Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Monday, July 13, 2009
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Investor Letter
Dear Friends,
Ecoconfluence is a socially and environmentally sustainable project founded by Nishant Jacob, and Agastya Muthanna while at Mallya Aditi School Bangalore and soon to be at Stanford and Cambridge respectively. Our team includes college and school students from across Bangalore.
We request you to join in on our journey by investing in our project. We provide an alternative to plastic bags, in the form of reusable, environmentally-friendly cloth bags, that fold into inbuilt pouches in all the major retail outlets in Bangalore. Our product and method to achieve this goal is unique. Our project is a blend of 4 factors:
Economic Sustainability: We have conducted a pilot sale project at Mother Earth (www.motherearth.co.in) where 200 bags sold out in less than a week. We have a confirmed order for 1500 bags from Mother Earth and have spoken to representatives from several other stores including Spar, Foodworld and FabIndia all of whom have agreed to sell our bags at their stores.
Working with Idiom (www.idiom.co.in) –India’s largest design consultancy- We have designed sales kiosks, a brand image as well as a viable business model and structure. (see www.econfluence.com). Our Business consultant Mr Akshay Cherian has woked with dozens of successful start up over the last five years. Mr. Cherian is now the CEO of the consultancy company Meta Results and meets with us every week helping us with our business plans and goals
Any Investment you are kind enough to give us will be repaid by December 31st 2009.
Social: Currently, our production needs are being met by a small enterprise in Krishnagiri which has applied for self help group status. The group consists of 20 rural tailors from the slum area in a village in Koramangala, Bangalore, who now earn a healthy income of Rs. 120 a day in excellent working conditions. They collectively own the machinery and property needed to engage in production and have been successful in escaping exploitation.
Environment: Plastic bag production consumes billions of tones of oil each year and the bags are non-biodegradable. On the other hand our eco bags are totally biodegradable, are made from renewable natural material with no carbon footprint and do not use bleach or any other chemicals.
Environmental Education and awareness: Every ecobag we sell has our website and environmental slogan printed on it along with a pamphlet containing practical steps to go green along with information and the contacts of our 6 partner NGOs. Every month we intend to run orientation sessions which are advertised on our websites. We will encourage members to contribute towards Ecoconfluence (in the form of membership and session fees) which will also increase our revenue. In this way we plan to spread awareness about our product and our ideas.
We are a very viable business with Social, Environmental, Educational and Youth factors. Please do no hesitiate to call:
Nishant Jacob -9880707846.
OR Agastya Muthanna – 9916654769 for more details.
Investment details:
You may invest in Ecoconfluence in one or more of these three ways:
1. Donation: The investment sum will not be returned
2. Returned Grant: The entire investment sum will be returned with no interest.
3. Loan with interest: The entire investment sum will be returned with a 5% p.a. return on investment.
We intend to run Ecoconfluence on a business model and are prepared to provide a return on investment. However, donations and returned grants will provide us with reduced financial pressures and flexibility in our early incubation stage.
Investment sum:
There are 6 investment brackets:
1. Rs 5,000
2. Rs 10,000
3. Rs 15,000
4. Rs 20,000
5. Rs 25,000
6. Rs 50,000
Application of funds:
We plan to use this initial investment to pay for the production of first 10,000 bags.
These bags will be sold at Mother Earth ( www.motherearth.co.in ) , Spar and tentatively Foodworld, Hum India, and Fab India.
There shall be a guaranteed return on investment as Mother Earth has agreed to buy excess stock.
Ecoconfluence is a socially and environmentally sustainable project founded by Nishant Jacob, and Agastya Muthanna while at Mallya Aditi School Bangalore and soon to be at Stanford and Cambridge respectively. Our team includes college and school students from across Bangalore.
We request you to join in on our journey by investing in our project. We provide an alternative to plastic bags, in the form of reusable, environmentally-friendly cloth bags, that fold into inbuilt pouches in all the major retail outlets in Bangalore. Our product and method to achieve this goal is unique. Our project is a blend of 4 factors:
Economic Sustainability: We have conducted a pilot sale project at Mother Earth (www.motherearth.co.in) where 200 bags sold out in less than a week. We have a confirmed order for 1500 bags from Mother Earth and have spoken to representatives from several other stores including Spar, Foodworld and FabIndia all of whom have agreed to sell our bags at their stores.
Working with Idiom (www.idiom.co.in) –India’s largest design consultancy- We have designed sales kiosks, a brand image as well as a viable business model and structure. (see www.econfluence.com). Our Business consultant Mr Akshay Cherian has woked with dozens of successful start up over the last five years. Mr. Cherian is now the CEO of the consultancy company Meta Results and meets with us every week helping us with our business plans and goals
Any Investment you are kind enough to give us will be repaid by December 31st 2009.
Social: Currently, our production needs are being met by a small enterprise in Krishnagiri which has applied for self help group status. The group consists of 20 rural tailors from the slum area in a village in Koramangala, Bangalore, who now earn a healthy income of Rs. 120 a day in excellent working conditions. They collectively own the machinery and property needed to engage in production and have been successful in escaping exploitation.
Environment: Plastic bag production consumes billions of tones of oil each year and the bags are non-biodegradable. On the other hand our eco bags are totally biodegradable, are made from renewable natural material with no carbon footprint and do not use bleach or any other chemicals.
Environmental Education and awareness: Every ecobag we sell has our website and environmental slogan printed on it along with a pamphlet containing practical steps to go green along with information and the contacts of our 6 partner NGOs. Every month we intend to run orientation sessions which are advertised on our websites. We will encourage members to contribute towards Ecoconfluence (in the form of membership and session fees) which will also increase our revenue. In this way we plan to spread awareness about our product and our ideas.
We are a very viable business with Social, Environmental, Educational and Youth factors. Please do no hesitiate to call:
Nishant Jacob -9880707846.
OR Agastya Muthanna – 9916654769 for more details.
Investment details:
You may invest in Ecoconfluence in one or more of these three ways:
1. Donation: The investment sum will not be returned
2. Returned Grant: The entire investment sum will be returned with no interest.
3. Loan with interest: The entire investment sum will be returned with a 5% p.a. return on investment.
We intend to run Ecoconfluence on a business model and are prepared to provide a return on investment. However, donations and returned grants will provide us with reduced financial pressures and flexibility in our early incubation stage.
Investment sum:
There are 6 investment brackets:
1. Rs 5,000
2. Rs 10,000
3. Rs 15,000
4. Rs 20,000
5. Rs 25,000
6. Rs 50,000
Application of funds:
We plan to use this initial investment to pay for the production of first 10,000 bags.
These bags will be sold at Mother Earth ( www.motherearth.co.in ) , Spar and tentatively Foodworld, Hum India, and Fab India.
There shall be a guaranteed return on investment as Mother Earth has agreed to buy excess stock.
Current Status
Production:
1. Cloth - Raw Material: acquired a supplier in erode who will provide
us with kora cloth 120 inches wide for 47rs a metre on which we can
fit four bags - per bag 11.75 rs, another supplier providing us with
cloth for 15 rs a metre and 18.5 rs a meter.
2. Printing - a screen printing team is ready to be dispatched to
krishnagiri to set up an inhouse screen printing unit which will halve
printing cost.
3. Labour cost - the new bag design is simplified allowing for the use
of an interlocking stitching machine which will reduce labour cost and
increase productivity.
4. Standee - The eco bag standee design has been finalised and the standee will be costed and 5 of them will be produced in the first run.
5. The design of the ecobag pamphlet is underway and printing should commence on teh 7th.
Financial:
1. An investment letter has been drafted and an investor list compiled.
Legal:
1. Ecoconfluence will apply for a VAT number and will be
incorporated as an unregistered partnership with its own bank account.
Team:
1. Christ college and bangalore academy of management have been
approached for a manifesto presentation.
Retailers:
1. Mother earth pays for 17 rs for paper bags and 30 rs for jute bags
so the ecobag market is ripe for us. Mother earth's bombay store will open on the 9th of August for which they require 500 bags.
2. Spar should be willing to negotiate with out greatly reduced costs.
1. Cloth - Raw Material: acquired a supplier in erode who will provide
us with kora cloth 120 inches wide for 47rs a metre on which we can
fit four bags - per bag 11.75 rs, another supplier providing us with
cloth for 15 rs a metre and 18.5 rs a meter.
2. Printing - a screen printing team is ready to be dispatched to
krishnagiri to set up an inhouse screen printing unit which will halve
printing cost.
3. Labour cost - the new bag design is simplified allowing for the use
of an interlocking stitching machine which will reduce labour cost and
increase productivity.
4. Standee - The eco bag standee design has been finalised and the standee will be costed and 5 of them will be produced in the first run.
5. The design of the ecobag pamphlet is underway and printing should commence on teh 7th.
Financial:
1. An investment letter has been drafted and an investor list compiled.
Legal:
1. Ecoconfluence will apply for a VAT number and will be
incorporated as an unregistered partnership with its own bank account.
Team:
1. Christ college and bangalore academy of management have been
approached for a manifesto presentation.
Retailers:
1. Mother earth pays for 17 rs for paper bags and 30 rs for jute bags
so the ecobag market is ripe for us. Mother earth's bombay store will open on the 9th of August for which they require 500 bags.
2. Spar should be willing to negotiate with out greatly reduced costs.
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
7 point action plan
1. Design and manufacture of upright bag display and VM system to be included in all stores where eco bags are sold.
VM system communicates three major points
– Self help group: social sustainability
– Kora cloth: environmental sustainability
– Easy to carry innovative pouch design.
2. Ecobag Brouchure:
- Info about the bag material, the self help group, ecoconfluence.
3. Eco-book / client presentations
- the eco-book can be used in a hardcopy and digital format to provide information about:
- the group ecoconfluence
- the self help group
- the eco bag
- the website portal
- our partners / clients
4. Website redesign – making it larger, adding new information and partners, enabling the link up between Bangalore NGO’s - the NGO web portal*.
5. Ecoconfluence getting incorporated so we can source directly from the self-help group
- Copyrighting the logo and name etc.
6. Meeting with new clients / shop chains with the digital eco-book presentation.
7. Ecoconfluence business cards.
* ngo web portal: the idea is that if a person even looks at en ecobag they become green. How does this work? Simple, the individual sees the www.ecoconfluence.com link on the bag, they navigate to the website and on the webiste their will be a ten point “going green” action plan linked to NGOs like daily dumpy, commute easy, sahas etc.
VM system communicates three major points
– Self help group: social sustainability
– Kora cloth: environmental sustainability
– Easy to carry innovative pouch design.
2. Ecobag Brouchure:
- Info about the bag material, the self help group, ecoconfluence.
3. Eco-book / client presentations
- the eco-book can be used in a hardcopy and digital format to provide information about:
- the group ecoconfluence
- the self help group
- the eco bag
- the website portal
- our partners / clients
4. Website redesign – making it larger, adding new information and partners, enabling the link up between Bangalore NGO’s - the NGO web portal*.
5. Ecoconfluence getting incorporated so we can source directly from the self-help group
- Copyrighting the logo and name etc.
6. Meeting with new clients / shop chains with the digital eco-book presentation.
7. Ecoconfluence business cards.
* ngo web portal: the idea is that if a person even looks at en ecobag they become green. How does this work? Simple, the individual sees the www.ecoconfluence.com link on the bag, they navigate to the website and on the webiste their will be a ten point “going green” action plan linked to NGOs like daily dumpy, commute easy, sahas etc.
Mother Earth
200 eco bags are currently available in the Mother Earth {www.motherearth.co.in} shop.
We are currently developing an upright bag display system and brochures for the bags so they are more visible.
The bags are priced at 49 rs
We are currently developing an upright bag display system and brochures for the bags so they are more visible.
The bags are priced at 49 rs
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