Wow David, thanks for the well thought out response! I really do appreciate it.
First, I am NOT looking for investors. Second, the "At least I will have my own car!" response is to shut down the naysayers. You can find MANY people to tell you how to build your business that have no experience building the business you are building. When the car was originally going to be an ICE car I had more people than I can count say "You can't do what you are trying to do!". While I am not done with the car, the 75% I have done has already proven them wrong. The business of building and selling my car is not in question, the only thing in question is whether or not it will be an EV. If I believed I had to out Tesla Tesla, I never would have started this project. If that were true Tesla would have put ALL other cars out of business. Setting the goal of outperforming Tesla out of the gate would be like running before I ever learn to walk. Again, the prototype is simply a "Proof of Concept". Since this is all self-financed, co$t HAS to be a major concern. Wasting money on an AC system at this stage would be fiscally irresponsible. WHY am I not looking for investors? 1) They are offering less than 10% of the projected value of my business for a majority share. I'm not selling my drear for less that 1/10th of what it is worth. 2) If I have investors I'd just be working for someone else. No thanks, I'll keep my day job of working for someone else. 3) All investors care about is scaling the business as quickly as possible. That's the BEST way I know to run out of ca$h and drive the business under before it ever gets started. 4) My business model is low volume production. High volume isn't even on the radar. I can do what I want to do with my business out of my 30' x 30' garage. 5) IF my business takes off I will scale up. But only when, and if, sales greatly exceed capacity. Every additional expense added to the business to scale will REQUIRE increasing the scale just to break even. Overhead is the one expense I need to avoid to ensure success at low volume. 6) Scaling actually HURTS my business with my target market. For them, Teslas have lost their appeal because they are "Too affordable and too common". My goal is to avoid that "trap". 7) Too many business owners that have brought investors in have eventually been run out of their own business by the investors. I'm not willing to take that risk. So if "Staying small" is the result of keeping my business 100% my own, so be it. I prefer that to working for someone else. BTW, contrary to common belief, Elon Musk did NOT invent the Tesla. From what I have read he simply invested and eventually ran the real inventor (oor at least one of them) out of the business. I did my research on investors and their mindset. They feel it is their right to run you out of the business because their money, not your idea or work, is the reason your business was a success. When I went to the business advisers, my business plan was to build an ICE car, NOT an EV because I had ruled that out due to the added co$t and risk.They are the ones that convinced me to go the EV route. This is not my first car to build nor is it my first business. I have learned from what I have done in the past and that dictates my route going forward. The only unknown in this business is the EV part. If I can't get sufficient help and support there, I am willing to be "Just another ICE Supercar". Once I build the prototype I will need publicity to attract the "right" customer. I do not personally know any "People with more money than sense". Well maybe some that have little of either! ;^) My "Marketing Plan" is to build a drag racing EV that is disguised as a "Supercar". I will put down some impressive performance numbers following the NEDRA model. I have already talked to John Metric and priced out the EV drivetrain long ago, I just need to "Pull the trigger" on that order. So I will be following the path of Zombie 222 but targeting a different customer with a different product. If you haven't, go to the Zombie 222 site. They have expanded from the "EV DC Motor Drag Race Musclecar" into "We will build whatever you want, AC or DC". But their DC Drag Car got them the initial publicity they needed. Then they expanded to set speed records as well (Texas Mile) and gained even more exposure. Besides, my "Marketing Plan" will also be fun! 8^) BTW, this prototype only represents my first and second car. The car that will actually allow my business to be successful will be my third car. It will be a COMPLETELY different design and will leverage what I learned to date and set my "market niche". Again, something I learned AFTER I already had too much time and money invested in this prototype. It makes more sense to do the final 25% on my current car than to scrap it and start all over from ground zero. Finally, this business is simply a platform so that I can continue designing, building and racing cars. I current own a ICE drag car that has produces 1000 horsepower on the engine alone and another 600 horsepower on nitrous oxide (two stages, 300 horsepower each). If I could, I would simply drop that engine in my prototype and be done with it. But the fuel consumption could almost be measured in gallons per mile instead of miles per gallon. Oh yeah... with that in mind, I view this prototype and its successor as "throw away cars used as learning tools". IF they become very successful I MIGHT change my mind. But, even so, the REAL success of my business will be based on my third car. And $150k won't even come close to buying one of those. Again, this realization didn't even come to me until I had a new vision of my "target customer" inspired by both the business advisers and someone that used to build custom exotic cars. The latter actually told me my entire business was misguided and, at best, would only be moderately successful but not unbelievably successful. And he was right because he learned it from the hindsight that can only come from first hand experience! . (See, I DO listen to advice!) ;^) Again, thanks for your input. All of your points are completely valid IF I was going the route you describe. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://lists.evdl.org/private.cgi/ev-evdl.org/attachments/20160115/a0124ca6/attachment.htm> _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org Read EVAngel's EV News at http://evdl.org/evln/ Please discuss EV drag racing at NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA)
