Well, I didn't keep the blog up at all, so probably no one is checking anymore. I've been in Zurich since Sunday; it was really sunny and hot when we got here, and we spent a whole day doing nothing, which we all needed. A few pictures on facebook here. We rented a paddleboat with a slide and went around the lake, including sliding into the giant fountain, and it was awesome! Here's a video:
Zurich is really nice, although not quite as exciting as London or Paris. And it's expensive! A Swiss Franc is about on par with the US$, and some sample prices are:
Bottle of beer in a bar: $7
Pizza for one hungry person: $20-$25
Movie: $20
A ride on the tram: $4
Sandwich meat: $10-$35/pound
Some crappy cafeteria food at ETH (the university): $10-$12
Of course, I was told the minimum wage in Switzerland is 3,500 CHF a month, so it's no wonder that things are expensive here. Also, the maximum income tax is 10%, and if you're really rich you pay less, because you can negotiate it!
We continue to be beaten into submission by lectures, although they have slowed down a lot (we had another lecture on climate change and the insurance industry today by someone from SwissRe today, which I skipped). We're spending a lot more time on the business plan now, which is actually less exciting than it sounds (brainstorming marketing strategies, filling in financial Excel spreadsheets, making wild assumptions like how many houses we'll sell services to in the first year, etc). Everyone is kind of burned out, we didn't really develop our ideas until the 4th week or so, and so it feels really rushed. It would be more fun if I thought I might actually start this business, but I know that's pretty much not going to happen. First of all, our initial market is southern France, and I don't speak French. Second, none of us have any experience or money. It may be an idea that could be deployed in other areas like the Netherlands, or even the US, although the US has a lot of people doing what we're doing already. The best thing about it is the experience of working in a team to develop an actual business plan, and because it's similar to the idea I worked on last quarter (household power in India), there may be some ideas that cross-apply. We did a feasibility study last quarter for that idea, and will write the actual business plan this coming semester.
The best parts of this trip have been meeting entrepreneurs; we met a guy in London who took this old plastic technology, Dupont makes this plastic sheeting that acts as a vapor barrier for things like railroad ties, and it pervaporates water. This guy was in a meeting with some Dupont guy and thought it was cool, so he made it into a pipe and uses it for super low water use irrigation systems. The best part is that only the water pervaporates through (in most cases), so you can use salt water (they've used water 100 times saltier than the ocean) or water with all sorts of toxins in it- you just have to make sure to move enough water through that the pipe doesn't get coated and clog. He's just getting started, but has several pilot projects going, mostly being sponsored by governments in the Arabia region. The website is here, which he built on his own using the built-in Apple software (it kind of shows).
