By
Jake Balmer
Southampton
I'm looking to raise £600 in order to start developing my e-reader product. This e-reader will allow university students to store and access all of their academic text books and journals onto the device at no extra cost. This will also allow students, for the first time, to carry all of their university material around with them in a portable, lightweight device. This gives the added benefit of being able to read the text without a WI-FI connection, which allows students to access everything they need wherever they want.
My name is Jake Balmer and I am about to start my 3rd year studying Sport Studies and Business at Southampton Solent University. Like the majority of university students one thing I have had to get used to is using multiple books and journals sources in every assignment. However this comes with the added inconvenience of having to carry heavy books everywhere and needing a WI-FI connection to access the journals. Consequently our product will remove the burden of these activities by allowing you to store all of your academic material in one portable place. This content can then be accessed anywhere in the world without a WI-FI connection as it is stored on to the device itself. This gives students the freedom to revise wherever and whenever is convenient to them.
The creation of this device will look and feel like a normal e-reader but with the adaptations provided that will make it unique. We will licence the products, on mass, to individual universities who will then provide their students with the product. This will be at no cost to the students. Each university will then be providing their students with an incredible all in one product that they can store and access all of their academic content on. As a consequence of this your investment will be critical in making the lives of future students easier.
Once we hit our minimum crowd funding target we are going to spend the money we raise in a few ways.
Our first goal is to try and create more of a brand that the company can operate under. This shall involve creating a logo, business cards and an email domain name. This shall also allow us to represent the company in the most professional way possible to potential partners.
Secondly, we are looking to spend a large proportion of the money on meeting with potential partners for the business. These will be a variety of people such as, publishers, lawyers, manufacturers and universities.This is so that we can explore the opportunities of working with publishers of content and protecting the idea with intellectual propriety lawyers. In addition to this we hope to use the funding to meet with potential manufacturers of the product and also meet with universities to see if they would be interested in the product being used by their students.
Thirdly, we are looking to protect the idea as soon as possible. This will be done through obtaining a patent which we will do in-conjunction with intellectual property lawyers. They will advise us on how best to proceed with this process before we eventually submit a patent application.
If we are to raise more than our target we will invest part of the funding in the early stages of researching and designing the product itself.
Expenditure breakdown:
Creating a logo- £20
Business cards- £10-£25
Email domain- £10
Travel costs- £220
Patent meetings- £250
Phone/ internet- £60
Stationary- £30
If you are to invest in our vision your contribution will forever be appreciated in the formation of the company. Depending on how much you are to invest we shall take time to reward you for your contribution. This is because we want you to feel valued as a partner with us. So do have a look at the great rewards listed on this page.
We need as many people as possible to be talking about our project so feel free to share this page with anybody you think might be interested in our idea!! A share from you means just as much as a donation and if you really feel passionate about our idea please sponsor us so we can bring our dream to life. Thank you!
Select this reward if you just want to donate to the project without receiving a reward.
1 claimed
A social media thank you from my personal account on either Twitter or Facebook thanking you for your contribution.
0 claimed
Estimated delivery: 1 November 2016
A personal video thanking you for your contribution to the business plan and updating you on the progress we've made as a company.
0 claimed
Estimated delivery: 1 November 2016
A personal phone call from the CEO of the company thanking you for your contribution and discussing the vision of the project.
0 claimed
Estimated delivery: 1 November 2016
A personal phone call and letter from the CEO of the company thanking you for your contribution and discussing the vision of the project.
0 claimed
Estimated delivery: 1 November 2016
Please come along and be part of the design process of the product for an afternoon. Be invited to see how manufacturing the product is going and meet the team behind it in person.
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Estimated delivery: 1 November 2017
Be invited to be part of an exclusive group of people testing our first prototype product. This will allow you to meet our team of developers and give your thoughts on the product itself as well as the direction we are taking.
1 claimed of 5
Estimated delivery: 1 December 2017