 Green-WiFi.org Newsletter - October 2006 by Marc Pomerleau |
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Greetings
again from Green WiFi.
With the wind at our backs after the Humaninet event, we entered October looking forward to showcasing our prototype at Google Zeitgeist 2006 at first week in October. What an event. Google has unrivaled gravity when it comes to putting out the call to the who's-who list and having them all show. Over 400 heavy hitters from all over the globe converged on Google's headquarters' to hear from the likes of Colin Powell, her majesty Queen Noor of Jordan, Al Gore, Michael Dell, Sergey and Larry, and CEOs from Motorola, Time Warner, and many more. So what were we doing there? Green WiFi was one of only 22 companies selected by Google for "innovative technology making an impact today" to showcase. We were in phenomenal company; everything from video games that react to brainwaves, 4 different electric car companies, robots modeled off cockroaches and lizards and a myriad of cool devices were on display. We received a lot of interest from Googlers and guests but a few encounters stood out for us. Bruce found himself in the cappuccino line with Al Gore, gave him the 60 second pitch and 5 hours later when Al was on stage addressing the issues of climate change and the role of technology in saving the planet and helping people he said: “I just met these guys doing solar powered WiFi and that is an example of exactly the kind of thing we should be doing more of for the developing world.” Later that day, the "grandfather" of the Internet and Google evangelist, Vinton Cerf came by our booth and asked about units, saying: "You guys may have just what I need for a side project I have putting Internet cafes in developing areas.." later he sent us an email with a quote we will shamelessly exploit: "Solar powered WiFi is an idea whose time has come for parts of the world that have unreliable or no power available...The Green WiFi organization has a very useful product aimed at serving locales that need self-contained power." Since the Google event we have been busy stress testing our business plan with a great team of advisers from the VC and business community. Bruce is in South Africa at the time of this writing meeting with African telcos interested in our "SoFis" and we will meet up in Dharamsala for the Air Jaldi Summit 2006, Air Jaldi conference next week for what promises to be an exciting and educational conference. Once state-side November 1, we will be looking for that special angel who shares our vision and plan for what we can contribute to helping connect the unconnected. If you know a likely investor candidate we would like to talk to them. Waves of good karma and our heartfelt thanks will follow. Warmest Regards, Marc Pomerleau |