GNB Investment Nov FINAL

this is for
everyone
The Global NoticeBoard
this is for
everyone
Case for Support

this is for
everyone
TABLE OF CONTENTS
P1 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
P6 THE GLOBAL NOTICEBOARD
+ The Founding Vision
+ Purpose and Mission
+ Team Values
+ Organisational Structure
+ The Product / Technology
+ What Makes Us Different
P19 COMPANY PROFILE
+ Company Background, The Story So Far
+ Team Plus Stakeholders
+ Independence
+ Strategic Positioning / Partnership Strategy
+ Pipeline Research Projects
P28 MARKET ANALYSIS
+ Market Analysis
+ Industry Analysis
+ Competitor Analysis
P34 MARKETING AND SALES STRATEGY
+ Traffic / The role of Customisable NoticeBoards
+ The Viral Coefficient
+ Successful Viral Expansions
+ The Application Growth Cycle
+ Traffic Driving Strategies
+ Traffic Retention Strategies
+ Growth Strategy
+ Scalability
+ Risk Analysis
+ Key Metrics
P48 FINANCIAL PLAN
+ The Business Model
+ Financial Modelling
+ Use of Funds Raised Through the Offering
+ Market Flotation / Exit Strategy
+ Financial Return On Investment
+ Social Return On Investment
P52 APPENDICES
+ (A): GDP Growth / Decline Numbers
+ (B): Top 10 Languages of the World
P53 CLOSING STATEMENT
TheGlobal NoticeBoard
this is for
everyone

this is for
everyone
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
11
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
OUR MISSION
IS TO BUILD
THE WORLD’S
GREATEST
“LIFE
IMPROVEMENT”
PLATFORM
this is for
everyone

this is for
everyone
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
2
We live in exciting times in that for the first time in
history we can use technology to enable very large
numbers of people to come together to support and
help one another, to create a true sense of one
“global family”, of one humanity, where we focus on
our similarities not our differences. That we might
play a part in the creation of this one global family,
is our vision.
Our mission is to build the world’s greatest
“Life Improvement” platform. To by-pass traditional
avenues that aren’t working and do for development
what the internet has done for governance and
business, i.e. to cut out bureaucracy and vested
interests and simply connect those in need with
those able to give help. To harness the collective
power of everyone on the planet, ordinary people
seizing the opportunity themselves to solve the
problems governments have struggled with for
decades if not longer.
This will manifest itself through delivery of the
Global Noticeboard (GNB) and deployment of the
Humanity Fund, both of which ultimately support
a humanitarian mission. To achieve our vision,
revenue is of the utmost importance as, without this,
the humanitarian aspects are simply not possible
and therefore one of the main purposes of the
Global NoticeBoard is to drive substantial revenue.

this is for
everyone
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
We will initially focus on customer acquisition but as the core platform
grows, we are evolving a number of revenue driving opportunities through
sales, advertising and merchandising.
In order to maximise the use of available resources, a decision was made
to outsource 80% of software development to Chennai in India, where
we have set up our own office. In addition to this a strategic partnership
with Middlesex University has led to the development of technology and
expertise that would not have been possible in a straight commercial
setting.
As well as a number of pipeline projects we have created a position called
a Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) that sits between the GNB and
Middlesex University to enable us to fully leverage their specialist expertise.
Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTP) is Europe’s leading Government
backed programme helping businesses to improve their competitiveness
and productivity through the better use of knowledge, technology and
skills that reside within the UK knowledge base. The KTP role is part-
funded by a government grant and is a three-way partnership between a
business, an academic institution and a graduate. In September 2015 the
GNB secured funding of £100,000 through the Department for Business,
Innovation & Skills for the KTP role.
We are developing a number of pipeline projects, both independently
and working closely with Middlesex University that harness the use of
technology for social good. Equity in the limited company will be released
to help support our growth and development.
Strategic partnerships have been put in place to support the development
of the GNB, however our independence is crucial as this is a humanitarian
mission. Intellectual property rights, which include all projects co-developed
with Middlesex University, will remain with Global NoticeBoard Holdings
Ltd and the majority shareholding is currently retained with its directors.
A GLOBAL MARKET SPACE
The GNB is a global market space where buyers and sellers are matched,
exchange of information, goods and services is facilitated and payments
associated with market transactions are done. It is an example of what
has become known as open innovation or ‘crowdpreneurship’ whereby a
community provides the site content for a virtual marketplace. All these
activities are carried out through an electronic infrastructure that enables
efficient functioning of the market.
The following are the essential market space components for the GNB;
+ Buyers- these are actual or potential customers who visit the GNB
website
+ Sellers- anyone offering items, and advertisers.
+ Products and services-these are both physical and digital.
+ Infrastructure-this includes electronic networks, software and hardware.
Strategic partnerships
have been put in place to
support the development
of the GNB, however our
independence is crucial
as this is a humanitarian
mission.
3

this is for
everyone
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
4
In order for the GNB to generate revenue, all four of these components need
to be in place. Currently a robust infrastructure has been built, however
capital outlay is required in order to establish the other components.
According to ‘Statista’ the largest market research statistics portal, the
number of online adults using classified ad websites in the UK has more
than doubled in the last 7 years with about a tenth of internet users (9%)
visiting an online classified site on any given day.
According to Wikipedia, Gumtree is the UK’s largest website for local
community classified ads and is one of the top 30 websites in the UK with
over 14.9 million unique visitors each month. 3,657,527 new classified
ads were created in August 2015, representing a rate of approximately
1 new advert for every 5.44 unique visitors to the site.
Initially there needs to be a mechanism in place for new users to be
introduced to a product, which for the GNB will centre around digital
marketing.
The in-app cycle is the core cycle, the basic function for which the user
has decided to use an application, which in the case of the GNB is
buying and selling through classified ads. The main product needs to be
intuitive and cause admiration otherwise large numbers of users will be
lost from the in-app cycle which will ultimately prevent growth of the user
base and therefore prevent expansion of the GNB platform.
The retention cycle is where users leave and subsequently return into a
system. This part of the cycle can be influenced by retention mechanics.
A number of retention mechanics have been implemented by the GNB,
which are;
+ Email reminders
+ Gamification
+ Social media
+ Affiliate marketing and the use of API’s
The viral cycle consists of existing users inviting new users by email,
social networks, blogs, forums etc, the success of which dictates the
viral coefficient, which determines the extent to which the platform achieves
lift off.
The GNB is a global
market space where
buyers and sellers are
matched, exchange of
information, goods and
services is facilitated
and payments associated
with market transactions
are done.

this is for
everyone
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
INITIAL DEVELOPMENT
Initial development activity focused not on the GNB side but on building
a straight commercial business, (a training company) that could support
the GNB through early development. Success of leadership and training
courses based on the work of Stephen Covey’s 7 habits of highly effective
people led to the offering being formalized through the GNB Learning
and Development Academy (LDA). A commercial revenue development
model was then built using a monthly contact strategy deployed through
email servers, direct mail and a telesales appointment team.
Actual and projected financial performance of the LDA has helped secure
seed funding for the GNB in return for shares, which changed hands at
£2 per share. Seed funding has enabled the costs of staff, premises and
software development to be covered while the GNB was developed into a
product that could be monetised.
To bridge the gap between seed funding and the capital outlay required in
order to fully launch the main GNB platform a secondary product, (CNB’s)
and separate business model have been developed to generate initial
revenue, via the GNB itself.
Customisable NoticeBoards (CNB’s) are a modified version of the
original GNB website developed initially as a tool to help build resilience
in impoverished communities. However, they also present the means to
pilot revenue and site traffic through a win-win proposition that we have
designed initially for the charity sector.
As well as a number of free plug-ins, each charity will be able to purchase
plug-ins that significantly enhance the features of their CNB.
In order to promote the charity CNB offer to the 170,000 charities in
the UK, a targeted direct email marketing campaign will be carried out
in-house.
Investment will enable the Global NoticeBoard to be launched to its full
capacity by funding the marketing and development costs necessary to
make an impact in the online marketplace. Money will also be used for
revenue funding for software development.
Investment will enable
the Global NoticeBoard
to be launched to its full
capacity by funding
the marketing and
development costs
necessary to make an
impact in the online
marketplace.
5

this is for
everyone
6
THAT WE MIGHT
PLAY A PART IN
THE CREATION
OF THIS ONE
GLOBAL FAMILY,
IS OUR VISION
THE GLOBAL NOTICEBOARD
TheGlobal NoticeBoard:
this is for
everyone

this is for
everyone
7
THE FOUNDING VISION
Educator and author Stephen Covey talks about the four L’s; to live, to
love, to learn and to leave a legacy. Many people never have the luxury of
ever being able to consider the higher levels of human development as they
struggle simply to find food and shelter; to live. Those fortunate enough
to be able to live their lives through higher levels of development with
their physical, emotional and mental needs all met, owe it to those who
are struggling simply to survive, to contribute to their well being. There is
not a single person on the planet that counts more than any other. Every
individual counts.
We live in exciting times in that for the first time in history we can use
technology to enable very large numbers of people to come together to
support and help one another, to create a true sense of one “global family”,
of one humanity, where we focus on our similarities not our differences.
That we might play a part in the creation of this one global family, is our
vision.
This was partly influenced by a leaflet that fell out of the Sunday Times
for a charity here in the UK called Sightsavers International, which stated
that for 16p you could buy the ointment to save a child’s eyesight. Why
wouldn’t you do that? However, the reality is that unless there is some sort
of mechanic or platform to highlight these issues and a mechanic for the
redistribution of necessary resources, then nothing happens.
PURPOSE AND MISSION
Our mission is to build the world’s greatest “Life Improvement” platform.
To by-pass traditional avenues that aren’t working and do for development
what the internet has done for governance and business, i.e. to cut out
bureaucracy and vested interests and simply connect those in need with
those able to give help. To harness the collective power of everyone on
the planet, ordinary people seizing the opportunity themselves to solve the
problems governments have struggled with for decades if not longer.
This will manifest itself through delivery of the Global Noticeboard (GNB)
and deployment of the Humanity Fund, both of which ultimately support
a humanitarian mission. To achieve our vision, revenue is of the utmost
importance as, without this, the humanitarian aspects are simply not
possible and therefore one of the main purpose of the Global NoticeBoard
is to drive substantial revenue. This will also mean that we will be able to
attract the very best talent in the market place and in turn be able to pay
people top money and incentives to deliver great value.
We will initially focus on customer acquisition but as the core platform
grows, we are evolving a number of revenue driving opportunities through
sales, advertising and merchandising.
To achieve our vision,
revenue is of the utmost
importance as, without
this, the humanitarian
aspects are simply not
possible.
The GNB is a place
where people can post a
notice for what they need
help with, at no cost and
others can respond.

this is for
everyone
8
As well as contributing to the growth of the Humanity Fund, the Global
Noticeboard will also match anyone in need of help with those who are
willing to help. At various points in our lives we all need help and support
and many people would be willing to help us if only they were aware of
what it was that we needed help with.
The purpose of the Humanity Fund is to assist disadvantaged or socially
excluded groups, alleviate suffering, combat discrimination and to ensure
the provision of basic human needs essential to everyday survival and
growth - the right to personal safety, secure housing, the provision of food
and water, and educational opportunity for all.
TEAM VALUES
Quality We aim to get things right first time, on time, every time
Creativity We seek always to find solutions through innovation
and adopting a ‘can do’ attitude
Trust We always do what we say we are going to do
Passion We are passionate about what we do and surround
ourselves with people who dare to dream
Determination We stay focussed on our end goals and believe in
finding the win-win solutions for everyone
ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE
The Global Noticeboard (GNB) deploys through both a charitable
foundation, (GNB Charitable Foundation, known as ‘the Humanity Fund’)
and a limited company, (Global Noticeboard Holdings Ltd). The limited
company has given the GNB platform to the charitable foundation on an
exclusive 999-year lease on the basis that the core base platform is made
available to all people, free of charge. All commercial rights will however,
remain with the limited company as freeholder.
SOLE PURPOSE OF CHARITY
IS TO GIVE THE THE CORE BASE
PLATFORM AWAY FOR FREE
CHARITABLE
FOUNDATION
(LEASEHOLDER)
LIMITED COMPANY
(FREEHOLDER)
IP, TM’S, ADVERTISING,
SPONSORSHIP, MARKETING
RIGHTS, ETC, STAY HERE
999 YEAR LEASE
At various points in our
lives we all need help
and support and many
people would be willing to
help us if only they were
aware of what it was that
we needed help with.

this is for
everyone
9
Our charitable foundation is a global charity based in the UK, governed
by the UK Charities Commission. Our charity registration number is
1145253 and our limited company registration number is 06243285.
The Humanity Fund and Global NoticeBoard Holdings Ltd are separate
entities, run independently of each other in order to meet legal standards,
promote accountability, transparency and global confidence.
Our structure reflects a desire to embrace the very best of the business
world whilst at the same time delivering a global humanitarian
mission. The Limited company incorporates drive, energy, determination
and creativity in order to deliver a competitive platform capable of
attractingsubstantialrevenueandwillretainintellectualproperty,trademark,
advertising and sponsorship rights. The Charitable Foundation exists to
deliver our humanitarian mission and will give the core base platform away
for free.
Our plan is to one day have built a FTSE 100 company that’s a ‘hybrid’
social enterprise; a straight business run for good capable of disrupting the
market so that others may follow our model.
THE PRODUCT / TECHNOLOGY
The GNB is made up of two parts; (A): the core platform centred around
Classified ads, and (B): then what we are calling Customised Noticeboards,
where people can create, in effect, their own GNB.
(A) CLASSIFIEDS ADS / CORE GNB PLATFORM
The GNB is a global market space where buyers and sellers are
matched, exchange of information, goods and services is facilitated and
payments associated with market transactions are done. 20% of the cost of
placing an ad goes directly to helping to end homelessness / deal with
social exclusion issues. It is an example of what has become known as open
innovation or ‘crowdpreneurship’ whereby a community provides the site
content for a virtual marketplace. All these activities are carried out through
an electronic infrastructure that enables efficient functioning of the market.
The following are the essential market space components for the GNB;
+ Buyers- these are actual or potential customers who visit the GNB
website
+ Sellers- anyone offering items, and advertisers.
+ Products and services-these are both physical and digital.
+ Infrastructure-this includes electronic networks, software and hardware.
Currently a robust infrastructure has been built, that supports two
distinctpotentialrevenuestreams;ClassifiedAds(theGNB)andCustomisable
NoticeBoards (CNB’s). All four components need to be in place before
revenue can be generated through Classified Ads therefore capital outlay is
required in order to jump start the revenue cycle. However, CNB’s operate
using communities that are already established, therefore bringing buyers,
sellers and products with them.
The GNB is a global
market space where
buyers and sellers are
matched, exchange of
information, goods and
services is facilitated
and payments associated
with market transactions
are done.

this is for
everyone
10
The GNB truly is for everyone and encompasses a broad range of
applications. The GNB has sections, comprised of
1. Classified Ads
2. Advice and Guidance
3. Partner Projects / Pound a Month Campaign
4. World News
5. Create Your Own NoticeBoard, and
6. Taking Direct Action
1.Classified Adverts
The Global NoticeBoard is an online person-to-person trading
community on the internet. Sellers list items for sale by way of notices, which
are essentially classified ads. Items are arranged by categories so that
buyers can choose to either browse through all listed notices or browse
by category. Users can also search for specific items using the matching
technology inherent throughout the platform.
The GNB truly is
for everyone and
encompasses a broad
range of applications.
1:ClassifiedAdverts

this is for
everyone
11
The other side of the global noticeboard is also a global movement to
redefine how things are done, whereby anyone in need of help can
post what it is that they need help with. This could be for example, an
individual in need of food parcels or blankets, or a school or charity in the
developing world needing 10 computers – literally anything. The person in
need simply creates their profile then lists what it is that they need help with
on the platform. Those able to give, be it time money, goods, expertise etc.
can then respond to that need.
This is for everyone, helping us all help each other via direct interventions
and making new connections. In life we are happy to give what we can to
others, it’s our human condition.
2. Advice and Guidance
Here the community can post and receive advice and guidance from
others by simply posting or responding to a question. Depending on
how useful the answers are, they are then ranked in order of most
helpful / best rated first, least rated last and so on.
In life we are happy to
give what we can to
others, it’s our human
condition.
2:AdviceandGuidance

this is for
everyone
12
3. Partner projects / Pound a Month Campaign
We are working to bring together a global community of more than 100
million people one day, each of whom will be invited to pledge just £1 a
month to help others. In so doing we plan to build a global movement for
change, a global humanity fund, giving away £1.2 billion pounds every
year to those most in need.
Following successful negotiations with the Scout association in November
2015 we will be piloting the Pound a Month campaign with Devon scouts,
with a view to launching the campaign nationally with the entire Scout
Association in the future.
We have also identified a partner project in every one of the Worlds 185
countries that we will be supporting as the GNB is rolled out internationally.
Donors in every country are given the option of allocating 30% of their
pound donation to countries around the world that experience extreme
poverty. In this way the people in the richest countries in the world will
contribute to helping people in the poorest, addressing the considerable
inequality of opportunity that exists across the globe.
Our partner projects will help to provide us with a global presence on the
ground helping us to gain traction in other countries.
We plan to build a global
movement for change,
a global humanity fund,
giving away £1.2 billion
pounds every year to
those most in need.
3:PartnerProjects/PAMCampaign

this is for
everyone
13
4. World News
World News is a way of emphasising the ways in which social
conditioning and the media greatly affect the way that societies view
situations and can often present a distorted picture of the truth. We are in
the process of recruiting a reporter on the ground initially in 10 countries
around the world, who, by covering issues from different perspectives,
will start to address the prejudices and pre-conceptions that often separate
people. Through this we hope to create a true sense of one “global family”,
of one humanity, where we focus on our similarities not our differences.
4:WorldNews
World News is a way of
emphasising the ways in
which social conditioning
and the media greatly
affect the way that
societies view situations
and can often present a
distorted picture of the
truth.

this is for
everyone
The Create Your Own NoticeBoard feature enables anyone to create their
own micro community online. This could be communities that share the
same physical space or groups that’s share common interests and can be
either private or public.
Matching technology facilitates the exchange of material resources, skills
and knowledge in a way that’s not possible with standard group pages.
14
5. Create Your Own NoticeBoard
5:CreateYourOwnNoticeBoard

this is for
everyone
15
6. Taking Direct Action
Today’s smartphones have a GPS chip inside that uses satellite data to
calculate the exact position of the mobile device which can then be plotted
automatically on google maps. ‘Direct Action’ is a function that capitalises
on the geo location function of smartphones and mobile devices. Geo locate
can be used to create campaigns and to match need with offers of help. For
example, each week about 60 people are seen rough sleeping for the first
time in London, many of whom are new to the capital. Geo locate enables
members of the public to quickly and accurately report sightings of rough
sleepers, to enable others to respond to their plight.
Each one of the six landing pages contains a call to action, which is a sort
of short cut encouraging visitors to engage with the GNB website as soon
as possible.
Geo locate can be used to
create campaigns and to
match need with offers
of help.
6:TakingDirectAction

this is for
everyone
(B) CUSTOMISABLE NOTICEBOARDS
Customisable NoticeBoards (CNB’s) are a modified version of the
original GNB website developed initially as a tool to help build resilience in
impoverished communities. However, they also present the means to
introduce revenue and site traffic through a win-win proposition that we
have designed, initially, for the charity sector. The concept of CNBs, though,
can and will be extended to other target market sectors, eg Estate and
Lettings Agents, by way of example.
There were approximately 3 Billion people online in 2014, representing a
growth rate of 764% since 2001. However charities are missing out on this
progress with 58% not even having basic digital skills compared to 23% of
non-charitable organisations. Not only is the charity sector by far the least
digitally mature of any industry in the UK, the Lloyds Bank UK Business
Digital index 2015 has shown that even fewer charities have basic digital
skills compared to last year.
Organisations that are digitally mature substantially increase their revenue;
however despite this only 23% of charities are investing any money at all into
improving their digital skills. 47% of all UK charities still don’t have a website
and 63% of those that do have slow page load times or home pages that are
not fully responsive. The main barriers to online progress are lack of finances,
time and knowledge.
As well as connecting charities with enhanced software functionality at
discounts of up to 95% of the normal retail price, CNB’s bridge the
technology gap even further by providing a free online space hosted by the
GNB. Site security, software development and site maintenance will all be
managed by the GNB on behalf of the charities, enabling them to have a digital
presence without any in-house expertise.
16
Many organisations
and individuals use
technology to share
information about a
cause but how often is
technology used to
actually help a cause?

this is for
everyone
Below is a screen shot from an example customized NoticeBoard that we have
created for Citizens UK, a community organising group, illustrating some of
the features.
All information posted on a CNB is displayed in the form of notices and these
can be about anything and in any format, e.g. plain text, video, jpeg, pdf
etc., making them very versatile. So for example a charity can post a job
vacancy, pictures or flyers about an event, a policy document from the
handbook, a video refresher course about manual handling, a request for
donated items; the list is almost endless. Notices are organised under categories
which the organisation prescribes for itself using ‘free text’ descriptions.
Users with administration privileges can set preferences and access rights for all
other users on their CNB. When a new user signs up to a CNB for the first time
they are asked to enter a passcode which automatically assigns their account to
a particular user group. Subsequently each time a user signs in they will only be
able to see information that is appropriate or relevant to them.
Each CNB has its own member’s directory which is a list of all user accounts
relating to that specific group or organisation. User privileges, set by the
CNB administrator, dictate the member profiles that each user can see.
For example the ‘strategic management team’ might be granted permission
to see all member profiles, ‘trustees’ might be able to see all profiles except
‘residents’ etc.
Plug-ins are applications and functions that can be added to a CNB is order
to enhance its features and usability. Each CNB includes a number of free
plug-ins, which for the charity CNB’s will include a yearly planner, HR
tools for recording absences etc., simple survey tools and a ‘what’s on’ diary.
There are also a number of more advanced plug-ins that can be added for a fee.
17
7:CitizensUK

this is for
everyone
WHAT MAKES US DIFFERENT
Every day we are surrounded by technology that makes things smaller,
faster and easier but how often does it really make things better, for
everyone? Many organisations and individuals use technology to share
information about a cause but how often is technology used to actually
help a cause?
Why use technology to generate statistics and share information about
homelessness, when instead you could use technology to generate the money
that helps a homeless person off the street or you could use technology to
facilitate the redistribution of resources that provides a homeless person with a
blanket or a hot meal? There is currently a gap between the enormous potential
of technology to be used for good and the use of technology to help people and
it is in this gap that the GNB exists.
The Global NoticeBoard is a global movement for change, using technology
to mobilise resources and connect people into a global family that helps each
other because we recognise our similarities not our differences. Combining the
best of the corporate world with technology to create a business model that is
concerned with maximising profits for good causes not just maximising profits
for shareholders.
In 2014 the top 500 companies in the UK spent 3.25 Billion on CSR activity.
This may sound like a lot but it actually represents just 0.026% of profit.
46% of this was donating goods and services in kind
34% was employee volunteering and fundraising
20% was cash donations (0.0053% of profit)
GNB Holdings is fundamentally different from all other platforms in that it
exists to send money to a humanity fund in the form of a straight cash donation.
The amount automatically donated for every item listed on the Global
NoticeBoard is also clearly displayed on each notice, offering complete
transparency of CSR.
Other ways we are different;
18
Rightmove Autotrader Gumtree Streetlife eBay Facebook GNB
Exists to support a humanitarian mission •
Seller Rating • •
Buyer Rating • •
Product Rating • • •
Sell Items for Free • • • •
Online Payment Processing • • •
User Id Verified Through Bank •
Support more than 52 languages • •
Connect with your Local Community • • •
Matching Technology for sub groups •
Create Your Own Web Space • • • •
Disability Enabled •

this is for
everyone
19
COMPANY PROFILE
ATTRACTING
EQUITY
INVESTMENT
this is for
everyone

this is for
everyone
20
COMPANY PROFILE
COMPANY BACKGROUND/THE STORY SO FAR
Early stage business and software development for the GNB was
initially funded using the directors own resources. Seed funding was
subsequently provided by Caritas Anchor House in return for equity in
Global NoticeBoard Holdings Ltd at £2 per share. It’s likely that Caritas
Anchor House will end up owning around 2% of the share capital.
About 18 months ago we met and formed a key strategic partnership
with Professor Tony Clark who was at that time head of faculty at the
Computer Science department at Middlesex University. With his help we
managed to secure Government funding in September 2015 of £100k to put in
place a Knowledge Transfer Partnership between ourselves and Middlesex
University.
Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTP) is Europe’s leading programme run
by Innovate UK, helping businesses to improve their competitiveness and
productivity through the better use of knowledge, technology and skills
that reside within the UK knowledge base. The KTP role is part-funded
by a government grant and is a three-way partnership between a business, an
academic institution and a graduate.
Professor Clark had also allocated Lalith Athiappan to our project to start
to develop the platform, having identified him as an outstanding former
Masters student and without doubt, Lalith has helped change the momentum
of the project development. Originally employed by Middlesex University
as part of the Computer Science Academic team, Lalith has been central to
the business expansion project and instrumental in helping us set up our
office in Chennai in India.
In order to maximise the use of available resources, a decision was made
to relocate our software development to India, where salaries are 10%
of what they are here in the UK. Also the work ethic and skill sets are far
superior there too. In addition to this our continued strategic partnership
with Middlesex University has led to the development of technology and
expertise that would not have been possible in a straight commercial setting.
We are developing a number of pipeline projects, both independently and
working closely with Middlesex University that harness the use of technology
for social good. We will soon be seeking equity investment to fund our next
round of growth.
Knowledge Transfer
Partnerships (KTP) is
Europe’s leading
programme run by
Innovate UK, helping
businesses to improve
their competitiveness and
productivity through the
better use of knowledge.
Owing to its
organisational structure
the GNB is able to attract
both equity investments
on the commercial side
as well as grant funding
for the charitable
foundation.

this is for
everyone
21
COMPANY PROFILE
TEAM PLUS STAKEHOLDERS
MAIN BOARD
Guy Insull
Founder of the Global Noticeboard
Guy’s career has spanned the City, Industry and the third sector. At Barclays
he worked in the Retail Bank, Corporate Finance and Central Planning.
At Mars Inc he was the Sales Operations Director, Head of Learning
and Development for the UK Sales Force and more latterly, Strategy
Communications Director. In his work in the third sector, he is responsible
for delivering a capital appeal for Caritas Anchor House.
Mark Insull
Founder of the Global NoticeBoard
Mark is a freelance journalist with the Leigh Times in Southend, having
spent the majority of his career there. He is co-founder of the GNB and
Founder of the Pound A Month campaign.
John Meredith
As a shareholder and Director of Covey Leadership UK Ltd., John was
instrumental in introducing the work of Stephen Covey (US Leadership
development guru) to the UK in 1993 and is licensed and accredited
to deliver the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People and other Covey
programmes.
Andrew Leadbetter
Andrew Leadbetter has extensive experience in marketing and selling
products and concepts in commercial organisations and fundraising
for charities. He has a significant knowledge and understanding of local
and national government, with 17 years’ experience as a County and City
Councillor and some 12 years of working for and with a National Political
Party. He has also spent five years working with the European Union.
Dr. Tony Clark
Dr. Tony Clark is professor of programming languages and software
engineering and Doctor of philosophy at Sheffield University. Tony has
worked in both academia and industry on a range of software projects/
consultancies. He has 131 published articles on topics including semantics,
language development and programming. His current work addresses the
simulation of enterprise-wide systems.

this is for
everyone
MAIN BOARD
ANDREW LEADBETTER MARK INSULL GUY INSULL
(chair) (founder) (founder/ceo)

COMPANY PROFILE
22
WEB DEVELOPMENT
ENGINEERING
TRACK
LALITH ATHIAPPAN
(lead)
Software developers
UK x2
Software developers
India x 20
Middlesex University
Computer Science
Department
FRANCO RAIMONDI
(lead)
ARMANDO PRESENTI
GRITTI
(KTP), servers
ANDREI POPESCU
Site security
MICHELE BOTTONE
Disability
Digital Marketing*
Salman Farsi
Email Servers*
Foehn
Direct Mail*
Holborn Direct
WEB DEVELOPMENT
RESEARCH TRACK
MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS
LEAD
(TO BE RECRUITED)
Seed funded until
31/03/2018
Seed funded until
31/03/2018
* outsourced

this is for
everyone
JOHN MEREDITH TONY CLARK
(people) (technical)
COMPANY PROFILE
23
FINANCE
Edward Hutson
ADMIN SUPPORT*
India
Virtual Assistance
International
Outsourced
Telesales *
Perfect Pitch
BUSINESS
DEVELOPMENT
(FUNDED ROLE)
FUNDRAISING
(FUNDED ROLE)
OFFICE MANAGER
(TO BE RECRUITED)
HUMAN
RESOURCES*
Caritas Anchor House
Seed funded until
31/03/2018
Seed funded until
31/03/2018

this is for
everyone
COMPANY PROFILE
TECHNICAL TEAM - ENGINEERING TRACK
Lalith Athiappan
Technical Design and Software Lead
Lalith has 7+ years’ experience in developing web based applications and
complex web design. His qualifications are; MSc Information Technology
(2008), and MSc Application Development (2012)
Armando Presentti Gritti
Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) Associate
Armando’s role bridges both the engineering and research tracks. His
qualifications are; Masters Degree, Computer Engineering, Politecnico
di Milano, 2011-present, Bachelor’s Degree, Computer Engineering,
Politecnico di Milano, 2009-2011, Bachelor’s degree, Mathematics,
Univeersita degli Studi di Milano, 2005-2009
TECHNICAL TEAM – RESEARCH TRACK
Dr Franco Raimondi
Research Lead
Dr Franco Raimondi is a Reader in Logic and Verification. He specializes
in applying logic-based method to the formal verification of complex and
critical systems. Dr Franco Raimondi has worked as an independent
consultant to support the development of large scale systems for SMS
campaigns with high-availability requirements.
Dr. Andrei Popescu
Verification of Web-based Systems (VOWS)
Dr. Andrei Popescu has recently received a grant from the Engineering and
Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) for his current work building
verification tools and secure software. The EPSRC is the main agency in
the UK funding research in engineering and the physical sciences and in
securing his research funding Dr. Popescu has formally identified the GNB
project as the main validating case study for his work. In essence his work
is about site security and safeguarding.
Michele Bottone
As well as being a trained economist and mathematician, Michele, is also
a user of assistive hearing technology and offers extensive insight and
expertise for the development of the BeHive project. Michele is our lead for
developing the GNB for people with disability / impairment.
24

this is for
everyone
COMPANY PROFILE
FINANCE TEAM
Edward Hutson
Edward Hutson is a ﬁnance professional with experience in multinational
and multicultural operations throughout the world. He has led start-
ups, turnarounds and managed businesses in the high tech and telecom
sectors focusing on the delivery of planned performance to the beneﬁt of
all stakeholders.
Al Kassim
Al Kassim is a business and financial analyst with over 10 years Industry
experience. His professional career includes Senior Finance Operations
Associate - J.P. Morgan, Management Information Business Partner -
Kleinwort Benson and Business Analyst - BNY Mellon Asset Management.
He has implemented a number of projects working within the full project
lifecycle from requirements gathering to post implementation support.
SPECIAL ADVISORS
Keith Fernett
CEO Caritas Anchor House
Keith is a trained economist and town planner whose work has repeatedly
influenced major changes in public policy. He has held senior consultancy
roles including working with the Reinventing Government Network in the
USA, Cabinet Office, Prime Minister’s Efficiency Unit and many public sector
bodies; Director of Housing (Southwark and Bromley) and Director of
Building and Environment Services (Newham and Southwark). In 2010 Keith
was runner up for ‘Charity Principal of the Year’ at the Charity Times Awards.
Annemie Ress
Annemie Ress is one of Europe’s most prominent HR experts and former
Global HR Director at eBay where she worked for 8 years. Prior to that she
was HR Director at Skype and PayPal.
Alistair Delves
Alistair Delves is a cross-industry facilitator, enabler and mentor and
catalyst to senior management whose clients include global corporates to
start-ups, government and voluntary sector. He spent most of his career at
Ogilvy & Mather. Alistair is a Marketing and Advertising expert.
James Passingham
James is Technical Services Director and Owner of Foehn, an IT solutions
company. James is a very clear thinking business man who has successfully
managed Foehn since it was founded, taking it to a multi-million pound
business.
25

this is for
everyone
COMPANY PROFILE
OUR PATRONS
The following members are GNB Patrons;
Lord David Alton
Professor of community Organising at Liverpool University
Lord Maurice Glasman
Lead in Social Action deployment and previous advisor to Ed Milliband
Sir Stephen O’Brien
Former Chairman of Barts and London NHS Trusts
Francis Campbell
Previous private secretary to Tony Blair, Ambassador to the Vatican and
now Vice Chancellor of St Marys University Twickenham
Bishop Emeritus of Brentwood, Thomas McMahon
Former Bishop of Brentwood
Monsignor John Armitage
Chair of Trustees at Caritas Anchor House
Dr Muhammad Bari
Former chair of the Muslim Council of Great Britain
Harmandar Singh
Leader in the Sikh community
Marjorie Ellis-Thompson
Ex chair of CND
Maff Potts
Programme director at the Big Lottery
Michael Coughlin
Chair of the Local Government Authority
Matt Nixon
Former Global Head of Talent for Barclays
Erin Lovett
Global Head of Taxation at Deloittes
Chris Marshall
Former Allen & Overy, Head of CSR
Our Patrons give us reach into the academic, charity, educational and
corporate worlds, as well as providing support, advise and guidance.
26

this is for
everyone
COMPANY PROFILE
INDEPENDENCE
We value our independence so as to be free to make choices. Driving revenue
is very important to us but that we never forget our Humanitarian reason for
existing.
STRATEGIC POSITIONING / PARTNERSHIP STRATEGY
Strategic partnerships have been put in place to support the development of
the GNB.
Intellectual property rights, which include all projects co-developed with
Middlesex University, remain with Global NoticeBoard Holdings Ltd and
the majority shareholding will be retained with its directors.
PIPELINE RESEARCH PROJECTS
The GNB is evolving a number of research and development projects both
independently and in conjunction with Middlesex University;
+ Verification of Web-based Systems (VOWS) - Research Project
Dr. Andrei Popescu, Middlesex University
+ BeHive, Assistive hearing technology - Development of prototype
Michele Bottone, Middlesex University
+ Adaptive User Interfaces – Research and development project
Lalith Appiathan GNB / Guy Insull GNB
+ Sharing my learning – Development of prototype
Dr. George Dafoulas, Middlesex University
+ Customisable NoticeBoards, building resilience for Newham –
Proof of Concept, Guy Insull GNB / Keith Fernett Caritas Anchor House
27

this is for
everyone
28
MARKET ANALYSIS
MAXIMISING
THE STRENGTH
OF INTERNET
COMMUNICATION
this is for
everyone

this is for
everyone
MARKET ANALYSIS
MARKET ANALYSIS
According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) in 2014, 38
million adults in the UK (76%) accessed the internet every day. This is
21 million more than in 2006 when directly comparable records began
and 84% of all households now have internet access. Internet usage is
generally proportional to the total UK population and 95% of people
between the ages 16-54 now use the internet.
29
INTERNET ACTIVITIES BY BY AGE GROUP (%)
Age

16-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55-64 65+
Sending/receiving emails 80 86 86 83 75 49
Finding information about goods
and services 71 84 87 84 75 44
Reading or downloading
online news, newspapers or
magazines 65 73 69 60 48 24
Social networking
(e.g. facebook or twitter) 91 80 68 54 37 13
Travel, or travel related
services (e.g. accommodation) 38 53 52 54 44 22
Internet Banking 56 71 66 62 47 23
Selling goods or services
over the internet 24 36 35 26 15 8
Purchasing goods or services
from the internet 83 90 88 81 70 40
Using online classified Ads 49 62 57 48 32 26
Playing or downloading
games, images, films or
music 68 61 58 42 29 14
Creating Websites or blogs 10 11 8 6 4 2
Making an appointment
with a doctor or other
health practitioner 8 8 11 13 15 5

this is for
everyone
MARKET ANALYSIS
30
Although age does not seem to influence internet usage in general, it does
seem to be a factor in determining the probability that someone will use a
classified ad website. Internet users aged 25-44 are more likely to use an online
classified ad website than the other user group and therefore this will be the
target demographic for the GNB.
Research by Google (google gearshift) reveals that online resources have
overtaken car dealerships as the initial point of reference for car buyers.
The automotive industry is now the second largest spender online accounting
for 12.9% of the total market. The largest spender in online advertising is
recruitment.
The four key categories for driving revenue on the GNB website are; Jobs,
Accommodation, Tradesmen and Vehicles. The average user demographic for
all four of these categories also falls within the age group most likely to use
online classified advertising , which is 25-44.
INDUSTRY ANALYSIS
According to ‘Statista’ the largest market research statistics portal, the
number of online adults using classified ad websites in the UK has more than
doubled in the last 7 years with about a tenth of internet users (9%) visiting
an online classified site on any given day.
Furthermore, digital advertising revenues are rising, with mobiles becoming
more and more important
DIGITAL ADVERTISING REVENUE IN THE UK IN MILLIONS (U.K. POUND)
Revenue in Millions (£)
8,000
7,000
6,000
5,000
4,000
3,000
2,000
1,000
0
2014 2015 2016
Desktop Mobile

this is for
everyone
MARKET ANALYSIS
31
As are digital classified advertising revenues, which are seeing an even
faster growth rate.
DIGITAL CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING REVENUE IN THE UK
Revenue in Millions (£)
850
840
830
820
810
800
790
780
770
760
750
2014 2015 2016

this is for
everyone
MARKET ANALYSIS
Key countries to focus on initially being; China, USA, Japan, UK, France, and
Germany, as illustrated below;
32
DIGITAL CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING REVENUE BY COUNTRY 2015
Revenue in Million (US$)
3,000
2,500
2,000
1,500
1,000
500
0
China
UnitedStates
Japan
UnitedKingdom
France
Germany
Norway
Sweden
Italy
Switzerland
Netherlands
Finland
Belgium
Denmark
Spain
Austria
Ireland
Portugal
Revenues from classified ads are the fees paid by an advertiser to display an
advert or listing and unlike auction sites such as eBay, the fee has to be paid
whether the item sells or not.
Digital classified advertising in the UK in 2015 was worth £80 Billion, but with
less than 0.01% of this generated through mobiles. However, revenue growth
between 2014 and 2015 was 4.1% for desktop advertising and 73.3% for
mobiles and projected revenue growth over the next 12 months is 3.3% for
desktop classifieds and 249.6% for mobiles. Revenue from the classified ad
market in general is therefore both sustainable and global, however particular
attention should be paid to mobile users as a key revenue sector. The GNB
website is fully mobile optimised, and mobile apps have been developed for
both Android and ios devices.

this is for
everyone
MARKET ANALYSIS
COMPETITOR ANALYSIS
Competitor analysis is in effect about who else plays in our space
Classified ads sites are a one-stop-“shop” for everything from jobs and
apartments to clothes and puppies. However, users don’t buy anything
directly on classified websites – they use the sites to set up meetings, and
transactions are conducted in person or by mail – a characteristic which
separates online classifieds from auction or shopping websites like eBay and
Amazon.
According to Wikipedia, Gumtree is the UK’s largest website for local
community classified ads and is one of the top 30 websites in the UK with
over 14.9 million unique visitors each month. 3,657,527 new classified ads
were created in August 2015, representing a rate of approximately 1 new
advert for every 5.44 unique visitors to the site.
There was a time, not so long ago, when eBay seemed the only place to
head if you wanted to sell second-hand goods online. But for some the online
auction giant is no longer as attractive as it was, with relatively high fees
and an apparent bias towards buyers – The Observers consumer champion
Anna Tims states that in theory any buyer that knows the system can get a
freebie from eBay, which comes out of the sellers pocket. Sellers are closely
monitored with detailed statistics available to buyers about a sellers track
record. There is no such emphasis placed on buyers and yet in the event of
a dispute Anna states that eBay will automatically find in the buyers favour.
The proliferation of social media websites has introduced new outlets – the
likes of Facebook and Twitter offer the opportunity to sell second-hand
goods without eBay’s fees. There are thousands of Facebook pages dedicated
to buying and selling items, and the number is growing daily. The FaceBay
community page (facebook.com/FaceBayEN) otherwise known as “Fbay”,
which was founded in 2010, now has 23,600 members. To join, you must
“like” the page, and you can then post items you want to sell, or contact
other members if you want to buy items they are selling.
According to the National Fraud Intelligence Bureaux online shopping
and auction scams were the most common fraud reported in 2013, costing
£63.6 million. Police receive 250 calls a week about scams on Gumtree and
criminals are using the site to target consumers as there is no requirement to
provide a name or address allowing them to remain anonymous.
Buying and selling online, whether through classified ads, social media,
online retailers or auction sites like eBay, is a growth market that shows
no sign of saturation. There is also a lot of room for improvement and an
opportunity exists to create a significant impact by doing things differently.
As per the table in the section “what makes us different” we believe our
offering to be substantially different to anything else being offered out there
right now.
33
The proliferation of
social media websites has
introduced new outlets –
the likes of Facebook
and Twitter offer the
opportunity to sell
second-hand goods
without eBay’s fees.
Buying and selling
online, whether through
classified ads, social
media, online retailers
or auction sites like eBay,
is a growth market
that shows no sign of
saturation.

this is for
everyone
34
MARKETING AND SALES STRATEGY
INCREASING
REVENUE AND
SITE TRAFFIC
this is for
everyone

this is for
everyone
TRAFFIC AND THE ROLE OF CUSTOMISED NOTICEBOARDS
Our overall strategic approach is as follows; we have an issue in that in the
early stages we have no traffic, so why should someone place a classified ad
with us? Traffic driving strategies on the GNB are mapped out below and
are a clear focus for us.
Nevertheless, as a result of this early dilemma we have developed
Customised NoticeBoards, (CNB’s), to offer a high quality paid product that
is not dependent on traffic, which we plan to market initially to the 170k
charities in the UK and 1.5m in the USA, so as to be able to begin driving
revenue even when the site is in its early development, lower initial traffic phase.
THE VIRAL COEFFICIENT
Before we take a look at our planned traffic driving and retention
strategies though its important to understand the role of what is called “the
viral coefficient”
The viral coefficient, also known as the K-growth factor, is the metric
that measures the overall performance of a system. Use of the term K factor
is borrowed from the medical field of epidemiology in which a virus with
a K-factor of 1 is in a “steady” state of neither growth nor decline.
A K-factor of anything greater than 1 indicates exponential growth and a
K-factor less than 1 indicates exponential decline. In marketing, the K-factor
can be used to describe the rate of growth of a websites user base. Conceptually
the K-factor for the GNB will be the average number of new users introduced
by direct invitation from each existing user.
The K growth factor can be tested using a small amount of site traffic in order
to assess the potential performance of a system. If the K-growth factor is less
than one then a product needs further development. If the K-growth factor
is greater than one then the product is both retaining existing users as well
as attracting new ones and therefore a large scale market launch can be
successful.
35
We have developed CNBs
to offer high quality paid
for product which not
dependent on traffic,
which we plan to market
to the 170k charities in
the UK and 1.5m in the
USA.

this is for
everyone
36
The formula for determining the user base growth factor (K) is as follows:
x = the average number of friends that a user invites to come join us
y = the acceptance rate
So if say x=5 and y=24%, the viral coefficient = 5 x 0.24= 1.2
Since then its 1.2, the site will go viral, using the numbers in this example.
Expressed slightly differently, let’s say there are 10 existing site users and that
there are 15 invites sent out to join per person, ie. 150 new invites. If 10%
of these join in, ie. 15 of them, there are then 15 new users vs the original
10, securing a viral coefficient of 1,5, ie. > the 1.2 number needed to go viral.
USER CALL TO ACTION TO
INVITE FRIENDS
ACCEPT?
yes
noy % - Accept rate
x = invited friends
VIRAL COEFFICIENTS
1,200
1,100
1,000
900
800
700
600
500
400
300
200
100
0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17
Time
Users
Viral Coef = .6 Viral Coef = .9 Viral Coef =1.2
x x y > 1.2 = VIRAL GROWTH

this is for
everyone
37
With a viral coefficient of 0.6 you will flatten out at 25 people, a gain of
15 users. At 0.9 you end up with 75 new members fairly quickly and
then growth slows dramatically. A viral coefficient of 1.2 however yields an
additional 1,281 new members / users. A viral coefficient of 1.2 takes the
form of an exponential curve.
Time is defined as the period it takes for a member to invite other users
(average of 2 – 4 weeks per step). If the viral co-efficient is 1.0, the start-up
will grow but at a linear rate, eventually topping out.
Above 1.0 it can achieve exponential growth. Tiny differences, 0.6, 0.9, 1.2
can make a massive difference to the end result.
RELATIVE GROWTH RATES FOR THREE DIFFERENT
VIRAL COEFFICIENTS
TIME .6 .9 1.2
0 10 10 10
1 16 19 22
2 20 27 36
3 22 34 54
4 23 41 74
5 24 47 99
6 25 52 129
7 25 57 165
8 25 61 208
9 25 65 260
10 25 69 322
11 25 72 396
12 25 75 485
13 25 77 592
14 25 79 720
15 25 81 874
16 25 83 1,059
17 25 85 1,281

this is for
everyone
38
SUCCESSFUL VIRAL EXPANSIONS
Successful viral expansions in the past have shared many of the following
characteristics;
They are web based (GNB)
They are free – users access the “product” at no charge.
Only then and after aggregating a mass audience, might
it be possible to overlay various revenue streams (GNB)
They are simple and easy to use and to understand.
Intuitive. (GNB)
They don’t create content – their users do but they do
organize it. The facilitation alone can lead to mass audiences (GNB)
Users spread the product purely out of their own self-interest
or in the interest of others and in the process, offer a
powerful word-of-mouth endorsement to each subsequent
user. This means that the viral product has within itself the
seeds to grow on their own (GNB)
The properties of the product do not prevent viral spread.
E.g. users absolutely do not want to advertise to their
friends that they are using dating services. (GNB)
20% of users might be considered “addicts”, who make
up about 80% of site visits (GNB)
THE APPLICATION GROWTH CYCLE
In order to hit the viral coefficient, retention needs to be balanced with
virality as it is no good attracting lots of new users if none are retained.
In the same way great user retention is not enough by itself as without
growth of user base the product stagnates and will ultimately be overtaken
by competitors. Where a K-growth factor varies or is less than one, a product
needs to be re-worked or improved based on user feedback before a large
scale marketing campaign is launched.

this is for
everyone
39
APPLICATION GROWTH CYCLE
Initially there needs to be a mechanism in place for new users to be
introduced to a product, which for the GNB will centre around digital
marketing. The in-app cycle is the core cycle, the basic function for which
the user has decided to use an application, which in the case of the GNB
is buying and selling through classified ads. The main product needs to be
intuitive and cause admiration otherwise large numbers of users will be lost
from the in-app cycle which will ultimately prevent growth of the user base
and therefore prevent expansion of the GNB platform.
The retention cycle is where users leave and subsequently return into a
system. This part of the cycle can be influenced by retention mechanics.
A number of retention mechanics have been implemented by the GNB,
which are;
+ Email reminders
+ Gamification
+ Social media
+ Affiliate marketing and the use of API’s
The viral cycle consists of existing users inviting new users by email, social
networks, blogs, forums etc, the success of which dictates the viral coefficient.
DIGITAL
MARKETING
THE VIRAL CYCLE
SOCIAL MEDIA
EMAIL
WORD OF MOUTH
LOST USERS
RETENTION
CYCLE
PAID USERS
INVITED USERS
INVITATIONS
IMPACT
IN-APP
CYCLE
£

this is for
everyone
40
TRAFFIC DRIVING STRATEGIES
The digital marketing requirements for the GNB will be outsourced to
a full service digital marketing agency who specialise in creating and
growing brand awareness.
The GNB digital marketing strategy will predominantly focus on
social media marketing, in particular the use of Online Behavioural
Advertising (OBA) through Facebook. Online Behavioural Advertising refers
to the practice of collecting information about a user’s online activity over
time, across unrelated websites in order to deliver advertisements tailored
to that user’s interests and preferences. In terms of the GNB, product
advertising will be targeting towards users within the age bracket 25-44
that exhibit behaviours consistent with engaging with our product, for
example early tech adopters and online shoppers.
The monthly marketing budget will provide an estimated audience reach
of between 17,000 and 45,000 targeted users per day – people who saw
our Facebook ads, aged between 25 and 44 (our target demographic).
The overall effectiveness of the marketing strategy will be determined by the
number of new visitors arriving at our landing page, which can be tracked.
In conjunction with this, we will also track the ‘bounce rate’, which is a term
used to describe the number of people who only visit one page on a website,
i.e. visit the landing page and then leave, therefore bounce rate is a measure
of visit quality. A high bounce rate would be an indicator that visitors to the
GNB site entrance (landing page) are not finding it relevant, in which case
both the marketing strategy and product may need to be reviewed. Bounce
rate is calculated as follows.
The GNB digital
marketing strategy will
predominantly focus on
social media marketing,
in particular the use of
Online Behavioural
Advertising (OBA)
through Facebook.
8:Howmuchdoyouspend
How much do you want to spend? Help Budgeting & pricing
Budget Daily Budget £33.00
Schedule Run my advert set continuously starting today

Set a start and end date
Show advanced options
Advert set name GB-25-44
Back
Estimated daily reach
17,000-45,000 people on Facebook
2,700-7,100 people on Instagram
This is only an estimate. Numbers shown are based
on the average performance of adverts targeted
to your selected audience
Choose Advert Creative

this is for
everyone
41
RB – (TV/TE)
Where RB = rate of bounce
TV = Total number of visitors viewing only one page
TE = Total entries to page
Typical website visitor statistics for the average start-up business are;
Average time on site = 3.1 minutes
Average number of pages viewed = 4.6
Bounce rate 40.5%
New visits = 62.9%
In addition to Online Behavioural Advertising through Facebook we will be
using online direct marketing, offline direct marketing and affiliate marketing
through the use of Application Program Interfaces (API’s).
Online Direct Marketing
Direct email marketing, also known as interruption based marketing involves
sending an email solely to communicate a promotional message.
The benefits of direct email marketing are as follows
+ Email marketing is second only to search marketing as the most effective
online marketing tactic and an exact return on investment can be tracked
+ Email marketing is significantly cheaper and faster than traditional mail
+ Substantial numbers can be reached easily
The main drawbacks of direct email marketing are costs, which pre-
dominantly centre on automated marketing software, access to servers,
renting email databases and EU regulations that prohibit the use of
unsolicited business to consumer emails in the UK.
In order to have the impact required the contact strategy employed needs to
reach millions of email addresses per week. Our strategy involves business to
business emails in the UK and business to consumer email in the US, taking
advantage of the CANSPAM laws that exist in the US.
Outsourced automated email marketing software from companies such as
Dot Mailer would allow this kind of reach, but at a cost of 1p per email.
Therefore sending 1 million emails per week for example would cost
£10,000 pw.
The GNB has built its own front end software that builds and monitors
campaigns, providing complete tracking of open, bounce and click through
rates. Owing to a strategic partnership with Foehn, the GNB also has access
to a bank of servers currently capable of handling a load of up to 5 million
emails per week; a number that can be increased if required. The only cost
incurred therefore involves obtaining the email databases, which have
already been secured
Direct email marketing will therefore not be outsourced and will remain
in-house.
The GNB is also
currently piloting
automated direct email
marketing campaigns
using software provided
by Mautic as this is
one aspect of digital
marketing that will not
be outsourced.
As the GNB platform
grows however, individual
user information such
as names and email
addresses can be
collected meaning that
visitors then become
‘known’ leads, therefore
permitting direct email
marketing to consumers
as well as businesses.

this is for
everyone
Offline Marketing
Offline and traditional advertising strategies will also be employed to
support the online promotion of the GNB, in order to maximise effectiveness.
According to global marketing company CMO Worldwide, response rates
to direct mail marketing are 4.4% compared to just 0.12% for online direct
marketing, and whereas web based marketing can take weeks to yield any
results direct offline marketing can produce immediate results.
Offline marketing also offers greater longevity than web based marketing as
web based adverts appear only briefly and are often ignored. With off-line
marketing however, if a product is relevant to a potential consumer they are
likely to keep an advert to refer back to at a later date. It offers a tangible
way in which potential customers can keep business details to hand and
therefore endures much longer. Offline marketing will particularly apply to
the promotion of CNB’s.
The GNB will also be employing traditional press release and PR tactics in
order to generate publicity. We are also about to take on board a full time
communications lead.
Affiliate Marketing and the use of API’s (the in-App cycle)
The success of the GNB website relies on there being both buyers and
sellers, however given that buyers cannot be attracted when there is nothing
to buy and that sellers cannot be attracted without there being a user base
to sell to, initially a sort of ‘stalemate’ exists. Therefore, until site content
and buying audience start to grow organically, the GNB will ‘borrow’ both
content and market reach from other websites using APIs (Application
Programme Interfaces). Pull API allows content from third party websites
(e.g. rightmove) to be ‘pulled’ onto the GNB platform. Push API allows
content posted on the GNB website to be ‘pushed’ through to third
party websites that already have an established audience or user base.
Affiliate marketing is therefore an essential part of the in app cycle, as it
gives users a reason to stay on the platform and if they find content that is
relevant to them they are more likely to return, reducing the rate of user loss.
TRAFFIC RETENTION STRATEGIES
Email Reminders
New users that are visiting the GNB website for the first time are
encouraged to engage with the platform as soon as possible. A number of
activities can only be completed once a user has registered an account, which
for security reasons must include a valid email address. As well as welcome
and reminder emails a schedule of ‘drip emails’ has been programmed to
trigger automatically in the event of user absence. Users who have registered
with the platform but not visited for a while will receive a series of emails
aimed at earning trust and eventually converting them into new customers.
Social Media
We have put together a team of outgoing, passionate people to act as the
digital face of the GNB through social media. As well as introducing the
GNB to potential new customer’s social media will help retain existing
customers as it acts as a customer service platform where our product can be
discussedandanyteethingproblemsusersmightbehavingcanbepickedupand
addressed. Social media efforts will keep followers up to date with what the
GNB is doing and the new products or services that we are offering as well
as taking care of them and therefore it is an important vehicle for retaining
existing users.
42
Offline marketing also
offers greater longevity
than web based
marketing as web based
adverts appear only
briefly and are often
ignored.
Affiliate marketing is
therefore an essential
part of the in app cycle,
as it gives users a reason
to stay on the platform
We have put together
a team of outgoing,
passionate people to act
as the digital face of the
GNB through social
media.

this is for
everyone
The use of Gamefication
Business or ‘Enterprise’ Gamification is the use of game design and game
elements, (badges, rewards, leaderboards etc) in non-game contexts in
order to drive user engagement. According to a Gartner Research Report it is
estimated that by the end of 2016 over 70% of global 2000 organisations will
have at least one “gamified” application and that gamification is positioned
to become a significant trend in the next five years. Gamification has been
picking up major momentum for driving user engagement and has gained
support from industry heavy weights, such as Salesforce.com and AutoDesk.
Business Gamification includes a number of psychological concepts,
especially regarding motivation, behaviour, and personality and has been used
in several ways on the GNB platform. A series of badges appear on a user’s
profile page that have been designed to encourage repeated engagement as
the user works through a series of awards. For example, all users are
automatically rewarded with their first badge simply for signing up to the
platform. Subsequent badges are awarded for hitting targets e.g. posting
one notice, 10 notices, 100 notices and so on, as well as for engaging in
other behaviours such as replying to a post in the advice and guidance section
or asking friends to join the GNB.
Users also receive a donation certificate every time they advertise an item
for sale on the platform that generates a fee (and therefore an automatic
donation of 20% to the GNB charitable Foundation). This certificate
is stored on a user’s timeline as a permanent record of their personal
humanitarian journey promoting a sense of both pride and altruism
which therefore encourages the behaviour to be repeated.
43
Business Gamification
includes a number of
psychological concepts,
especially regarding
motivation, behaviour,
and personality and has
been used in several ways
on the GNB platform.
9:ExamplesofGNBBadges
Pioneer
Creating a profile /
Joining GNB
Lieutenant
Adding 10 notices
Superintendent
Completing all sections
of a user profile (photo,
about etc)
Captain
Adding 25 notices
Ambassador
Adding a notice
Colonel
Adding 100 notices
Architect
Adding a notice that
generates a donation
Community
Champion
Joining another user’s
GNB
Innovator
Creating a CNB
Good Citizen
Giving an item away
for free

this is for
everyone
44
As well as recognition rewards we have included a monetary reward in the
form of credits that can be redeemed on the platform when placing an advert.
For every new user that registers an account after receiving an invite from
an existing users a 25p credit will be deposited in the existing user’s activity
bank to thank them for persuading their friends to sign up, which can be used
against the cost of placing future paid for classified advertising.
Gamification promotes both retention and growth of the GNB user base and
therefore also helps towards hitting the viral coefficient. The viral coefficient
is achieved through users talking about a brand, through social networks,
direct contact online and word of mouth. Gamification incentivizes this by
encouraging users to share with their friends or invite friends to the platform
as part of the gameplay.
Bulk site traffic will be acquired through digital marketing and the use of API’s,
which it is anticipated will result in a large customer base who will then become
proponents for the GNB. Both digital marketing and the use of API’s require
capital outlay and therefore cannot be sustained long term. In order to achieve
a positive revenue model the GNB needs to eventually achieve organic user base
growth, in other words a positive K factor. An expanding footprint or market
share will have a huge effect on the price that acquirers or investors in the GNB
will be willing to pay as it represents huge potential for monetisation. With a
positive K growth factor, the GNB can secure significant private investment
enabling the business to be scaled up and brought to an even larger market.
In the interim we will, in part, be using money raised from this offering to
help kick start this activity.
10:ActivityBank
My Transactions
£0.75 3
Credits Earned Successful Referrals
Direct Referrals (2) Invites via email (0) Invites via SMS (3)
Direct Referrals
Name Email
1 Guy Insull guy@caritashouse.co.uk
2 Lalith Athiappen lalith.athiappen@outlook.co.uk

this is for
everyone
45
GROWTH STRATEGY
Growth strategy for the GNB broadly falls under four main phases;
Market Penetration - Increase market share
Market Development - Enter new markets
Product Development - Add services or products
Diversification - Add services or products in new markets
Market Penetration
The growth strategy for the GNB will focus initially on market penetration
and increasing market share. This will centre on attracting new customers
and strengthening relationships with existing customers through continuous
innovation and communication.
Market Development
Selling into international markets is increasingly attractive because of
stronger economic growth in emerging economies such as China, the
United States, India and Japan (Appendix A). Although the common business
language worldwide is now English, there could still be language issues
(Appendix B). Currently the entire platform is available in any one of 52
different languages, which between them covers 76.2% of the world’s
population. We have established a team of professional translators enabling
us to market the product effectively in local languages.
Product Development
The interface of the Global NoticeBoard will initially meet standard
accessibility requirements. The second phase of the project is to provide
bespoke interfaces for every impairment that customise content and present
it to the end user. Impaired users will therefore have equal access to shared
information and be able to effortlessly engage in two-way communication
with any member of the GNB community. A unique mobile application will
also be available for each type of impairment. Developing the product in this
way is of benefit to both those who are normally digitally excluded due to
disability as well as enabling the GNB to tap into markets that are normally
inaccessible.
Diversification
Pipeline projects with Middlesex University present opportunities to
develop new products that tap into markets and industries outside our own
and therefore present opportunities to diversify revenue.
This is a risky activity as it involves entering new markets without any
previous track record, however we are developing products that have a
technological similarity to our own, which means that we can leverage
our existing technical knowledge to gain some advantage – also known as
Technological-related concentric diversification.
One of the products currently being developed is BeHive, (Better Human
Interaction Via Exchangeable Agents). BeHive is assistive hearing technology
that uses the pre-existing voice recognition on smartphones to generate
conversation summaries enabling deaf or other disabled people to more easily
follow what is collectively being said. A printed copy of all transcripts can also
be made available to each person in the meeting which therefore also has
commercial relevance as it replaces the need to take minutes at meetings.
Selling into international
markets is increasingly
attractive because of
stronger economic
growth in emerging
economies such as China,
the United States, India
and Japan.
Opportunities to
develop new products
that tap into markets
and industries outside
our own and therefore
present opportunities to
diversify revenue.

this is for
everyone
46
SCALABILITY
The purpose of the GNB is to help build a global movement for change.
It was envisioned from day 1 that the platform would need to be
capable of global expansion and therefore scalability has been considered in
the original design and build of the platform. The entire website can
already be translated into any one of 52 different languages. Purchasing
power parity price point and currency conversions are already deployed
throughout the platform, relevant to each and every one of the 185 countries
in the world.
Design of the server architecture is key to the overall scalability of the
platform and expansion requires investment in a large network of
geographically distributed servers. Where multiple server locations exist
users are routed to the server closest to them. By minimising the distance
between the user and the server, delivery of site content and therefore the
web browsing experience is accelerated. Load balancing (distributing the
site content across a network of servers) also helps prevent the GNB’s own
server from “overheating” and potentially causing disruptions to the website.
The GNB also has a bank of independent, internal servers, which have
been reserved purely for essential communications (such as emailing user
passwords etc). Storage of bulk data (e.g. image files and videos) and non-
essential communications will exploit Amazon’s CDN service (Content
Delivery Network), which is both inexpensive and global. This ensures
that the performance of the GNB website is not affected by increases to site
traffic and can scale quickly off the back of Amazon’s global server
architecture. The current version of the GNB platform has been designed to
withstand site traffic of up to 10 million initial users.
With expansion and scalability in mind, in order to facilitate large scale
software development, programming of the platform has been designed
in a modular way in order to protect the main source code. This means
that the source code can be secured, thereby enabling large numbers of
software developers to work on separate modules independently without
being able to view the main source code or the whole picture. These large
pieces of individual software coding are then uploaded or attached to the
main source code once they are completed.
Site content is provided by the community, and therefore as the user
base grows site content also increases, potentially allowing the platform to
expand indefinitely. The amount of revenue generated from selling fees is
also proportional to the size of the user base, therefore as server and software
development costs increase so will revenue, which again permits unlimited
growth.
The purpose of the
GNB is to be Global
movement for change
and it was envisioned
from day 1 that the
platform would need to
be capable of global
expansion.
Site content is provided
by the community, and
therefore as the user
base grows site content
also increases, potentially
allowing the platform to
expand indefinitely.

this is for
everyone
47
RISK ANALYSIS
Key risk relates to copying the platform in spite of trademark protections.
The plan is to test carefully and slowly (privately), then ramp it up fast to
secure critical mass.
Risk Risk Impact Score out Strategy to
H, M, L H, M, L of 10 address risk

Site hacked and L H 3 Modular build with
source code copied protected source code.
Virtually impossible to
be hacked
Site hacked - L H 3 Payment details stored
user payment with third party
details compromised payment provider
(PayPal) not GNB
Site hacked - M H 5 Middlesex University
user personal own this piece of
details compromised work

Reputational risk H M 5 1p user verification
due to unethical through bank account
user behaviour stopping anonymity
Website down M H 6 Back-Up strategy
time

KEY METRICS FOR THE GNB
Metric Indicates Target
New users arriving at
the landing page Effective Marketing 63%*
Bounce Rate Relevance of product/
landing page 40.5%
Number of invites sent by Retention and product Average of
existing users impact 10 per user

Number of invitees
converted into users k-growth factor 1.2
*click through form Facebook

this is for
everyone
48
FINANCIAL PLAN
BUY, SELL, SHARE
ON THE GNB...
HELP MAKE THE
WORLD A
BETTER PLACE
this is for
everyone

this is for
everyone
FINANCIAL PLAN
49
THE BUSINESS MODEL
The basic proposition is that if you think that the humanitarian agenda
counts for something, then sell your goods and services on the GNB instead
of anywhere else. The platform is at least as good as anywhere else, is
competitive on pricing and has a big humanitarian agenda.
The J-curve is a classic representation of just about any investment.
It represents the serious amount of money and patience required for
investments, as return may be negative for a long time before the curve starts
to turn and rise. A crucial factor in achieving long term financial goals is
therefore managing to survive the bottom of the curve.
Initial development activity focused on building a straight commercial
business that could support the GNB through the bottom of the curve.
Early success of leadership and training courses based on the work of
Stephen Covey’s 7 habits of highly effective people led to this offering being
formalized through the GNB Learning and Development Academy (LDA).
A commercial revenue development model was then built using a monthly
contact strategy deployed through email servers, direct mail and a telesales
appointment team.
Actual and projected financial performance of the LDA helped secured seed
funding for the GNB in return for shares. Seed funding has enabled the costs
of staff, premises and software development to be covered while the GNB
was developed into a product that could be monetised.
The focus for classified ads is across four key high value paying sectors on the
GNB; selling property and cars, advertising jobs and trades people.
The issue is that in early stages people won’t advertise as we have no traffic
audience for people to purchase what it is they are advertising.
To bridge the gap therefore, between seed funding and the capital outlay
required in order to fully launch the main GNB platform (classified ads) the
Customisable NoticeBoard business model has been developed to generate
initial revenue, with our first focus target market being the charity sector.
FINANCIAL MODELLING
Please see our supplementary Financial Modelling
brochure for more information
USE OF FUNDS RAISED THROUGH THE OFFERING
Investment will enable the Global NoticeBoard to be launched to its full
capacity by funding the marketing and development costs necessary to make
an impact in the online marketplace. Money will also be used for revenue
funding for software development.

this is for
everyone
FINANCIAL PLAN
50
APPENDIX 1 – BREAKDOWN OF FINANCIAL REQUIREMENTS
The two year funding requirement for the GNB would encompass the
following:
Core team costs YEAR 1 (£) YEAR 2 (£) TOTAL
Proportion of Chief Executive’s time 35,000 35,000 70,000
Project lead 70,000 70,000 140,000
Chief Technical Officer 70,000 70,000 140,000
Middlesex liaison / research 30,000 30,000 60,000
Office / project manager 30,000 30,000 60,000
Server costs 100,000 200,000 300,000
Existing UK premises plus on-costs 40,000 40,000 40,000
Total 375,000 475,000 850,000
Expansion of existing team (coders) YEAR 1 (£) YEAR 2 (£) TOTAL
Existing developers (located in India) 78,000 78,000 156,000
Existing remote office (India) plus on-costs 39,600 39,600 79,200
New premises 70,000 70,000 140,000
Addition of 20 developers (India) 156,000 156,000 312,000
Addition of 15 developers (India) 0 117,000 117,000
Total 343,600 460,600 804,200
Communications, media and public relations YEAR 1 (£) YEAR 2 (£) TOTAL
Communications and PR lead (UK) 60,000 60,000 120,000
Deputy PR lead (UK) 45,000 45,000 90,000
Two additional communications officers 0 50,000 50,000
Total 105,000 155,000 260,000
Digital, marketing and sales YEAR 1 (£) YEAR 2 (£) TOTAL
Lead (UK) 60,000 60,000 120,000
Deputy lead (UK) 30,000 30,000 60,000
Telesales support 52,000 52,000 104,000
Marketing Lead plus Sales officer 60,000 90,000 150,000
Total 202,000 232,000 434,000
Customer support YEAR 1 (£) YEAR 2 (£) TOTAL
Customer care manager 45,000 45,000 90,000
Deputy customer care manager 30,000 30,000 60,000
Customer care support (x3, India-based) 0 23,400 23,400
Total 75,000 98,400 173,400
YEAR 1 (£) YEAR 2 (£) TOTAL
Overall totals 1,100,600 1,421,000 2,521,600
MARKET FLOATATION / EXIT STRATEGY
Our ambition is to build a £200m pa. turnover business within 5-7
years. Our net margins in the investment phase are 76%, ie. 100 - 20%
Humanitarian donation less 4% PayPal fees.

Moving forward we will assume a 10% deduction for cost of sales, plus
a further 10% deduction for running cost generally, leaving a Net margin
of 56%.

this is for
everyone
FINANCIAL PLAN
51
Revenue (£m) 20% (£m) GNB SROI (£m)
= revenue x 20% x 398%
5 1 3.98
25 5 19.90
50 10 39.80
100 20 79.60
200 40 159.20
ie. Turning over £200m of sales per annum at a Net Margin of 56% will lead
to a Market Valuation of £5.6bn, plus a contribution to humanitarian causes
of £40m pa.
FINANCIAL RETURN ON INVESTMENT
An investment of £1m at £2 per share buys 500,000 shares.
Assuming then that we take this to a £100m turnover business the value
of these shares becomes £93.33 each, resulting in the 500,000 shares being
worth £46.7m
If we take this to a £200m turnover business those same shares are then
worth £93.3m, i.e. 500,000 shares x a share valuation of £186.66 per share.
In summary then, over a 4-5 year period, this investment has the potential to
yield a straight financial ROI of somewhere between say 4570% and 9230%
respectively, either end of which might be considered to be very good.
SOCIAL RETURN ON INVESTMENT
20% of all classified advertising revenue generated by the GNB platform will
be donated initially to Caritas Anchor House to support the essential work
it carries out. Caritas Anchor House creates sustainable solutions, ensuring
that the homeless people it helps, never find themselves in the same situation
again; according to the 2012 Oxford economics evaluation the social return on
investment for Caritas Anchor House is 398%.
Revenue Net Margin PE Ratio Market Value per
(£m pa) @56% Valuation (£m) Share (£)*
5 2.8 50 140 4.66
25 14 50 700 23.33
50 28 50 1400 46.66
100 56 50 2800 93.33
200 112 50 5600 186.66
* 30m shares in issue

this is for
everyone
APPENDICES
52
(A) GDP GROWTH/DECLINE TRENDS FORECAST FOR NEXT 40 YEARS BY CONTINENT / COUNTRY

2050 Country Name 2000 2010 2020 2030 2040 2050
Rank GDP GDP GDP GDP GDP GDP
1 China 1078 2998 7070 14312 26439 44453
2 European Union 9395 12965 16861 21075 28323 35288
3 United States 9825 13271 16415 20833 27229 35165
4 India 469 929 2104 4935 12367 27803
5 Japan 4176 4601 5221 5810 6039 6673
6 Brazil 762 668 1333 2189 3740 6074
7 Russia 391 847 1741 2980 4467 5870
8 United Kingdom 1437 1876 2285 2649 3201 3782
9 Germany 1875 2212 2524 2687 3147 3603
10 France 1311 1622 1930 2267 2668 3148
11 Italy 1078 1337 1553 1671 1788 2061
Similarly the above GDP trending chart details the importance of the economic growth in China and India from
now through to 2050. Again, this information will need to inform our longer term approach and development.
(B) TOP TEN SPOKEN LANGUAGES

Language Approx Speakers Rank
Mandarin 845,234,000 1
Spanish 329,000,000 2
English 328,000,000 3
Hindu / Urdu 182,000,000 Hindi, 60,600,00 Urdu 4
Arabic 221,000,000 5
Bengali 181,000,000 6
Portugese 178,000,000 7
Russian 144,000,000 8
Japanese 122,000,000 9
German 90,300,000 10
This will inform our longer term language versions of the website.
By way of example also, India appears top of the Sovereign states list where English is an official language, with a
population of 1.14 billion people. Good news you may think, and a good market to go after, but when you look
at the current literacy rate its only 61%: Internet use is around 8% and only 9.25% use English as a first language.
Also, only 28% of the population live in urban areas. However, these trends will change substantially over the
next 30/40 years. Monitoring such trends and anticipating shifts will of necessity inform our longer term plans.

this is for
everyone
this is for
everyone
The Global NoticeBoard is a combination
of city, industry, academia and charity,
working together to produce a platform
that is capable not only of going round
the world, but of making it better in the
process. If that in itself is not a good
enough reason to invest, at revenues
of just £5 million the financial model
projects a return of more than double
the original investment.
Investment in the GNB is however about
so much more than simply securing a
financial return, its about investing in
hope for humanity.
“ Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful
and committed people can change the world,
indeed it’s the only thing that ever does.”
Margaret Mead
Social Anthropologist
CLOSING STATEMENT
53

this is for
everyone
Limited company registration number 06243285.
Charity registration number 1145253.
Email: contactus@globalnoticeboard.com
Telephone: 020 7476 6062
Website: www.globalnoticeboard.com
Copyright © 2016 All Rights Reserved

GNB Investment Nov FINAL

Empfohlen

Empfohlen

Weitere ähnliche Inhalte

Was ist angesagt?

Was ist angesagt? (20)

Andere mochten auch

Andere mochten auch (9)

Ähnlich wie GNB Investment Nov FINAL

Ähnlich wie GNB Investment Nov FINAL (20)

GNB Investment Nov FINAL