Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Business Plan (blueprint)

Research

We are planning an experiment as described in the previous post, to test the influence of the restrictive pres on the global tree growth and fruit yield. I do not expect a significant decrease in growth or yield, according to a previous test, but we need to test it with different kinds of trees, during a long period and in different locations where different stress conditions (wind, drought, pests) are found.

We will create a mathematical-physical model of the modified trees and the pressures exerted by the winds, in order to establish the optimal dimension of the presses. We believe that modified trees will not only allow easy fruit collection, but they will also exhibit increased breakage resistance due to their flexibility..

We need U$D 18,000 for a 3 year research period.

Design

The design will evolve from the current published diagrams made with Google Sketchup, to a more precise blueprints with exact dimensions.

We need to establish the dimensions of the different presses to be applied to young and medium age trees.

In some areas where strong winds are expected, we plan to use thinner wood plates, allowing a more flexible tree that can be bent by the wind, instead of opposing resistance to it.

We need U$D 3,000 for the initial designs.


Field Test

The field test needs to be started soon, since the trees will need 2-3 years to bear fruit. It will include a majority of restricted (trunk-pressed) trees, and a smaller number of control trees, i.e., without any press.

The field test is also a business, since the grown, fruit-producing trees will add value to the land. An extra value will come from the easy fruit pick-up method obtained with the presses.

We need U$D 40,000 for a 3 year test period. We will buy a field in Uruguay, plant trees on it, run the tests and then we will have the field appraised. We expect to double the price due to the improvements. If we need cash, the field will be sold.

There are fields at U$D 5000 per hectarea (U$D 2000 per acre), at places with good production of apple, peach, pear, olive or other fruits.

Marketing

We will continue our current effort to market the idea in order to obtain more investors.

Currently we are running a limited campaign on Linkedin and direct email to scientists in agronomy and related fields. We will extend it and also travel to fruit fairs. There is FRUIT LOGISTICA 2013 in Berlin, and FRUYVER 2013 in Zaragoza Spain.
 
We need U$D 10,000 to attend one fair and continue and expand the campaign.



Patenting

We will patent in the following countries:  USA - Canada - Mexico - Brazil - Spain - Italy. 

We need U$D 30,000.

The patents will be offered for licensing. We expect to recover the investment plus a 100% margin in 3 years.



Sales

We will start the sales campaign in parallel to the research and development effort.

We will first travel to the fruit-producing regions of Argentina (Rio Negro, Entre Rios and Tucuman).

We need U$D 5000 to travel and visit propects.  

We expect to sell restriction devices for U$D 150,000 with a U$D 50,000 profit, in the first 3 years.



 
Total investment: U$D 106,000

Total expected return at 3 years: U$D 190,000

Sunday, August 26, 2012

The research plan - Call to participants

At this time I need  experts that could experiment the device in different kinds of fruit trees.
 The experiment will compare modified trees with normal ones. I expect to start in the next couple of months and collect results over the next 4-5 years.

This experiment will be divided in several locations. Each location will test different species, according to region, climate and preferences. The methods will be uniform, in order to allow all the trees to be part of the same experiment.

The publication in a scientific journal will take place as soon as we have significant results. I expect the publication will bring contacts, besides getting academic recognition and public exposure.

 Results

I expect that all of them will grow in a similar way, as my preliminary data show now. Is is also possible that the modified trees might suffer a small delay in growth and production.

The project will fail completely if the modified trees do not produce fruit, or if they break easily during a storm.

Working plan

When the interested parties write their interest to me we will agree on the details: how to run the experiment, which species to plant, blueprint of the presses to be used, measurements to be taken and other issues. The paper will be written and authored by all parties. The publishing costs will be divided among signers.

The Bendable Fruit Tree Project

This blog documents the Bendable Tree Project, started by me in 2012.

Fruit collection can represent 50% of the production costs. I invented a wooden press that is applied on the trunk base of young trees, creating a narrowing that allows easy tree shaking.

Experts so far have said nothing against it. I hope someone will want to participate in the patent-licensing business.

The website for this project is http://netic.com.ar/bendable-tree/

The website contains most of the established data, while the blog records my daily efforts in making this idea go from project to big business. It might be read by investors or by colleagues interested in how to sell inventions, how to transfer techonology from the design board to the market or how to do creative e-marketing on a new product.

See you here! Sergio Samoilovich - Buenos Aires, Argentina