[PSUBS-MAILIST] new sub

[Joe Perkel]

Scott will have a diorama like Steve Jobs in his garage at the top of the Spaceship Earth exhibit at Epcot once he discovers the luminescent intelligent civilization living in the depths of Kansas lakes! :)

Joe

Sent from my iPhone

On Apr 15, 2014, at 12:27 PM, Jon Wallace <jonw at psubs.org> wrote:

> 
> 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
>> 
>> 
>> _______________________________________________
>> Personal_Submersibles mailing list
>> Personal_Submersibles at psubs.org
>> http://www.psubs.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/personal_submersibles
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Personal_Submersibles mailing list
> Personal_Submersibles at psubs.org
> http://www.psubs.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/personal_submersibles
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://www.whoweb.com/pipermail/personal_submersibles/attachments/20140415/0fac9e2a/attachment.html>