First, I need to say that I cannot release the name of some companies we work with due to NDAs that are in place. We can use company names like Samsonite and Harley Davidson that we work with because the products are already selling in the market. This online offering technically makes us a public company and we report to the SEC, which makes the guidelines very strict for us.
I want to give some updates with as much detail as I can without comprising any deals or agreements.
As I write this in our offices, I am looking at our 8 foot whiteboard completely filled with current deals, task lists, timelines, etc. There are 11 deals/projects highlighted and 5 deals that are put into a subcategory listing representing deals that are not top priority. I am reporting on the top 8 at the moment in no particular order:
1. Caster Deal - One year since first contact. Shark Wheel just paid for 50% of the tooling required to complete the deal and go into production. This is a large upfront cost we have to endure. Early Q4 2020 is the expected release date for this project and first revenues. Shark Wheel is making two different size casters that will go onto 'equipment' (I need to use generic terms for now) that will be used in hundreds of 'institutions' around the United States. Two new opportunities were given by this company to Shark Wheel this week outside of this project. It is the Phase 2 portion of products that will be released in this partnership. One of the new projects may or may not (remember I need to be careful with wording) involve robots.
2. Caster Deal - This is the most exciting and largest deal on the table. It is new and I hinted at this in my answers recently on the questions page here. It is a potential deal worth 8 figures annually. This project has jumped to the top of our priority list. The company is flying out to meet with us in about 10 days to advance discussions and leave equipment for us to prototype with. Possible 2020 release.
3. Pallet Jack Deal (Material Handling Industry) - We have received multiplecontract offers in the last 12 months. We could have signed a year ago and had revenues exponentially higher than we have now. But, we felt we would be signing a deal that is significantly undervalued. In the last 12 months, we have endured extensive testing on the product and received all of the results back within the last 10 days (from a Fortune 500 company). The results came back showing the Shark Wheel has a 33% longevity advantage in apples-to-apples testing. This is a game-changing data point and confirmed our resolution to hold out for a better deal. We are in deep contract negotiations with the new data and the proposed deal is significantly better. 2020 release.
4. Luggage - We have a deal in the works with 4 new major companies/brands to use Shark Wheels. These are in late stage negotiations and some of the designs have already been approved. One of the deals is to supply military bags with Shark Wheels.
5. Wheelchair - Another Wefunder company, Participant Assisted Products (https://wefunder.com/participant.assistive.products), will be contracting Shark Wheel to work on their front casters. Possible 2020 release.
6. Roller Skate - Shark Wheel recently fulfilled an order (6-figure order) to our European distributor.
7. Printing Tape - Shark Wheel's newest innovation is going through final testing. We are very excited about entering this industry and never imagined we would be a tape manufacturer as well. We have over 200 companies that have signed up with us to purchasing information.
8. Farming - According to some reports, agriculture is the largest industry in the world. Having won the SBIR NSF Phase II government grant, Shark Wheel is about 9 months into a 24 month project. Wheels are now testing in California 1.5hrs from our offices. We have not experienced any failures during the Phase II testing and we continue to optimize the wheel design. Below shows our latest design with alternating lugs. The wheels were just installed and the track on the farm is from the previous wheels. Expected 2021 launch.