Rough Presentations

Repetition is Key

This week in class, we did lots of small presentations to different groups and had them record us.  This was a bit difficult because at this point, we had not prepared a script and we were pretty much making it up as we went.  We did have a slide, but the slides did not truly represent what we had to say.  From our presentations, I think we recognized that Varsha and I were the best speakers; and the part of our presentations that was lacking was our got to market strategy and the coherence of what our patent is and why its important.

The Patent

We struggled to throughly explain our patent in a way that was understandable to a large, non-science based audience; and in addition we struggled to make our patent seem exciting and impactful.  We are having Nitin present that patent, and I am using my background in writing to help improve his audience engagement.

Learning More About Our Patent

What are we up to?

This week, our group focused on contacting professors and graduate students who were well versed in the technology of the patent.  We hoped that through our conversations we would be able to understand how the device works as a unit, and how we could market/price it.  After contacting and interviewing professors to learn more about the technology, we was able to gain clarity on the overall directionality of our business model. Meeting up with the professor, however, became a struggle as they were not available during their office hours. After following up with the professor,  we decided it might be more efficient to email our questions and they will get back to us. 

What did we learn?

Emailing the professor turned out to be helpful. The key takeaways from the professor's email was that there no similar system in the market that saves water,  recycles water, and generates energy at the same time. The best way to approach the pricing is to figure out the costs of these 3 individually and figure out how much an individual is ultimately saving. The panel uses solar photovoltaic technology and knowing that, we can determine the average cost of a solar panel for comparisons.  From our talks, we were able to better understand how to price our unit, and the difficulties that lie within it.

Week 11: What keeps you up at night regarding your project?

The Good

Overall, I feel like our product and plans are coming together well!  Things that I feel like we are doing well is our education plan, and product framing, which makes the product more appealing.  I feel like we understand the wants, needs and fears of our markets, but struggle to reach them.

The Bad

Currently, our go to market strategy is a bit muddled.  We are still struggling on what our distribution channel is and how we are going bring awareness to our product.  Thus far, our distribution channel would be an online website where orders can be placed and then delivered in bulk; unfortunately, we do not have the logistics for this are still not figured out.  Additionally, we still not have many ways to gain exposure for our project.  So far, we want to rely on trade shows to get out product "out there"; but we also think that making partnerships with smart homes companies would be very beneficial for us!

The Ugly

I think the part of our project that keeps me up the most at night is the financials.  I feel a bit kept out of the loop about whats going on about financials and even when some team mates try to explain them, I feel very confused.  Because of this, I try to contribute to the team as I am best suited to :)

Week 10: Our Patent

What is Our Patent?

Our patent was created by and it is integrated system of filtration, disinfection, and organic compound removal viable in small spaces, based on Solar Optics-Based Active Panels (Soap) For Greywater Reuse And Integrated Thermal (Grit) Building Control . The product is a set of panels placed inside the facade on the exterior walls of your home/building that is connected to the water system of your property. Those panels are composed of glass surfaces filled with nanoparticles that react with the sunlight to filter the water you are using every day. Besides recycling your water, our panels have the ability to act as a thermal mass. The disinfected water is stocked and heated up by the sun in the facades of your walls through the day allowing our system to control daily temperature swings by releasing the heated water under the slabs of the floor at night.

Why is it special, what are its claims?

Ultimately, this patent provides technology for an integrated greywater reuse and thermal control system that reduces water consumption and heating energy consumption. Currently, existing technologies address these problems through separate units but this patent ensures a combined unit. Additionally, most products on the market take up way too much space and cannot be commercially implemented into houses. This product claims to be functional without the need for large space and lots of pipes because of its ability to increase water flow.

Customer Interviews and Difficulties

Who did we reach?

Over the weekend, our team created a survey that we wanted to send to homeowners to see their willingness and interest in purchasing our product.  We also wanted to know if they had a similar product in the house and whether or not they found this useful.  We posted the survey in Facebook groups and were able to get about 15 responses! Unfortunately, these responses were a bit biased because most of the participants were Berkeley students.


What did I do?

Because our main objective is to sell our product to large construction companies, I thought it would be a good idea to reach out to contractors in the Bay Area.  I ended up contacting Anh Do, a private contractor that specializes in custom built houses.  From talking to him, I learned that many people in the Bay Area are very interested in green buildings and that a systems like this could be coupled with smart home technologies such as Nest!  He also mentioned how many new houses are starting to implement separate greywater and sewage plumbing; a big issue that our team that our team hoped to mitigate.

Rethinking Our Market and How We Are Going to Reach Them

What is our market?

The product we want to see, an integrated greywater filtration and thermoregulation system, is a resegmented market, and our product is very unique because no other companies are producing an integrated system.  Some issues with this type of market is the public's lack of awareness about what our product is and how it can benefit their lives.  Because a widespread project to educated mass consumers would be timely and costly, we decided to spend our time educating businesses such as home construction companies.

What is our distribution channel?

We plan on advertising our product at trade shows and by making inquiries at large construction companies such as KB Home.  We then plan to rent a large warehouse to store our panels until we are able to have a large bulk order from one of these companies makes a purchase.  We will then ship the panels in bulk to the desired location.  To sell the panels, we plan to have a clean website that provides purchase information as well as education as to why they should purchase the product.

Enter: Ecoflow

Who are we?

This week, our team finally finalized our company name and which patent we wanted to go with.  We decided to go with the greywater filtration system that is integrated with thermal regulation for our patent; and we decided that the name "ecoflow" was best for our company.  We really liked the patent because it seemed very easy to sell to business and we feel like we could actually be making an impact on the world/environment.

Branding!

This week, I was in charge of creating a company brand and logo!  To start off, I wanted to think of the core impacts and values of our product, as well as the image that we wanted to portray to the world.  I felt that water, the sun, and maybe something "eco-friendly" were the best options for creating our logo.  I made a few sketches of possible logos, and our team narrowed it down to the one including the sun and the waves.  For the primary and secondary color of our brand, we wanted to use  a bluish green and a yellow.  Personally, I think aesthetic makes a product more appealing and so I felt like I should put a lot of effort into creating a nice brand :)