"I think the way you ought to approach this is just the way you are doing it
now. On your own with small orders from people who have a specific need or
desire for such a product."
From: "Jon Wallace" <jon@psubs.org>
Reply-To: personal_submersibles@psubs.org
To: <personal_submersibles@psubs.org>
Subject: RE: [PSUBS-MAILIST] do a serious concrete sub project
Date: Sat, 17 Feb 2007 16:27:40 -0500
>Wilfried,
>
>My two cents...for what it's worth...
>
>I like your energy and sense of adventure. However, I think your potential
>market for a commercial venture is a lot less than what you might be
>thinking. I think your market is limited to high-end private ownership. Of
>that group, you need to find people that live next to a big enough body of
>water to support a "yacht", that actually want to own a yacht, and that want
>a yacht that travels underwater as opposed to on top of it. On top of that,
>your sub will not be attractive to people who are not fairly stationary
>geographically since your sub can be difficult and expensive to transport.
>I think you need to be careful of terms such as "submarine yachting" because
>"yachting" gives an impression of spacious luxury that can transport you
>long distances within reasonble durations of time. I don't think you will
>be able to deliver on any of these expectations. And lastly, I think most
>people who yacht in the traditional sense do so because they want to be out
>and about in the open air and open sea. Except for a cramped conning tower,
>your sub will force the occupants to remain inside. Looking out portholes
>will be novel at first, but I suspect fairly boring in short time. Assuming
>your sub could cruise the caribbean in a manner that made it attractive from
>a time perspective (how many knots do you expect your sub to cruise at?),
>there won't be very much to look at out of the view ports of a moving sub
>that is in 500 feet of water.
>
>Now, I'm not saying you can't make money with your idea, I just think from
>an investor perspective I don't see alot of practicality with it, which
>means I'm not likely to risk my money in it. By the way, I liked the idea
>of cruising the caribbean, getting exposure, and taking orders, and I'm sure
>you won't mind that being MY job if I do invest in your business..right?
>
>I think the way you ought to approach this is just the way you are doing it
>now. On your own with small orders from people who have a specific need or
>desire for such a product. You get to build them a custom vehicle with
>their own money up-front that THEY take a risk with, and then build upon
>that experience for the next order. If I'm wrong and your product does have
>commercial value to a lot of yachters, word-of-mouth advertising from your
>first one or two deliveries will get you a lot more exposure than a set of
>investors who are going to be after you from day one to show profit for your
>work.
>
>My suggestion is to forget about the investors at this point and concentrate
>on taking out some advertisements in BOATING MAGAZINE, or some Yachting
>publications, and see what the response is. If you can show a record of a
>handful of orders, you'll probably get investors coming to you rather than
>you looking for investors.
>
>Jon
>
>
>
>
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