TanCADEM Corporation is an idea. Yes, we have taken out corporate registration in the State of Washington. Yes, we have constructed detailed product specifications for all of our product lines and modules. However, what we have is a shell. It will take somewhere between $5.8 and $7.2 million to make TanCADEM a reality in fact. [Our best guess is that it will take $6.5 million to cover everything when the "dust settles".] Just to carry our programming efforts to the next stage of development requires approximately $163,000 to be spent purchasing the libraries and licenses we need for our products. It will take about 17,000 man-hours of programming effort and about 8,000 man-hours of testing effort to prepare our first TanCAD product for release. This cannot be done on a shoestring. We need financial backing to make this happen!

We have been talking with potential investors for more than a year now. We have learned a lot of "lessons" in this process. This is no trivial exercise. The only way we will convince someone that we know what we are talking about in terms of the profitability TanCADEM represents is with your help!

We have some 70,000 names and addresses of Generic and Visual CADD users on our mailing list today. This sounds like and is a large number. However, potential investors want to see us have a mailing list that it at least twice the size of the one we have now. There were more than 360,000 Generic CADD users in 1992. We must find every one of them we can! Do not worry about duplicates. If you are or know of Generic/Visual CADD users hiding out in odd corners, please send us their "contact information" (name, mailing address, phone numbers, and e-mail address) so we can add them to our mailing list. [We will only use this information in support of the TanCADEM launch.] Our "sorting routines" will eliminate duplicate entries. Please help us find every Generic/Visual CADD user or wannabe hiding in the weeds!

We need "testimonial letters" (e-mail is too easy to forge and won’t "cut it") from people stating: (A) that you support the TanCADEM launch; (B) what it is about Generic/Visual CADD that you find makes you more productive than other CAD systems; and (C) what is lacking from other CAD systems you may have tried that keeps you coming back to Generic/Visual CADD. You do not need to write long tomes. Just a couple of paragraphs are sufficient. These letters will be shown to potential investors to demonstrate that we really are filling a true need. Quantity rather than quality is what counts here.

[I was presenting the TanCADEM proposal to a group of potential investors back in August. The decision had already gone "against" me before we even met. Part way through the meeting, I laid the file folder that had 40-50 "testimonial letters" in it on the table. The group stepped out into the hall and, as I found out later, discussed "revisiting" the TanCADEM proposal because of the support expressed in the "testimonial letters". I can’t help thinking that had I had 150-200 letters in my folder that they would have "reconsidered" their position.]

And, of course, if you happen to know someone who can afford to invest several million dollars in TanCADEM, we would really appreciate an introduction to them. We honestly believe that we can generate a very good return on investment for someone with the vision to help TanCADEM change from a shell corporation into a real force in the CAD/CAE/CAM industry!

Lew Merrick, P.E.

TanCADEM Corporation

PO Box 5000

Quilcene, WA 98376-5000

USA

(360) 765-4933 (v)

(360) 765-4929 (f)

tangent@olympus.net