Mobile Dating Startup Focusing on Indian Market Looking for Investors

We are a mobile dating service that is focused on India. We are looking for an investment of $500,000 in a convertible note round with a 20% discount and $2.5MM cap.

Plan A Drink solves the pain of the younger generation in India who are moving away from traditional arranged marriages, and starting to date but have no distinct mobile solution for this cultural shift. India is poised to hold the third largest smartphone market share of any country within 3 years - and we will be the mobile dating solution.

The team is made up of J. I., D. S. and H. Y. J.I. is of Indian descent and has deep ties to India as well as having over 6 years in sales experience, consistently breaking quotas. He also has an infectious work ethic coupled with a fire for success that is unrelenting. D,S, holds a B.S. in Business Administration with an Accounting Focus, and has over 7 years in the finance industry. His experience is in accounting, budgeting and ERP systems implementation. He provides a structured approach to scaling a business. H.Y. holds a Ph.D in Computer Science and specializes in analytics. He has won an Achievement Award at the Institute of Theoretical Computer Science at Tsinghua University in Beijing and has finished a Post Doc at Caltech.

Our equity advisors consist of P. K. and D. W. P.K.is the CEO of a mobile provider for developing markets. He will actively assist us in positioning ourselves in India, as well as expansion to other markets. D.W. is a mobile product consultant and is highly experienced in lean startup methodology and UX/UI.

Our target market is smartphone users in India, which is estimated to be over 100 million by 2015. It will surpass the United States a few years after that, and hold the largest smartphone market share of any country. Our focus will be on the youth (18-30) to start with, as that generation is moving away from traditional arranged marriages. This age group is also the largest percentage of smartphone users (36%).

Plan A Drink has a freemium business model. Users can upgrade their accounts, purchase gifts, and unlock different chat features within our app similar to US-based dating apps. Alternatively, we will also look to have strategic partnerships with major brands, enticing them with a key demographic and finally run mobile advertisements.

We will position ourselves in the market with the help of our equity advisor Prem Kumar, who is the CEO of Fly Mobile. He will give us an immediate footing in India. We are also in talks with Bollywood actors/actresses. In addition, our product has a high level of virality as we reward our users for marketing our site through other social platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. Lastly, we will of course utilize advertising and PR.

We are looking to raise $500,000 in a convertible note round with a 20% discount and $2.5MM cap. This will take us 12 months out and allow us to grow our user base to 750,000 users. Within three to five years we will exhibit enough growth where we will be an attractive acquisition prospect.

Bharat Matrimony and Shaadi are our competitors. Their online dating services focused on finding a marriage partner. These major players have also focused their efforts entirely on the web. The growth is going to be in mobile dating in India, as opposed to traditional matrimonial platforms. Step Out and TwoMangoes have validated the need for a non-matrimonial focused platform, but have not addressed the growing mobile trend. They are a 1 on 1 dating experience and are not optimized for mobile.

Our competitors, in addition to not recognizing the need for a mobile dating platform in India have also not attacked online dating as we plan to do. Through the use of gamification, we are going to be able to make it a casual experience that will engage users more than our competitors and provide them an experience they have not yet seen before.

Our initial market focus is India. With the social norms for the 18-30 year old market shifting its focus from arranged marriages to dating, we are solving a pain for the younger generation while getting in at the ground floor of an industry that is about to boom.

There are over 15 million online daters in India currently and that number is growing every day. Simultaneously with the modernization of the dating structure in India is the surge of smartphone growth. By 2015 India is poised to hold the third largest smart phone market share, with over 100 million smartphones. Some predictions suggest the India-specific app market could be worth close to $4 billion in the next few years. By jumping into an emerging market and fulfilling a rapidly growing need provides an attractive opportunity to capitalize and become a major player in the space.

Penetration: In addition to our connection with Fly Mobile, a top mobile distributer for the younger generation in India, market penetration will be achieved through partnering with Bollywood stars, online advertising, press releases, and most importantly, virality. Our product promotes group behavior and greatly incentivizes the online advertising of our site through Facebook and Twitter.

- Marketing (31%)
- Technical Staff Salaries (28%)
- Executive Salaries (22%)
- Hosting (12%)
- Professional Services - Accounting, Legal, etc. (3%)
- Travel (1%)
- Office Rent (1%)
- Equipment Costs (1%)

We envision one more round of financing of around $2MM (Series A).

We are looking for investors to partake in a convertible note round which will offer them a 20% discount on their contribution upon the next round of financing. We are looking for strategic, hands-on investors.