DRAFT Outline
PPE4Covid Initiative

A Project of Think Renewables Group
A Specialized eCommerce Platform to Sell Products that Help Counter the Spread of Covid-19

To view a quick summary about this initiative. see: slides only or slides with narration script.

Problem:

There is a substantial shortage of personal protection equipment (PPE) for healthcare workers and the general public. 

At the same time, there is considerable new and existing unused capacity to manufacture PPE. For example, there are news reports of thousands of companies in Canada that have or are in the process of re-tooling to manufacture PPE.  Currently, there does not appear to be an online platform that is specially designed to connect PPE producers and buyers on a substantial scale.

Our Solution:

Introduction:

PPE4Covid.com is a specialized eCommerce platform that will offer a wide range of products to help counter the spread of Covid-19.  The more advanced features of this platform are under development but basic version of it can be viewed at PPE4Covid.com.  It is a project of Think Renewables Group, which is a company based in Toronto.  

Orders for PPE products would go directly to individuals and private sector organizations that make these products. Each individual or organization that wants to sell through PPE4Covid would need to submit an application to us.  If the individual or organization is approved, this person or organization can register as a supplier on this eCommerce platform.  After a supplier does register on this platform, he/she/they can receive orders and fill out the fulfillment details of the order including tracking number.

Each supplier that receives an order to make a product would ship it directly to the person or organization that submitted the order.  Therefore, it is expect that limited support for transactions will be needed to be completed by the PPE4Covid team.

To increase the product selection on PPE4Covid.com, an established medical supplies wholesaler has been engaged to provide products for the website that it has in stock or can quickly supply to customers.

Enabling the Gifting of PPE:

To enable and facilitate the gifting of PPE to medical, assisted living, and/or nursing home facilities, a special section on the website would be provided to enable customers to order and pay for PPE for a selected facility.  If welcomed by these facilities, a “gift registry” would also created to enable customers to learn what supplies are desired by these facilities.  Once a customer decided on what they wanted to donate to the facility, they could then use this registry to quickly order and pay for these items they wanted to donate.

Distributed Operation and Management Model:

PPE4Covid would be designed to be operated and managed in a distributed manner so that social distancing can be maintained.  For example, customer service agents and technical support staff can work from their respective homes.  Regular meeting with be conducted by video conferencing.

Since suppliers using PPE4Covid platform manage their own inventory and implement their own shipping, this platform can expand to operate in multiple countries with relative ease.  Therefore, we are interested to explore how quickly this can be done after this model is proven in Canada.

Range of Suppliers:

There appears to be a substantial surge of industrial capacity coming online to produce personal protection equipment (PPE) by a wide range of companies.  Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, many of these companies were not selling products to the medical community so we expect that they would find value in selling their PPE related products through a specialized online marketplace such as PPE4Covid.  Organizations and individuals producing PPE from 3D printers will also be able to sell their products through PPE4Covid.   To view more information type of production, see: PPE made by 3D Printers.

For some information comparing PPE4Covid to other online retailers, see: PPE4Covid Q & A.
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Evolving Product Line After the Covid-19 pandemic has declined:

After the Covid-19 pandemic has declined substantially, the range of products on this eCommerce platform will evolve to what is in demand by its customers.  Many of the suppliers will remain the same since its suppliers will change their product offerings once their existing products are no longer in demand.  Therefore, this eCommerce platform can grow quickly now due to the pandemic and continue to a very substantial profitable business after the pandemic is over.  To help enable this transition, we plan to brand PPE4Covid with an associated name that can be used after this pandemic is over.  For example, we may indicate that PPE4Covid is powered by Your Distributed Marketplace.

Raising Money for Expansion:
To raise money quickly for this business, two crowdfunding are planned.  The first on popular basic crowdfunding website like Kickstarter.com to raise some initial funding.  Then once some traction has been developed, a much larger crowdfunding campaign would implemented by an equity crowdfunding site such as FrontFundr.
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1) Team:

Note: The below team and advisors are all part of existing team of people that includes faculty and graduate students from both Ryerson and York Universities on an initiative to increase investment in solutions that mitigate or adapt to climate change (Climate Solutions).  This initiative is called “Accelerating Climate Solutions (ACS) Program” and is being implemented by the Climate Solutions Advancement Network (ClimateSAN), which is a project of Think Renewables Group, Inc.  Due to the urgent need for action to mitigate the spread of Covid-19, they are all supporting this project.

a) Paul Stevers, Founder and Director, PPE4Covid Initiative, and President, Think Renewables Group

b) Quinn Daigle, Technology Manager,  PPE4Covid Initiative and Masters of Applied Science in Mechanical Engineering, York University

c) Matthew Malinsky, Finance Manager, PPE4Covid Initiative and Master of Environmental Applied Science and Management Student at Ryerson University

d) Vivek Malhotra, Director of Operations, PPE4Covid Initiative 

e) Spencer Stevenson, eCommerce & Marketing Advisor, PPE4Covid Initiative 

2) Advisors:

a) Prof. Philip Walsh, Sr. Commercialization Advisor, and Associate Professor, School of Business Managment, Ryerson University.

b) Prof. Paul G. O’Brien, Sr. Technology Advisor and Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering, York University, Toronto, ON.

c) Katie Fettes, Logistics and Communications Advisor, PPE4Covid Initiative, Think Renewables Group, Inc.

3) eCommerce System Developers:

a) Timothy Bramble, Partner, Managing Director, Meevo Digital

b) Mike Voiculescu, Partner, Technical Director,  Meevo Digital