2. Our Vision
Electable will help voters make sense of elections;
giving them the means to easily find information about
their local candidates by searching their address and
getting detailed profiles.
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3. Clients Goals
We achieve our vision by offering a platform of services to
news outlets and candidates which achieve these goals:
News Outlets
● Lessens the workload for
collecting candidate information
● Creates a better experience for
readers
● Electable page could be used
as a revenue generator
Candidates
● For those without a web
presence, a better way to
connect with voters
● Eases interaction with news
outlets; allows candidate to
control information
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4. Our thesis
1. Lacking expertise, local news outlets will adopt us
as a resource for good web technology
2. Local candidates will appreciate a tool to spread
their message
3. Voters will find us the best experience for learning
about local elections
4. Electable will connect all three parties and help
them achieve these goals and more
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5. Market Opportunity
Local news outlets, especially non-profits1, face technological challenges in
news dissemination. And the landscape is growing, with a large portion of
digital hyperlocal sites having been founded since 20102.
Their audiences are demanding more technology – 28% of registered voters
use their cell phones for political news; and as high as 43% of 18-29 year-old
voters3.
1. Pew Journalism: http://pewrsr.ch/10xEEyq
2. Pew Journalism: http://pewrsr.ch/1l3Fo3I
3. Pew Internet Project: http://www.pewinternet.org/2014/11/03/cell-phones-social-media-and-campaign-2014/
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6. Market Opportunity: Legacy
Legacy.com is a leading example of providing SaaS to news outlets. They are
partnered with 85% of U.S. newspapers, and the funeral homes they serve;
with additional sites in Australia, Canada, the U.K. and New Zealand. “Legacy.
com is a top 50 U.S. internet domain with over 20 million monthly unique
visitors globally.1”
According to Crain’s, “Teaming up with newspapers has allowed Legacy.com to
dominate the U.S. market, with payments flowing from 85 of the 100 biggest
American papers.2”
1. Great Hill Partners: http://www.greathillpartners.com/portfolio#investment_330
2. “There’s Life in the Obit Business” Crain’s Chicago http://bit.ly/10C1Knt
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7. Validation: Election Central
In 2010, Adam launched Election Central at Shaw Media.
The platform was highly popular within the company and drew attention from
throughout media outlets in the state, earning the 2012 Innovation of the Year
from the Illinois AP.
Illinois Elections Pageviews Unique Visitors
2011 Consolidated Election 102,621 60,715
2012 Primary Election 86,141 50,343
Three publications using the
Election Central platform
achieved a broad reach:
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8. Validation: SimpleElection
In 2012, we validated our thesis that news outlets would
use election tools by offering a series of widgets. With only
a week’s promotion 18 sites created 80 widgets and
generated 20,000 pageviews on election night.
Many of our users were members of the Local
Independent Online News publishers and the
Investigative News Network. Several have already
expressed interest in Electable:
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9. The Product
Our product gives voters their ballot,
along with detailed profiles of
candidates and races; tying in news
outlet coverage and expertise.
We use the Open Civic Data format to
tie races with jurisdictions and look up
the jurisdictions for a given address.
The result is the best experience for a
voter to learn about their candidates.
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10. Revenue
We offer several a la carte premium features to both news outlets and
candidates; paid per election:
News Outlets
● White Labeling (similar to
Legacy.com); which would be
mobile-optimized
● Embeddable Widgets
● Custom Questionnaires
Candidates
We plan to respond as candidates
offer more feedback, but options
could include:
● Calendars
● Vanity URLs
● Custom Page Designs
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11. Marketing & Growth Strategy
● Reaching out to Media Organizations
● Outreach to individual news outlets
● Trade show and conference presentations
● Building brand awareness in the public
○ Editorial content, analysis of data in system
● Potential international expansion
● Exploring how sale of data may be a revenue stream
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12. Team Members
Adam Nekola, CEO
Worked in journalism for six years developing web applications. Led a team
that won an Editor & Publisher Best Website award. Currently a web developer
at a nonpartisan research firm.
Diana Yoo, CCO
An expert in UX, informational graphics, and typography. Has helped launch
significant process improvement initiatives, provided critical training to
government employees, and presented survey research data to a global
audience.
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13. Competition
While there is no product we can find exactly like Electable,
there are several players in the realm:
e.thePeople is a tool that news outlets and organizations can use
to provide information to their users. It’s more of an application
than a web portal and user testing has shown that the UI can be
frustrating.
Democracy.com is candidate-oriented, providing “free campaign
websites.” They are planning to focus more on civic life than
coverage of elections.
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14. Risk Factors
Each state generally has two elections each year. While each state may hold
their votes at differing times, we must attempt to remain relevant between
election cycles.
News outlets and candidates understand the importance of elections, but it will
be important for Electable to help convey that importance to voters. Voter
turnout during Presidential elections is generally about 60%, while midterms are
approximately 46%1. These numbers fall even lower for state elections and
primaries. Electable will be more valuable to candidates and voters if we
promote their content.
1. Washington Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/politics/2014-midterms/turnout/
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15. Market Size
Using a series of sources we
can estimate a potential
market size of news outlets:
While covering McHenry County in the 2013
Illinois Consolidated Election, the Northwest
Herald featured:
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Note: This is for one spring
election; a second would
occur in the fall adding
additional revenue, but with
fewer candidates.
Note: 85% is
Legacy.com’s
market
penetration.
16. Projected Users
Based on the Northwest Herald sample, we conservatively estimate <100
active candidates per election (NWH saw 196). As new candidates are added
each election, our total candidate user base grows.
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17. Projected Revenue
We personally believe the competitive nature of elections would drive a
conversation rate closer to 10%, with a minimum projection of 5%:
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Assuming:
News Outlets generate $200 / election
Candidates at $100 / election
18. Use of Capital
We want to pursue this full time; we’d like to hire a few more roles. We’
re looking for capital that would give us the ability to do this. With our
aforementioned goals and a good conversion rate, we foresee making
good revenue by 2017:
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