To learn more about our ☀︎🚶︎🏠︎ outdoors,identify your local trees and shrubs,using this 🏛 educational web app.
Executive Summary
1: Company Introduction 2: Market Analysis (Marketing and Sales) 3: Operations and Management 4: Financials 5: Business Model Canvas
Appendices: Elevator pitches Thank you!
TBD: We will write this section last.
To learn more about our ☀︎🚶︎🏠︎ outdoors,identify your local 🌳︎ trees and shrubs,using this 🏛 educational web app.
"Make 🏛 educational interactive 🆔︎ 🔍︎ identification tools for 🌱︎🚶︎ gardeners, landscapers, naturalists, educators, students, ⚜︎ scouts, citizen scientists and anyone who wants to learn more about the world around them."
🌱︎🚶︎ Gardeners, landscapers, naturalists, teachers, students, ⚜︎ scouts, citizen scientists and anyone who wants to learn more about the world around them.
🏛🛠 Educational tools to identify what you see outdoors, while learning how to do it on your own!
I Can See Nature pages have these sections:
Versus our 📚︎ paper-based competitors, ICSN is:
Versus our online competitors, with ICSN:
Versus all our competitors, ICSN is:
We will deliver this service over the web, 24/7/365.
ICSN is adding a 📲︎ mobile app, freeing it from 📶︎ Internet access, and ads.
I Can See Nature, LLC is a single-member LLC under the State of Michigan, ID=E7801U. [1] ID=802018334 It reports its income as a sole proprietorship, USA EIN=81-1545557.
Until we 👥︎ partner with someone (see Exit Strategy ).
ICSN was developed and founded by me, Eric Piehl, a 📱︎💻︎ computer geek, Master Naturalist and citizen scientist, with years of experience writing bulletproof industrial-quality computer systems, and enjoying people's yards and our public lands. Now turned agent of change, and environmental entrepreneur.
We wrote ICSN because we were dissatisfied with existing 🆔︎ 🔍︎ identification tools, envisioned a better way, and wanted to use it! Something 🏛 educational — something to make us better naturalists. And we found that many of our landscaper-gardener-naturalist friends wanted it, too!
We use agile software development techniques, with a Kanban approach rather than a scrum.
With our Static Website Generator SWG, we are very scalable.
We will add ability for customers to keep track of what they see.
We will also 👥︎ partner with other organizations, allowing direct reporting into citizen science sites, to help build their databases of species distribution and population trends (MISIN added in v1.0.0.3).
And a long list of other enhancements (see Static Website Generator section TODO+BugList), adding value for our customers.
TBD
Please see Business Model Canvas sections (1) Customer Segments and (2) Value Propositions.
Please see Static Website Generator section Sources (it also lists competitors).
Please see Business Model Canvas sections (2) Value Propositions, (3) Distribution Channels and (4) Customer Relationships .
None yet, as of 2016-02-23.
In 2016, we linked to relevant citizen science sites, such as MISIN.
Next year, we plan to form 👥︎ strategic partnerships with iNaturalist, i-Tree tools, National Geographic, Smithsonian, or other high-quality organizations.
Please see Business Model Canvas section (8) 🔑︎👥︎ Key Partners .
Please see Business Model Canvas section (5) Revenue Streams .
Please see Business Model Canvas section (4) Customer Relationships .
Please see Business Model Canvas sections (3) Distribution Channels and (4) Customer Relationships .
Eric Piehl, in consultation with Martha MacCleery, and rest of our Product Advisory Board.
Eric Piehl, with support as needed from his mother, and a CPA in Chicago.
None, as of 2016-02-04.
Eric Piehl .
Graphic artist Rachel Mockaitis, Rachel Kathleen Art & Design.
Please see Static Website Generator section Overview+ReleaseHistory. (Formerly known as Alpha Test Group.) (Could be called Board of Directors.)
Please see Static Website Generator section PublishTasksPeoplePlatforms.
Eric Piehl, in consultation with local technical communities.
Please see Business Model Canvas sections (5) Revenue Streams and (9) Cost Structure .
None, as of 2016-02-23.
Next year, form 👥︎ strategic partnerships with iNaturalist, i-Tree tools, National Geographic, Smithsonian, or other high-quality organizations. In two years, merge into this 👥︎ strategic partnership.
For full effect, view the video ↖ above or to left by selecting the video image, then icons YouTube (if present), ⏯︎ ⊠ Skip Ads (if present), ㏄ captions (if you wish), ⛶ fullscreen, and ▶︎ Play. Business Model Generation deep link
For whom are we creating value? 🌱︎🚶︎ Gardeners, landscapers, naturalists, 🏛 educators, students, ⚜︎ scouts, citizen scientists and anyone who wants to learn more about the world around them.
Customer Segment A: Landscapers, foresters, and other professionals. Will they pay? Market size? Are they growing? Yes. TBD. TBD.
Customer Segment B: 🌱︎🚶︎ Gardeners, naturalists, and citizen scientists. Will they pay? Market size? Are they growing? A little. 1 million in 🇺🇸 USA. Yes.
Customer Segment C: Students, ⚜︎ scouts, 🏛 educators, and homeschool parents. Will they pay? Market size? Are they growing? A little. 60 million in 🇺🇸 USA. Don't know.
Who will use our product most often? 🌱︎🚶︎ Gardeners.
Who is most severely impacted by the problem? Landscapers.
Who are our most important customers? Landscapers, 🌱︎🚶︎ gardeners and students.
Characteristics: Mass Market vs Niche Market vs Segmented Market vs Diversified (e.g., GE) vs Multi-sided Platform (e.g., 📰︎ newspapers). Niche Market, Segmented, Diversified.
Business Model Canvas
Customer Segment A: Landscapers, foresters, and other professionals. What value or service do we deliver to the customer? 1. Identify their plant. 2. 📧︎ Email themselves back at the 🏢︎ office, what they find at customer site out in the field. Free them from 📝︎ taking notes on paper, and risk losing before getting back to the 🏢︎ office, or confusing which customer to which it relates! 3. Easier to use than a 📚︎ stack of fieldbooks. 4. Not carrying around a 📚︎ stack of fieldbooks. 5. Native plants: learn native alternatives to cultivars , and where to acquire. 6. 👥︎ Community of like-minded people: Facebook page. 7. Later premium features for "That's it!" button ICSN0014: (A) Terms of Service ICSN0010.16, cookies, storage database of findings, (B) time-awareness (flowers out now), (C) location-awareness, (D) map everyone, (E) track and 🗺 map your sightings including photos you take, (F) track and 🗺 map your Facebook friends, (G) allow anonymized track and 🗺 map by the 👥︎ entire ICSN community.
Customer Segment B: 🌱︎🚶︎ Gardeners, naturalists, and citizen scientists. What value or service do we deliver to the customer? 1. Identify their plant. 2. Do so while helping them learn how to do it on their own. 3. Easier to use than a 📚︎ stack of fieldbooks. 4. Not carrying around a 📚︎ stack of fieldbooks. 5. Native plants: learn native alternatives to cultivars , and where to acquire. 6. 👥︎ Community of like-minded people: Facebook page. 7. Later premium features for "That's it!" button ICSN0014: (A) Terms of Service ICSN0010.16, cookies, storage database of findings, (B) time-awareness (flowers out now), (C) location-awareness, (D) map everyone, (E) track and 🗺 map your sightings including photos you take, (F) track and 🗺 map your Facebook friends, (G) allow anonymized track and 🗺 map by the 👥︎ entire ICSN community.
Customer Segment C: Students, ⚜︎ scouts, 🏛 educators, and homeschool parents. What value or service do we deliver to the customer? 1. Identify their plant. 2. Do so while helping them learn how to do it on their own. 3. Easier to use than a 📚︎ stack of fieldbooks. 4. Not having to buy and carry around a 📚︎ stack of fieldbooks. 5. 👥︎ Community of like-minded people: Facebook page. 6. Later premium features for "That's it!" button ICSN0014: (A) Terms of Service ICSN0010.16, cookies, storage database of findings, (B) time-awareness (flowers out now), (C) location-awareness, (D) map everyone, (E) track and 🗺 map your sightings including photos you take, (F) track and 🗺 map your Facebook friends, (G) allow anonymized track and 🗺 map by the 👥︎ entire ICSN community.
Which one of our customer problems are we solving? (The customer defines value, not me.) 1-5. Identify what I see ☀︎🚶︎🏠︎ outdoors. Learning to do it on my own. TBD.
What bundles of products and services are we offering to each customer? Same. But question buttons will be used mostly by newbies. TBD.
Which Customer needs are we satisfying? TBD.
Characteristics: Newness, Performance, Customization, Design, Brand/Status, Price, Cost Reduction, Risk Reduction, Accessibility, Convenience/Usability, "Getting the Job Done". TBD.
Which customer needs being satisfied are unique to our product, versus our competition? TBD.
Through which (3) Distribution Channels do our (1) Customer Segments want to be reached — customer touch points? Direct sales? Word of Mouth? Where to buy? How do we deliver? (1) Responsive web app on 📱︎ smartphone or ▯ tablet, or 💻︎ computer. (2) 📲︎ Downloadable mobile app on 📱︎ smartphone or ▯ tablet. (3) TBD.
How are we reaching them now? Web, 📧︎ email, Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), talks at 👥︎ local groups of interested people. TBD.
How are our (3) Distribution Channels integrated? TBD
Which (3) Distribution Channels work best? TBD
Which (3) Distribution Channels are most cost-efficient? TBD
How are we integrating our (3) Distribution Channels with customer routines (e.g., on way to work)? Landscapers probably have a 📱︎ smartphone with them while at clients sites or plant nurseries.
Channel Phases: 1. Awareness: How do we raise awareness about our company's products and services? TBD 2. Evaluation: How do we help customers evaluate our organization's Value Proposition? TBD 3. Purchase: How do we allow customers to purchase specific products and services? TBD 4. Delivery: How do we deliver a Value Proposition to customers? TBD 5. After sales: How do we provide post-purchase customer support? TBD
What type of Relationship does each of our (1) Customer Segments expect us to establish and maintain with them? TBD
Which Customer Relationships have we established? Talking before WORCC? TBD.
How do we maintain these Customer Relationships? Things not included in our product? Do we have any experiences to add? Contact tool? Brand story? TBD.
How are our Customer Relationships integrated with the rest of our Business Model? TBD
How costly are these Customer Relationships? TBD
Examples: Personal Assistance, Dedicated Personal Assistance (Concierge?), Communities, Self-Service, Automated Services, Co-creation? TBD
What are we selling exactly? Identification, and links to more resources. Eyeballs and clicks?
For what value are our customers really willing to pay? For a 📲︎ downloadable mobile app, US$5 or €5? For a responsive web app, free, but supported by ads, or by donations?
For what do they currently pay? US$7-25 or €6-22 per 📚︎ fieldbook.
How do they currently pay? Bookstore, presumably by cash or credit card.
How do they prefer to pay? TBD
How much does each Revenue Stream contribute to overall revenues? TBD. Ads + apps = total. Ads currently use Altervista Leaderboard 728X90px at bottom of page, earning randomly €c6 + Ac11 per click or €c0.034 + Ac0.043 per unique impression, by a unique IP address in 24 hours.
How can we scale this? Our Webserver is responsible for scaling their part. Our Static Website Generator SWG helps us scale the R&D part.
Think better than a 1:1 transaction. TBD.
Exit strategy? Exit Strategy .
Types: Asset sale, Usage fee, Subscription Fess, Lend/rent/lease, Licensing, Brokerage fees, Advertising, Fixed pricing (List price, Product-feature-dependent, Customer-segment-dependent, Volume-dependent), Dynamic pricing (Negotiation/bargaining, Yield Management, Real-time Market). Advertising. Later: Subscription. TBD.
What 🔑︎ Key Resources do our (2) Value Propositions require? 💻︎ Computer=EricPiehl2019, for details, see Static Website Generator section PublishTasksPeoplePlatforms.
What 🔑︎ Key Resources do our (3) Distribution Channels require? Webserver=Altervista.org, for details, see Static Website Generator section PublishTasksPeoplePlatforms.
What 🔑︎ Key Resources do our (4) Customer Relationships require? 💻︎ Computer=EricPiehl2019 and Gmail.
What 🔑︎ Key Resources do our (5) Revenue Streams require? Webserver=Altervista.org, for details, see Static Website Generator section PublishTasksPeoplePlatforms.
Types of 🔑︎ Key Resources: Physical, Intellectual (brand, patents, copyrights), Human, Financial. TBD
What 🔑︎ Key Activities do our (2) Value Propositions require? TBD
What 🔑︎ Key Activities do our (3) Distribution Channels require? TBD
What 🔑︎ Key Activities do our (4) Customer Relationships require? TBD
What 🔑︎ Key Activities do our (5) Revenue Streams require? TBD
Types of 🔑︎ Key Activities: Production, Problem Solving, Platform/Network. TBD
Also see our 👥︎ strategic partners.
Who are our 🔑︎ Key Suppliers? Webserver=Altervista.org, for details, see Static Website Generator section PublishTasksPeoplePlatforms.
Which (6) 🔑︎ Key Resources are we acquiring from our 👥︎ Partners? TBD
Which (7) 🔑︎ Key Activities do our 👥︎ Partners perform? TBD
Motivations for 👥︎ Partnerships: Optimization and Economy, Reduction of risk and uncertainty, Acquisition of particular resources and activities. TBD
What are the most important costs inherent in our business model? TBD
Which (6) 🔑︎ Key Resources are most expensive? TBD
Which (8) 🔑︎ Key Activities are most expensive? TBD
Is your business more: Cost-Driven (leanest cost structure, low-price value proposition, maximum automation, extensive outsourcing) vs Value-Driven (focused on value creation, premium value proposition). Value-Driven (focused on value creation, premium value proposition).
Think of Fixed Costs (salaries, rent, utilities), Variable Costs, Economies of Scale, and Economies of Scope. TBD
TBD? TBD
Appendixes include elevator pitches of duration 1 minute, or 5 minutes, or 11–20 minutes including a demonstration. (📄︎ Notes for me.) (Questions and answers.)
Hi, I am Eric Piehl (like a 🍌︎ banana), a 📱︎💻︎ computer geek who loves the ☀︎🚶︎🏠︎ outdoors.
I built an 🆔︎ 🔍︎ identification tool for 🌱︎🚶︎ gardeners, landscapers, naturalists, teachers, students, ⚜︎ scouts, citizen scientists and anyone who wants to learn more about our ☀︎🚶︎🏠︎ outdoors.
I call it "I Can See Nature!" .com! You can run it now! [cards]
ICSN runs on 📱︎ smartphones, ▯ tablets and 💻︎ computers.
ICSN is 🏛 educational, not at all like LeafSnap and others. [Demo.] After using the tool, you will know about:
For students and ⚜︎ scouts, we provide:
For 🌱︎🚶︎ gardeners and naturalists, we provide:
For landscapers and foresters, we provide:
So far, mostly 🌳︎🌲︎ trees, shrubs and invasives, east of the 🗻︎ Rocky Mountains, we will later add other plants. And 🐟︎ 🐢︎🐇︎ animal 🐾︎ tracks, 💩︎ scat and 🐝︎🐜︎🐛︎ bugs! And ⛰💎︎ rocks and minerals!
My name is Eric Piehl. I wrote iCanSeeNature.com. Please use it, and help make it great! Thank you! [Call for questions, distribute cards.]
It started when Marty was taking 🌱︎🚶︎ Master Gardener and Master Naturalist classes. Afterwards, Marty invited me to many of the "supplemental" classes, which I went to, because I like the ☀︎🚶︎🏠︎ outdoors, and need the exercise. And like to learn new things. And got to crawl through the woods or bogs. Fun!
One of these classes, in January 2010, was Naked Trees and Cold Feet by Prof Rob Keys of Cornerstone University, looking at trees outdoors in Michigan, in January! There, he and this booklet introduced me to the idea of 🔑︎ keying out trees, to identify them. And someone else there had this cool ❄ Winter Tree Finder booklet. And maybe a plain-old Tree Finder booklet. They looked cool, so I ordered them from Amazon, along with Weed Finder, and 🐟︎ 🐢︎🐇︎ 🐾︎ Animal Tracks and some others. They were so useful, I started carrying them in my 🎒︎ fieldpack. At another class, I got this cool Invasive Plants booklet from MNFI, and I added it, too. But when I got this Michigan Flora book, I had to say No.
By 2013, I found that all these 📚︎ fieldbooks used 🆔︎🔑︎ identification key systems that are single-access, unidirectional, dichotomous, and static. Being a 📱︎💻︎ computer geek, I envisioned that perhaps I could have something was multi-access, bidirectional, polytomous, and interactive. I'm not going to go into these terms now — if you want to talk about these, please see me later, and we'll talk one-on-one. Anyway, I envisioned a future that would be different — perhaps better. I looked around for it, but couldn't find it anywhere, so in 2015, I built it! For me, because I wanted it. And when I showed it to a few of you Master Naturalists, you said you wanted it, too! When I showed it to Dr Keys (who got me started on this whole thing), he said to keep going. You all told me to keep going! So I did, and here it is …
I call it "I Can See Nature!" .com! You can run it now! [Distribute cards.]
After reading about the importance of mobile, I built a tool that looks good on 📱︎ smartphones, ▯ tablets and 💻︎ computers. Of all manufacturers and operating systems: Android, iPhone, Windows Phone, iPad, Mac and PCs. It responds/​self-adapts to different-size platforms, window resizing, and orientations. For you 📱︎💻︎ computer geeks, I built it using agile development techniques!
Because I built it for you plant-nerds, ICSN is 🏛 educational, not at all like LeafSnap, GardenAnswers, Pl@ntNet and others. [Demo.] After using the tool, you will know about:
Because of these advantages, and because it is light and always with you (being on your 📱︎ phone), I hope users will find this tool to be more useful than that 📚︎ stack of fieldbooks in your 🎒︎ fieldpack. Not replace it per se. But perhaps useful enough for you to move your 📚︎ fieldbooks from your 🎒︎ fieldpack to your 🚗︎ vehicle. Or from your 🚗︎ vehicle to your 🏢︎ office.
To get it to run on all platforms, I built it a website (specifically, a responsive web app), requiring 📶︎ Internet access. I monetized it with ads. But we are adding a 📲︎ mobile app, freeing it from 📶︎ Internet access and ads. We will link to citizen science sites, and eventually 👥︎ partner with a larger organization.
ICSN currently covers 🌳︎🌲︎ trees, shrubs (terrestrial woody plants), and invasives, mainly east of the 🪨 Rocky Mountains. It will expand to other regions, to ☙ herbaceous plants, ♒︎ aquatic plants, ❀ flowers, 🍎︎🍇︎🌰︎🌾︎ fruit-berries-nuts-cones-seeds, 🐟︎ 🐢︎🐇︎ animal 🐾︎ tracks and 💩︎ scat, 🐝︎🐜︎🐛︎ insects (invertebrates), moss, 🍄︎ mushrooms, ⛰💎︎ rocks and minerals, and more. Because it does not yet have all that, I need you, my power-users, to tell me what to add to add next. Right now I stop at genus Viburnum. Do I need to expand on that to the species-level? Is there a selection page that is too complicated, and needs to be broken up? Do I need to add compass plants? Do I need to say that this plant is our state tree? I need you to tell me. I made it easy for you to do so — via the button on each page. Select it, and it opens an email, pre-addressed to me, also prefilled with the page name and version you are on. All you have to do is say, "Eric, tell me more about Viburnums." Or "Eric, break up this page — it is too hard." Or "Eric, this is our state tree!" And hit Send!
EP, geek outd. 🆔︎ 🔍︎ ID tool gard land teach. ICSN.com. Now [card], ph tab com. Edu ∼LS. St sc [Help]. Gard nat [solID Cntct LM]. Land fore [EYs Search]. Tree shr inv, ERock. Pla 🐾︎ 🍄︎ 💎︎. ICSN.com, pls use, hlp me great! ThkU! [card]
[Set NTCF WTF TF WWF FF 🐾︎ MNFI Flora ph cards idx*2 EWP.] EP, geek outd. 🆔︎ 🔍︎ ID tool gard land teach. M MG MN supp [NTCF WTF TF WWF FF 🐾︎ 🎒︎ MNFI Flora]. Fieldb ID: si-ac unid dic st, later. Fut: mu-ac bid pol int, lat. Look, no. Built ICSN.com. Now [cards], ph tab com. Andr iPh WP Mac PC, resiz orien. Pl-nerd Edu ∼LS. [Demo.] St sc [Help bro-con sim-com alt-opp-whl]. Gard nat [solID 3121 Cntct LM]. Land fore [EYs Search]. Lite always, useful. Web app, ad. Mob app, partn, cit sci. Tree shr inv, ERock. Rgn herb aqu flow fr-ber-n 🐾︎ moss 🍄︎ ⛰. ICSN.com, pls use, hlp me great! ThkU! [Q cards.]
Q1. What about invasive species?ICSN has 59 [116] pages on invasives, each with red text and a red button link to the proper page in the MNFI invasives booklet, and a link to a page on reporting sightings of these invasives. Ten [tbd] have a red button link to its MNFI MDNR BCP, and 11 [tbd] more to its Ontario BCP. Plus ICSN has lookalike warnings in several species, some of them linking to invasives.
Q2. What about native species?ICSN has 233 [294] pages that describes the plant's native range. I plan to add many more, as soon as practical. I also plan to add statements like "If you are in … and want to plant a similar but native plant, please consider …." And maybe link to where you can buy them. If you have a good sources for this information, please point me to this source!
Q3. How many plants do you cover?ICSN has 295 [370] pages = 240 [287] detail pages + 78 [tbd] selection-pages + 5 [tbd] overhead. Compared to Michigan Flora, ICSN has 240 [287] / 3800 plants = 6% [tbd%]. But of these ¾ [tbd%] are also in Michigan Flora, so 180 [tbd] / 3800 = 4.7% [tbd%], + 60 [tbd] not in Michigan Flora / 3800 = 1.5% [tbd%].
— Eric Piehl (he/him/his), Founder, CTO, 📱︎💻︎ computer geek/​Master Naturalist/​citizen scientist/​agent of change/​environmental entrepreneur. Resume LinkedIn Eric Piehl comments on … some of my other projects.
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