Business Plan
17 May 2021
updated 25 October 2022
Confidentiality Agreement
The reader acknowledges that any information provided by Peter Roman in this business plan, other than information that is in the public domain, is confidential in nature, and that any disclosure or use of same by the reader may cause serious harm or damage to Peter Roman. Therefore, the reader agrees not to disclose it without express written permission from Peter Roman.
This is a business plan. It does not imply an offering of securities.
Executive Summary
Lorenz Motors Corp. (Lorenz) bases their go-to-market strategy on its core principal that it's founded on: The Butterfly Effect, in that, starting off small leads to great success. Lorenz is iterating through dozens of design concepts to achieve a product that is demanded by consumers. Lorenz is confident its design is how dronecars will function in the future. The competition looks much like airplanes, or helicopters. Philosophizing about the word "flying car" will most likely lead to a design that looks like an airplane or helicopter. Lorenz Motors coined the term "dronecar" which leads to the design you see. Social acceptance is just as great a hurdle as the technology itself; especially in terms of energy capacity. That's why the seedling, or inception selling strategy is to sell the tools to be a strong advocate for dronecars.
Company Description
1. Company Mission Statement
Lorenz Motors is bringing humanity's dream of dronecars to reality by designing how dronecars will look, feel, and function. Lorenz Motors is also an advocacy group for the advancement of personal air travel technology.
2. Company Philosophy and Vision
a. Values: Honesty, integrity, fun, and innovation,
b. Vision: To be the leader in the personal aerial vehicle, flying car, and dronecar transportation-industry. To advocate for the legalization of person air transport technologies.
3. Company Goals
a. Implement solid-sate battery technology to achieve longer flight times.
b. Dominate the personal air mobility space.
c. Provide tools to the public that will help them advocate for dronecars.
4. Target Market
Healthcare. This is a luxury market, but at the same time a highly funded market. There is no price limit on saving one's life, so doctors, surgeons, and organ transplant nurse practitioners have access to increased funds to get to the intensive trauma unit. Supplying surgeons with personal aerial vehicles would allow them to omit traffic and get to their destination quicker. In fact, this would be the quickest and most efficient way for them to get there. Plus, surgeons typically live within a 10-mile radius of their hospitals, so this is perfect for the 15-minute flight time personal aerial vehicles typically have.
5. Industry
We are a data company. Using sensors, cameras, and other information-gathering components, we are building a database of flight characteristics. Although there is no terrain in the sky, things like weather, human behavior (control inputs on the dronecar), and landing/take-offs are documented to improve the machine learning algorithm to better the user experience of dronecar transport. We also dabble in the legal field because we provice advocacy tools for the legalization of dronecars. 2021 is a year when there are a lot of air traffic restrictions, so we are doing what we can to get everyone on board.
6. Legal Structure
Lorenz Motors Corp. has C-Corp status in the United States.There is currently one owner: Piotr Rzymski. The board of directors includes Piotr Rzymski, Rachel Mahoney, Meghan Wieczorek, and Peter Wieczorek.
Products & Services
1. Product
The Lorenz Motors dronecar is not only a head-turner, but it is also an extremely fun way to transport human passengers. It is a one-seat aerial transportation vehicle constrained by the fact that it fits into a standard 9 by 9 foot parking spot as well as weight constraints. It has redundancies in place for safety as well as parachutes for emergencies.
Other products includes self-assembly dronecar model kits, and merchandise that helps consumers advocates for the legalization of dronecars in the sky.
2. Special Benefits
Our product stands apart from the competition in several ways. The dronecar is a perfect square, which leads to better stability and flight dynamics. We also boast a luxury design that beats all competitiors including Porsche, Aston Martin, Lamborghini, Ferrari, and Tesla; among others.
3. Unique Features
Tilt-rotors, although requiring extra energy, provide a smoother ride for passengers. The 16-motor thruster design compensates for the extra weight of several key components, and even gives for a faster ride.
4. Limits and Liabilities
There are obvious legal limitations and ramifications if things go wrong, which is why Lorenz is working hard to convince lawmakers and senators to create regulations surrounding personal air transport.
5. Production and Delivery
The production of Lorenz Motors dronecars pushes raw materials through a production plant facility which assembles components robotically. Dronecars are ordered online and delivered to the consumer upon manufacturing completion.
The other products are printed on demand using 3D printers, and Printful, a third-party service that does all of the work regarding merchandise.
6. Suppliers
A lot of components would be made in-house since a lot of the design is customized specific for our use-case. Outside vendors may include Nvidia, Intel, and AMD for their computer chips. Also, cameras, sensors, and other data-capturing devices are purchased from outside vendors.
7. Intellectual Property and Special Permits
The term dronecar is coined by the company founder and is specific to Lorenz Motors. The 4 key characteristics of dronecars, including 1. Tilt-rotos 2. Square shape 3. 16-motor thrusters and 4. airfoiled-arms, are also intellectual property of the company.
8. Product Description
The Lorenz Motors dronecar is a data-driven flying aerial robot that transports passenger quickly. Prior to the dronecar, Lorenz sells merchandise that helps consumers advocate for the legalization of dronecars.
Marketing Plan
1. Market Research
Primary Research: Information I gathered myself throughout my 700 trips as an Uber driver and interviewing most of my passengers; either explicitly: asking questions, or implicitly: by observing behavior and ratings based on my performance and behavior, suggests that people want quick, reliable, safe, and entertaining transportation.
Secondary Research: People want safe reliable transportation. Although there is not much data on the case for aerial vehicles, it's safe to assume that longer flight times are desirable.
2. Barriers to Entry
High startup costs
High production costs
Finding qualified engineers
Need for specialized technology and patents
Societal acceptance of personal aerial transportation
3. Threats and Opportunities
The Federal Aviation Administration has a large legal footing over the airspace. In addition to that, there are military restrictions to certain zones, like airports, so dronecars might be restricted to certain zones of airspace. This is an opportunity to revisit current air traffic control systems and reinvent them by implementing new technologies like augmented reality and artificial intelligence.
SWOT Analysis
4. Products Features and Benefits
The most important feature is that the Lorenz Motors dronecar runs on solid state batteries. This is special because it utilizes high-energy-density storage capacity to achieve longer flight times.
The most important benefit of the Lorenz dronecar is that it utilizes airspace to transport human passengers.
After-sale services
-
Product delivery
-
Warranty/guarantee
-
Service contracts
-
Refund policy
5. Target Customer
For consumers:
-
Age: 18+
-
Sex: Male & Female
-
Location: United States
-
Income: Top 50%
-
Occupation: Surgeons, trauma care workers, organ transplant nurse practitioners, urgent care unit operators, and emergency response workers.
-
Education level: High School +
6. Key competitors
Lorenz Motor's competition includes any and all transportation companies ranging from personal ground vehicles, to public aerial buses. Jetson, Boeing, Tesla, Ehang, Skydrive, Toyota, even Harley Davidson, Kawasaki, and Honda. Trains, planes, buses, motorcycles, bikes; even deciding to walk somewhere instead of flying is competition.
Competitive Analysis Worksheet
For each factor listed in the first column, assess whether you think it’s a strength or a weakness (S or W) for your business and for your competitors. Then rank how important each factor is to your target customer on a scale of 1 to 5 (1 = very important; 5 = not very important). Use this information to explain your competitive advantages and disadvantages.
7. Positioning/Niche
Lorenz Motor's unique segment in the market is the fact that it is the only dronecar company to utilize solid-state battery technology for energy storage in its vehicles. This will likely change as competition adopts better technologies into their systems to be more competitive. Our design is unique, i.e. we use dynamic thrust cages for directional steering. Our steering system is also "reminding" of traditional road vehicles; i.e. it uses a steering wheel and gas pedal for manual controls, although most of the controls are A.I. and machine learning-based.
8. How will we market our product
-
This is something people want just by how it looks. There is something luxurious about owning a Lorenz Motors dronecar.
-
Lorenz literally means victory, fame, or accomplishment.
-
Lorenz Motors dronecars are fast. They are designed to get from point A to point B in record time. What would be the appeal of dronecars if not for the time saved in transport?
-
Word-of-mouth
-
Business website
-
Social media marketing
-
Search engine optimization
-
Emergency response workers, like surgeons and organ transport nurse practitioners need a faster way of moving from home to the urgent care unit.
-
Ditch traffic, save time commuting, lessen the impact on the environment.
The image Lorenz Motors projects is attractive The logo is sharp, sleek, red, and powerful. The design elements are pragmatic and realistic; evolved through dozens of iterations of design attempts. These design elements are tested through trial and error; leaning on the theory of machine learning, and hundreds of iterations of failed solutions to arrive at one that works.
9. Promotional Budget
Lorenz Motors provides quality personal aerial vehicles. This is mostly communicated through the product, so a lot of focus is on making it self-promoting, in that, whoever studies it will be keen on spreading the message by themselves. A notable reputation comes from the product itself. Maximizing the happiness people get from experiencing the Lorenz Motors dronecar is utmost priority. Although social media marketing and brand awareness is important: it will happen naturally as the product is discovered.
Marketing Expenses Strategy Chart
10. Pricing
The cheapest price available on the market for an electric personal air vehicle is about $92,000.
-
Our price goal is to be as competitive as possible and to drive down price to be sub-$50,000.
Pricing Strategy Worksheet
11. Location or Proposed Location
-
Texas
12. Distribution Channels
-
Direct sales
-
Inside sales force
-
Ecommerce
13. 12-month sales forecast
This is an old SWOT
Analysis (May 2021) and has
since been updated
Operational Plan
1. Production
Manufacturing a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) happens in a Job Shop manufacturing process. In the job shop manufacturing process, production areas, like workstations and workshops, are used instead of an assembly line. Each worker may add something to the product when it passes through their station, before it is moved on to another, and until eventually the final product is finished. This method of manufacturing is ideal for custom manufacturing because it tends to be slower and produces a low volume of highly customized products.
Later, dronecars will be produced in large manufacturing and assembly plants en masse.
2. Quality Control
Quality Assurance Engineers.
3. Location
United States where the weather is calm and permitting.
4. Legal Environment
The legal environment is fierce, which includes cooperating with FAA and Air Force military ordinances.
5. Personnel
Aerospace, chemical, software, controls, systems, machine learning, mechanical, civil, industrial, data, and electrical/computer engineers among others, human resources, legal, business development, marketing, safety, quality assurance, and inspections.
6. Inventory
Raw materials, supplies, and finished products. Solid-state batteries, computer chips, hardware, sensors, imu's, motors, propellers, assembly plant robotics, ergonomics materials (seats, entertainment, speakers), motion sensors, struts and landing support, glass windows, steering components, accelerometers, pedals and controls hardware, flooring and seating, air climate controls systems, cargo space, etc.
7. Suppliers
In-house custom parts. Nvidia, Intel, and AMD chips. Possibly Chinese computer components.
8. Credit Policies
Yes, customers can finance a dronecar.
Management & Organization
1. Biographies
Piotr Rzymski is a designer and aerospace engineer. He has extensive experiencing managing teams, navigating the social landscape, and even some legal pro se experience. Rachel Mahoney is a microbiologist who studies the physical constructs of biology on a small scale. This gives deeper understanding to human behavior and allows for unique insights into the way we make decisions. Peter Wieczorek is a communications specialist who understands human cognition and likes to make sales. Meghan Wieczorek is an insurance specialist who can gather data and make complicated risk analysis decisions.
2. Gaps
Lorenz Motors plans on filling gaps in management and experience by reaching out to experts in the field.
3. Advisors
Hasan Pride, SCORE mentor, banker.
4. Organization Chart
Startup Expenses & Capitalization
1. Start-Up Expenses
2. Opening Day Balance Sheet
Pre-orders will be taken online.
3. Personal Financial Statement
Piotr Rzymski holds $300,000 in assets.
Financial Plan
Step 1. Create a product. (Done).
Step 2. Sell merch.
Marketing the advocacy of dronecars requires a product backing it. This is where merch like hats that say Legalize Dronecars comes into play.
Step 3. Sell self-assembly models.
Step 4. Sell videography drones.
Step 5. Sell delivery drones.
Step 6. Sell dronecars.
Appendices