EcoTech Visions

Select one of the below:

Describe what makes your solution innovative.

EcoTech Visions is the culmination of my research put into practice.

I chose Peter Drucker School of Management based on the experience I had meeting Mr. Drucker and studying his work as an undergraduate student. ETV is also the outcome of my research and studies under Simon Johnson at MIT and aligns with his new book Jump Starting America (2019) which argues innovations hubs are the only way to secure economic prosperity and environmental awareness for America and the world.  ETV is an effective profitable business case for developing innovation hubs focused on growth and high-yield production.

We believe design leads so when you visit ETV offices, you will:

• Be greeted by 23 murals, all AR coded and designed to connect buyers and visitor directly to the products to stem climate change through the market 
• Be able to attend a bimonthly event Artisans in the Gardens that connects entrepreneurs directly to procurement offices and retail buyers to support market saturation of our products 
• See desks, conference rooms and event spaces, a restaurant and four lab spaces where entrepreneurs are, for example, building: electric bike prototypes, Aeroponic systems, or AI sensors 
• See a computer lab where community members of all ages are being instructed on AI, AR and Blockchain code 
• Notice the offices and personnel of Intouch Logistic, our inhouse trucking and logistics company who distributes to the ports and rail-lines

ETV is a vibrant Think Tank/Do Tank for R&D, mass production, and distribution. 

Describe the core technology that your solution utilizes.

ETV has four labs all focused on product development and distribution.  Labs and products require technology to operate.  One example is the Greentech Lab which includes 3D printing for prototyping and Injection molding and robotic packaging for mass production.  All equipment is also outfitted with sensors for energy use and data collection. Our physical space is matched by our digital marketplace platform that allows our start-up businesses to market and develop SAAS revenue streams while stores all energy consumption, product creation, and user experience data for supply chain efficacy and future product development. Working with FIU RDF, ETV hopes to expand the advanced technology available to start-up businesses at ETV. 

Please select the technologies currently used in your solution:

• Artificial Intelligence
• Machine Learning
• Blockchain
• Big Data
• Virtual Reality/Augmented Reality
• Internet of Things

Why do you expect your solution to address the problem?

We house 26 start-ups-- All circular economy opportunities. One Example:  Earthware is a compostable cutlery product. Our resin is being developed from waste stock of sugar, corn and potato to complete the supply chain as we expand.  In America, we currently discard over 50% of our yield due to blemishing or frostbite. In Florida, this waste stock has been linked directly to red tide which killing millions of fish annually and pollutes our fresh drinking water for months. 

Instead of allowing waste stock to threaten the environment, Earthware is using waste crop in a manufacturing process where it becomes a green consumer cutlery product. These products once produced and used-- degrade in 90-100 days unlike plastic disposable products that take between 200-300 years to degrade, if at all. This solution and lab have endless applications and benefit to the world; however, it can only exist due to our business model of co-sharing equipment-- like the co-work models. The introduction of technology to network locations allows our entrepreneurs to secure business-to-business contracts at a 20-30% cost saving to insure market saturation. Just as the cost of renewable energy has decreased over the past decade, at scale our model will insure locally sourced product hit and saturate the market.  Consumers want better green products that are regionally sourced and locally available.  ETV provides a streamlined framework for manufacturing of such products that are to locally access within the context of high-quality walkable communities (a better circular recycle-to-market process).

Select the key characteristics of the population your solution serves.

• Low-Income
• Middle-Income
• Minorities/Previously Excluded Populations

In which countries do you currently operate?

• United States

In which countries will you be operating within the next year?

• United States

How many people are you currently serving with your solution? How many will you be serving in one year? How about in five years?

Currently service 26 start-up business founder though our space which sees about 300 visitors weekly about 16,000 annually.

In the next five years, we will have spawned over 20 facilities; at capacity we expect to serve 300,000 to 500,000 entrepreneurs. This will bring us closer to our goals aligned with the SDG’s to drive innovation that saturate energy markets, consumer product markets, and other markets within the context of a circular economy model. ETV will aid in seeding the innovation that leads to a clear path for the future with sustainable food and water supplies and the manufactured goods for daily modern life in the context of an advanced human society, a sustainable natural world, and a diverse ecosystem.

What are your goals within the next year and within the next five years?

By 2020, we plan to open two new facilities, five additional by 2021 and over 20 by 2023.  Our growth model is designed to fit with the well researched 102 potential innovation hubs identified by Simon Johnson in Jump Starting America.

Each facility will house our four labs and attract regional entrepreneurs to prototype create, launch and scale new business-to-business start-ups. In the next five year we will have spawned the innovation to saturate energy markets, consumer product markets, and other markets within the context of a circular economy model and aided in seeding the innovation that leads to a clear path for the future with sustainable food and water supplies and the manufactured goods for daily modern life in the context of: an advanced human society; a sustainable natural world; and, diverse ecosystems.

What are the barriers that currently exist for you to accomplish your goals for the next year and for the next five years?

We are raising $5 million in capital for expansion in 2020 and ETV will need additional funds to expand for the years thereafter. ETV are currently 50% prescribed for our 2020 raise.  Funding is always a barrier and this model requires a public/private partnership to work.

Regional supply chain expertise will be critical for us and for our companies to scale.  We are looking to grow our advisory board with a specific focus on distribution efficiencies which is one of the reasons why a MIT Solve 2019 Global Challenge award, and the larger network that can thereafter be provided, will be critical.

Cultural and market barriers do exist with the investment community as we work to scale the businesses we house to the hundreds of locations in America and elsewhere.

Huntsville, Alabama has been an engineering and innovation hub since the 1930, hence Boeing and many other aerospace brands have their hubs there. The investment community spends 60-70% of their dollars in the same few hubs; repeatedly investing in the same locations. Pushing money to see this opportunity on the other locations will be a challenge at first as we grow our credibility and expand into new markets.

How are you planning to overcome these barriers?

MIT Solve 2019 Global Challenge support will help with increasing our overall credibility and exposure.  

We are also shifting our raise focus to both cash and coin accredited investor which opens our product to a larger and younger audience.  In the past year, I have had the honor of meeting many millennial millionaires who want a return, want to do good, and are investing with crypto.  We have support two local companies through successful ICO and are excited for this new funding model to support our growth and the growth of our startups.  

As a unique value proposition, EcoTech Vision will suggest is the capacity to produce goods for a modern sustainable communities using only regional resources and raw materials in a circular economy that might eventually need to rely on other forms of compensation to motivate both customer and maker directly engaged in the market of modern life in the 22nd century. See https://shop.ecotechvisions.app 

https://www.ecotechvisions.com

https://shop.ecotechvisions.app

If you have additional video, provide a YouTube or Vimeo link to your video here:

Select an option below:

If you selected Other, please explain here.

N/A

How many people work on your solution team?

3 full time

3 part time

4 contractors

For how many years have you been working on your solution?

4

Why are you and your team best-placed to deliver this solution?

The personnel and affiliated companies working at ETV work well together, have great communication, and a tireless work ethic. They are individually and collectively very imaginative and resourceful.  We are passionate about the mission to create jobs, sustain communities, and protect the life on the planet.  We also understand the regions we are entering and are willing to take risks; when there are setbacks caused by our own mistakes and those of others or simply due to bad breaks that will inevitably occur, we have the skills and full intent to recover.

With what organizations are you currently partnering, if any? How are you working with them?

Cleantech Open, Florida International University, University of Miami, Sustainatopia, MIT Venture Mentoring Service, Incubate Energy, City of Miami Gardens, Miami Dade County, Hacker Dojo, Venture Cafe, CIC, Lab Miami, Aminta Ventures, Venture City, and several other coworking spaces.  We share events, potential customer leads.  In most cases we have MOU or LOI's to formalize training partnerships.

What is your business model?

Our mission is to develop the facilities at a global scale for the leading brands who make quality green products for smart cities.  Currently our 52,000 square foot headquarters, located in Miami, Florida houses 26 start-up businesses. By 2020, we plan to open five new facilities in Southeast and Midwestern America. 

Keeping that overarching goal in mind, ETV will strive to achieve the following goals and objectives within the first five years of operation:

• Achieve 1 million members in our virtual community to drive value and adoption for our market place.
• Broaden and diversify the base of entrepreneurs; this includes introducing career paths in engineering and entrepreneurship.
• Increase the number of technicians trained and employed in injection molding, solar technology, wind technology, robotics and digital fabrication techniques and technologies. composting and other innovations necessary to grow green manufacturing.
• Become the first choice for entrepreneurs to start up their manufacturing businesses and for investors looking to investment opportunities in innovative and competitive products.
• Generate living wage-manufacturing jobs in low-income neighborhoods within the investor-ready companies annually.

We have three revenue generating platforms currently deployed with potential for additional profit as we scale: space rental; virtual community and on-demand market place; and, equipment rental.  We also invest in exchange for equity in some of the start-up businesses housed at ETV which will generate future revenues for our investors.

What is your path to financial sustainability?

With MMR at 25-30K, ETV is already revenue positive.

• According to SBA.org there are approximately 600,000 new businesses created each year in the United States.
• There are just over 32 million total businesses in the United States. Three-quarters of these businesses have no employees and consist of only the owner.
• Of the 5,679,967 businesses categorized in the statistics on the SBA website (as of 2007), approximately 287,654 of them were categorized as "Manufacturing" (approximately 5.06% of total U.S. businesses).  
• ETV is currently cash flow positive only with one of the 3 revenue streams in place (i.e., space rental).  We are just now in 2019 growing our coworking Market share and equipment rental revenue streams which will give us and our investors exponential returns.

Why are you applying to Solve?

1. We are growing rapidly thus access to the latest research and the world’s best minds are imperative for our success. Mentorship and challenging our assumptions to import our product are some of the most important reasons for this application to Solve.  

2. ETV is also seeking legitimacy in the marketplace for ourselves and our start-up businesses.  Solve and MIT will assist in this important goal.  

3. Finally as our success increases access to platforms to share the work is critical.  As laid out by many scholars, Climate Change, sea level rise, and many other related impacts are global urgent issues that will significant effect the habitable conditions of South Florida and many other places in the United States.  When we prove this solution can scale, access to markets through speaking opportunities will be of great value to at risk communities as they seek to adapt and migrate.

What types of connections and partnerships would be most catalytic for your solution?

• Technology
• Distribution
• Funding and revenue model
• Monitoring and evaluation
• Media and speaking opportunities

If you selected Other, please explain here.

n/a

With what organizations would you like to partner, and how would you like to partner with them?

NASA: Tech Transfer

Media Lab: Digital Currency initiative Licensing technology

MIT Fab Lab

Energy department: Solar and renewable tech information

Supply Chain Management:  Advisors and source team members for ETV and our startups.

Aerospace:  Tech Transfer and program design

If you would like to apply for the AI Innovations Prize, describe how you and your team will utilize the prize to advance your solution. If you are not already using AI in your solution, explain why it is necessary for your solution to be successful and how you plan to incorporate it.

AI is a critical part of our data warehouse model.  All equipment will be equipped with AI sensors to insure rapid development and iteration. 

One example of an initiative where ETV led efforts with Florida International University, Miami-Dade College, and others was the 2019 ClimateChampions (C2) Hackathon. This event developed ideas and initial conceptualizations/designs for games that would broadly educate game players on climate science and behaviors that need to change to avoid the significant long term consequences of a changing climate, The 2019 C2 Hackathon and ETV follow-up efforts with FIU and Sustainatopia hope to secure funds for a genre of C2 Games development. We are helping to develop six climate games to be AI enabled, with the goal of addressing climate change through game play, induced changes in human behavior, and tools to help change public policy through the exercise of the rights to free speech, assembly, and petitioning governments for the redress of grievances. The developer of this genre of C2 games are to be housed at ETV and will ac academic and modeling support from FIU the University of Maryland.  

To accomplish these goals, we will also be teaching AI and Blockchain code to insure we have developed the human capital to support the scaling of our startups.

If you would like to apply for the GM Prize on Circular Economy, describe how you and your team will utilize the prize to advance your solution.

ETV facilities will all be net zero waste and GHG emissions and serve as models for retrofitting circular economy communities.  Zero waste and zero GHG are our expressed facility design and operations. 

Our programs and trainings facilitate work force and community development through STEAM education for AR, AI, Blockchain, Design, IOT coding and manufacturing techniques. Our business model of advance manufacturing through AI Robotic supports entrepreneurs in 3 main ways:

1. Eliminate the need to raise funds to cover cost of equipment.

2. Access to co-shared machinery and Robotic production lines to reduce time, cost and training for entrepreneurs.

3. As ETV replicates throughout the Southeast and Midwest areas of the United States, our members will decrease their shipping expenses by up to 90% using local manufacturing processes and regional access to necessary raw materials.

If you would like to apply for the Innovation for Women Prize, describe how you and your team will utilize the prize to advance your solution.

Of our current 26 start-up businesses, 57% are women founded. Our lead engineer is a woman. I am the ETV founder and I am a woman. In our growth plans, the lead for Dallas and Chicago are both women.  Best practice demands we promote who is best for the job and as a woman myself I have had the privilege of meeting and working with some amazing women.  Women and girls need access to technical training and access to engineers and role models. ETV provided both those solutions. Whether it is through our programs generally or our focused efforts to recruit women and girls to work with founders who serve and role models, ETV believes and #BlackGirlMagic and #womenrock.

Confident men are welcome at ETV as well.

If you would like to apply for the Innospark Ventures Prize, describe how you and your team will utilize the prize to advance your solution. If your solution utilizes data, describe how you will ensure that the data is sourced, maintained, and used ethically and responsibly.

We have built a solution for a green economy marketplace that provides products for consumers and businesses where we allow them to purchase and experience green products using an on-demand platform. We source the data directly from consumers and businesses who use the platform and provide insights on rich sources of data governed by our ECOTECH Protocol that provides AI driven insights through blockchain and real time pattern recognition. We are maintaining the data through immutable records on the Ethereum blockchain to share transparency and provenance in our supply chain from vendor to POS to deliverable good/service pipeline.