A note from GoSun CEO Patrick Sherwin about all the plans that GoSun has for the future, and how you can join us as we move toward the fuel-free frontier. Scroll down to the bottom of this post to watch the video and learn how you can get involved.
This is Patrick Sherwin CEO of GoSun. Today I'll give you a deeper look into what GoSun is doing to make consumer solar products accessible like never before. We are seeing some very big and promising trends and clean technology that should help scale our business that we'll discuss here this regulation see investor presentation.
In just a few years GoSun has emerged as one of the world's leading consumer solar brands and with a strategy that I'll describe today. We’re on a rocket ship of growth based on reliable affordable fuel-free appliances.
Humans have been using fire for over 300,000 years and very little has changed if you're like one of the 3 billion people around the world still buying wood or charcoal on a daily basis. This is what your kitchen looks like: they're generally cooking indoors behind toxic fumes, which makes one of the leading causes of preventable death worldwide, and that's not to mention the safety risks the economic burden and the environmental footprint of cooking with fire. If you look closer to home the situation is different, but we are still using archaic technology, while outdoors traditional sources of energy that use things like propane charcoal wood and fossil fuels are expensive, harmful to the environment, and often unavailable. Simply put, traditional energy sources fall short in providing what people need, especially while outdoors or off-grid.
At GoSun, we believe it is time to stop burning stuff with global warming looming, with most of us still dependent on fossil fuels. We believe that it's time to thrive without volatile, faraway energy sources.
I've always known there was a better way and that solar could seriously improve people's lives, bolstering health and independence. You may have seen the dynamic growth of solar devices, but there's not a clear leader in the space. GoSun is bringing forward an array of clean technology appliances that are the best use of today's solar power lithium-ion storage energy efficiency and electronic controls. All these technologies have reached scale and have become highly affordable, but GoSun is one of the world's only companies to see these trends come together and actively build solar-powered appliances.
Now that we've captured an audience of early adopters and built a strong team, we are poised to jump across the chasm that many young companies fall in. GoSun is moving into large markets, where our brand equity will allow us to capture far larger customer bases, starting from our solid base and listening to what our customers want and need.
We have organically gained traction by launching several innovations. 2018’s launch of the hybrid solar and electric oven, the Fusion, positioned us to launch a solar-powered cooler in 2019, and there's several other breakthrough products in the pipeline. The numbers from the markets where we sell are large and growing: The BBQ market is $1.5 billion, coolers and portable fridges is $2.5 billion, and RV camping is a $36 billion market. Looking at disaster relief, the numbers are staggering, and as disaster events increase, the need for GoSun increases. Finally, we are getting close to some big orders in Africa. where success could put millions of our products on the ground.
Imagine having a kitchen you can take wherever you want. It's completely safe and it requires no fuel any ice and no freshwater with GoSun.You can have cook food sanitation and refrigeration, even when far from the grid or when the power grid is down. Our affordable solar appliances offer a never-ending fuel canister or bags of ice. We make products that are way better than the status quo without compromising ease-of-use or performance. Solar rooftops are great, but they don't really put power into people's hands and unfortunately, most solar power devices have fallen short of meeting modern fast-paced needs.
GoSun's core technology is over three times more efficient than solar PV and all our solutions remain portable, easy to use, and affordable. Existing solar ovens have not caught on; they are typically slow, bulky, and dangerous. But thanks to our vacuum insulated oven, you can now cook anywhere regardless of the weather. When there's no more sunlight, our latest solar and electric hybrid oven cooks a meal or five in just 40 minutes, or it can plug into a 12-volt socket to cook indoors or at night. That's unique because it only draws 1/10 of the power of a toaster oven, so this is the first stove to cook with electricity while off-grid.
When it comes to keeping things cold, coolers have to be continuously filled with more ice, yet the ice is pulverizing our food, taking up 50% of the space available in the cooler. As it melts, everything turns into a sloppy mess. GoSun offers a portable fridge that replaces your cooler, thus eliminating ice and all of its melting mess. You never have to buy ice again, plus the Chill is designed to keep your food cold or frozen dry and organized together.
GoSun’s products become an off-grid kitchen that is great fun while traveling and also a lifesaver in an event like where we were beginning to face with the coronavirus this year. We plan to launch a portable water filtration system that not only creates clean water, but it also quickly deploys into a kitchen sink, and a hot shower to make sure you're staying fresh and sanitized. We operate across a few large markets, mainly with recreation, where we serve both outdoor enthusiasts who spend time in their backyards, at events, camp, boat, and RV. These customers are spending more to live a cleaner lifestyle, but the options that they have are somewhat limited.
Here's our product lineup, ranging from small, below $100, on up to a large family-scale at around $700. Since our solar products are so much better we've been able to address real-life demands in disaster relief and in developing worlds. Our deals with the American Red Cross are pushing us into more austere off-grid applications as we continue to adapt and test our fuel-free solutions in the field
GoSun has had good sales growth over the past few years and we anticipate this is just the tip of the iceberg. We've moved over 40,000 units to over 70 countries worldwide and amassed a solid IP portfolio both in the US and in China. We did $1.87 million in sales last year and we should see solid growth in years to come.
From a marketing perspective, we are narrowing our focus decreasing our customer acquisition costs and hiring the best people we can find to help us whisper to our customers who want to hear our message instead of shouting in all directions. This has helped us double our conversion rate and our average customer lifetime value has gone up four-fold in just one year.
So how are we doing? Our mission is to make things that create more fun resilience and independence all of which are trends that are in big demand. We've built strategic partners in new main sales channels online and through a b2b network. We're selling to all major web sites and we've captured about a hundred thousand emails, and even more people are following us on social media, so when we have news or promotion, we get results quickly. A large number of articles have been written about GoSun because our technology is so innovative and disruptive.
We are the first solar company to receive a grant from the United Nations Foundation through the clean cooking alliance. We've received a number of awards and we've been invited to the White House back in 2016. We are growing internationally through partners who distribute similar products and have a vested interest in our success.
We have an office in Ghana, the Netherlands Canada, Australia, and Japan. Green Light Planet is Africa's leading micro solar company and we're currently getting our low-cost solar ovens in with their distribution channels. We have a licensing deal with the American Red Cross and they have been starting to place orders. For example, when a category 5 typhoon wrecked Saipan in the South Pacific a couple years ago, they cleared out all of our inventory.
So what's next for GoSun? We see a huge opportunity to serve a rapidly growing tiny-house market with an all-inclusive solar home on wheels that celebrates indoor/outdoor living. Many people seek the release from the daily grind to be off-grid so our solar-powered home can be used during a vacation as a second home getaway or for full-time living. There's a huge need for affordable off-grid housing in America. Tiny houses and RVs are very popular, but very few of them are efficient cost-effective and self-sufficient. GoSun's latest solution will address shelter by helping customers efficiently manage the systems that our technology already excels at: cooking, cooling, power, and water, all under one solar-powered roof that is focused on portability.
Our structure will be far more nimble, rugged, and versatile than others, almost like a hybrid travel trailer RV that can be moved by most pickup trucks. The GoSun tiny home will also have the ability to plug into any one of the 13,000 RV resorts throughout the country so you'll always have a home since affordability is critical. GoSun plans to produce 10 homes during each batch and then pre-sell the homes via crowdfunding to finance the endeavor at this scale. GoSun can save twenty to forty percent in cost when compared to DIY or custom home builders.
GoSun has a strong team with a lot of success in cleantech and startups. I've been working in renewable energy for 20 years, trying to figure out how to get the Sun to power our lives, and my VP of development, Gary Starr, has been doing cleantech startups since the 1970s. He has been a major player in solar and electric vehicles through his career in the San Francisco Bay Area, and he's a major force in GoSun's continued success.
Our innovation team is lean and process-oriented. We have a full-time employee in China who works with our suppliers to keep things in good shape, and we have a solid bunch of designers and engineers. Coming from the Midwest we were able to access a lot of talent at a very reasonable rate. We are young scrappy and hungry and we're not throwing away our shot.
To make the shift to solar power, please consider an investment during our Series A offering on Start Engine. GoSun is going to become the leading name in consumer solar and we would love to have you join us on the fuel-free frontier.
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