, where they get information about the product, how they use that information to make the purchase.) Example: thru accelerator networks. Or pre-incubation or incubation periods.
- Who are the influencers? (e.g. the press, media, industry analysts, trade associations, user groups, thought leaders) How can you influence the influencers?
- What product distributors, resellers, system integrators, consulting engineers, etc. have you identified that might distribute your product to your beachhead segment?
- What will be the cost to you of distributing thru a channel?
What partners have you identified/validated with which you could provide synchronized services/products to your beachhead customers?
What potential partnerships have you identified/validated in any or al of the key activities in your Business Description that could dramatically leverage your development. (e.g. if you will manufacture is there a component supplier who could be a potential partner? Or if research is key is there a University you might partner with?)
For example: UK DIT, accelerators, ABD Foreign investment bureau,TİM, Commission-based firms
- Show in a timeline chart what critical milestones you expect to achieve in the next 18 months that demonstrate “momentum” to investors and successively “de-risk” the investment over time.
- Note funding requirements for each milestone
- Critical types of milestones:
o Product – prototype, MVP for Beachhead Segment Customer
o Revenue Model & Pricing Validation for Beachhead Segment
o Beachhead Segment Validation – first customer; 5 customers; 50 customers
o Getting Pilot customer to validate your product addresses the pain
o Adjacent Segment Validation – 10 Customers
o Market Size Validation – 500 Customers – Beachhead and Adjacent
o Human Resources – key hires to achieve milestones, Board/Advisor Development, team
expansion
- Name specific potential sources of Funding – public and/or private--that you know (have validated) would be interested in the specific customer Pain you are addressing and your Product solution. Potential angel investors or funds from government. Or bottstrapping.
Create a slide that matches specific skills required to reach each milestone with the person on the team responsible to achieve the milestone. Indicate where there are “skill gaps”.
Name total years of experience. Total number of patents. Total number of papers etc.
Match skills with relevant roles.
Projected sales
Pricing and number of units sold per year (could be done for 3 years)
Operating and overhead costs
Monthly burn rate
CoCA and LTV
Sales and Marketing Expenses
- What are the Government Regulations and/or Certification requirements that will have either a positive or negative effect on your growth. Purchasing guarantee by the government. Ethical Council details.
