PitchDeck_NYBPC final

Editor's Notes

• #2: Hello and good morning my name is Stacey Smith and I amColton Weaver… We are hear to talk to you about Lilo, our hydration company
• #3: Before I get started I would like to further introduce my self and the rest of my team: I am a senior at SUNY Poly studying business, Colton is a junior studying Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Clarkson, and Katy is an MBA student at Clarkson concentrating in Global Supply Chain. We each have a role that creates the foundation for Lilo, My role is the branding and marketing of Lilo, Colton is our product developer and business developer, and Katy is our expert in logistics and manufacturing. We also have a few advisors for Lilo. Brett Treutt is a local entrepreneur from Utica who is acting as our business strategist, TK & Chris Yeh are our business advisor from Wasabi Ventures through the New York Furnace, and finally Alex Duchak and Mike McCoy who are our advisors from the commercialization academy.
• #4: So, what is Lilo? Well, let’s explain a scenario that was first introduced to us at the Commercialization Academy. To understand how the idea of our product was formed I want you to imagine that you are in a bike race, and you reach for your water bottle to quench your thirst, You’ve already cycled 50 miles and you have 10 more miles to go with a pretty good lead. As you reach for your bottle, you are tilting your head back to get that last bit of water and then *pause* you lose balance and fall! This doesn’t happen in most cases, but after 50 miles, you do get really tired of cranking your neck and having to center your focus on stabilizing yourself on your bike. The more miles you go, the less water you have, and the more tedious the process gets for hydrating yourself.
• #5: So this is the exact problem our inventor from the AFRL, Paul Ratazzi, identified when cycling (minus the fall). He is an active cyclist and engineer at the lab. As shown here this cyclist has his arm out to the side and head tilted making him less aerodynamic resulting in a slower pace and causing constant neck tilting.
• #6: Being an engineer at the AFRL, Paul had the opportunity to have his idea come to life for correcting the hydration issue he encountered. The Patent attorney at the lab needed practice for writing a utility patent, so the water bottle was drafted and eventually accepted into the patent portfolio as official AFRL technology. The patent has four main design requirements; a screw on cap, a nozzle at the bottom to discharge the liquid, an enhanced side grip, and a face indentation to allow for efficient hydration.
• #7: Our task in the Academy was to identify if the water bottle was still viable in the private market for commercialization. As we began looking into the reusable water bottle market we found that it is a 1.5B dollar market. We quickly realized this bottle has value and fulfills a need!
• #8: So, what part of the market are we focused on? Our focus is on the bottles intended use for cyclists.
• #9: So, why cyclists? Well, we’ve danced around this question quite a bit through our development process. We were focused on the everyday user this past December, but after a considerable amount of evaluation, we realized it’s intended use as our main focus FIRST will be the best way to launch Lilo. The Central NY region is a popular place for cyclists and active users of the like. We have an advantage in this market as we are all active consumers ourselves. Some local events where Lilo plans to pop up include places like: The Ride for Missing Children At Utica Bike Rescue The Mohawk Valley Cycling Club and at the time trials on the Griffis Air Force Base The Boilermaker, Lake Delta Triathlon, Adirondack events, and other local race events As we focus on satisfying our initial cycling community, we anticipate other active users and everyday users to begin to adopt Lilo. Other areas in the future where you may see Lilo is at the AFRL as promotional “swag” & possibly for Military applications We also had a student, John LaRue, from the OT program at Clarkson approach us about using Lilo’s hydration method in his medical research to see if he can validate its function as beneficial in rehabilitation programs, etc.
• #11: So, why cyclists? Well, we’ve danced around this question quite a bit through our development process. We were focused on the everyday user this past December, but after a considerable amount of evaluation, we realized it’s intended use as our main focus FIRST will be the best way to launch Lilo. The Central NY region is a popular place for cyclists and active users of the like. We have an advantage in this market as we are all active consumers ourselves. Some local events where Lilo plans to pop up include places like: The Ride for Missing Children At Utica Bike Rescue The Mohawk Valley Cycling Club and at the time trials on the Griffis Air Force Base The Boilermaker, Lake Delta Triathlon, Adirondack events, and other local race events As we focus on satisfying our initial cycling community, we anticipate other active users and everyday users to begin to adopt Lilo. Other areas in the future where you may see Lilo is at the AFRL as promotional “swag” & possibly for Military applications We also had a student, John LaRue, from the OT program at Clarkson approach us about using Lilo’s hydration method in his medical research to see if he can validate its function as beneficial in rehabilitation programs, etc.
• #13: So, why cyclists? Well, we’ve danced around this question quite a bit through our development process. We were focused on the everyday user this past December, but after a considerable amount of evaluation, we realized it’s intended use as our main focus FIRST will be the best way to launch Lilo. The Central NY region is a popular place for cyclists and active users of the like. We have an advantage in this market as we are all active consumers ourselves. Some local events where Lilo plans to pop up include places like: The Ride for Missing Children At Utica Bike Rescue The Mohawk Valley Cycling Club and at the time trials on the Griffis Air Force Base The Boilermaker, Lake Delta Triathlon, Adirondack events, and other local race events As we focus on satisfying our initial cycling community, we anticipate other active users and everyday users to begin to adopt Lilo. Other areas in the future where you may see Lilo is at the AFRL as promotional “swag” & possibly for Military applications We also had a student, John LaRue, from the OT program at Clarkson approach us about using Lilo’s hydration method in his medical research to see if he can validate its function as beneficial in rehabilitation programs, etc.
• #14: So, why cyclists? Well, we’ve danced around this question quite a bit through our development process. We were focused on the everyday user this past December, but after a considerable amount of evaluation, we realized it’s intended use as our main focus FIRST will be the best way to launch Lilo. The Central NY region is a popular place for cyclists and active users of the like. We have an advantage in this market as we are all active consumers ourselves. Some local events where Lilo plans to pop up include places like: The Ride for Missing Children At Utica Bike Rescue The Mohawk Valley Cycling Club and at the time trials on the Griffis Air Force Base The Boilermaker, Lake Delta Triathlon, Adirondack events, and other local race events As we focus on satisfying our initial cycling community, we anticipate other active users and everyday users to begin to adopt Lilo. Other areas in the future where you may see Lilo is at the AFRL as promotional “swag” & possibly for Military applications We also had a student, John LaRue, from the OT program at Clarkson approach us about using Lilo’s hydration method in his medical research to see if he can validate its function as beneficial in rehabilitation programs, etc.
• #15: Scalable First step: start with the low hanging fruit Low cost introduction Research can allow us to pursue phase 2 Phase 3 goes international patent in Europe, etc.
• #16: So, let’s overview our bottle progress. We originally crowd-sourced designs and gathered 70+ designs from doing so. We’ve taken the design phase of the bottle very seriously. As we develop, we want to see ourselves get to the point where we can manufacture other unique bottles using this method of hydration as well.
• #17: Colton started to learn inventor on his own, the first few bottles are the work of his genuine efforts! :P As we’ve worked with our designer, we’ve put the main focus on the design functions. These bottles have all been developed using feedback from niche market sample surveys that we’ve distributed and from professional cyclist contacts within our network. The look and feel of the design will come after we nail down the way we want the bottle to function.
• #18: This is our latest developing design specific for cyclists. Point out the four main design features.
• #19: Currently Lilo is in the NY Furnace Accelerator with Wasabi Ventures. During this phase we can earn up to 25k by working towards milestones. We are currently in our design iterations phase and we are getting closer and closer to a finalized design. For the past 7 months we have incorporated, established an operating agreement, hired an industrial engineer, started to establish a corporate structure, and have established points of contacts at companies such as the UnBottled Campaign, Ride for Missing Children, and the BoilerMaker to begin acquiring pre-sales.
• #20: Our next step is right here. Success in this NYSBPC would allow us to start producing low fidelity prototypes and acquiring raw materials for production. In the next six months, we will be transforming from a start-up to a corporation with the help of Wasabi Ventures and hopefully with the help of this SBP Competition.
• #21: So, again, why us? Our enhanced water bottle will allow users to hydrate more efficiently without tilting their head. Furthermore, Lilo is on a mission and we are passionate about our long term vision. Not only do we provide a unique product with a simple function that modifies the way you’ve hydrated since the beginning of time, but we want to encourage users to cut back on the use of disposable water bottles, promote the benefits of staying hydrated, and excite users with clean water/ sustainability initiatives and awareness. We have a unique physical product that will be known for its positive mental messaging. We hope to make a positive impact on our community, relieve the stress in your neck, and promote the importance of living a healthy lifestyle starting with the cyclist’s hydration bottle: Lilo. To wrap things up, we do have some advice to offer for the audience….
• #22: THANK YOU! 