Undercurrent

Introduction

Undercurrent is a digital strategy firm. We apply a digital worldview to the challenges and ambitions of complex organizations. http://undercurrent.com.

Session Review

Dear Mike and Team,

Thanks for the amazing session on Monday. The most useful outcome for me is the notion of integrating Pilot Projects and Sales into one by selling a CEB machine to a collaborating humanitarian aid organization. Catarina and I are both interested in this, and this would also allow us to move forward on quality documentation - where we can focus the effort with the humanitarian org on not only field testing, but also generation of documentation and instructional materials.

So the main take-home points are:

1. Take 1 Machine into full production to generate revenue - show a model of how a full machine is taken to market as a Distributive Enterprise while showing that this business model works. This is serious work, and will require a solid plan and industry technical review team (such as retired machine designers) to get there faster. Outcomes: proof of concept of commercial feasibility. a machine of equivalent performance, lower cost, more flexible, while retaining lifetime design - compared to industry standards. I think we can start with the CEB as a limited test case here - it's farthest in development - but probably tractor/CNC torch table will be bigger hits. Suggestions welcome.

2. Humanitarian Pilot Projects - Nonprofit Sector Investment/Resource Development - the Pilot/Field Testing/Data Collection/Documentation package. Also we can focus our Resource Development on this. Who are best strategic partners? Habitat for Humanity, others. Nicholas Sparks Foundation. Who are players in the USA? I'd like to see this done locally first - combining this with the notion of Local Pilots that we discussed. Specific leads welcome.

3. University Partnerships - finding faculty/staff interested in our work at an engineering school - to run a program focused on development of a single machine. Who are strategic partners that could fill this role? Bruce of Milgo-Bufkin is Chairman of Board for Lehigh U, we can start at the top there.

4. Community Development Platform - to strengthen our crowd collaboration. This was the key historically - for example, I talked to the designer of a leading competitor Brick Press who allowed me to pick his brain. I am convinced that if played right, we can attract leading talent of Apollo Project intensity on technical development of our work. This ties in to Technical Advisory Board creation and Flash Mob Crowd Development platform. This requires a dedicated, high level community manager, starting with Job Description.

I'd like your feedback on the above. Prioritization and tactical approach is needed.