gratitude point intro_n_investment_summary_may_2011

GratitudePoint.com: An Introduction, and Investment

Summary

Shantanu Kangude

Matt Fairchild

Harshal Chhaya

Contact: [email protected] / +1-214-235-3844

04/11/23 Help. Thank. Feel Good. 2

Outline• Problem statement• The Solution• Business Model• Underlying Magic• Marketing and Sales• Competition• Team• Current Status• Plan and Resources Required• Investment Opportunity• Summary

Transcript of the audio for each slide is

available in the notes for each slide in the .ppt file

04/11/23 Help. Thank. Feel Good. 304/11/23 Help. Thank. Feel Good. 3

Problem Statement (1/2)• There is lots of Gratitude and Goodwill in the world

– This is good!

• But it’s quickly forgotten and hard to keep track of

How much is really there in my life to be thankful for?


Problem Statement (2/2)

• Potential for Gratitude/Goodwill is missed– Finding trustworthy help is difficult

– Helping others is difficult, especially when trying to use existing classifieds sites

– Reciprocating on our terms difficult


Solution: Always-on Web Portal (1/3)

• Give cash-worthy “Gratitude Points” (GPs) for any reason– e.g. help received on a task

• Rewards aren’t pre-negotiated, but rather out of Goodwill• Journal why you’re grateful

Gratitude Point

A place for all your Gratitude


Solution: Always-on Web Portal (2/3)

• Before GPs can be given, they need to be– Either bought for cash– Or received from someone else

• GPs can be redeemed for cash

Gratitude Points (GPs) =


Solution: Always-on Web-portal (3/3)

Post a Request for Help Need a ride from the airport home; Thursday 4pm to the uptown area

People Respond with offers to help on the website

Thank those who help with GPs, and “Journal” your Gratitude

1.

2.

3.


• Marriage of two ideas – Gratitude sharing and tracking

– Helping each other

• With the following characteristics– Together they make each other “cool”– Concept uniquely suited to the online medium

Underlying Magic / Differentiation (1/2)

Gratitude sharing and

tracking

Helping Each Other Activities


Underlying Magic / Differentiation (2/2)• Automatic Gratitude Journal of all gratitude transactions

• High quality content and ease of use– Posts and Views can be customized by

• Location, author type (in-circle?), remote/not, categories, tags, times

– Fine control on requests for help: visibility, suspension, etc.– Feedback system and Circle concepts for trust/privacy

• Strong Community Building– Circle concepts, Statistics, Forums, Social Media, Blog– Interaction with non-members possible

• you can give them GPs, which are saved until they become members

• Team’s unique passion in positive psychology


Business Model - Revenue• Targeted advertisements

– User looking for help on a specific task in specific conditions

– Target the ads specifically to the needs => more revenue per ad

• Interest on dollars equivalent to the GPs in the system

• Redemption/Processing fee – Marketed as a means to discourage

withdrawals and promote exchanges8$

2$

40 GPs = 10$redeem


Business Model - Expenses

• Operating the online portal with servers, maintenance, customer service, legal, accounting etc.

• Evolution of site features = Research & Development

• Marketing and promotions to build and maintain a larger community


Marketing and Sales (1/3)

• Industry Analysis and Trends– Demographic/Psychographic on the rise

• Self improvement, Personal Development, New Age• Thrifty and do it yourself

– Internet Advertising revenues on the rise

• Market Interest– 57 Requests to join the website without any campaign– Facebook.com/gratitudepoint = 3000+ Followers– Twitter.com/gratitudepoint = 3600+ Followers

happiness


Marketing and Sales (2/3)

• New User Acquisition– Blog, Facebook, Twitter Buzz– Search Engine Optimization

and Advertising– Facebook Advertising– Promotional Free GPs to

Invitees– Member Interactions with

Non-Members– Inviting Charities /

Community Organizations to be Recipients of GP gifts


Marketing and Sales (3/3)• Ensuring repeat use

– Strong focus on usability, trust, and privacy– Quality, frequently-updated content as community builds – Promoting daily activities such as daily GP giving, Blog

articles, and Newsletters– Regular updates on Blog and Social Media

• Bringing advertisers– Focus on building a loyal community– Start with Ad-Sense and other generic networks– Affiliate networks– Transition to own system for targeted ads based on data

from GP Requests


Competition: Work for Credit Type Sites• Site type: Post tasks, get them done, exchange credits

– Elance, Sologig, Odesk, 99designs, Cramster, Writing.com etc. are for

• larger tasks with lots of overhead, or • in very specific areas of work

– Greatest competition from generic bartering and small transactions websites

• BarterQuest.com, u-exchange.com• Favorpals.com, Craigslist.com• Fiverr.com, taskrabbit.com


Competition: Positive Psychology Type• Site type: Positive Psychology, New Age, Do it

yourself, generic money-saving sites– Favorpoints.com– Gratitudelog.com– http://happytapper.com/ (Iphone apps on Gratitude /

Vision)– Intent.com– Helpeachother.com

These can be turned into Partners rather than Competitors!


Team• Harshal Chhaya

– Founder and CTO– 15+ years of experience in building and running

community websites single handedly– 15+ years of extensive software experience

• Shantanu Kangude– Founder and COO– Ph. D. & 5+ years experience in International Technical

Standards for Wireless Networks– Adjunct professor, teaching Computer Networks at SMU– Passionate/Extensive student of

• Positive psychology (source of Gratitude and Happiness concepts)• Influence psychology


Supporting Team (External on contract)• Legal

– Vernon Law Group

• Support, Daily Operations & Book-keeping– Beatriz Meza

• Technology & Development– Colin Wood– Nathanael Gingrich

• Social Media, Blog, Search based marketing, optimization, and Analytics– Beatriz Meza– Elizabeth Miller– Matt Fairchild

Current Status – May 2011


Status: Product and Operations• Fully functional website

– Ongoing usability testing and improvements– Beautification improvements to begin soon– Ongoing administrative interface development for

easier management

• Invitation only release so we control and fix issues as we go– Invitees can further invite

• Daily Backups onto Amazon S3


Status: Marketing (1/2)• Social Media

– Facebook: 3000+ followers, regular updates– Twitter: 3600+ followers, regular updates

• Blog – 2+ posts/week with average readership of 60 people/post

• Site Registration Invitation Requests – Without any campaign, we have 57 Requests

• Facebook Advertising– 40c per new follower with the current working ad

• Promotional Giveaways– T-shirts, Gifts, and Money reserved for Gratitude Points

• Search optimizations ongoing


Status: Marketing (2/2)


Status: Legal, Accounting, Investors• Legal

– Gratitude Point Trademark Issued– Terms of Service and Privacy Policy Approved– Company legal structure etc. done

• Accounting – Very conservative spending during development– $20000 Invested and Spent: July ’10 to May ’11– AdSense and Affiliate revenue of $38 so far from the blog

• Investors– 11.5% of the company’s shares still company-owned– 6 current investors/shareholders including founders

Plans: June to December 2011

Existing Cash Reserve to Cover Expenses Till June


Plan: Operations• Opening up the website to more users• Enable larger scale (few 100,000 users)

– Software/server optimizations, load-sharing, High Bandwidth Connectivity

• Backups and Storage– Point in time recovery of MySQL Databases to be enabled

• Resources Required: – Server + Backups = $500– Cubicle space = $2400– Business Meals + Utilities= $600– Postage, Equipment, Reserves etc. = $500

TOTAL: $4000


Plan: Product Development (1/2)• Usability updates/features based on user feedback• Known outstanding features to be implemented

– User reporting of abuse– Responding to Requests without being a member– Oauth and Facebook based login/registration

• Promotional schemes and Other Marketing plans• Automated testing/QA using Sahi/Selenium• Mobile version of the site – m.gratitudepoint.com ,

with Iphone and Android apps• Facebook App• Different types of accounts: Corporate giving

accounts, non-profit charity recipient accounts etc.


Plan: Product Development (2/2)

• Resources Required– Colin Wood (Full time): $25000– Nathan (10 hrs/week): $4200

TOTAL: $29,200


Plan: Marketing (1/2)• Facebook: Continue advertisements

– ~40 cents / follower for $1000 / month for 6 mo = $6000

• Blog + Twitter + Facebook + General Operations Management – Continue at current expense level ($750 + $250) =

$1000/month for 6 mo = $6000

• Promotional Giveaways– Props like T-shirts etc.– Promotional Gratitude Points (to be used off of

Kickstarter.com campaign– $1000 for the Kickstarter campaign awards + $4000 raised

from kickstarter campaign

TOTAL: $13,000 + $4000 from Kickstarter.com


Plan: Marketing (2/2)• Search & Analytics

– Google AdWords (Small campaign) = $500

• Site Beautification– Hiring Graphics Artists for feedback/improvements = $500

• Site Usability– User Feedback and Suggestions = $500 for awards

• Other Reserve Marketing– Begin having sponsors for free GPs to users– Aggressive push for targeted advertisements– $500

TOTAL: $2000


Plan: Personnel• Product Development

– Maintain Colin and Nathan– Have Cubicles for structured work

• Marketing– Need a graphic artist on-call/retainer– Need volunteers to help with in-person marketing and

testing

• Legal, Accounting, Investments– Need a CPA for company accounts

• Resources Required: Covered in their respective sections


Plan: Legal and Accounting• Legal

– Continue with the law firm– No major pending issues, so use as needed– Reserve ~$1000

• Accounting– CPA to be hired (~ $1000/year )– Ad hosting (revenue source)

• More AdSense blocks• More different text-based/other ad networks

TOTAL: $2000

Investment Opportunity


Total Investment Sought

• Total Investment Sought: $54,200

• Sources:– $50,200: New investors– $4000: Kickstarter.com campaign

• Breakdown– $29,200 Product Development– $15000 Marketing– $4000 promotional GPs– $4000 Operations– $2000 CPA + Legal

TOTAL: $54,200


Offered Investment Opportunity

• Minimum investment– $3000

• Offered ownership in the company– $6000 = 1% of the company

• Maximum investment– $60 K


Company Valuation• $600 K

– July 2010 Investment valued the company at $500 K

– Recent Sales of Community websites• Communities of few 10s of thousands of users sell for a

few million dollars• Moderately successful sites sell for few 10s of millions

of dollars• Successful sites like mint.com sell for $175 Million in

cash

Of course, ultra-successful sites like Twitter and Youtube are valued over a few billion dollars


Return on Investment & Exit Strategy• Company Exit strategy is either

– to be acquired (most likely)– or to go public (less likely)

• Return on investment– Increase in company value, and profits / dividends

• Liabilities– None currently, and no loans are planned to be drawn

• Assets– Feature rich website software with management

interface useful for other type of websites with• Classifieds, Points/Credit system, Users with ratings/feedback


Summary on GratitudePoint.Com• Community website with a mission to make Gratitude /

Goodwill more exciting, pervasive, and easy

• With focus on usability, it marries the ideas of– Helping each other – Gratitude sharing and tracking

• Site launched, invitation only, undergoing usability testing

• Plans on Development, Marketing, Competition, Team etc. discussed

• Investment opportunity discussed

Contact: Shantanu at +1-214-235-3844 / [email protected]

Backup


Mission Statement GratitudePoint.com is a company devoted

to promoting Gratitude and Goodwill by enabling members to focus more on these feelings, and by facilitating more opportunities to create them. Our mission is to make Gratitude and helping each other more exciting, easier, and more cool. As a company, we thrive on the passion of our team. Our mission is to operate with utmost integrity, and to have fun doing it.


Vision Statement: To become• The foremost online entity in people's minds

when they think of anything about gratitude• THE go to place for people seeking help on any

task, or looking to get things done for less• A daily haunt for people as it is exciting for them

to see who they can help out in their areas of interest

• To become the GO TO place for online advertisements for local services' businesses

• A hub for businesses/non-profits to advertise and connect with potential customers with a new-age, positive psychology, self improvement bent of mind


Problem Statement (1/2)• Gratitude and Goodwill in the world

– Lots, but easily forgotten– No quantification, tracking, or book-keeping– Personal gratitude journals miss the sharing social cool-

factor

How much is really there in my life to be thankful for?

How can my Thank You make my friends smile… for

a long long time?


Problem Statement (2/2)

• Potential for Gratitude/Goodwill missed– Seeking help on tasks is difficult

• Usability and trust issues in classifieds– No trust ratings on people – Long roundtrips & limited options to customize requests

– Helping-out is difficult• Finding tasks of interest is difficult w/ current sites/classifieds

– Helping others is exciting if it’s a small aside in our routine, and/or one of our favorite activities

– Reciprocating on our terms difficult• Nothing useful to barter?• Pre-negotiated barter = no goodwill factor

Trust?



Give GPs, say thanks, journal why you’re grateful– For any reason, e.g. help received on a task– Not pre-negotiated or guaranteed, but out of Goodwill

Gratitude Points (GPs) =

Gratitude Point, a place for all your Gratitude



Request help on tasks, Connect with helpful people

Post a Request for Help Need a ride from the airport home; Thursday 4pm to the uptown area

People Respond with offers to help on the website

Thank those who help with GPs, and “Journal” your Gratitude

gratitude point intro_n_investment_summary_may_2011

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