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Cast_No_Shadow posted:Maybe reach out to those protest/consumer groups. A quote from them saying this is a great idea we are behind it, would be helpful both to convinvce customers (takeaway the cost and pain or crop spraying, take away the pain of the interest grohp) and investors (the consumer group wont instead switch to protesting your product) We are already involved with a green tech/ environmental technology group. It is our hope to approach other relevant parties but those protest consumer groups would do more harm than good. Our primary customer typically wears a Monsanto hat and drinks out of a Bayer mug. That is not to say that organic farmers wouldn’t value our technology, they may value it more so, but it gets stronger if the network is bigger. I will not lie, our technology is antagonistic to the current practises of the agro-chemical giants but doesn’t outright reject them. It won’t stop pesticide use, just misuse. Misuse however may constitute up to 40% of all pesticide applications. This is not due to malicious intent but rather a lack of anything better than current practise. To come out too strong against the agri-chemical giants risks annihilation. Cast_No_Shadow posted:Other than that I would want to see the math. Maybe I don want to see all the calculations straight away (i will eventually before you get a penny) but initually I need to know this makes commercial sense. How much will it cost to produce, any unusual fixed costs (ie. The lab) then what does each item (or whatever you call what a farmer buys) cost to make, deliver and 'install' in the plants. Then I want to see that number next to the costs a farmer currently spends on whatever the current methods of acheiving their goals are. Then if that story makes sense I start to care about how good your product is. Whats different to spraying, why does it work, how does it work. Be honest upfront about risks. Show me farmers that are interested. The current market problem is that spraying fungicides are at least a $25 per acre question. The average farm size in my district is 1324 acres, so this comes to $33100 per application. For maximum coverage to prevent disease, three applications over the growing season are required. Ultimately, spraying a fungicide is a $100 thousand-dollar decision. In a serious disease scenario, a properly timed application can save the season. How do you know if you applied at the right time or even if you had to apply at all? While there are resources out there, ultimately it comes down to the expertise and vigilance of the farmer. It requires a lot of walking through your fields and covering a significant sample for 1000 acres is quite a chore. Identifying disease correctly is another problem since many symptoms are shared and diseases can form complexes. As such, farmers generally are starved for information when deciding to spray, something which the agri-chemical reps are prone to exploit. Fungicides are treated like a form of crop insurance by the industry. Maybe you will get hit, maybe you won’t but you can’t be sure so give us $100 thousand and we will give you piece of mind. That piece of mind however comes with costs and risks beyond just the price tag though. Our technology can measure spore concentrations present within the fields, giving an update of what is out there at the microbial level. It is not a disease scouting enhancement so much as a disease scouting replacement, a system that will accurately predict disease risk without ever having eyes on the plants. Monitoring for weeds and insect pests will still be required but those are far easier to identify and mitigate than plant diseases. Based upon rudimentary numbers, I can provide this for a fraction of the cost of a spray application, $5 an acre once compared to $23 an acre three times over the season. If there is a serious problem, the famer must spray regardless but at least they will know that they saved their season. It is my hope that this system saves producers money by dramatically cutting back in mistimed sprays, habitual applications and panic spraying. Ultimately this hopefully will result in less pesticide being applied. Cast_No_Shadow posted:Is it at all possible to set up a trial with a local farmer to prove your story? Or maybe ask for a lower seed amount of cash to run this kinda of trial before going out and asking for bigger sums? It has been validated on a field. How it can accurately handle an entire farm is another question. Your second question has been the plan thus far. I don’t need 10 million to prototype but substantially more than a student living on ramen could hope to afford. That number is closer to what might be needed to get to launch.
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Oct 26, 2016 21:47
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Do you personally know any farmers, or do you have connections in farming communities? This industry is notoriously hostile to outsiders, and you'll be competing against people who have spent decades building long term relationships with their customers. You could try targeting newer farmers who may be more open to innovation, but they might not be able to provide you with short term capital.
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Oct 27, 2016 04:48
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I'm trying to figure out what more to add to my electronics startup's website. I currently have blog posts about the status of things, a product page which gives setup instructions and examples, an about page, and a contact page. There is currently no traffic but in about two or three weeks people will start receiving their Kickstarter reward and I want to make sure I've got everything covered before people start visiting. Are there any other pages/content I'm missing?
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Oct 27, 2016 19:18
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huhu posted:I'm trying to figure out what more to add to my electronics startup's website. I currently have blog posts about the status of things, a product page which gives setup instructions and examples, an about page, and a contact page. There is currently no traffic but in about two or three weeks people will start receiving their Kickstarter reward and I want to make sure I've got everything covered before people start visiting. Are there any other pages/content I'm missing?
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Oct 27, 2016 19:32
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Juanito posted:Do you have an easy way to catch new interest? It doesn't sound like you've got an active store. So you need to have a very easy way for people to give you their contact information, or get on a waiting list. Facebook and Twitter are good ideas too, if only to catch the people who would prefer to Like your Facebook page, or follow you on Twitter and be reminded of your product, instead of providing their email address. FB is always my personal preference for casually remembering something. Edit: I also have a MailChimp signup field on all of my pages.
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Oct 27, 2016 19:37
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I just managed to land a YCombinator interview with my startup (we already are in Alchemist accelerator, which has been awesome, but YCombinator's network would be incredibly valuable). Anyone deal with that interview process and have words of wisdom to spare?
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Oct 27, 2016 22:59
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Weed Wolf posted:I just managed to land a YCombinator interview with my startup (we already are in Alchemist accelerator, which has been awesome, but YCombinator's network would be incredibly valuable). Anyone deal with that interview process and have words of wisdom to spare? Read the 1st half of Chaos Monkeys
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Oct 28, 2016 00:01
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Analytic Engine posted:Read the 1st half of Chaos Monkeys Friend of mine wrote that. Great book.
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Oct 28, 2016 01:24
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Weed Wolf: The 2nd half is great too. You won't find a better piece of long-form journalism relevant to what you're attempting. There are also tons of good single-issue blog posts out there that someone can recommend. Edit: And congratulations man! Jesus is that a big deal. Good luck, just remember that Paul Graham hated Airbnb's original pitch. lord1234 posted:Friend of mine wrote that. Great book. Though he never mentioned it your friend would be a much better writer for Silicon Valley than the Disrupted guy. That book was good in its own way but his criticisms were very New Yorker/McSweeneyes, while Chaos Monkeys channels Yospos. Analytic Engine fucked around with this message at 04:36 on Oct 28, 2016 |
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Oct 28, 2016 04:29
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Konstantin posted:Do you personally know any farmers, or do you have connections in farming communities? This industry is notoriously hostile to outsiders, and you'll be competing against people who have spent decades building long term relationships with their customers. You could try targeting newer farmers who may be more open to innovation, but they might not be able to provide you with short term capital. This won't be a problem. I tried leaving the farm, this startup idea is me coming back.
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Oct 28, 2016 23:56
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Hypha posted:This won't be a problem. I tried leaving the farm, this startup idea is me coming back. Shot you a PM, I might have some resources for you.
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Dec 14, 2016 15:10
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I have an idea for a software project, but I'd like to do some research that would hopefully test whether or not there would be a market or interest for such a thing before I start putting hours into working on it. It basically has to do with help and guidance finding and starting affordable college programs. Anyone have any good recommendations on how to gauge interest? I tried a Google survey, but I realized the results were not very helpful since it's not targeted to only those people without a degree or looking to go back to school.
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Dec 19, 2016 21:54
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Doghouse posted:I have an idea for a software project, but I'd like to do some research that would hopefully test whether or not there would be a market or interest for such a thing before I start putting hours into working on it. It basically has to do with help and guidance finding and starting affordable college programs. Buy Reddit ads for a sign up page.
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Dec 19, 2016 22:30
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leper khan posted:Buy Reddit ads for a sign up page. Hmm. Can you expand on that a bit? What would they sign up for exactly?
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Dec 20, 2016 01:33
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Doghouse posted:Hmm. Can you expand on that a bit? What would they sign up for exactly? a newsletter is the common one you see. you don't ever have to actually deliver the newsletter (altho they are good for follow up testing if you get encouraging results from the landing page)
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Dec 20, 2016 01:34
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Has anyone tried to find a manufacturer overseas? I launched a successful Kickstarter for a little electrical engineering widget and have been packing the kits by hand myself. However this is no fun for the long term. I was overwhelmed by manufacturers when I launched the Kickstarter but I'm not sure if I should even try using one of them. All I'm really hoping for is to pay someone else to put several different components into a bag, repeat the process a ton of times, and then mail me the bags so that I can finish the kitting/shipping myself.
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Dec 20, 2016 20:39
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the talent deficit posted:a newsletter is the common one you see. you don't ever have to actually deliver the newsletter (altho they are good for follow up testing if you get encouraging results from the landing page) Uh huh. This is a pretty interesting idea, I think I'll try it. So this means that the ad would send you to something like a simple landing page with a short paragraph about an "upcoming product" and a just ask for an email address for a newsletter about it?
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Dec 20, 2016 21:07
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huhu posted:Has anyone tried to find a manufacturer overseas? If you're talking about SE Asia it's theoretically possible to do this over the phone/email/video conference but I don't know of many people who have been satisfied with the results. That's just not how business is done there. Perhaps your requirements are simple enough though. Alternately, if these are common components have you considered checking if one of the component supply houses in the US would do this for you? Packing components is kinda their jam. I'm talking Mouser/DigiKey/Jameco.
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Dec 20, 2016 21:18
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Motronic posted:Alternately, if these are common components have you considered checking if one of the component supply houses in the US would do this for you? Packing components is kinda their jam. I'm talking Mouser/DigiKey/Jameco. Just to clarify, I would be able to say something like "I want 10 of part A, 2 of part B, and 1 of part C per bag. I would like to place an order for 100 bags"? If so, where should I look, I'm poking around those websites and don't see anything.
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Dec 20, 2016 21:38
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huhu posted:Just to clarify, I would be able to say something like "I want 10 of part A, 2 of part B, and 1 of part C per bag. I would like to place an order for 100 bags"? If so, where should I look, I'm poking around those websites and don't see anything. Yeah, that's what I figured you were asking. And this isn't something you're going to find on a web site. You're going to need to pick up the phone and call sales.
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Dec 20, 2016 22:03
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Please follow up if Digikey or Mouser can handle your request, I'm curious to know how it goes. Both Digikey and Mouser specialize in small orders and consequently their markup is huge. If you're spending several tens of thousands of dollars on components to make your kits then you might want to look at other distributors that specialize in bulk. I don't know any distributors to name, I'm very much a noob at this stuff. The company I work for lets our CRM find components for us except when they gently caress it up somehow.
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Dec 27, 2016 05:30
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Just to add to this and to explain "business isn't done that way there", the first place I thought of for this is Sim Lim Tower in Singapore. The place is crazy, but nobody bothers to keep web sites and sometimes even phone numbers up to date. https://www.simlimtower.sg/ You pretty much need to get your rear end to Singapore and spend a couple days wandering around figuring out who might be best at what you need to get done and getting quotes from them.
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Dec 27, 2016 17:46
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meatpotato posted:Please follow up if Digikey or Mouser can handle your request, I'm curious to know how it goes.
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Dec 28, 2016 19:04
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I was looking at ways to do some more idea validation/market research on a software project, and I saw someone recommend talking to the customers of a competitor. Is it appropriate to take a look at public reviews of apps on Google play store and get in contact with the person who posted it, like through Google+ or something, to try and talk to them about a potential similar product? Or is that totally creepy and weird?
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Jan 20, 2017 21:41
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Doghouse posted:I was looking at ways to do some more idea validation/market research on a software project, and I saw someone recommend talking to the customers of a competitor.
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Jan 21, 2017 04:46
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You can always post a craigslist asking for people who use product X.
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Jan 22, 2017 11:36
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Doghouse posted:I was looking at ways to do some more idea validation/market research on a software project, and I saw someone recommend talking to the customers of a competitor. Make sure that you aren't talking about the product and their wishlist for what else it would do, but rather focus on why they are using the product and how well does it solve their problem. If the product is only used to solve one step of the problem, make sure that you talk about the bigger picture of what they are trying to solve as well - they might not need it at all on a bigger scheme of things. Either way, if you do end up going that route talk to the both sides of the spectrum (one star and five star) to make sure that both sides are trying to solve the same job, or perhaps one star is hiring the product for completely different thing than the five star and your product can come in and do it better.
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Jan 23, 2017 15:57
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I'm trying to move my product from Kickstarter to store shelves. I contacted the big three companies I thought who might be interested. X got back to me and a guy John Smith was interested and had some questions about manufacturing and I answered them. He said it might be a good fit and that the person, Sally Jones, handles this stuff and she'd get back to me next week to follow up. Two weeks went by, I followed up with John but didn't hear anything back and it's been a week. Should I follow up again?
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Feb 6, 2017 17:13
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huhu posted:I'm trying to move my product from Kickstarter to store shelves. I contacted the big three companies I thought who might be interested. X got back to me and a guy John Smith was interested and had some questions about manufacturing and I answered them. He said it might be a good fit and that the person, Sally Jones, handles this stuff and she'd get back to me next week to follow up. Two weeks went by, I followed up with John but didn't hear anything back and it's been a week. Should I follow up again? Yes, Weekly follow ups are more than reasonable. Ask for Sally's direct number.
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Feb 6, 2017 17:16
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Gounads posted:Yes, Weekly follow ups are more than reasonable. Ask for Sally's direct number.
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Feb 14, 2017 18:23
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huhu posted:I sent a follow up email on Wednesday last week, still no response. I'm pretty sure I could guess the person I'm supposed to contact's email address. Should I send another email to my point of contact or try and contact the other person directly? Ended up trying the address, it was correct, and now I'm in talks with the right person! This leads to a new issue I'd love to hear thoughts on. I've got about $500 left over from my Kickstarter. If I start selling to the retailer, I'll need money to buy merchandise. I also think it's about time I form an LLC to protect myself, which costs about $500. What could be some ways to resolve this dilemma?
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Feb 16, 2017 19:48
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Startup consulting was one of the weirdest, greatest, and most agonizing experiences of my life - never before had I met so many talented and influential people while working for some of the most incredibly inept people in my life. I watched half a million dollars of our client's money vanish from poor choices, fought tooth and nail for my impoverished co-workers to get their earned pay, and had 9 of the top 10 weirdest moments of my life. Anyone who doesn't want to actually start and up, I recommend doing work for someone who does.
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Mar 3, 2017 06:19
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I am talking with a manufacturer/assembler about taking over part of the responsibility for my product. I currently pay $1.91 for components per product and do the cutting to size of some of the components myself and do the bagging. With this, I wouldn't have to bag or cut to size, and everything would be RoHS compliant. How do I even begin estimating how much I should make as a first offer in terms of payment?
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Mar 6, 2017 19:02
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huhu posted:I am talking with a manufacturer/assembler about taking over part of the responsibility for my product. I currently pay $1.91 for components per product and do the cutting to size of some of the components myself and do the bagging. With this, I wouldn't have to bag or cut to size, and everything would be RoHS compliant. How do I even begin estimating how much I should make as a first offer in terms of payment? Why would you be making the first offer? Don't do that. You are asking for a service quote. Don't screw yourself.
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Mar 6, 2017 23:21
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Motronic posted:Why would you be making the first offer? Good point. I've passed the ball back to him.
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Mar 7, 2017 00:49
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How do I forecast sales? I'm currently writing a business plan for a startup car enthusiast oriented luxury tour company. There are many such companies in the world, and they seem quite successful. I have seen significant growth in the industry over the last two or so years. As of yet there are no such companies in my country, and there's plenty of rich people who do not necessarily want to add the hassle of flying to a different country to start a trip, then flying back at the end of it. Plus, lots of people here have terrible English. I can find statistical data on tourism, data on demographics and earnings. I can find data on readership of car magazines, and I can look for adwords searches. My problem is I have no idea how to put it all together into estimating a market size, nor do I have any idea how to estimate market penetration. Every article I've managed to find boils down to "Don't estimate you'll capture 1% of the market - instead, math out a target demographic size, then make up a random number for the sales conversion rate". A lot of articles I can find on the internet seems to be coddled Sillicon Valley bubble CEO types who give the most uselessly trite and hilariously optimistic (I literally found an article that said in the first year you should have $20-100m of sales or not bother  ) advice. And easily 80% of things I was able to find just assume you're doing SaaS because that's the only business in the world.
Zeppelin Insanity fucked around with this message at 10:03 on Mar 10, 2017 |
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Mar 10, 2017 09:57
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Zeppelin Insanity posted:How do I forecast sales? What's the goal with this data? Is this to get funding/investment, or is it for your own business use?
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Mar 10, 2017 16:12
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Both! For myself, I need to work out whether my idea is actually commercially viable, my break even point and timescale to profitability. Once I've assessed that, I will definitely need to look for funding as I don't really have assets to leverage.
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Mar 10, 2017 16:42
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Zeppelin Insanity posted:Both! For myself, I need to work out whether my idea is actually commercially viable, my break even point and timescale to profitability. Once I've assessed that, I will definitely need to look for funding as I don't really have assets to leverage. I don't have much advice for your specific situation, but the best forecasts that I've seen have the assumptions clearly laid out so you know exactly what went into the calculations. Optimally, you'd also have the calculations just use those assumption fields, so you can easily change the assumptions and see how it affects the forecast.
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Mar 10, 2017 17:12
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You obviously don't have any lagging indicators to trend forward. What leading indicators do you have about your opportunity to generate and follow through on sales leads, and grow the quantity of those leads? What information are you missing that would help you guess at a conversion on those leads? If you're absolutely unsure on conversion, you need to act like you have a product, go out and pound pavement, and try to get people to commit to giving you money. Your goal is to get one person to give you a "yes".
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Mar 10, 2017 17:12
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