Project by: Jonathan Ziebarth (12th Grade)
Project Advisor: Jacqueline Baker
Student(s)’s Advisor(s): Peggy Peloquin

Description of the Project:

For my honors project I originally set out to learn the fundamentals of entrepreneurial finance, however things changed. This project now centers around my development as a student and as an entrepreneur. During the last two trimesters I focused on not only the fundamentals of creating a business plan, but idea generation and research.

Final Product (e.g., documents, images, video, audio, poster, display, etc.):

Final Reflection on Learning:

For my honors project I originally set out to learn the fundamentals of entrepreneurial finance, however things changed. Within the first couple of weeks it became very clear that I needed to do a lot more work on my proposed business plan. It was originally very rudimentary with a very basic outline of what I wanted to do, and accomplish. So before I could even think about the financial aspect I needed to redo the business plan completely. However, this took a lot longer than I originally anticipated given I had to do a lot more market & competitor research then I had done before. This research ultimate lead me to conclude that there was no feasible way for me to accomplish my goals given another company, Brave Software, had already created a very similar product and done a cost benefit analysis of taking on a company like google.

This is why I have decided to end my project with just a business plan and no financials. While I may not have completed my project the way I wanted to I have learned a lot of very valuable lessons that I plan to take with me into my senior project.

This has been an amazing learning experience for me especially since I would not be able to have the same experience anywhere else.  Jacqueline has given me the resources to be successful in the future and I cannot thank her enough.

Here is my final business plan:

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Update on Progress from Weeks 7-9 (include any photos or video if relevant):

During the final weeks of the trimester I have worked with Jacqueline on my new venture idea. This idea is quite simple, I would like to integrate current carbon capture technology and use it to turn the captured carbon in a green fuel, Hydrogen.

I have done lots of research on my largest known competitor, Carbon Engineering

(Excerpt From Notes Below) 

Carbon Engineering Notes. Ltd

Carbonengineering.com 

Geological Storage

• Standalone Geological Storage
• Enhanced Oil Recovery – Why the oil companies are interested

Clean Transportation Fuels

• Cars & Trucks
• Synthetic Crude
• Long Haul Transport, Marine & Air Travel

Alternative Uses

• The pipeline CO2 can also be used for industrial purposes including production of steel and concrete, coatings and carbon fibers, or enhanced oil recovery.
• Carbon Engineering’s Air to Fuel technology produces synthetic, liquid transportation fuels, such as gasoline, diesel, and Jet-A. The process combines CO2 captured from the atmosphere through their Direct Air Capture system with hydrogen to produce hydrocarbon fuels.
•  If the hydrogen is produced from water using nuclear or renewable energy, then the fuel is carbon-neutral.

Cost

These fuels can presently be produced by Carbon Engineering for less than $4/gallon, making them slightly more expensive than fossil fuels, but similar to biofuels. Low-carbon mandates and fuel standards make them very competitive with any fuel.

_______________________________________________________________________________ 

 Ziebarth. Inc 

Ziebarth.us 

Jonathan M. Ziebarth 

Geological Storage

• Standalone Geological Storage

 Clean Transportation Fuels

• Green Energy 
  • Hydrogen Fuel
  • Building, Cars, Long Haul Transport, Marine & Air Travel

Hydrogen Fuel Cell  & Vehicles

• Cars, SUVs & Pickup Trucks
  • Hydrogen Fuel
• Sports Cars
  • Electric
•  Trucks (Long Haul) – Country wide Trucking 
  • Hydrogen Fuel
• Air Travel – Airplanes
  • Hydrogen Fuel
• Marine Travel – Cruise Ship
  •  Hydrogen Fuel  

The beginning of my notes describe my competition, and the bottom half describe what I would like to accomplish with my own company.

After I finished my research with the limited resources I had given Carbon Engineering is a private company, I moved on to what I would like to accomplish in detail.

(Document below)

Ziebarth.us 

Introduction 

Ziebarth.Inc was created with the sole purpose of saving our planet by accelerating the world’s transition to sustainable energy. Ziebarth sets out to accomplish its mission by implementing Direct Air Capture Technology to not only take carbon out of the atmosphere and put it back into the geosphere, but to use the captured carbon to create a new form of clean energy, Hydrogen. Ziebarth strongly believes that Hydrogen will be the next  generation of oil for the new green economy, and in turn Ziebarth will also be manufacturing its own Hydrogen Fuel Cell Vehicles or HFCV. 

Direct Air Capture Technology

   Ziebarth.Inc plans to use Direct Air Capture Technology to take carbon out of the atmosphere and turn it into hydrogen fuel. We see hydrogen as the new fuel for the 21st century, it can be used for building, cars, long haul transport, marine & air travel. Ziebarth believes that this innovation not only serves as a solution for the climate crisis, but a solution for the world’s dependence on fossil fuels. 

Implicit in Ziebarth’s philosophy is the use and creation of green energy, to that front Ziebarth plans to have the entire process of creating hydrogen fuel to be carbon negative. Ziebarth will use both wind and solar to power not only power the plant but to also supply the energy needed for the conversion process of the capture CO2. 

Hydrogen Fuel & Infrastructure 

As Ziebarth.Inc sees hydrogen as the new transportation fuel for the 21st century, we plan to be at the forefront of creating the new hydrogen infrastructure. We envision a carbon negative world where hydrogen fuel stations for cars and trucks would be as plentiful as the gas stations we have today. 

HFCV-EV & EV Market 

As of today there are three HFCV’s on the market, The Toyota Mirai, The Honda Clarity Fuel Cell, & The Hyundai Nexo. While these three vehicles may use the technology of the future, Ziebarth sees them as the electric vehicles of the early 2000’s, ugly and distasteful. We believe that to have a successful transition the world needs vehicles that are not only affordable, but elegant in their design.  That is why Ziebarth wants to introduce our own line of HFCV SUVS & Sport Car EV’s

I have now planed to continue my research and development into my senior project. 

Update on Progress from Weeks 4-6 (include any photos or video if relevant):

For the last couple of weeks I have been adding the final touches to my end product, a business plan. However, the business plan wasn’t originally supposed to be my final product for this project. It took about two trimesters to really gain a fundamental understanding of what my idea would be up against. In short, I think I can say it would have been a David and Goliath type of story.

Throughout the last two trimester I have done both market research and a competitive analysis of my would be competition to try to understand where my company would stand in the global marketplace. And It didn’t look good especially when I looked at Brave Software.Inc . Brave software developed the brave browser, a free and open-source web browser that does a lot of what I would have liked to have accomplished.

The Brave browser allows users to block ads and website trackers, and provides a way for users to send cryptocurrency contributions to content creators. Plus it seemed as if the founder, Brendan Eich had already completed a cost benefit analysis of what it would look like to take on a company like google. After learning about this it seemed as if there was no real possibility of me being able to completely compete in the marketplace without the necessary funding.

There will be another update soon.

(Updated – 3/4/20) –

I just wanted to give you all a quick look at some of my notes that I took before I made the conclusion I made above. – These notes were not accessible when I wrote this post earlier.

Honors Project Notes – VPN 

The Chimaera VPN – Virtual Private Network – hosted on DigitalOcean

The Chimaera VPN will utilize a IKEv2 protocol or an (Internet Key Exchange v2 protocol) which is widely-considered to be among the fastest and most secure protocols available, making it a popular choice with VPN users

•  IKEv2 / Open VPN 

IKEv2, or Internet Key Exchange v2, is a protocol that allows for direct IPSec tunneling between the server and client. In IKEv2 VPN implementations, IPSec provides encryption for the network traffic. IKEv2 is natively supported on some platforms (OS X 10.11+, iOS 9.1+, and Windows 10) with no additional applications necessary, and it handles client hiccups quite smoothly.

____________________________________________________

Locations – 

( United States, The Netherlands, Singapore, United Kingdom, Germany, Canada, India)

NYC3: New York City, United States

AMS3: Amsterdam, the Netherlands

SFO2: San Francisco, United States

SGP1: Singapore

LON1: London, United Kingdom

FRA1: Frankfurt, Germany

TOR1: Toronto, Canada

BLR1: Bangalore, India

____________________________________________________

The point of this is to create a VPN and then use it as a model to show that the idea is worth investment and expansion.

The Chimaera VPN – Virtual Private Network will offer the following now & in the future : 

Contents From Anywhere – 

Anonymous Browsing  – 

Work on Every Device – 

 IP Adress Masking – 

Ad blocking – 

VPN Split Tunneling  – 

Network Kill Switch – 

Zero DNS Knowledge – 

No Activity / Connection Logs – 

Public Wifi Scanning – 

Speed Test – 

Unlimited Bandwidth 

Ability To Use Multiple Devices 

____________________________________________________

Pricing –

Start Price – $1.99 per month or $12.99 per year  

New Price – $4.99 per month or  $30.00 per year  

____________________________________________________________________________

Once the creation of the VPN service is complete, I will work to integrate it into a chrome app that can be used with the browser. 

https://openvpn.net/vpn-server-resources/connecting-to-access-server-with-apple-ios/

Update on Progress from Weeks 1-3 (include any photos or video if relevant):

At First 

For the first couple of weeks I spent time researching VPNs ( Virtual Private Networks) and their viability in the current market place as an additional product to my company.  And the results weren’t great.

At first I and my advisors went into this idea thinking about a way I could generate revenue and show investors that this idea might be worth investing in, if i was already making money by the time I went out to fundraise.

The results were good.

As it turns out, the market is not only very saturated, but very small – only about  18.1 billion and that may sound like a lot, but that number is divided by too many companies for the product to make any sense for a new comer.  This is simply because the startup cost for a company that would require outsourcing of servers and other hardware which would cause a new VPN service to be 10x more expensive than the competition.

We’re talking about companies that can offer 0.99 cents a month when they lock their customers into 5 year contracts.  – There was no way I could compete with this being my only product.

EXCERPT FROM NOTE BOOK 

“Over the last couple of days of research it has become clear to me that creating a VPN service does not appear to be a financially viable option due to the pricing models within the niche industry. 
It appears that since there are so many options available, VPN companies have opted to offer their products at cut-rate prices, with the exception of companies like Norton. Which integrated their VPN service into a unified user experience under the Norton LifeLock brand – 
 From the Norton’s 10K“• Norton Security: Our Norton Security solutions are available as a subscription service providing protection for devices against malware, viruses, adware, and ransomware on multiple platforms: Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS. Users also have access to a password manager, parental controls, and safe web browsing that blocks malicious sites and filters browser search results. Users also can perform secure cloud backups of photos, financial files, and other important documents on Windows, providing additional protection in the event ransomware attacks make these files unavailable. For mobile devices, Norton Security also filters risky apps, enables stolen device recovery, provides contact recovery, and blocks unwanted spam texts and calls. Norton Security includes 24×7 support by trained support agents who are available to assist customers. 
• LifeLock Identity Theft Protection: Our LifeLock identity theft protection solution provides identity monitoring, alerts, and restoration to our customers. LifeLock puts users in control of their identity elements, including social security numbers, bank accounts, email addresses, physical addresses, and driver’s license and phone numbers. The service alerts users on key events and recommends actions to prevent unauthorized access. If an identity theft takes place, LifeLock’s identity experts work with the user to restore their identities, managing interaction with various governmental agencies, financial institutions, and merchants – and addressing legal fees, wage loss, and associated damages. 
•Norton Wi-Fi Privacy VPN: Our Norton Wi-Fi Privacy VPN service offers a protected way to connect to the Internet, encrypting data users send over internet connections and enhancing levels of privacy online. With this service, users can confidently access private information such as passwords, bank details, and credit card numbers when using public Wi-Fi on PC, Mac, or mobile device without risk of compromise. Users can also connect globally to their favorite apps, websites, and online streaming by changing their virtual location. This service also limits the ability of websites to track users, thereby eliminating persistent personalized ads based on browsing historyIt seems that VPN companies have opted to not only to cut prices and lock people into their service but have been able to do so based on the companies finding alternative ways to generate revenue (other than the VPN service). Such as :

• They Insert Cookies, Web Beacons, and Pixels
• They Show You Ads
• They Give Away Your Email to Their Business Partners
• They Make Your Computer an Exit Node for Paying Users
• They Sell Other Collected Information to Their Partners or 3rd Parties
• They Set Limits on Purpose
• They Use Your Data for Marketing and Advertising Purposes
• They Openly Share User Data with Their Marketing Partners

While it appears that industry will grow over the next couple of years it seems as if the growth will not be big enough to warrant investment and diversion from the original business plan.  However, it should be said that I am not aware of what could be added to the user’s experience to Adequately compete with already established company who has a massive techInfrastructure. That being said, I believe we should stay the course and only develop the browser, for now.”

Back To Square One

After doing some self reflection and having talked to Jacqueline it became very clear that the technology aspect of my project needed to be put on hold. I found myself not being able to truly justify the prices I would have to charge compared to my competitors. I was dealing with companies like BRAVE – an open source and free browser that is trying accomplish some of my goals – Privacy and Data Security, and I had to deal with a David and Goliath like story with myself and google. The possibility of me being able to actually accomplish any real change as long as google dominates the market share. Now, this isn’t to say that I have given up on my dream of changing the way we use the internet, but I have put it on hold for a new idea that has even more promise given that market it will exist in doesn’t even exist today.

Stay tuned.

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T1 Project Update

Trimester 1 Notes:

NOTES :

Look up common Start ups

• Make current business plan more concise
• Future plans later
  • Make the search engine and browser be the focus
    • Make everything more concise  – Be clear about what your doing
    • What am I really offering and how do I differentiate myself – Is it unique ?
      • Focus will change the – https://tenta.com/

• • • • • • What kind of security –
  • Tor
  • Truly and alternative
  • The Devil I know vs someone knew.

User Error

Don’t be redundant –

• Pitching – 5 min pitch then cut it down – make it clear

Make it compelling .

WORK:

Financial Plan – (Still In Progress)

UNFINISHED – EXECUTIVE SUMMARY FOR BUSINESS PLAN

Nudle is a Blockchain Start-Up that utilizes Blockchain technology (distributed ledger technology) to provide private internet search and distributed cloud computing to its users. 

Nudle will head the next internet revolution by fundamentally changing  

 Nudle Search and The Genesis Browser will revolutionize the user experience by creating a search engine and browser that is more powerful than Google Search and the Chrome Browser. 

Today the predominant business model for commercial search engines is targeted advertising. Given this, and the fact that data has become an asset that is more valuable than gold or oil, it clear that today search engines have become inherently invasive, and have completely ignored the privacy and security concerns of the users. It could be argued that the better the search engine is, the more options will be available to protect not only the users data, but shape the user experience. With this the dynamic not only changes for the users, but permanently changes the standard business model. We believe that targeted advertising causes enough mixed incentives that is crucial to not only a competitive search engine that is transparent, but in the academic realm.

Nudle Search will offer users a true alternative to Google Search in that it will allow users not only the same fast and reliable search experience, but also add a new layer of privacy and security with an emphasis on anonymity, and data protection and control.

The Genesis Browser would continue with our ideals by directing internet traffic through a global volunteer overlay network to conceal our user’s usage and location, while also making it difficult to trace any data back to our users without their express permission.

We believe that this is the solution to the privacy and security concerns relating to Google’s technology. With this technology we are able to offer a new, safe and reliable alternative to Google Search. 

The internet needs systemic change, and we are that change. 

Jonathan M. Ziebarth 

Founder, Chairman & CEO of Nudle.Inc

NOTE : FOR EXECUTIVE SUMMARY :

• Continue to talk about the what it does just not the details
• Talk about Blockchain in search anonymity
• IOT – NEW USER ABILITY
• Same experience as 1990 – revolutionize the experience by data control. Privacy. ect

Please write a description of the project you are proposing. Why do you want to take this on, and what do you hope to learn?

During this trimester I plan on learning the fundamentals of entrepreneurial finance. I want to take this on because I feel it will allow me to expand on a private project that I have already started, which is my company. I have already started the product development, and all I need to do now is the financial aspect, and I feel that this project will help me achieve that.

Critical thinking, creativity, citizenship and courage are essential LREI learning values. Explain how you’ll draw on at least one of these values to complete your proposed project?

This Honors project will allow me to explore critical thinking and creativity in that it will require me to think outside of the box to accomplish my goals of both understanding the basics of finance, and how to articulate a feasible idea using a long term financial plan.

What is your proposed outcome? How will you be able to demonstrate successful completion of this Project? How do you plan to share your learnings with the larger LREI community (e.g., exhibit of work, poster of learnings, performance, etc.)?

My Proposed outcome is to have a workable, financial plan for an actual startup that can be used in the future.

This would be demonstrated via exhibit of work.

Please provide a general outline that indicates your work plan for the trimester? What are some of the key project benchmarks (i.e., goals that will help to ensure that you finish the project)?

– Introduction to the concepts of Finance
– Learn about value and resource allocation.
– Learn about articulating ideas via finical plans.
-start final project (financial plan)

When do you plan on meeting?
Thursdays at X-block