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Pitch vragen Flashcards

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1
Q
  1. What is the key risk of scaling up?
A

The key risk is the asymmetry between the need to scale up the team and resources and the timing of incoming revenue will be delayed. MITIGATION: contracting & legal support + secondary markets.

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2
Q

What is the key regulatory risk

A

: Delays in certification of composite joint technology. - freeing up resources through the EIC + Actively manage the certification process to prevent and address delays.

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3
Q

What is the key organizational risk

A

Lack of skilled labor - Collaborate with nearby universities, attract purpose-driven candidates, and rely on automated manufacturing for effective personnel utilization.

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4
Q

How many FTE do you have currently?

A

We are with over 16 FTE, that is 26 people including interns and working students.

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5
Q
  1. Who is in the team and what are the growth projections?
A

We have mainly design engineers, manufacturing engineers, supported by project managers, one dedicated business developer. With the EIC, we aim to grow our team from 16 to 37 FTE in 2026, aiming for 160 FTE in 2030.

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6
Q
  1. Who does the sales in the team? What is the structure of your sales force?
A

Sales are currently handled by Maxim and one business developer. The EIC budget includes budget room for another business developer and support on contractual management.

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7
Q
  1. Why is this the right team to develop the project?
A

We have a team who is inspired by Marko’s vision of changing the way we connect steel tubes and the positive impact it will have on the energy transition. Within the management team we have a great mix not only of backgrounds (Tech / finance / organisation & management) but also character: decisiveness and flexibility that fits the scale-up phase of the company.

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8
Q

How do you know how much people you will need in the future?

A

Together with engineering & manufacturing leads, we did the exercise how many FTE we need on which positions, based on future production rates per fte.

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9
Q

What is the team growth expected?

A

With the EIC, we aim to grow our team from 16 FTE now to 27 FTE in 2026, aiming for about 150 FTE in 2030.

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10
Q

What competencies are still missing? how do you plan to hire these?

A

Scaling up manaufacturing (especially hands-on experience in scaling a manufacturing process from 10 to thousands including QA/QC + closing contracts & legal contract management raising investment capital. Network, not only hiring but developing the team through internal growth and training programs, leveraging partnerships and networks like MakeNextPlatform.

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11
Q
  1. What unique skills and talents does each owner contribute?
A

Management team:
* Maxim: Business development, visionary leadership, experience in bringing ideas from academia to the market, strong technical background
* Jeroen: Financial acumen, commercial insight and a large network of experts to support growth
* Eline: Scaling up teams, exceptional operational & program management, team leadership

Owners:
* Maxim: Business development, leadership, experience in bringing ideas from academia to the market.
* Marko: inventor, technical expertise, problem solving, strong academic background
* Peter & Erwin: successful entrepreneurs, over 30 years of experience in composite manufacturing and commercial enterprises.

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12
Q
  1. Which problems are keeping you awake at night?
A

Currently, the financial challenge of retaining the team while not yet being market competitive in salaries is a concern. Accelerating commercialization is critical to rewarding the team with the stability of a commercially successful company.

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13
Q
  1. What will the team look like in 2030?
A

Half of the organization will be working in the manufacturing department focusing on driving the industrialized manufacturing of composite joint. The other half will be divided between an engineering department to design the joints and focus on R&D, supported by an effective sales team, leadership team and supporting roles in for example HR.

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14
Q
  1. How far (TRL) are you with your product? Do you have real data, is it validated?
A

Our product has passed TRL 5, with extensive real-world data from over 250 tested joints, including full-scale validation and a DNV C-level certification for composite X-joints and a full composite floater for offshore solar.
 

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15
Q
  1. How is the company currently organized?
A

Company is led by the management team, us, daily management Maxim & Eline. Maxim leads the MT and Business Development, Eline leads Operations, Jeroen finance, with most of the engineers in either the manufacturing & engineering team.

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16
Q
  1. Who is making the decisions?
A

Company is led by the management team, with Maxim as CEO as final responsible person. We aim to keep decisiontaking as low as possible within the organisation, to ensure flexibility and efficiency, empowering team members to take ownership of their responsibilities and make decisions within their areas of expertise.

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17
Q
  1. What is the commitment of the management to the company?
A

Eline and Maxim work .8 FTE, Jeroen around .2, based on requirements. Peter and Erwin share their expertise and means to produce composites on request. Marko focusses on research at TU Delft with a team of 6, .2 commitment to TC.

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18
Q

Who is your CTO

A

At this moment: the responsibilities are taken up by Maxim, with support from Marko.

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19
Q
  1. Who holds which titles?
A

Maxim: CEO, Eline MD, Jeroen CFO. Peter Commercial Director, Lead engineers in design engineering & manufacturing team. Marko: technical advisor

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20
Q

Is there an employee option pool/ ESOP?

A

Almost, we are in the process of setting up an ESOP and have announced this to our staff.

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21
Q
  1. Is there an existing board or advisors?
A

Yes, the company has an informal advisory board including industry experts David Cerda Salzmann, Milan Veljkovic, and Frank Sliggers, who provide guidance on commercial, technical, and strategic matters.

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22
Q
  1. Who handles accounting?
A

Our CFO Jeroen Rondeel with external auditors when needed.

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23
Q

Name someone you chose not to include as a founder and why?

A

Noone. In our case, everyone who was at the founding of the company, is a founder.

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24
Q

Who filed the company

A

Maxim with Erwin and Peter

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25
Q
  1. Who is the registered agent on record?
A

Maxim

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26
Q

What is the final product

A

Our final product is a prefab composite joint that can be used as a building block to manufacture jacket foundations twice as fast, with many other benefits.

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27
Q
  1. Is there evidence of the product already being on the market?
A

We have produced the first floater with offshore composite joints that has been deployed on the Belgian North Sea. There are no other companies that offer this joint on the market, we are the inventors and first manufacturers of the composite joint

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28
Q
  1. How do the impact figures link to your product (cause-effect)?
A

I’ll focus on steel for this answer: Welding introduces stress peaks and reduces fatigue life, which leads to the use of thicker steel components. Composite is a superior material in fatigue, which leads to the reduction of up to 50% of steel weight, depending upon project design.

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29
Q
  1. Do you plan to evolve your product?
A

Yes. We see multiple optimization possibilities for the future, but currently our focus on bringing our product to the market at this stage of our development.

30
Q
  1. Is your breakthrough related to the performance of your solution or a new application?
A

It blue ocean in joining technology, so related to the superior performance of our solution.

31
Q
A
32
Q
  1. How do you ensure the quality of the product/service?
A

We ensure quality through rigourous testing protocols to de-risk our technology and compliance with DNV certification standards. During our manufacturing process, we use industrialized processes for precision and consistency and implement clear and stringent QA/QC systems.

33
Q
  1. Are you considering other applications?
A

Yes. During the start-up of Tree Composites we have identified 28 other markets which can benefit from composite joints, for example offshore floating wind, floating solar, truss bridges or something completely different: roller coasters.

34
Q
  1. How are Machine learning and bigdata integrated in the process?
A

These concepts are not yet relevant for our hardware. In automation of our production line machine learning can be incorporated in the robotization phase.

35
Q
  1. How do you ensure the quality of the input (data, materials, etc)?
A

Through stringent QA/QC processes in manufacturing and collaboration with TU Delft for any research. We use vetted suppliers that provide material certificates, any new materials are inspected and tested.

36
Q
  1. What certifications are mandatory before you can enter the market?
A
  1. What certifications are mandatory before you can enter the market?
37
Q

Where are you now in certification?

A

We have received level C, statement of compliance: we can follow the regulations from DNV within this completely new application, which is a huge step.

38
Q
  1. How do you deal with privacy of data? What is the security process?
A

As a B2B company we will collect very little personal data, what we collect will be managed in accordance with the GDPR. We keep our data secure through solid software and hardware management and training of all employees.

39
Q
  1. How will you recycle the composites?
A

According to the 4 r method: we first reduce raw material use, then enable re-use of foundations through repowering. At the end of life, which can be 100 years from now, the steel and composite can be separated and recycled. We follow the composite industry closely for best practices of recycling and energy recovery.

We can use up to 40% biobased materials in our resin and look to further innovations.

40
Q

Why is recycling of wind blades such a head ache?

A

It is not only composite (so glass and resin) but also holds lots of other components, while our composite material is more pure.

41
Q
  1. Do you produce (manufacture) the solution?
A

Yes, we manufacture composite joints in house, and at our other founders facility.

42
Q
  1. What is your manufacturing capacity?
A

Currently: up to 50.000kg/year. We need the EIC accelerator grant to scale our capacity to 250.000 kg annually by 2026 and 5million kg by 2030, sufficient for 50 jackets per year.

43
Q
  1. What is your experience in manufacturing?
A

Extensive. It includes the production of over 250 joints at various scales, culminating in the successful delivery of a full-scale composite floater. Additionally, our founders, Erwin and Peter, bring over 30 years of expertise in composite manufacturing to the team.

44
Q
  1. Where is the manufacturing done?
A

Manufacturing is conducted at our facility in Delft and at our partner Versteden B.V. in Bergen op Zoom.

45
Q
  1. What did you do to make the production scalable?
A

Our clients have a need for large scale production, (ArcelorMittal ask for example) so we need the EIC to scale the industrialized manufacturing method we developed in the past years with scale in mind. To scale that method will be part of the EIC accelerator project.

46
Q
  1. Why don’t you you outsource the manufacturing?
A

Before the founding of Tree Composites, we tried outsourcing, but no manufacturers had the expertise to combine steel and composites. We have since developed a process where components from the composites industry can be implemented, leveraging off-the-shelf solutions. In this stage: Maintaining in-house manufacturing ensures control over quality and innovation, while outsourcing and licensing are planned for future scalability.

47
Q

Why does your plan fits the the RES and it’s whole supply chain challenge?

A

The challenge aims to significantly reduce Europe’s dependency on imports - we reduce steel needed. And aims to increase EU energy independence which we contribute to by enabling jacket manufacturing yards that can’t compete with low labour prices in China to lower their price, increase their margin, output & quality trough the innovation of composite joints.

48
Q

What are the expected outcomes and impacts of the RES and it’s whole supply chain challenge?

A

Expected outcomes and impacts:
* Strengthen the European value chain producing RES.
* Limit the EU’s significant dependency on imports CRM and components necessary for the renewable energy transition.
* Enable a more diversified and risk-aware configuration of the European value chain of the RES.

49
Q

Can you summarize your cool tech for me?

(deze doorlezen, hoef je niet uit je hoofd te kunnen )

A

Tree Composites has developed the novel
composite wrapped joint technology, designed to
transform the manufacturing of jacket
foundations. This technology leverages the
strength and flexibility of composite materials to
create joints that are more durable, lighter, and
produced with significantly less time and material
than traditional welded joints. Compared to
welding, loads are transferred over a wide area
through a dedicated composite wrap and not
through the small surface of the weld. Also,
welding is a costly labour-intensive process and
every weld introduces potential points of
weakness and corrosion into the structure, negatively impacting its overall integrity

50
Q

Summarize why EIC is a nobrainer

A

We can provide the EU’s offshore wind industry with a well-founded, innovative solution to a significant challenge. This proposal is timely, addressing an urgent need for energy independence and sustainability within the EU’s strategic framework. The current geopolitical landscape and the pressing need for renewable energy elevate the importance of our solution. With EIC co-funding, we
are poised to make a significant leap towards realizing the EU’s energy transition goals, enhancing the efficiency, sustainability, and competitiveness of the European offshore wind industry.

51
Q

What is the problem that manufactureres have that your tech will save?

A

They cannot build foundations cost-effectively and in the right quantities. Composite joints will lower their costs with 25% and increase their manufacturing speed 2 times.

52
Q

What exactly do you mean with your milestone to scale up manufacturing?

A

We will scale up the process we have developed in the past year. We focus on industrializing key steps: steel surface preparation, tube alignment, fiber placement, resin infusion, and curing. These differ a lot for a test joint or a 6m joint.

53
Q

Why no casted joints?

A

Cast steel joints are heavy, expensive, have long lead times and have
unreliable quality, according to jacket manufacturers like Smulders

54
Q

Which three key milestones did you identify in the proposal?

A

1) Full certification achieved 2) Industrialized manufacturing process operational. 3) first contract for production jackets

55
Q

What about a full scale pilot?

A

We aim to develop our first offshore pilot jacket in 2026, in preparation of a launching customer for the first production jackets in 2028. These are all preparations for the first full-scale wind park to be built with composite joints in 2030.
* Key milestone: contract for first production jackets. Month 20.

56
Q

What TRL level is your industrialized manufacturing method at?

A

We’ve hit TRL 5 through years of testing, using off the shelf solutions from the mature composite industry when available, innovating for our complex geometries where needed.

57
Q

What are your work packages?

A

WP1 - Certification of design procedures and manufacturing
WP2 - Industrialization manufacturing process
WP3 - Market entry acceleration
WP4 - Project Management
WP5 - Full-scale manufacturing line
WP6 - Deliver projects for launching customers
WP7 - Market acceptance & growth acceleration
WP8 - Innovation & Continuous Improvement
WP9 - Management & Project Management

58
Q

Why do you have so many person months on project management?

A

We have budgeted 33 pm for a 24 months project: this is a key project to ensure we will hit market success, we need to be on top of our scope, budget and planning. We believe that this will take just over 1 FTE divided over more senior (PM) and more supportive roles (PMO officer)

59
Q

How many person months will you spend on WP 1

A

88, mostly by composite engineers working on the certification milestones and quality engineers tackling the quality guarantee in our manufacturing process.

60
Q

How many person months will you spend on WP 2

A

148 pm, this is our largest work package. We have identified 7 steps, starting with Steel tube preparation, 2D preforming of fiberglass and
3D preforming where learnings from industry partners and development till date are used to scale up industrialized manufacturing.

61
Q

How many person months will you spend on WP 3

A

With 115 person months we’ll work towards market entry acceleration. The work package includes BD effort, Organizational development, supply chain derisking, sustainability of materials and cost model & sensitivity analysis.

62
Q

What are the deliverables you mention in the work plan?

A

VI X joints component certification
A-level certification
Iso 9001 certification
First joint made through industrialized process.
Industrialized manufacturing process:
Contract for first production jackets
Data Management Plan
Dissemination Plan

63
Q

What are your milestones for grant & investment work packages

A

Key technology milestone: DNV A-LevelCertification Achieved 1 24
Key technology milestone: Industrialized manufacturing process operational 2 19
Initial jacket contract signed 3 20
Lead investor secured 4 12
New plant location secured 5
Full-scale manufacturing line commissioning
First jacket delivery to launching customer 6 30
Full-scale wind park contract signed 7 36
10% yearly cost reduction

64
Q

What is your Contribution to UN Sustainable Development Goals?

A

Our proposal is strongly aligned with several UN Sustainable Development Goals, notably Goal 13: Climate Action and Goal 7: Affordable and Clean Energy.

65
Q

Why can’t we just get cheaper jackets from China, what’s the problem?

A

If we choose cheaper jackets now, we will lose a whole industry in the coming years and will forever be dependent upon China. Within the RES challenge, EIC aims to strenthen the supply chain and make it more risk averse - which we do - and lower our import of RES critical components.

66
Q

What if you do not get the EIC?

A

We will slow down scaling manufacturing and focus on certification and get income through secondary markets. For Europe: we risk losing an entire industry to China that is crucial for our energy independence

67
Q

What do you mean by scaling of manufacturing technology?

A

We have a proven industrialized process developed with scale in mind, now we need to scale up to make our supply guarantees and quality guarantees.

68
Q

At what level are you now for scaling up manufacturing method?

A

We passed TRL 5, showing that our joints have th e same performance with this procedure as the handmade joints.

69
Q

What tech challenges do you still need to solve?

A

We use proven technology from the mature composite industry, that we need to apply succesfully to our complex joints such that we can guarantee volume & quality needed.

70
Q

Why do you meet this challenge?

A

This challenge focuses on RES and its proposals can target one or more of thefollowing objectives:
* scale-up the manufacturing of RES that produce heat and electricity from renewable sources at different scales (e.g., power plants or at small scale level), location (on or offshore) and uses (from stationary to mobility).

71
Q

What is the most important risk for the company?

A

The key risk is the asymmetry between the ability to scale up the team and resources and the timing of incoming revenue will be delayed. Mitigation: EIC accelerator, lower our time to market

Pitch vragen (2 decks)

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