Last week in class, we met with Rick to further discuss our final business model and our first rough draft deck. We decided that we needed to keep both the hardware and the software as part of our product, especially since a large part of our value proposition and what differentiates us is that our device is always connected to a GPS and is able to give real-time alerts: basically, it won't fail during a natural disaster.
Our business model will still be B2B2C, except we'll be selling our products to alarm/insurance companies rather than cell phone service providers, and they will offer it to customers as part of a tiered package program. We'll be crunching the numbers this week to finalize the structure of this.
Finally, we hope to somehow get government regulation to include our technology in alarm systems across the country, as we feel that it's beneficial to have this sort of product in homes/offices/buildings/campuses.
Over the next few weeks, we'll mostly be finalizing our pitch deck in preparation for demo day. We'll be focusing on financials, deciding on a company name/logo, and our deck outline this week specifically.
Update: we decided on the name FALCON (First Alert Locating Catastrophe Over Network). Thoughts?
Also our pitch deck can be found here! We'll still be working on it over the next few weeks but feel free to leave us any comments or suggestions.
Hello there! I really like the progress you are making with your startup. Our group is on the same phase as we are also trying to crunch out some numbers to provide more data-based deliverables during the final pitch. In terms of your name, FALCON, I think it's smart. However, I would perhaps look into finding a slogan to help the audience understand the basic framework of your product. Good luck!!
ReplyDeleteHello. I like the direction you've taken to actually commercialize your product. For the actual number crunching, I would look into other B2B2C companies that deal with similar technology.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, great name. FALCON definitely inspires a sense of confidence in the product, something a consumer would want in any sort of security/alarm product. Regarding your market strategy, remember that VC's are always looking to maximize their ROI, which means they want to make as much money is as short an amount of time as possible. Because of this, I would maybe rule out your plan to trying to lobby government to implement your system. Government is very slow, and usually doesn't want to pay for anything it deems superfluous. Private home security firms like brinks and bay alarm are where I see thing doing well
ReplyDeleteLove the name! To make sure the device is always working no matter whether the signal is bad or not can also be a selling point for you guys. Facebook in yesterday's F8 mentioned the offline information access and update for instagram. Some new technologies might come into handy for this feature.
ReplyDeleteIn addition to using a B2B2C model, perhaps you could consider key partners who could add value to your business too. Maybe insurance companies?
ReplyDeleteI LOVE THE NAME! it's awesome. Love that it is also an acronym. Also you're pitch deck looks bomb! I also really like how you organized the pitch deck, the order of things and how you outlined everything you want to talk about. It's great that you guys added your team on the slides, I have to totally add that to my slides too. It's super important for investor to understand who is on the team, their roles, and how well they seem to work together.
ReplyDeleteGreat name, great slides. Our group has been having difficulty trying to explain our patent in one slide. Totally going to snag how you did your patent slide. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteMight be a good idea to contact some insurance/alarm companies to get a better idea of revenue potential and costs for partnership. REally like the name -- looks like you guys got a lot done this week! Good luck :)
ReplyDeleteThat's a very intelligent acronym! As for the financials, you can definitely project off from proxies. I really like your deck, but I would suggest some captions on the problem slide!
ReplyDeleteI think that government regulation would be helpful and you should try to get more information on how that would be done. Cool name too!
ReplyDeleteHey dream team!
ReplyDeleteI liked the deck a lot, but I think there is too much material for a 5min speech in there. If you had to make it into 10 slides, what sections would you cut? - all of it is interesting and our team is having a hard time with this also. Additionally, I would recommend putting the "ask" slide closer to the beginning so the VC's know how to value the company.
Falcon is a great name. Short, cool, it feels good for the startup. I think that your pitch deck has too much information for the amount of time you have. It is visually appealing in most slides, which is great. Sometimes just going with the narrative can be more appealing that giving slide after slide of information. Good luck!
ReplyDeleteI think that going to the alarm companies makes the most sense. My only question though: are you licensing the technology or actually manufacturing? We struggled in deciding which would make the most sense and decided that licensing helped us improve our profit. It might be good to look into!
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