20090405

Problem

  • Cash-flow, 6-18 months
    • 6 months: $8k/month ($96k from 6-18 months)
    • 18 months: $40k-$80k/month

Revenue Sources

  1. Sell devices — see Biz Dev; see Sales Approach
  2. Funders
    1. grants ($100k in 6-9 months?), 15-20% Cliff time
    2. corp sponsorship, 5-10% Cliff time
    3. individuals
  3. Fundraising
    1. events; indiv solicitation

Sales Approach

  • Licensing
  • Manufacturing/sales

Biz Dev

  • $63-$70/device
  • Partners
    • NGOs
    • International Orgs (e.g. UNICEF, WHO)
    • Gates Foundation
    • Governments
    • non-mission sales
  • sales cycle: 12 months
  • next order: 500 devices, resulting in $40k in 6 months with $4k profit?

Challenges

  • economy
  • donations biased towards handouts rather than overhead

Possible Actions

  • dinner event
    • celebrity
    • Ghana participants
    • auction
    • general public
    • high net worth individuals vs. general public
  • capturing institutional knowledge
  • systems and processes
  • creating org chart
  • conferences
  • Amazon help with marketing non-mission sales

Questions

  • how to manage people
  • value of sponsored pilots (e.g. India)
  • spreading biz dev too thin vs. targeted partnerships
  • Cliff priorities vs. other volunteer priorities

Time Allocation

Area March April May June July August September
Engineering 35% 25-50%
Pilot 15% 20-40%
Biz Dev 20% 10%
Funders 25% 20-30%
Fundraising 0% ?
Admin 5% 5%