Hi Everyone. The other update to get caught up on is Sales. We posted an update on Republic between the creation of our Wefunder page and its launch but didn't post the info here yet. I've updated it below to the latest and greatest info.
Note that until everyone wants to go public with their relationship status ... it's bad form to kiss and tell. We'll get press release(s) out as soon as we can and then we can name names. Until then, I hope you'll understand that we don't want to jeopardize any of the discussions/deals. That said, we have much to report on:
Upward. The Upward Hartford Sales accelerator went great. Check out this video:
Opportunities with two of the world's largest insurance companies and one of the world's largest owners of Class A properties are still in play. The insurance companies would be longer term partnerships, big opportunities but nothing fast. That said, I dropped off our gear at one of their Headquarters just a couple of weeks ago when I was last out there, they are going to install it at one of their partner locations -- then we'll be up and running!
Meanwhile, the Class A property owner from Upward that we're still working with has over 1,000 properties (think shopping malls and office buildings). We've shipped gear to two of their sites so far, and our gear is up and running at one of them already. If they like what they see, they could flip 1,000+ office buildings onto our system with an executive decision. Fingers crossed.
Outside of Upward. Things are going on outside of the Upward accelerator as well.
We've done our first installation with one of the largest makers of fresh foods in the West. We have already turned on their newest location in L.A. with 40+ cameras and 20+ doors. The real goal is that they have 30+ locations in total. We are openly gunning to take them all over eventually and they are already discussing site #2 with us.
We're also working with one of the largest makers of traffic component products in the U.S., their gear is in 90%+ of the intersections we drive through every day. They want to add video to their portfolio and we're just the ones to do it for them. We sent them our first invoice and they paid it, so it's a formal relationship We have also created a build-server in their manufacturing building, so they can build our CVR's (Cloud Video Recorders) themselves and ship direct to their customers. There are two serious opportunities here that we're working on with them, I'm looking forward to updating everyone as soon as they'll let us.
To be clear, despite all the above opportunities, we aren't counting chickens before they hatch. This is still early stage company stuff, rife with risk but a ton of opportunity. See comic below ... that is every startup ever, and our eyes are wide open about it.
The next step in our corporate development will be to build the sales team that can get us the repeatable/predictable sales influx that any company needs for reliable growth. We'll be working as hard as we can to close the above big partnership opportunities too, as well as find new ones.
Lastly, we've been encouraged to do a Reg A+ by an investment research group who would like to cover us. The last company they covered, driven largely by that coverage, raised ~$30M. I'm flying out to the East Coast on a red-eye this Sunday night to meet with them again. If they'll commit to covering us, we'll commit to the Reg A+ ... and we should know by the end of February. This could mean an 8-figure raise for us, at a much higher valuation, and would give us all the capital we need to be wildly successful. Fingers crossed!