After hyping the meeting Menard gave his Facebook readers a report. The emphasis is mine:
Those of you who are familiar with Rob's entrepreneurial efforts and inventions will recall his proposed vitamin supplement product, his pitched property stewardship company, which was to employ homeless people to renovate foreclosed properties, and the infamous Ninja Goat, an outdated motorized camera platform he proposed to sell to the film industry.Robert Menard: Well that went about as well as I hoped! Very cool folks, and although they liked my design it was not what they were looking for. They prefer an aeroponics misting system for the roots as opposed to a flood and drain system, they want the units fixed in place but still modular instead of mobile units, and they want to be able to go up at twice or three times the height of my design. They did like my design for someone who wants to maybe grow in their garage, but they have in mind a much higher production capacity than my design was aiming for.
So... they asked me to redesign my unit to meet their needs, include greater detail in the drawings so they can get it in front of an engineer and do a cost analysis, and give a better more detailed construction plan. If I can come in under about $3500 US for a 4'x 8' multi-tier modular plug and play units and still include the control system, I think they may offer me the contract to set up their urban farm, or, consider a partnership and creation of a new corporate entity to manufacture and sell these larger industrial sized units.
They liked it, they just want bigger. Either way, I see them in two weeks with the new plan, designed to their stated specs.
If you recall each effort was hyped on the internet or on Facebook showing the usual Menard excitement with the supposedly bold new idea. In each case a meeting with or a solid connection to the product's prospective users was hyped and reported on. In each case Menard said he needed to make a few more adaptions to his invention or idea, but needed just a few more thousand dollars to get the project rolling. I suspect in this case the pitch to investors will come around the time of the next meeting in two weeks.
I have to admit that this time I was hoping Bobby might, in his 50's, be on the way to making his way in the world. But I see the pattern. I think all Bobby wants are investors who will eventually be told that the project didn't happen and their money went up in smoke.
Think about it. The Facebook faithful are being told that a successful restaurant chain is calling serious meetings with guy who, by a simple Google search, can be discovered as a failed freeman guru on the run from the courts.
Oh, please!
