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Gratitude point intro_n_investment_summary_may_2011
1. GratitudePoint.com: An Introduction, and Investment Summary Shantanu Kangude Matt Fairchild Harshal Chhaya Contact: media@gratitudepoint.com / +1-214-235-3844
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7. Solution: Always-on Web-portal (3/3) 05/17/11 Help. Thank. Feel Good. Post a Request for Help People Respond with offers to help on the website Thank those who help with GPs, and “ Journal ” your Gratitude 1. 2. 3. Need a ride from the airport home; Thursday 4pm to the uptown area
Hello Everyone, and welcome to the Introduction and Investment Summary Presentation of GratitudePoint.Com. I am Shantanu Kangude, one of the founders of the company, and I will be presenting this fast track presentation of a slidecast. Please pause the slidecast, and/or replay tracks as needed. Given that this is a non interactive slidecast, please send us your questions at the email address listed on this slide – media@ gratitudepoint .com . Or call us at 214-235-3844.
This Outline slide lists all the high level topics we’ll discuss about Gratitude Point.com from differentiators and competition to marketing, sales, current status, and plans. We end with a quick discussion on the investment opportunity.
The problem statement. So we believe there is a lot of Gratitude and Goodwill in the world. While this is good, it is easily forgotten… and there is no way to keep track of it… like something QUANTIFIABLE IN AN ACCOUNT. As the picture shows, we currently do not have a QUANTIFIABLE way to answer, or even JOURNAL – how much is there in our life to be grateful for.
Also, there is a lot of potential for Gratitude and Goodwill that is completely missed. Number 1. While there are lot of good people who may love to help us, it is difficult to find who is trustworthy and who is not… and so we simply do not seek assistance on certain tasks. Number 2. Vice versa, helping others can be difficult too, especially using the current classifieds websites etc. Issues include trust, lack of specific info, usability issues etc. Number 3. Reciprocating, which is an integral part of helping and receiving help – is also difficult. Many times we do not have anything to offer that the other person may want.
So, how does Gratitude Point solve these problems. Gratitude Point is an always available web portal… as the name implies it is “A PLACE FOR ALL OF YOUR GRATITUDE”. - It allows members to give gratitude points or rewards to anyone for any reason such as having received help on a task. - These rewards are not pre-negotiated, but rather out of goodwill - The site allows us to journal our gratitude as shown in the image at the bottom. We give Gratitude Points, and journal a reason why we are grateful. In this example, I thanked our marketing coordinator Beatriz for doing a great job, and gave her 50 Gratitude Points.
This slide emphasizes that Gratitude Points are equivalent to cash. They are valueable. They need to be either bought or received from someone else, before they can be given. Every Gratitude Point in the system has been bought for cash sometime by someone. Equivalently, Gratitude Points can be redeemed for cash.
This next slide describes how the website enables users to connect with AND help each other. - First, a user posts a Request seeking help on a task. Example, a user needs a ride from the airport to their home on a specific day and specific time - Other users see this Request, and may respond with offers to help. May be they happen to be driving along the same route around the same time. Next, the user decides and tells the person they choose to get the help from. Once they receive the help, they “COMPLETE” the Request by Thanking the helper, and giving them Gratitude Points. In this example, I thanked my friend Sergio coz he picked me up from the airport, and gave him 20 Gratitude Points.
So what is the underlying magic? How will we differentiate from imitators and competitors? Firstly, the website is a marriage of 2 ideas THAT MAKE EACH OTHER EXCITING AND COOL. - Sharing and Tracking our Gratitude - And Helping Each other Sharing and Tracking Gratitude is more fun as we can help each other and share and track the increase in Gratitude. Helping each other is more fun as we can quantifiably share and track how much we helped or received help. The entire concept is perfectly suited to the always available and accessible from anywhere ONLINE medium too.
Other ways we seek to differentiate ourselves. - Our site creates automatic Gratitude Journal of all Gratitude Interactions on the website. These journals are known to improve happiness and satisfaction by Psychologists and religious people alike. - The site aims for high quality and relevant content, and focuses heavily on ease of use. The posts and even visibility of posts can be very finely customized on location, author type, remote or not, time, tags, etc. The Requests for help can be finely controlled for visibility, suspension etc. There is a feedback system for members, as well as a concept of a trusted circle of members. This allows for easier decisions on trusting specific members. - We also focus on strong community building. Customers usually choose between competing services based on the community they enjoy being part of. The site provides the user community to connect with each other with the blog, a forum, social media like Facebook and Twitter. It also allows members to interact with non-members – the GPs given to the non-members are stored safe until they join. The concept of “Circle”, which is similar to the Facebook friend concept, allows for further personalization of the website experience. Finally, our team’s unique passion in positive psychology means we constantly improve and update the features.
The business model – Revenue sources – There are 3 main sources of revenue for the website. - the first one is targeted advertisements. The Requests for help on the website imply a user looking for specific service at a specific location and time. This knowledge is extremely valuable for service providers, and such targeted ads can be charged higher per click. Besides Requests, the blog and other content may also host ads and affiliate links that generate revenue. - the second source is the interest earned on money equivalent of the Gratitude Points in the website system. While the interest rates are low, the money in the savings account, equivalent to the redemption value of the gratitude points in the system, earns interest. - And the final one is the GP redemption processing fee. When redeeming GPs for cash, the value of GPs is 80% of their value compared to their purchase value. This is done to discourage frequent redemptions, and to promote exchanges of GPs in the system itself.
Next, the expenses may also be classified into 3 categories. - one, the operating expenses for the website – which include server costs, maintenance, legal, accounting, customer service etc. - Next is Research and Development expense. This deals with improving the website platform, and adding new features and capabilities to it - The third high level category of expense is the Marketing and Promotions expense, including community building and engagement.
Marketing and Sales – this first slide shows general industry trends and market interest for the website. The target demographic/ psychographic for the website is on the rise. This includes people interested in Personal Development, Positive Psychology, New Age, as well as those interested in Thrifty living, and do it yourself. Also internet advertising revenues are on the rise, which is one of the monetizing methods for the site. Market interest wise, we have evidence in the form of interest in the idea of the website through social media. We have more than 3000 followers on our facebook Fanpage, and more than 3600 followers on our twitter account. Additionally, without any campaign, the front page of the website attracted 57 requests from people to register on the website.
This next slide shows how we aim to acquire new users. Most of it is inbound marketing. Social media like Twitter and Facebook attract new visitors to the site. So do the blog articles as they are shared and discovered. Advertising such as Search Ads and Facebook ads help bring more new users too. Existing members can interact with non-members on the website, and thus invite them to become members. Giving promotional free Gratitude points to new invitees will incentivize new membership too. Offline marketing activities such as inviting charities and community organizations will promote new membership too.
How do we ensure repeat use? By focusing on usability, trust, and privacy. This was mentioned in the “Underlying magic” slides earlier. Having relevant, high quality content updated frequently, along with the ease of use is important for repeat customers. This is ensured through the website By enabling easy updates By discouraging bad content through a feedback system Promoting daily gratitude giving activities Regular updates through the blog and the social media outlets How do we plan on bringing advertisers? we focus on building a loyal and large community, and start with generic ad networks like adSense and affiliate ad networks We later transition to our own system for targeted ads based on data from GP Requests
Competition: Our main competitors are “work for credit” type of sites. These sites allow users to post tasks, get them done, and exchange credits. There are lots of sites which are either for larger tasks with lot of overhead of transactions – such as Elance, Sologig, Odesk etc. Or are in very specific areas of work – such as 99designs in Graphic design, Cramster in HW help, and writing.com etc. However, the greatest competition is from sites that involve smaller tasks and transactions, and involve GENERIC PRE-NEGOTIATED bartering. Examples include BarterQuest, U-exchange, Favorpals, Craigslist, Fiverr, and Taskrabbit.
Another type of websites that can be considered competitors are Positive Psychology type of sites. These focus on positive emotions and Gratitude, and New Age concepts such as intent etc. Generic DoItYourself and money saving sites may also be considered competitors. Examples include Favorpoints.com, Gratitudelog.com, Intent.com, helpeachother.com, and Iphone apps made by happytapper.com However, in our opinion, these can be more of partners than competitors.
This slide talks about the 2 founders and their experience and qualifications in brief. Please pause and go over the details at your own pace.
The supporting team besides the founders includes a number of people working on contract. In summary, this slide shows that we have a full team with all major areas covered. Please pause and read at your leisure.
Next, let’s discuss the current status of the company
The first area for status update is – Product Development and Operations. We have a fully functional website with ongoing usability testing and improvements Beautification improvements are beginning soon with a Graphics designer already hired Administrative interface development to monitor and manage the site, and to catch any bugs, errors, and anomalies in the site operations is under development in full swing. The website is released invitation only, to control and fix issues in the software as we go. Invitees and current members can invite as many as they like. Backups are fully functional on Amazon S3
Status update on marketing: We have a very good social media presence with more than 3000 followers on facebook, and more than 3600 followers on Twitter. We also have regular updates going on – on our pages at these sites. We have a blog that has been publishing at least 2 entries entries per week for the last 1 year or so. Average readership of articles is 60 people/post We also received 57 requests to register on the website without any campaign besides a link on our Facebook page, and a form to Request invitation Our Facebook advertisement campaign has been very successful with an average expense of 40cents per new follower with our current working ad In other updates, we have some promotional giveaways such as t-shirts and money reserved to be given as promotional Gratitude Points. In addition, Search Engine Optimizations are ongoing.
This slide shows a quick snapshot of the dashboard from Google Analytics for our site taken on April 20, 2011. Please check it out at your leisure. We’d like to draw attention that our marketing efforts like blog, facebook, twitter, and Facebook advertisements have led to about 3774 unique visitors to our site. And all this without having the site available for registration. For the latest snapshot, please email us.
The legal, accounting, and status of Investment in the company. In legal, - we have the company legal structure of Texas C-corp with 100,000 shares approved for issue Terms of Service, Privacy policy documents approved by lawyers, and the Gratitude Point Trademark is already issued to us. In terms of books, our spending has been extremely conservative for the last year We invested and spent about $20000 in the last year We also had a small revenue of $38 so far from Google adsense and affiliate links on the blog In terms of investment, about 11.5% of the approved shares are still to be issued, or can be considered owned by the company We have about 6 total owners/investors of the company so far
Now, let’s discuss our plans for the company for the next 7 months or so. The expenses mentioned will be for 6 months in many cases, as current cash reserves are expected to cover 1 month of June in many categories.
The plan for operations: Of course, the main course of action is to open the website to more users Then, enable larger scale operation with possibly few 100,000 users. This will include software and server optimizations, load sharing, and high bandwidth connectivity etc. We’re looking to enable point in time recovery of the database in the area of Backups and storage The resources required for operations, which excludes research and development, adds to about $4000 as the slide shows. Please pause the slidecast to view at your leisure.
The plans for product development are listed in this busy slide. usability and beautification feedback is being incorporated There are known outstanding features to be implemented – including facebook based login and registration. Other plans include a mobile version of the site equivalent to a mobile app, a Facebook app, Corporate giving, and nonprofit receiving accounts, automated promotional schemes and Testing/Quality assurance etc.
The resources required for development include the compensation for our developers excluding the founders. This totals to $29,200.
Next, the marketing plan: We plan to bring-in new users to the site through Facebook Advertisements and other social media and blog activities. The budget for Facebook ads is $6000 with one thousand dollars a month. The return is every new follower for forty cents as mentioned earlier. The blog and social media operations cost $1000/month and total to $6000 for 6 months. The rest of the budget is for promotional giveaways like t-shirts and free Gratitude Points to new members. This adds $1000 from investment, and $4000 to be raised through crowd-investing from sites like Kickstarter.com The total is $13000 from investment and $4000 from crowd-investing
Other marketing activities will include Search Engine Optimizations and Analytics at $500 Site Beautification with a Graphics Artist at $500 Usability testing awards at $500 And some general reserve money of $500 to total $2000.
Next, the plan in terms of the team members for development, we have our team set, and there are no plans to hire any more people For Marketing, we maintain the current team, and have a graphics artist’s feedback plus some volunteers’ testing The current legal team is good enough, but we may need to hire a CPA for company accounts. The resources required are covered in their respective sections
Next the plan and resources for Legal and Accounting. As mentioned in the previous slide a CPA may need to be hired – at $1000/year. Although there is no pending legal formalities, we reserve $1000 for the rest of the year for it. Total $2000.
This leads us to final section of this presentation on the Investment Opportunity.
The total investment sought – from the previous slides on the plans, is $54,200. Out of this $50,200 is sought from individual investors, and $4000 is sought from crowd sourcing – as in from sites like kickstarter.com.
This slide shows the offered investment details. The minimum investment accepted is $3000, and the offered company share is 1% of the company for $6000. The maximum investment accepted is $60K.
This slide shows how we came up with the valuation of the company. At the offered investment rate of 1% of the company for $6000, the company is valued at $600,000. How is this fair? Firstly, the investments that we received last july valued the company at $500,000. Then, based on recent sales of community websites, we observed that sites with a few 10s of thousands of users sell for a few million dollars Moderately successful sites sell for a few 10s of millions of dollars Successful sites like mint.com sold for $175 million in cash
Finally, the exit strategy and expected return on investment Our exit strategy is to be acquired by a bigger firm; another option, less likely though, is to go public. Return on investment is of course the increase in company value along with possible dividends A quick overview of Assets and Liabilities is in order here. We have no liabilities currently, and there are no plans for any loans either In terms of Assets, -we have a FEATURE RICH and SOPHISTICATED website software system – with a management interface -this system can be deployed for other website communities that are private for companies -also possible are other public sites that involve classifieds, and a points or credit system, and with a ratings and feedback system for users
To summarize, we discussed about Gratitude Point, our community website with a mission to make Gratitude and Goodwill more exciting, pervasive, and easy. The site focuses strongly on usability, and marries the ideas of “helping each other” and “Gratitude sharing and tracking” The current status is that the site is launched fully functional – but is invitation only – as usability and other tests and improvements are carried on. We discussed our plans on Development, marketing, and operations, and closed with a discussion of the investment opportunity. At the end, we have our contact information listed for further questions, comments, suggestions etc. Please call us or email us. The next few slides are backup slides which include our mission statement and the vision statement. Hope you enjoy browsing through them and the main presentation at your leisure. Thank you for your attention.
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