Project Sangreal Startup Costs
The next page contains a numerical model Communicating the startup costs associated with this type of project. We found that funding the project using the personal resources of the individual technical contributors was the easiest way to get the project rolling.
In our opinion and that of our mentors who are investment bankers, the best approach is to fund the project yourself without assistance from a financial institution or grant. Use the revenue stream from your own project to support the project financially.
Someone once taught me to call this a ROM estimate (Rough Order of Magnitude). Actually, I have been collecting metrics since 1994 and this numerical model is much better than what is usually called a ROM estimate.
By funding and supporting the project yourselves, you have no one to report to and no one to dictate the course of action that seems appropriate from day to day. Maximum independence and flexibility are achieved by this approach. You can move like a "Hummingbird" in any direction you need to go.
In the numerical model, you see the startup Team of consisting of four advisory level engineers who have the education, experience and desire to successfully handle the technical, political, financial and interpersonal challenges of this type of project. Hard working self-starters who need little or no direction.
Four really talented men and women who can get the Community working with them as a cross-functional Team.
In general, you provide five Internet workstations at the public school and five Internet workstations at the public library along with a tutor at each facility. This is your seed program that starts educating the entire Community.
You also have an Internet Server in the form of a symetrical multiproccesor on the Qwest Communications raised floor computer facility in Denver with a 100Mbs connection to the Internet backbone. This Server is your Knowledge Base and general Internet gateway for the Community.
You also provide the neccessary tools and salaries to support four engineers who work from home offices physically in the Community.
This is the startup strategy in a nutshell without trying to Teach you via this roadmap what an advisory level engineer already knows from education and experience.
I never said these projects were easy...