Hardware vs. Software: Lify Air chooses a Mixed Model?
The value ? The data!
Hardware vs Software ? Our services will be based on data, and we need a way to obtain data in sufficient quantity and quality : That is not currently the case for pollen. Thus, we need a sensor that can be deployed in a proximity and high density network. All right ! We just created it, and it’s a world first to be able to discriminate pollens in real time for such a low cost and with a sensor size more than reasonable!
A sensor network: Expenditure or investment?
It is obvious that a startup is not financially strong enough to deploy a proprietary network of several thousand sensors. So we need to find a way to deploy the network based on partnerships.
The goal is therefore to deploy the hardware with support from local governments… Ideally, a leasing approach would be interesting, combining the allocation of the investment expenditures for the purchaser, and the ownership of the property for Lify Air. But direct purchase options with exclusive exploitation of the data, or long-term rental, can be envisaged.
Moreover, this will be a barrier to entry for potential competitors: once the local governments have deployed a network, they will not change the next day!
The service layer, provided in SaaS
And when we have the data, this is where the game starts, with SaaS offers … And the SaaS mode is great … We maintain and implement our solutions once, and we scale the solutions exploiting the different datas provided by the various sensors…
The possibilities are then infinite for the design of new services: real-time mapping of pollens presence in the air, work on prediction, specific approaches for territories according to their typologies, personalized predictions according to the symptoms of allergies, etc… And every time a new tool is developed, it can be deployed to all customers, anywhere in the world, from our office!
And if we talked business ...
But even from the business point of view, it’s rather interesting. The possibility to scale is obvious. The recurrence of the sales based on subscription systems too. The churn is overpowered thanks to medium-term commitments, and especially thanks to the cost that is committed to develop the hardware, and that will slow down the exit of customers, who will not carry an investment for a single year …
Yes, definitely, the combination hard + soft offers many advantages!
