4. Pain Points of Networking
“Where do I start?”
“Do we have anything
in common?”
“Who do I talk to?”
“How can I make the
most of my time?”
“What would that person
be interested in?”
“I wonder if
they have free
food?”
17. Risks and Threats
• Competition: Big Players
• In-House Solutions: LinkedIn, Eventbrite
• Unwillingness of Organizers to Pay
18. Down the road…
1
2
3
• Collect user data
• Suggest events and add advertisement to revenue
• Get established within Boston and New York
• Expand event coverage to other major cities
• Exit by acquisition
19. Meet The Team
Chris Tolles, CEO
Design and Innovation
Abhinav Nair, CTO
Computer Engineering
Francisco Marques, CFO
Finance and Strategy
Nayef Alsedais, CMO
Marketing and Sales
We’re here to present you Intro.MeOur team members are…
We all went or will go to professional network events.What do you do to prepare for it?Suit->Look goodElevator Pitch->good first impressionResume->show some experienceBusiness cards->contact infoTopics to discuss->fluid conversation; common interests etc…Research->Show you careExcitement->Show you careWith all this, you think you got it all covered and everything is gonna be great!
However, our research shows that most network events end up like this.
People we talked to mentioned a series of pain points, including “How to make the most of my time?”, “Where do I start?” “Who do I talk to?” “Do we have anything in common?” etc..And this is what we hope to solve in the future… We’ll take care of their pain points and make their networking experience more efficient.
Intro.Me will provid four components which we think will pave the way for a rewarding experience.The overall goal of reducing conversional waste rate will come through useful connections, easy ice breakers, productive encounters and easy contact info sharing.
How does it work?Chris sets it up on his smart phone…..
We have categorized our stakeholders into two different segments: event attendees and event organizers. The attendees will download Intro.Me for free, use it during large events and enjoy better networking outcomes with reduced effort. Event organizers pay upfront to provide the app service to the end users. In the end, they will improve the overall quality of attendees’experience.
Through our primary data we found a wide range of willing to pay, between $40 all the way up to $3,600. Comparing to other apps used by event organizers, $600 is a competitive initial price. We expect to tune this price during our beta phase (taking several factors into consideration, such as the size and frequency of events).Our most significant costs are salaries and Sales & Marketing expenses. We had a pretty idea about the salaries we had to pay. However, for the SG&A expenses we used a weighted average of Facebook, Yelp and LinkedIn and ended up with 38% of revenues.We expect to have a 1% market share in the first year and increase all the way up to 40% of the market share in year 5.
As seen in this graph, we will post positive EBIT in the beginning of Year 3 and breakeven in the beginning of year 4.
One major threat is the possible entry of competitors. Big companies like google, facbook are into connecting people concept and may develop a product simillar to oursAnother threat is that companies like LinkedIn and Eventbribe might develop a similar product in-house With a price of $600 we are confident we are providing a competitive offer. However, organizers might find The app not as valuable as we expect which will force us to drop the price accordingly which may effect our breakeven point
Our future plan to collect user data to improver our match algorithm in order to suggest events and add focused advertisement to our revenue stream Initially, we will start in Boston and NYC and we hope to expand in other major cities in the US.Our goal is to be acquired down the road by companies like Evenbrite or LinkedIn
Our management team consist of Chris Tolles who will serve as CEO. Chris has a design and innovation background.Abhinav Nair as CTO. Abhinav has substantial experience in app development and will be in charge of the technical aspects including developing the app & the Algorithm and hiring technicians.Our CFO is Francisco Marques who is almost done with an MBA from BU with a finance and startegy concentration Last but not least is my self NayefAlsedais. I will be handling marketing and sales. I have a 5 years experience in retail and marketing and pricing strategy. While each member specific job description we will still work together and use inputs from each member in all departments
People we talked to mentioned a series of pain points, including “How to make the most of my time?”, “Where do I start?” “Who do I talk to?” “Do we have anything in common?” etc..And this is what we hope to solve in the future… We’ll take care of their pain points and make their networking experience more efficient.
