RCE wrote:

I've been following with interest your market research for this little
generator. It sounds like a great product technically, but I think Wayne
may have hit upon the real world implications of it's use as a consumer type
product. Your small company will need to resolve problems that arise from
some customers with no technical comprehension of what they are doing and
somehow maintain a good reputation for responsive service. Not to throw a
wet blanket on the concept, because it's good, but this is a prime example
of something that will require product liability insurance. Depending on who
you chose to underwrite a policy, it may force you to jack the price up
significantly.

That is true. We have priced in a certain amount of insurance, but our
estimates could be wrong. There is a bit of a chicken-and-egg problem
in regards to product insurance pricing because you can't get a real
quote until you have a real prototype and solid price-point.

Not to be nosey - and no need to answer if it's none of my business - but
how are you funded?

We are privately funded. We have a small group of loyal investors that
we have been good to over the last 22 years.

I have the impression of a small, startup company
somehow connected to a university (Harvard).

SynchroSystems is not affiliated with any University although we have
good relations with local schools because we occasionally hire interns
to help us with non-technical stuff. I am a (very) part-time undergrad
degree candidate at Harvard, hence my backup email address. My partner
is an alumni of the trade school down the street (MIT), so we have close
ties to those schools, but nothing official.

We are small, but since we were founded in 1984, I'm not sure if we are
a start-up. Although our in-house product development is new, we have
been developing products for other companies for 22 years.

At some point in the
development and introduction of this generator the question will come up.
Is the development privately funded?

Yes.

How do you intend to market it? (May
cost much more than the development costs).

That depends on what our market research indicates. We will certainly
sell online, but other details remain TBD. A certain amount of
marketing expense has already been priced in, but our market research
will help refine that number. This is the kind of thing we hire an MBA
student to figure out for us.

BTW, I am sure you realize that there are other consumer markets for a
product like this that may be bigger than the boating industry.

Yes, this is really just a variation on something else we are working on
for a non-boating application.

--
Chuck Cox - SynchroSystems - Synchro.com
,
my email is politician-proof, just remove the PORK