What's Next?

Existing Market

What’s Next: According to Me

Develop gravity storage device.  Become a Tesla Powerwall Certified Installer (because why not make money off of the competition if the customer prefers it).

What’s Next: Customer Perspective (Simulation)

           

            Provide financing model/option.  Maybe a rental plan.

Summary

The most immediate up next is starting.  I have to start contacting potential customers and begin signing contracts.  After a few solar installations, and even during that process, I should look into the logistics of providing financing or rental plans.  At the same time, becoming a Tesla Powerwall Certified Installer would be a good thing to research.

In regards to the gravity storage device, once money starts rolling in, I can use that to fund the R&D involved.  This will decrease the amount of equity I might have to give-up in order to produce the product.

New Market

What Market?

Since I’m currently focusing on a business to consumer model, the next step would be to expand to business to business.  I dream of sell my products and services to utility companies throughout the nation.  But the first logical step would be to sell to commercial businesses.

Another option, further in the future, focusses on taking the business to consumer model to a massive scale: buy a utility company and use the technology the people at my company produce to provide cleaner and more reliable energy for the customer.

Value

I think the value for each future market I described above differs with every market.  So, I’ll separate them below:

            B2B Commercial

Going green can have significant financial benefits to commercial enterprises.  Not only is it an attractive tagline which a company can boast about to its prospective clients, using green energy can have significant upside when it comes to lowering taxation.

           

            B2B Utility

Storing electricity in an environmentally friendly way provides utility companies similar benefits as for commercial businesses.  In addition, instead of wasting the excess electricity produced, or storing that electricity in costly, degradable chemical storage devices, using gravity energy storage allows for a clean, and significantly more reliable, way to store massive amounts of energy.  Also, gravity storage better suits a power grid which demands massive varying loads.  It is commonly known that batteries experience fatigue with each cycle.  This rate of fatigue, or degradation, increases rapidly when large fluctuations in load are demanded of the system.  A gravity electrical storage system doesn’t experience fatigue and can discharge at whatever rate the load demands without much consequence to capacity and lifespan.

            B2C Utility

The value to the customer is similar to the value the customer would receive from any other utility company that uses my companies gravity storage system.     They are able to rest well knowing that the energy backup system is one of the most reliable and instantaneous.  Also, they’d know their electricity was coming from reliable and renewable resources.

Adaptations

           

In order to get into any of the three markets requires some significant scaling.  Selling to commercial is not as more complicated as selling to residential.  They just require larger systems with potentially more necessary electrical storage/backups.  Selling to utility companies requires an even more massive scale of production.  Creating solar farms which power cities and massive gravity storage devices paired with such farms would be necessary.  Also, the bureaucracy of such companies may be intense and difficult to navigate.  Purchasing a utility company requires the most scaling and capital.  I can’t imagine a utility company being cheap.  Then after purchasing, my company would have to work through the logistics of implementing our products to service an entire grid of multiple cities.

Reflection

           

I think each market gets more interesting as you go down the list.  Starting off with residential allows for the most freedom in learning the process of purchasing, installing, and maintaining solar systems.  Once I’m relatively confident in my abilities to do those three well, selling commercial systems should be a piece of cake.  Utility scale is just an even bigger commercial project and provides the opportunity to really test out the gravity storage system.  Owning an entire utility company might be a pipe-dream, but it’s probably the most exciting market: imagine being able to say that your company powers the homes of millions of people and provides jobs for hundreds, if not thousands, of citizens.