Platform Building The Next Generation Of Economies Of Unscale

Our platform recontextualises the internet, giving individuals unlimited organic reach while allowing businesses to promote directly to consumers using "true" VRM /CRM.

The Problem:

The online environment as it currently stands is increasingly limiting – not extending – all our ability to communicate ideas, innovate and engage in effective e-commerce. How so? Because existing social networks do not allow for a promotable e-commerce component whilst e-commerce sites do not allow for a promotable social component. This means that companies and their customers (and potential customers) are kept further distanced by the vested interests of the large social and e-commerce sites whose business models are based on charging to connect people (through marketing, influencing, discounts, promotions, paid for subscriber reach, etc). Thus, non-communicability is the profitable status quo – a status quo we are not happy to accept.

The Solution:

Our site reverses the current conceptual and revenue model by giving users – both individuals and companies – the software, coupled with a robust social and e-commerce platform, to promote ideas and products beyond their existing networks. By deploying our tech stack the need for a company to ‘pipe in’ software solutions is removed: e-commerce, marketing and customer relations all take place from one highly targetable location. Customers access the same software to post, communicate and reply – also being heard beyond their own networks. The result is a win-win situation: businesses can finally listen to consumers who in turn can genuinely communicate their opinions and be heard. In the process, a business’s customers become willing brand ambassadors as part of a genuinely egalitarian e-commerce and social networking experience that fulfils the promise of true VRM/CRM.

The Team

We have assembled a committed and talented team with experience in delivering IT driven business value with budgets up to TCV £35m, including several end to end full engagement life cycle experiences, including business change management and integration, transition from vendors, insourcing, vendor management, project rescue and complex implementation strategies and more. Our in-house marketing strategist has worked for some of the world’s best agencies on three continents, including DDB Needham, TBWA and the WPP network, on some of the world’s leading brands including McDonalds, GM, Ford, HP, Adidas and Levi’s, plus a host of smaller brands, across all types of media.

The Opportunity:

We are seeking £50,000 in exchange for 25% equity to match an existing £55,000 investment in development work, to be used for: 1) £10,000 to complete web platform to launch, and 2) £40,000 to be used for marketing, specifically blog / social media influencers at a reach of 20 million with a conversion rate of 2.5%. This equates to 500,000 subscribers in the first 6 months (not accounting for inbuilt exponential growth).

We plan second round funding in 6-9 months, with an exit in 5-7 years to a communications company, such as Mobli, who have shown an interest in and propensity to buy companies with technology that more closely matches real-world communication (their purchase of Pheed for £35 million in 2015 being a good example).

The Market:

The combination of misguided CRM applications, the inability to promote beyond a subscriber’s existing networks, and declining organic reach on existing social sites is apparent in the market figures: the online e-commerce market was $1,700 trillion in 2015, with $29 trillion being retail spending. This figure is predicted to top $1,922 trillion in 2016, increasing to $2,143 trillion in 2017, and $2,356 trillion in 2018 respectively (Source: Statista.com, 2016). However, these figures need to be taken into context to understand the enormous potential for our site to grow our market share: the total number of e-commerce sites on the net is currently 12,000, with only 650,000 stores selling more than $1000 per annum. (Source, Emarketeer.com, 2016) When this is taken into context with the statistic that 0% of e-commerce sites top 1 million by Alexa Ranking (Source: Alexa.com, 2015) the outcome is shockingly clear for anyone to see: traffic drives revenue and businesses overall are struggling to drive this traffic to their sites. And this is where we step in.

We predict – based on the escalation of the Customer Relations Management (CRM) segment that measures consumer ‘sentiment’ – that where the interests of consumers and companies meet online in order to promote one-to-one relationships online retailers can actively pursue an increased share of the online retail market worth $1,700 trillion annually. This is concurrent with creating a hitherto untapped multi-billion dollar CRM/VRM market set to eclipse the current CRM market of $21 billion annually.

Business plan, financial forecasts, marketing plan, site specifications and investor deck available upon request.