What is the payback period?
We believe the cash-on-cash payback period is between two and three years, and that's based only on power improvement. That doesn't include any incremental benefit through reduced wear and tear and increased life of the turbine.
How many units will you have to sell to become cash-flow positive?
We've told our investors that we need to sell approximately 200 to 250 units to be working-capital neutral.
What's to stop turbine manufacturers from making their own laser wind sensor?
We've got many years of testing, engineering, and intellectual property around this technology. We have 27 patents today. About half of those have been granted, and the rest are pending. This product came from the aerospace industry. Optical Air Data Systems has been pioneering these laser-based technologies since 1990; a lot of money, $70 million, has been put into their development. It would be very time-consuming and expensive for someone to develop something that can compete with us.
What kind of background does the CFO of a clean-tech start-up have?
Since 2000, I have been with a variety of what I would call emerging growth companies — most of them public, with either disruptive technologies or disruptive strategies. But prior to that, I guess you could describe me as a classically trained financial executive, with a CPA and MBA. I began my career with KPMG. I spent about 10 years with Marriott Corp., in a variety of senior finance leadership roles. Some of those roles were entrepreneurial in nature.
Could you see an OEM making you an acquisition offer that you couldn't refuse?
Who knows? I can't speculate on that, but it would depend on many, many factors and variables.
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