[PSUBS-MAILIST] new sub

[Jon Wallace]

Some things to consider.  The discussion started with a purpose of 
commercial diving for profit.  I think you'll have a very tough time 
finding a public grant to underwrite that purpose.  I believe searching 
for a grant would mean setting up a non-profit and building the 
submarine primarily for non-profit use, ie underwater conservation as 
you've indicated.  However, that means Scott Waters would not own a 3k 
capable sub, the non-profit would and they could also limit your use of 
it.  Steve Jobs started APPLE but was also dumped by them.  Ken Olsen 
started Digital Equipment Company but was dumped by them.  The corporate 
world is littered with such illustrative cases.  So even if you founded 
the non-profit and was a founding executive of it there is no guarantee 
that you would remain one and be able to get the full use out of the 
submarine that you intended.

You might also have to justify why a 3k capable sub is necessary for 
underwater conservation, ie how many things worth conserving are located 
between 1k and 3k feet?  At those depths which are out of reach for 
virtually 99.9% of the worlds population, who is going to benefit from 
such conservation?  For example, a grant for a K-250 would be factors 
easier because you could justify researching and conserving hundreds of 
miles of coral reef within easy access of sport divers and glass-bottom 
boats in the shallow Florida waters which would serve to educate 
thousands of visitors each year.

You would probably be better off getting a private group of investors 
whom share your love of fabrication and underwater exploration, and 
forming a time-share agreement for use of the submarine between them.  
That limits your own investment and likely gets you enough time to do 
the kind of things you want to do with the submarine when it's your time 
to use it.  Or go back to your commercial diving purpose and find a 
handful of investors to form a corporation for that purpose.  As long as 
you're still connected with your hardware business, sharing the profits 
of the commercial submarine may not be too bad starting off.  As the 
business grew you might eventually be able to buy out some of the 
beginning investors and gain more profit.

Your self-admittance (honorable and honest, certainly) that you are not 
a very good engineer or fabricator is not going to provide the kind of 
confidence that serious investors, public or private, are going to be 
looking for especially when you are trying to sell the idea of a vessel 
that will require very good engineering and fabrication.  You would 
likely get back a counter stating, yeah we're in but not if you build 
it.  Now the "group" goes out to bid for a commercially built submarine 
at a price that you can't afford to participate in and all of a sudden 
you're out and they are running away with your idea.  Having good 
business abilities and being able to pull resources together is a great 
gift but such a manager whom also has a devoted interest in submarines 
probably isn't necessary.  Some investors may feel that having a manager 
not emotionally tied to the project would be a better choice to ensure 
budgets stay within reason.

Jon


On 4/15/2014 9:22 AM, swaters at waters-ks.com wrote:
> So I believe in order to reach this goal of a extremely deep diving 
> very work capable submarine I am going to have to really tap some 
> resources. I think I have a few choices
> *Devote as much of my own money to making this project possible which 
> I worry is not enough.
> *Stop working on the sub project and focus on growing my business for 
> a number of years and "someday" get back to it when I have the resources.
> *Earn a grant(s) to make this project possible
> I know asking for a grant is like a business plan. The contributor 
> wants to see the plan, the aimed goal, as many securities as possible, 
> and a benefit to themselves to contributing. I believe in order to 
> truly reach my next goal that I have to work towards a grant. I have 
> two main questions for the group
> 1) Who would be good prospects for a grant, how do I approach them, 
> and does anyone have any experience they could pass along the way?
> 2) What kind of goals could this submarine be geared towards that 
> would be attractive to a contributor? I don't believe "Underwater 
> conservation" is good enough, they would want specifics.
> I am not a very good engineer, not the best fabricator, but have good 
> business abilities and good at pulling resources to make things 
> possible. I think with the help of everyone on psubs this can be a 
> reality.
> Thanks,
> Scott Waters
>
>
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