Part 3 - Expand
What comes after? A collection of ideas on how to build a sustainable empire
We have many ideas on how to expand by either opportunity or design, but these remain nothing more than ideas for the moment. It is ok to dream, but we should focus on completing levels 1 and 2 first. That being said, we know a few things for certain about level 3.
Our main goal is to become a flexible organization that adapts to new market realities faster than others. That means we will converge to a more sustainable business model faster than others. We plan to use all the principles as described in our non-negotiables section.
Our secondary goal is to use the knowledge gained by Flind and the feedback from Mr. Communability as a force multiplier for making the maritime industry sustainable. We can use these tools as stepping stones for future products, dashboards or services which we can fully commercialize. These ideas are collected in the list below.
Do you have better ideas, questions or comments? Let us know in the comments section below.
> 1 - Become a Maritime Authority - Knowledge Center - Data Analyst
We do not believe that knowledge is power at Mr. Sustainability. We believe applied knowledge is power. We can use the knowledge we have gained in parts 1 and 2 of our plan and commercialize this for certain clients. We could either provide services for large energy majors, or continue to focus on vessel owners by selling them information to improve their own business proposals. We would be emulating the likes of DNV, Lloyd’s, Wartsilla or Global Data. These are leaders of providing data, insights and analytics. Our difference would be that our commercial model would be different. Though Global Data already makes use of a subscription model, most maritime partners simply do consultancy tasks and exchange time for money. Our focus would be on providing actionable insights to decarbonize your vessel for example. Can you think of better ways? Let us know below.
Value Hypothesis - Provide money/insight for organization
Mr. Sustainability 3.0 - Leading provider of data, insights, and analytics
Subscription to online platform made by specialists
> 2 - “Easy MRV” - Digital MRV & DCS Reporting
No shipowner likes to do administration. Especially not concerning management of CO2 taxes. With the upcoming incorporation of the shipping industry into the EU ETS system, this will become a problem for many shipowners. We can take care of all their worries. We can do all their CO2 administration and make sure that they are not concerned or bothered about anything, for a small fee of course. This would give us the opportunity to build upon Flind and use the information to point to shipowners where they can decarbonize. Again, we would not be doing something very different than what is already happening in the marketplace. We would simply create a different market model, more towards ‘Netflix’ models of subscription or freemium use models.
Value Hypothesis: Reduce time/money cost of administration for vessels incorporated in EU ETS or IMO DCS/EU MRV
Build Flind 2.0 and “ontzorg scheepseigenaren”
DNV - Digital MRV and DCS reporting (with Flind 2.0)
> 3 - CO2 Marketplace
With the upcoming incorporation of the shipping industry into the EU ETS system, carbon becomes a commodity that shipowners have to trade in order to maintain their license to operate. Similar to the “Easy MRV” idea, we can help them. Instead however, we can focus on the marketplace and the trading, not the interface towards the vessel owner. Such marketplaces already exist but are generally speaking quite cumbersome to work with and have a high threshold to log into. We would simply make a “Bol.com” version of existing marketplaces like the Carbon Trade Exchange.
Value Hypothesis: Reduce time/money cost of administration for vessels incorporated in EU ETS
- CO2 prices in EU ETS system are expected to increase significantly - marketplaces for shipowners will have to be realized
> 4 - Vessel Insights - Flind 2.0 (Moby)
Taking Kongsberg as an inspiration, we could build a Flind 2.0 that helps vessels decarbonize and make informed decisions. Kongsberg already provides a lot: their solution provides instant and easy access to fleet overview, vessel specific dashboards and data analysis tools. In addition, through Kognifai Marketplace, customers have access to a large range of applications and services that can turn their data into business value. The focus of this product would be to further enhance fuel consumption usage, and not focus on reducing administration burdens as described above.
Value Hypothesis - Reduce fuel consumption
Build Flind 2.0 - Moby - and focus on ways to reduce fuel consumption
DNV - Taking thoughtful decisions combining ship position and weather data
- Kongsberg - Vessel Insight
> 5 - Marine Traffic 2.0 - Vessel Data Logging
We could emulate MarineTraffic, but simultaneously incorporate improved communcation/internet on board of vessels. We could provide Starlink subscriptions to vessels, coupled with a Raspberry PI tracker to send back data about the vessels. Such a tracking system would most likely be needed anyway to ensure we have all the data from our vessels to make Flind (2.0).
Value Hypothesis - Provide money/insight for organization
We could expand upon Flind and create a database in which fuel consumption and aggregated vessel data per class can be called upon using a commercial API
> 6 - Sim-Vessel - Engineering and Cost Estimating Tool
Alternatively we could focus on providing engineering solutions, for example a vessel simulator for making sustainable vessels.This would be a SimCity like game to design, model, retrofit and create sustainable vessels.
Value Hypothesis - Reduce time/money for vessel creation, design but also in operations
Que$tor - Cost Estimation Software
- Simcity or Sims Building Simulator
> 7 - Provide Energy Mortgages - Netflix for Energy
Instead of focussing on products, we could simply become an intermediary for financing. We could focus on financing certain sustainable retrofits for vessels, for example financing shore power or installation of batteries. This would in effect be the implementation of a “Pay after Use” model, in which CAPEX investments for a clients are transformed into OPEX. This would be ideal for cash flow reasons and would be greatly benefitted considering we have multiple tools, a platform and community on which we can acquire feedback and customers.
Value Hypothesis - Reduce CAPEX investments for clients
We could provide ‘fuel’ for vessels. In effect, we would be asking a fixed amount of money per month and become responsible for a vessel’s fuel consumption. With the acquired knowledge on our platforms, we can easily decide if this is worth it for a vessel. If this is scalable, it would be ideally suited to create a cash-flow rich business.
We could provide easy to use batteries for peoples’ homes, provide energy independence with an energy lottery
> 8 - Alternative Ideas and Market Pivots
Transform Mr. Sustainability into a “Mr. Innovation”. Become the innovation department for companies who do not have one and focus on idea generation, lifting an idea from TRL 0 to 3 within a week.
Pivot Mr. Sustainability to other markets, other than the maritime industry. First, any ‘conservative market with long-term assets’ would suffice, as these have strong similarities to the maritime industry. Perhaps other industries or markets could follow.
Create a “black swan investment fund” to ensure passive income for employees and have them do whatever innovative thing it is they want. A great article on this is described on Forbes - How a goat farmer built a doomsday machine that just booked a 4,144% return.