20100618
Hi Founders Fund Team,
I am a Canadian inventor, now active in the UK and Norway and with manufacturing JV in Malaysia. After living 10 years in London, England I am starting to look seriously at North American activity with a proposal to break into this market by way of the "backyards" of millions of Americans (I lump in Canada).
I am still not to optimistic about the American greenhouse and building construction market receptivity to my innovation: Sola Roof. But I have determined that there is a "back door" to these commercial markets and that is the backyards of home owners who would like to take DIY action to secure safe, nutritious food. It is however a market that will not sustain a conventional business model, since the very intention of these users would be to build directly - with little or no "packaging" - using commodity materials that are available locally, off-the-shelf, fabricated on-site or by recycling used building materials.
Therefore my strategy for business success with Sola Roof is to give away the DIY market and to align the Sola Roof Brand with commodity suppliers who would gain sales and new market position by acquiring rights of use of Sola Roof & DIY Food Brands through formal affiliation with the Sola Roof/Community, which I would grant to those suppliers who commit to the 1% of sales contribution to the humanitarian Pay It Forward Projects. Global market suppliers, like Sapa Profiles (aluminum frames) will co-brand with Sola Roof and support the DIY Food Challenge. I am establishing local supply of a DIY Kit and this "entrepreneur" opportunity will make a positive contribution to the livelihoods of many of the members of the Sola Roof Community as it grows.
The DIY Food Challenge is viral since it is calls on the community that is "helping itself" with designated non-commercial access to our Open Source technology, to then accept a challenge to help others in the global community - including impoverished families and communities who need material assistance as well as knowledge and skills transfer. This humanitarian action will attract global interest and positive attention. There is no barrier to any participation by users and little to no manufacturing investment by suppliers is required since all materials needed are in supply as commodity products which are available at low cost. As the purchasing power of the DIY Food community grows and as we are able to issue specifications to suppliers for aggregation of the user community purchasing power, then there will be even better and more competitive offerings of appropriate materials and components.
DIY Food must become a viral movement that brings food security to all who wish to go from awareness, to learning and then DIY action. But what is missing is a strong, talented and well funded internet presence that can support all phases of personal growth and I call that WEB 3?. This is my invitation to FF - to build with me the Web 3 environment that enable me and all the DIY Food members to engage, teach and support personal ACTION that will build a viral community that reaches everyone, everywhere.
I refer to Chris Anderson (see:Freeconomics and FREE because I feel that DIY Food is a powerful extension of the concept that industry products with very low cost and vast scale of use will become FREE. I extend the thesis to a further supposition that the common driver is that these domains become knowledge driven and have material inputs that trend to zero cost. At this time I will show with this DIY Food project that not only digital bitsNbites "want to be free" but at this time ENERGY in the form of solar radiation "wants to be free". This will happen because I have invented a near no cost way to work with nature and continuously process this energy - capture, convert and use it - and while the value generated is very high, the cost of access is very low. I have assured that the cost of the know-how is zero and a vast scale of use brings the material costs to a trivial level of spending per unit produced. What is the value produced? That is abundance of food, feed, fiber, fuels and water.
I intend by the DIY Food campaign to make it clear to everyone and very real to a vast number of DI Yers that food can now be so close to free that it can and will abolish hunger. With this great achievement under our hat - I predict that the commercial success of Sola Roof will be bigger than anything seen before in the history of innovation.
BTW the next project after food for all is shelter for all. Richard (Sola Roof Guy)