SMART CITIES / SMART ECON
Karl Dakin
Capital Coach | Stakeholder Investor Campaigns | Design, Stage, and Manage or Support | Reduce Time, Money, and Risk of Raising Funding | Increase Probability of Success! | Opportunity Management
FUNDING FORTUNES
"Your business model is the blueprint; investors prefer detailed blueprints over rough sketches."
?A business model is the first step in a journey from an idea to business success. Investors appreciate and want more ‘skin in the game’ to advance the idea to something simple that they can understand, framed as an investment where the investor gets their money back, and detailed enough that the success of the business is doable.
?QUICK CALENDAR
?April 2 - Investor ID Webinar - 8 am to 9 am Mountain Time, 10 am to 11 am Eastern Time -Targeting High Probability Investor Candidates: Finding Your Funding Soulmate – 1st in Four-Part Weekly Series starts on - https://dakincapital.com/event-6036637
?FUNDING POINT – SMART CITIES / SMART ECON
As I continue my journey in designing a smart city, the word ‘city’ keeps getting in the way. It immediately creates an assumption that the smart city will be governed by elected officials within a representative government. This results in all kinds of questions and challenges of how to ‘beat city hall’, which can and should be avoided.
In addressing the question of ‘How do you fund a smart city? ' It is necessary to treat a smart city as a bundle of individual investment opportunities, with each opportunity representing a sustainable revenue stream. This approach avoids wishful thinking, politicized spending, and poor planning based on uncertain, if impossible, income results.
I am currently working on two scenarios under my Opportunity Management services: a smart city for a rural community and a smart city on an island. In each case, the smaller size is hoped to limit complexity, allowing for a basic template that may scale in a larger urban community. In each scenario, I am working with ‘greenfield’ undeveloped land, which also avoids the challenges of retrofitting buildings and infrastructure or mandated centralization of services for water, power, and waste.
I am also facing the assumption that a smart city represents a fixed geographic area.
Within the business model, every revenue stream is identified. In looking at smart cities, I have preliminarily adopted five groups of activities that should each generate revenue.
·??????? Smart Knowledge
·??????? Smart Space
·??????? Smart Digital (changed from Smart City to focus on digital interconnectedness)
·?????? Smart Econ
·?????? Smart Community
This Funding Point article focuses on Smart Econ. Smart Econ goes beyond a ‘field of dreams’ approach to buildings and roads, which will be empty without economic activity. It starts with designing an economy with a central theme or business that may act in the same manner as an anchor tenant in a mall.
Nearly all urban areas in the United States spring into existence in response to one or more industries of the day. However, these industries have diminished or disappeared altogether, leaving economic ghost towns.
My goal is to identify all activities that may be provided to a resident in a smart city as a product or a service. Once every sustainable revenue stream is identified, then the question is presented of who will manage the revenue stream: the smart city, a contractor business or a resident.
However, talking about a smart city without first generating economic activity is getting the cart ahead of the horse.
A smart city project must identify, recruit, and engage one or more businesses that can represent one or more industries that generate jobs for the people who make up a city. As stated earlier, I think of a lead sled dog, a business champion who can compete internationally, as the starting point. It does not make sense to build a city around a business that can be set up in any city anywhere, resulting in even more competition.
RESOURCES ON SMART CITIES / SMART ECON
Technical articles on revenue sharing from Google Scholar include:
?Books available on Amazon:
ASK CAP
CAP is my AI avatar produced by Knowledge Avatars and trained by me on topics of funding and entrepreneurship. CAP is available on the Dakin Capital website where you may ask questions about funding without charge.
I asked CAP:
How should the design of a smart city engage in economic development?
CAP responded:
The design of a smart city should engage in economic development by fostering an ecosystem that attracts investments and enables startup growth.
?Key elements include developing robust digital infrastructure, ensuring regulatory frameworks that support innovation, and providing access to funding opportunities such as public-private partnerships.
?Additionally, implementing smart technologies can optimize resource management, reduce operational costs, and improve quality of life, thereby attracting businesses and skilled professionals to the area.
?This holistic approach encourages sustainable economic growth and enhances the city's competitiveness in the global market.?
SUCCESSFUL FUNDING SHOW
TUESDAY, I hosted my Successful Funding show, where the topic was funding Smart Cities. Dr. Tom Frey, the futurist, will be my guest. We will discuss several ways in which a city of the future may differ from today and how the concept of a Smart City as a sustainable business enterprise answering to its residents as stockholders could reduce bureaucracy.
You may view the recording of the show at:
EDUCATION PROGRAM
Targeting High Probability Investor Candidates: Finding Your Funding Soulmate
The webinar of this education program will be presented three more times this year:
·?????? April 2, 9, 16, 23
·?????? July 2, 9, 16, 23
·?????? Oct 1, 8, 15, 22
The education program includes:
· Artificial Intelligence Avatar - Attendees will have one year of online access to a custom AI avatar on the topic of identifying investor candidates.
· Book - Attendees will receive a digital copy of a book on matching their businesses and funding needs with investor candidates who need the businesses to succeed to attain their own goals.
· Workshop - A half-day webinar will be presented on Zoom on Thursday, January 16, 2025, from 11 am to 1 pm Eastern Time, 9 am to 1 pm Mountain Time by Karl Dakin.
· Consult -? Each attendee will receive one-half hour of consultation with Karl Dakin on their funding challenges.
Discover how to secure funding more effectively and efficiently. By targeting the right investor candidates, you can tailor your entire campaign, from offer to closing, to match these candidates - achieving greater success in less time and with reduced costs.
This avtor is designed for entrepreneurs, small business owners, community leaders, charities, service providers, and economic developers responsible for raising funding.
Readers of this Instant Funding newsletter qualify for the discounted price of $400 (marked down from $500). Go to Register. Select the Funding Fans ticket and use the discount code FundingFan2025.
GOT 15 MINUTES AND A QUESTION ON FUNDING - GIVE ME A CALL
I recognize that many readers of this Instant Funding newsletter have questions about funding that are not answered by the newsletter. I am available for a 15-minute phone/video call about your funding questions. This is to let you know there is no charge for this call. Just contact me to schedule a time at [email protected].
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Karl Dakin, the Capital Coach
Dakin Capital LLC
Capital Coach | Stakeholder Investor Campaigns | Design, Stage, and Manage or Support | Reduce Time, Money, and Risk of Raising Funding | Increase Probability of Success! | Opportunity Management
1 周Smart City economic development is driven by becoming the home for an internationally superior business or industry.