Airsoft Experience

[Seth_Erebor]

I honestly don’t know why I do it, I’m not trolling I promise. 

 

 

[Tackle]

1 hour ago, Seth_K said:

I honestly don’t know why I do it, I’m not a troll, I promise. 

 

 

 

[Steveocee]

I kind of like the angle you are coming from, you do sound absolutely crackers the methodology in doing so but it is nice to see someone trying to raise the bar.

 

A good site doesn’t need bells, whistles and USPs though. Good game ideas with a good layout complimented by well organised and fair marshalling. Maybe decent food and toilets that don’t look like they’ve been through a 4 week festival. 

 

People will repeat visit from good experiences, not because the app showed them what time lunch was or because the rental who shot them had the same bucking as them.

 

Free WiFi would be a mega start! All these sites in the middle of nowhere with no mobile signal need connectivity!

[Burny]

Whilst in theory all the gadgetry and lavish landscaping you're describing would be great, they would undoubtedly come with a greatly increased cost for the player. I don't think the average price elasticity of a days airsofting would allow a significant raise in the price of admission to cover without an exponentially larger decrease in the number of attendees, it just comes down to the demographics of players.

[Seth_Erebor]

1 hour ago, Steveocee said:

I kind of like the angle you are coming from, you do sound absolutely crackers the methodology in doing so but it is nice to see someone trying to raise the bar.

 

A good site doesn’t need bells, whistles and USPs though. Good game ideas with a good layout complimented by well organised and fair marshalling. Maybe decent food and toilets that don’t look like they’ve been through a 4 week festival. 

 

People will repeat visit from good experiences, not because the app showed them what time lunch was or because the rental who shot them had the same bucking as them.

 

Free WiFi would be a mega start! All these sites in the middle of nowhere with no mobile signal need connectivity!

 

Thank you and you're right, the fundamentals are key. Good toilets are a given at most establishments.

Wifi haha! No. Give me that 60 GHz unlicensed waveband, ooo yeah.

The good experience is ultimately whatever the customer's fantasy is, so to be able to blend multiple types into one coherent sandbox should be a winner. Should.

 

However, I think to finance it is difficult without the USPs. Which leads me to...

 

1 hour ago, Burny said:

Whilst in theory all the gadgetry and lavish landscaping you're describing would be great, they would undoubtedly come with a greatly increased cost for the player. I don't think the average price elasticity of a days airsofting would allow a significant raise in the price of admission to cover without an exponentially larger decrease in the number of attendees, it just comes down to the demographics of players.

 

Do you mean an increase in the number of attendees?

 

That is the plan, but, it's the mid-week doldrums that sites are not capitalising on. Not for players but other groups of individuals.

 

 

[Burny]

5 minutes ago, Seth_K said:

Do you mean an increase in the number of attendees?

 

That is the plan, but, it's the mid-week doldrums that sites are not capitalising on. Not for players but other groups of individuals.

 

No. Generally when you put the price of something up, less of it is purchased.

[Seth_Erebor]

Just now, Burny said:

 

No. Generally when you put the price of something up, less of it is purchased.

 

If anything it will work out less, it just depends on the strategy of the team.

I was at an Angel Investment Network event last Thursday and the panel was discussing the difference between the UK and US approaches to investing.

 

The US will put money in for the long-term to acquire a customer base, whereas in the UK we want to see revenue asap.

If I were to take the US style it would be priced competitively, not requiring a profit margin, with a view to using economies of scale to then become profitable.

 

Did I explain that well?

[SgtTalbert]

4 minutes ago, Seth_K said:

 

If anything it will work out less, it just depends on the strategy of the team.

I was at an Angel Investment Network event last Thursday and the panel was discussing the difference between the UK and US approaches to investing.

 

The US will put money in for the long-term to acquire a customer base, whereas in the UK we want to see revenue asap.

If I were to take the US style it would be priced competitively, not requiring a profit margin, with a view to using economies of scale to then become profitable.

 

Did I explain that well?

 

Why don't you just stop chatting about what you're never going to do and come back when you even have some land. Let alone some HPA, Systems, TM love child.

[Seth_Erebor]

2 minutes ago, SgtTalbert said:

 

Why don't you just stop chatting about what you're never going to do and come back when you even have some land. Let alone some HPA, Systems, TM love child.

 

But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.

 

[SgtTalbert]

Just now, Seth_K said:

 

But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.

 

 

It's bullshit like that irritates people. But to feed the troll. If you're poor, forget your dream that won't happen and just play Airsoft. 

 

 

[Seth_Erebor]

4 minutes ago, SgtTalbert said:

 

It's bullshit like that irritates people. But to feed the troll. If you're poor, forget your dream that won't happen and just play Airsoft. 

 

 

 

I'm far from poor, I was just quoting your signature, mostly for the 2nd and 3rd lines

[Burny]

2 minutes ago, Seth_K said:

If anything it will work out less

 

I'm not sure how it will work out costing less when you're providing gizmos strapped to kids wrists, specialist airsoft rifles manufactured in the UK and landscaped facilities but let's ignore that part.

 

2 minutes ago, Seth_K said:

I was at an Angel Investment Network event last Thursday and the panel was discussing the difference between the UK and US approaches to investing.

 

The US will put money in for the long-term to acquire a customer base, whereas in the UK we want to see revenue asap.

If I were to take the US style it would be priced competitively, not requiring a profit margin, with a view to using economies of scale to then become profitable.

 

Okay, this is my area of work so I'll bite.

 

What you're describing, though I wouldn't say it's necessarily characterised by an Atlantic divide, is for a company to endure cash burn to achieve economies of scale i.e. operate at a loss whilst deploying to new geographies, capturing new segments of consumers or getting new products/IP to market. To facilitate cash burn you need lenders of capital; large companies use the bond market to raise whilst smaller companies predominantly use private debt, convertible debt or mezzanine financing. My question here is - who is going to lend piles of cash to an airsoft event organiser?

 

I guess the panel are making the UK/US observation a bit lazily based more on mature markets, which is strange for an angel investing conference; the US's large-cap index can be characterised as tech heavy, where as ours is far more predominantly old world businesses like oil, miners and banks. An airsoft field is not a business model that scales anywhere near as well as what your panel was probably alluding to; tech companies - the increased expenditure required for a tech company to facilitate another 100 million users is negligible; the fixed costs are sunk, the network is there, the data centres, the back end, the front end, the variable costs are basically nill. With an airsoft field, when you reach capacity you have to start another field, i.e. the lions share of your fixed costs double on the spot. All of this is without even addressing the fact the total addressable market for airsoft is what... a couple thousand people in the UK? Maybe double that, even triple? How many of those people are likely to make the pilgrimage to East London regularly enough for you to service your now burgeoning debt from all the cash burn someone has decided to facilitate for you.

 

I am aware this is all just a flight of fantasy, but still, it's ludicrous to even dream about creating an elite airsoft site with gizmos, squads of near-professional players, private equity/venture capital backers and a magical, infinitely scalable business model.

[Seth_Erebor]

28 minutes ago, Burny said:

 

I'm not sure how it will work out costing less when you're providing gizmos strapped to kids wrists, specialist airsoft rifles manufactured in the UK and landscaped facilities but let's ignore that part.

 

 

Okay, this is my area of work so I'll bite.

 

What you're describing, though I wouldn't say it's necessarily characterised by an Atlantic divide, is for a company to endure cash burn to achieve economies of scale i.e. operate at a loss whilst deploying to new geographies, capturing new segments of consumers or getting new products/IP to market. To facilitate cash burn you need lenders of capital; large companies use the bond market to raise whilst smaller companies predominantly use private debt, convertible debt or mezzanine financing. My question here is - who is going to lend piles of cash to an airsoft event organiser?

 

I guess the panel are making the UK/US observation a bit lazily based more on mature markets, which is strange for an angel investing conference; the US's large-cap index can be characterised as tech heavy, where as ours is far more predominantly old world businesses like oil, miners and banks. An airsoft field is not a business model that scales anywhere near as well as what your panel was probably alluding to; tech companies - the increased expenditure required for a tech company to facilitate another 100 million users is negligible; the fixed costs are sunk, the network is there, the data centres, the back end, the front end, the variable costs are basically nill. With an airsoft field, when you reach capacity you have to start another field, i.e. the lions share of your fixed costs double on the spot. All of this is without even addressing the fact the total addressable market for airsoft is what... a couple thousand people in the UK? Maybe double that, even triple? How many of those people are likely to make the pilgrimage to East London regularly enough for you to service your now burgeoning debt from all the cash burn someone has decided to facilitate for you.

 

I am aware this is all just a flight of fantasy, but still, it's ludicrous to even dream about creating an elite airsoft site with gizmos, squads of near-professional players, private equity/venture capital backers and a magical, infinitely scalable business model.

 

Ok, it's clear you know more than me on this subject, so I'll try to hit each point, try.

 

Yeah, it is a lot to for the revenue of one site to cover and again the costs do increase with each site, but... I'm pretty good at finding ways to build something at a lower than expected price point, mostly by breaking the parts down and understand what I actually need, talking to experts in the field, etc.

So a budget of £300k-£400k will get quite a lot done. I have a GANTT chart all set up for that, which I did with one of the investors, I would have really struggled with his help. But I'm confident about it.

 

First of all 2 Angels, 1 HNW and maybe a grant if we're successful in that bid.

There will be a video of the event up in a few weeks, but that is pretty much what they said, yeah.

In my mind, we are a tech company as the ultimate goal is to use Airsoft as a foundation to enter the Defence sector. 

Innovation is one of the biggest buzzwords in the industry right now, DASA and DIU are the best two groups IMHO doing right now.

 

But User-Generated Innovation is the holy grail, if I have the facilities and put the right elements in place, magic can happen.

Then we're snapping at the heels of the big contractors, Cubic, LM, L3, all those guys.

We will have the advantage of a tight feedback loop, so the time to test and fail is reduced and we can get a product to market faster.

 

So everything I build for Airsoft must also have a second purpose, which is the real revenue generator. Airsoft provides the small but instant cash flow, then the larger contracts/sales come later. 

 

I suppose you're familiar with QinetiQ and the rest of the guys in Farnborough.

 

Can we have a chat offline?

[Steveocee]

1 hour ago, Seth_K said:

 

Give me that 60 GHz unlicensed waveband, ooo yeah.

 

Only 58, 60 & 62 are unlicensed though! Watch it for that light license for 64Ghz.

Still distance is limited, sure maybe 4Km with 66Ghz but that's theoretical best case and only 1Gb max speed.

 

10Gb is here so aim higher 😂

 

Love that you know about 60Ghz so I'm sold! I'm on board 👍

[Seth_Erebor]

Just now, Steveocee said:

 

Only 58, 60 & 62 are unlicensed though! Watch it for that light license for 64Ghz.

Still distance is limited, sure maybe 4Km with 66Ghz but that's theoretical best case and only 1Gb max speed.

 

10Gb is here so aim higher 😂

 

It will be delivered by an external company, we're just doing some stuff with the devices to connect to the network.

12Gbps, but I guess that is the best possible speed.

[Burny]

8 minutes ago, Seth_K said:

First of all 2 Angels, 1 HNW and maybe a grant if we're successful in that bid.

 

You're either a psychologically unwell fantasist or an absolute genius. I hope it's the latter and I look forward to seeing the video.

[Seth_Erebor]

2 minutes ago, Burny said:

 

You're either a psychologically unwell fantasist or an absolute genius. I hope it's the latter and I look forward to seeing the video.

 

I wish I knew which! So far the three of them aren't questioning my sanity.

Sent you a PM btw, got a video or two, plenty more to read if it interests you.