Company Name

RJMM Technologies

Long-Term Vision Statement

The goal of RJMM Technologies is to alleviate the problems created by the commercial transportation and delivery industry using autonomous drone technology. For years, trucks and cars have been the most economical and efficient way of delivery, but they have their problems. For one, traditional delivery vehicles, like trucks and cars, pose a risk to public safety. According to Gordon McKernan Injury Attorneys, “between 2020 and 2022, FedEx drivers were involved in 1,160 collisions, of which 109 resulted in death.” [1] While delivering packages, drones would be able to travel through the air, far from any pedestrians. The risk of a drone causing harm to anyone during normal operation is very low. Delivery vehicles also contribute large amounts of carbon dioxide emissions. Scientific American predicts that under current trends, “planet-warming carbon dioxide emissions from delivery traffic would increase by 32%, or about 6 million tons.” [2] By replacing some of these vehicles with electricity-powered drones, we can reduce the environmental impact of the delivery industry.

Autonomous drones would also be an effective way of making deliveries more efficient while simultaneously reducing labor costs. Normal delivery vehicles are susceptible to uncontrollable traffic conditions that limit their ability to reach their destination in a timely manner. Drones are completely unhindered by these conditions, meaning the only factor affecting delivery time is the drone’s top speed. This also comes with the benefit of reducing traffic congestion, and being able to deliver to remote areas that might otherwise be unreachable. Furthermore, a traditional delivery-based service incurs many expenses: the cost of vehicles themselves, maintenance and fuel, and the cost of a driver for the vehicle. Drones mitigate all of these by being cheaper to buy, maintain and power than trucks or cars, and autonomous drones don’t require drivers. Using drones to deliver packages would be faster and cheaper than present delivery methods.

There are 2 questions that our company considers in all its decisions. First, how can our startup have a positive impact on communities? As stated previously, drones can make communities safer overall by reducing potential accidents and CO2 emissions. They would also reduce traffic, and give people in remote locations access to delivery services.

Second, how will this startup integrate with the already existing delivery industry? RJMM Tech isn’t looking to uproot the industry - only to supplement it by giving companies a cheap and reliable method of shipping.

External Opportunities

The US Small Business Administration has an investment capital program that enables small businesses, like the mobile fuel cell company Falcon Fuel Cells, to secure funding. [3] The program matches the amount of capital granted to the company by other investors, so it would be necessary to combine that program with an investment firm like Empede Capital or Covenant Venture Capital, both of which have invested in drone delivery company Zipline International Inc. in the past. [4][5]

Team

Monir Ahmad

Monir Ahmad currently works as an Embedded Software Developer at Vizio. Prior to pursuing his career as a software developer, he proudly served in the military from 2003 to 2014. Alongside his professional life, he is an avid drone enthusiast and holds a license 107 UV pilot certification.

Rajvir Kaur

Rajvir Kaur is a versatile and dedicated scholar whose academic journey reflects a profound commitment to education and diverse interests. Originally from India, she obtained a Bachelor's degree with a major in Physics, Chemistry, and Mathematics, providing a solid foundation for her intellectual pursuits. Subsequently, she earned a Master's degree in Physics from an esteemed institution in India before embarking on a new path by attaining an Associate degree in Computer Science from Ohlone College. Rajvir has also enriched her journey with valuable teaching experience in India, where she has imparted her knowledge and passion for the sciences to others. Currently, she is pursuing her Bachelor's degree in Computer Science at California State University, East Bay, showcasing her adaptability and relentless passion for knowledge acquisition across various disciplines.

Justin Dodemaide

Justin Dodemaide is a Computer Science student at CSU East Bay. He transferred from Chabot College with an AS in Mathematics, and is currently pursuing a career in web development and embedded programming.

Mahima Shankar

Mahima transferred from Diablo Valley College with an AS in Computer Science. She is currently a student at CSU East Bay, majoring in Computer Science and is passionately pursuing a career in both web development and game design.

Strategy

Case Study: Google's Project Wing

In 2012, Google’s parent company, Alphabet Inc., set out to explore the capabilities of drone deliveries. The first experiment they designed involved using drones to bring defibrillators to people having a heart attack. They quickly learned that developing safe and reliable drones was already a difficult task, and that integrating them into emergency services would be too large a challenge. They pivoted their focus to transport of small packages, where the speed of delivery was a large factor. In 2014, they successfully delivered several small items to remote areas in rural Queensland. In 2016, they conducted what was, at the time, the largest drone delivery test in the US. The goal was to study aviation electronics, handling deliveries at busy times, keeping fragile and temperature sensitive cargo safe, and consumer reactions. The experiment was conducted at Virginia Tech, where they worked alongside Chipotle to make deliveries to nearby students and staff. In 2017, they focused on delivering packages directly to consumer yards, developing their navigation technologies. Since 2018, they have become an independent Alphabet business, operating on 3 continents, and they are continuing to learn how drone delivery “might be useful in people’s everyday lives by transporting meals, groceries, medicine, and even spare car parts in the event of a breakdown.” [6]

Based on Wing’s business trajectory, we are able to develop objectives and key results for our business:

Objective 1: Increase number of deliveries by 20%

Key Results 1: Acquire more clients

Key Results 2: Increase the speed and capacity of drones

Key Results 3: Increase the number of drones

Objective 2: Beat fastest real-world drone delivery time of 2 minutes and 47 seconds

Key Result 1: Improve drone route optimization algorithms

Key Result 2: Identify bottlenecks in delivery performance

Key Result 3: Improve drone designs to increase maximum speeds

Objective 3: Increase available range of deliverable items by 50%

Key Result 1: Establish partnerships with 3 different commerce businesses within the target cities

Key Result 2: Implement online feedback mechanisms to gather customer preferences and demands

Slogan

“From the sky, to your door”

Works Cited

1. Gordon McKernan Injury Attorneys. "5 Delivery Truck Accident Statistics You Should Know", April 12, 2023. https://www.getgordon.com/blog/5-delivery-truck-accident-statistics-you-should-know/#:~:text=In%20the%20same%20period%2C%20crashes,1%2C082%20crashes%20and%2074%20fatalities.

2. M. Joselow. "Delivery Vehicles Increasing Choke Cities with Pollution", Scientific American, January 10, 2020. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/delivery-vehicles-increasingly-choke-cities-with-pollution/#:~:text=Under%20this%20%E2%80%9Cbusiness%20as%20usual,for%20each%20passenger%20every%20day.

3. U.S. Small Business Administration, "SBA Small Business Innovation funding speeds up development of drone deliveries". https://www.sba.gov/success-story/sba-small-business-innovation-funding-speeds-development-drone-deliveries

4. Crunchbase, "Empede Capital - Crunchbase Investor Profile & Investments", May 11, 2022. https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/empede-capital

5. Startup Savant, "18 Hottest Drone Startups to Keep an Eye on in 2023", TRUiC Team, November 9, 2023. https://startupsavant.com/startups-to-watch/drone

6. X Company, "Wing". https://x.company/projects/wing/