Deployment Strategy and Major Milestones

 After forming the team, the first major step will be to establish the viability of our business. It is crucial to take the time to provide proof-of-concept to isolate technical issues and define overall direction. This will be done through several focus groups where will we provide a pilot Warrant-e application to participants to gather their feedback. Sequencing these focus groups will enable us to modify the application over time and therefore test adapted versions. Once this is done we will be able to fully dive into the business development.

There will be several key steps in implementing Warrant-e, notably : finding a suitable developer/UX designer, uniting a community around fighting planned obsolescence, securing a server to treat collected data, call on business angels (to help finance and also open network for partnership prospection), set up data offer (analysed or raw data packages sold) establish partnerships with key companies, launching the application on different operating systems (App store) and maintaining the application.

The team strongly believes that communication needs to precede the launch of the application. For it to be a success, we need to unite a strongly committed community that will become the early adopters of Warrant-e. To do so it is important to use social media but we can also seek the sponsorship of recognised businesses that deal with the problem of sustainability such as Yuka or Too Good To Go. We should also look to be present at major events or conferences that discuss sustainable development goals for visibility but also because it aligns with our values and mission statement.

 

Return on Investment Analysis

Being a digital start-up that doesn’t manufacture goods, Warrant-e will have relatively low initial costs. However there will be important costs tied to the development of the application. Notably cost of wages for : a developer/UX designer, a data analyst, a communication manager, a partnership manager, an accountant and a lawyer. In addition, there will be costs of charges which include : initial rent of a server in order to reduce the costs of maintenance and security (if the app works we can buy one in the long run), purchasing references in the Appstore and Android market, office space rent and purchase of brand name and domain name. There will also be marketing costs linked to communication campaigns.

As mentioned earlier, Warrant-e is not a nonprofit business. To be profitable, we will sell our collected data to firms (either raw or analyzed by a data scientist). We will also offer affiliate links for the purchase of sustainable products.

To justify the business, the team has established a provisional financial analysis covering the first 3 years of operation. Please refer to the appendix to view the costs breakdown and revenues breakdown. Upon this work we believe that Warrant-e will reach financial equilibrium 2,5 years after its launch.