At this stage we have 9 investors and are talking to 2 more people.
We've incorporated but disciplined ourselves to having at least the first 10 before we start spending significant amounts of money on development. Looking for land and construction are therefore set to start very soon but we will continue to accept investors through the construction period until the facility becomes operational.
We recognise that there is a risk factor involved with signing up for a cryonics organisation that is completely new (so new it isn't even operating yet). That's why the pioneering investors are given increased voting rights and involvement in the project along with a number of other benefits.
Once we start construction we will continue to accept investors but with less voting rights. The main advantage for this group will be the discounted cost of a suspension. ($50,000 final and complete cost, as opposed to the cost of suspension at the time the client deanimates).
After the facility is operational we anticipate charging more than $50,000 for a suspension but this cost may increase over time as a result of inflationary pressures. Obviously we will be aiming to keep costs as low as possible because we want to make the service accessible to as many people as possible but we also need to ensure the organization remains financially viable.
Any rough figures yet about how the cost will break down into life insurance payout vs ongoing fees?
As a young and fairly healthy adult I'm not really concerned about final costs (life insurance is cheap!) but as a low-income earner (at the moment) I am concerned about annual fees.
Potentially of interest to my fellow antipodean LessWrongers. Stasis Systems Australia is a company seeking to start a cryonics facility in Australia. Their website is pretty sparse, but they just sent out a mailing list update on how they are going, and it doesn't appear that the information therein is located in any news section of the website, so I thought I'd post it here.