5. Table Of Contents
.5
Business Plan
Executive Summary
Company Summary
Services
Benefits Summary
Market Analysis Summary
Competition
Business Model Structure
Financial Plan
SWOT
User Personas
Branding Guide & Collateral
Site Map
Wire Frams
Design
6.
7. Business Plan
The ultimate benefit of the product is provide the potential for communities
and users to view and create creative solutions to real world problems.
Through the connection of intellectual minds, paired with incentives to post
the best solution, the number of probable creative answers will increases.
The lack of current competition and a unique user base allows ThoughtSpark
to have the first-mover advantage, to be a new positive voice, and provide
enormous up-side poetical.
Objectives
Executive Summary
.7
8. Business Plan
ThoughtSpark plans to align itself with other social networking sites, existing
networks of intellectual thinkers, and corporations whose community
initiatives match those of ThoughtSpark. The users will build upon the human
need for self-actualization of which nothing currently exists to reach that goal.
The proposed product is a win-win solution to all parties involved.
Positioning Statement
.8
9. Business Plan
1.Develop a user-friendly product that is designed to encourage positive
participation in solving the posed problems
2.Develop a user base that is invested in our mission and has the intellect to
execute it
3.Develop a relationship with communities of all sizes in order to understand
what their needs are and how the solutions of the day can benefit that
community
Keys to Success
.9
10. Business Plan
Our mission is to create a virtual space where intellectual thinkers can come
together to solve local, national and global community problems through
proposed solutions and discussion.
Mission Statement
.10
11. Business Plan
ThoughtSpark is looking for initial funding to support the startup cost of the
product. The company plans to raise $1,500 over the first 6 weeks, through
crowd funding sites such as www.IndieGogo.com. After this initial push there
will be enough development in existence for additional funding and long term
investors to be sought after. At 6 months, the goal is to have $50,000 to
spend on further expanding the product to make it market ready. At 1 Year,
the product will be launched. Based on conservative financial projections,
the company will become profitable from mid-Year 2. ThoughtSpark plans
to target investors hold similar value, meet our ideal investment or begin
partnershiops with organizations such as the Pew Charitable Trust and the
Knight Foundation.
Start Up Statement
Company Summary
.11
12. Business Plan
The company anticipates approaching potential investors in June of this
year. After the initial push with crowd funding, the first round of financal
needs is estimated at $50,000. The funds will be used for the core stages
of development including the proprietary software program, the building and
designing of the website and mobile app, and running market testing. The
second round of financing would come at the end of Year 1 as the product
would be in its final stages of production. The funds will be used to fully cover
the software costs, systems and website development, test-run and fine-tune
the operational process, and start the industrial marketing campaign.
ThoughtSpark has no immediate plans for acquisitions nor does there exist a
preferred list of potential acquirers. The company wishes to eventually gain
non-profit status due to its unique service and network that involves the
community it supports.
Future Financial Predictions
.12
13. Business Plan
The company anticipates approaching potential investors in June of this
year. After the initial push with crowd funding, the first round of financal
needs is estimated at $50,000. The funds will be used for the core stages
of development including the proprietary software program, the building and
designing of the website and mobile app, and running market testing. The
second round of financing would come at the end of Year 1 as the product
would be in its final stages of production. The funds will be used to fully cover
the software costs, systems and website development, test-run and fine-tune
the operational process, and start the industrial marketing campaign.
ThoughtSpark has no immediate plans for acquisitions nor does there exist a
preferred list of potential acquirers. The company wishes to eventually gain
non-profit status due to its unique service and network that involves the
community it supports.
Service Description
Services
It is important to note that during the interaction process with consumers,
ThoughtSpark does not ask for or try to obtain credit card numbers or other
financial information. The company therefore avoids consumer security
concerns and limits possible liabilities..
Service Guarantee
.13
14. Business Plan
Benefits to Companies &
Organizations
Benefits to the Online
Community
It is important to note that during the interaction process with consumers,
ThoughtSpark does not ask for or try to obtain credit card numbers or other
financial information. The company therefore avoids consumer security
concerns and limits possible liabilities..
The product creates a home for intellectuals and the olde generation that
does not currently exist.
Benefits Summary
.14
15. Business Plan
Benefits to Users There is strong motivation for users to be involved and voice their opinion.
The ability for the user to communicate on a daily basis with people who
are intelectually similar and who have a level of respect attached to their
opinions. Lastly the competitive aspect of ThoughtSpark would allow you to
see how you rank within the levels of ThoughtSpark and to allow someone to
reach self-actualization
.15
16. Business Plan
Our Market Our market has two sides: the internet social networking market and the
tangible, real life discussions found on television, on the radio, in magazines,
newspapers, and even personal discussions. Part of our market challenge is to
translate the physical world to the virtual world of the internet while building
upon the values that already exist in a traditional newspapers.
Market Analysis Summary
.16
17. Business Plan
Promotion, Sales and
Marketing
The launch of our product will be a progression of invitation only access to
the site. The success of our product relies on invested and motivated users,
making the first users and early adopters very important. While there will
be only two kinds of accounts, a corporate and an individual account, there
will be many different types of users. There will be the “ThoughtLeader:”
individuals that we target to find solutions. There will be “The Commoner:”
who participates but mostly observes. And there will be communities who are
seeking solutions. The strategy for the launch is to send out invitations to our
target audience. Initial invitations, will be to MESNA members, those listed
below from Government Technology list of top 25 innovators from 2011- and
2012, and other intellectuals to be determined individually.
.17
18. Business Plan
Invitees Chicago’s Digital Trio
Kevin Hauswirth- Social Media Director
John Tolva, CTO
Brett Goldstein –Cheft Data Officer
Debbie Conway- Recorder, Clark County Nev.
Crisis Commons Co-Founders
Andrew Turner, Heather Blanchard, Noel Dickover
Milwaukee’s Dynamic Duo
Nancy Olson, CIO, Milwaukee
Laurie Panella, CIO Milwaukee County
Christopher Mitchell, Director, Telecommunications as common Initiative,
Institute for local Self- Reliance
Dale Jablonsky, Ast. Executive Office, IT service Branch, CalPERS
Ron Littlefield, Mayer, Chttanooga, Tenn.
Larry Godwin, TN Department of safety and homeland Security
Dick Clark, CIO Montana
Steve Nichols, CTO Georgia
John Nixon, Director, Michigan Department of Technology, Managemnet and
Budget
.18
19. Business Plan
V. James Onalfo, CIO NYC Police Department
Jennifer Pahlka, Founder and Executive Directorm Code for American
Steve Renker , CIP Riverside Calif. Executive Director, Smart Riverside
Michael Riedyk, Creator, YouTown
Kyle Schafer, CTO, West Virginia
Bryan Sivak- Chief Innovation Officer, MD
Mark Sloan- Homeland Security Director & Emergency Mgmt. Coordinator,
Harris County, TX.
Stanley Stewart, Deputy Chief of Staff for Eligibility intergration, Texas Health
and human services commission
Greg Wass, CIO, Cook County, Ill.
Flint Waters, CIO, Wyoming
Brad Wheeler , CIO & Vice Pres. of IT Indiana University
2011 Honorees
Dick Aldridge, Claire Bailey, Ben Berkowitz, Terry Bledsoe, Joe Bruno, Mike
Byrne, Barry Condrey, Steve Emanuel, Eric Frost, Lev Gonick, Louis Patrick Hill,
Phyllis Kahn, Ronn Kolbash, Ellen Miller, Partick Moore, Gavin Newsom, Beth
Niblock, Bill Oates, William Pelgrin, Dugan Petty, Kumar Rachuri, Stacy Dean
Stephens, Harold Tuck, Steve Vigilante, Paul Wormeli.
.19
20. Business Plan
Companies Further expiation will eventually include company participation, where
companies will be able to buy membership. Here is a list of target companies
based on their current community involvement:
Walmart, Bank of America, Exxon, Citigroup , Johnson & Johnson, AT&T,
General Electric, Microsoft, IBM , Kroger, Macy’s, Safeway, Dow Chemicals,
Morgan Stanley, General Mills, Xerox, Wholefoods, Hewlett Packard
,Vodafone, Proctor & Gamble , Nationwide, Bristol-Myers Squibe, Boeing,
Caterpillar, AETNA, Altria Group, Google, Pfizer, Merck, Walt Disney,
Albertson’s, Alcoa, Allstate, Anheuser- Bush, Archer-Daniels Midland, Best
Buy, CVS, Dell, Delta Air, Duke Engery, Ford Motor, GAP, Honey Well, JC
Penny, Pespi Co, The Coca-Cola company, Cisco System, Deere, DuPont,
Georgia-Pacific, Goldman Sach, Hartford, Intel, MetLife, Motorola, Prudential,
Time Warner, Wells Fargo, Verizon, JP Morgan Chase, Kimberly Clark,
forbes, New York Times, NPR, Atlantic Magazine, Good Magazine, National
Review Magazine, Target , UPS, Kohl’s, etc.
.20
21. Business Plan
Market Needs Social networking is a fueled by Facebook, Twitter, and a few other larger
social networks. There currently is no social network that connects
intellectual and communities leaders to bring about solutions. One of
the biggest concerns for CEO’s is growth and how they can increase it in
their company. Four main obstacles to growth are increasing competitive
pressure, economic turbulence, changing consumers’ demands and internal
organizational issues. Because the objective of ThoughtSpark is to facilitate
intellectual discussion to solve community’s problems, there is an incentive to
CEO’s and business to stay current and up to date with their consumers.
.21
22. Business Plan
Market Competitors Frost & Sullivan (www.Frost.com )
A market place for CEO’s to gain insight for their business and find solutions
for problems within the market. Frost & Sullivan also sponsor events
(Executive MindXchange’s) all around the world, both as physical conferences
and virtual events. At these events they support brainstorming and personal
problem solving through workshops, Think Tanks, Panels, roundtables,
and mindshare’s. Frost & Sullivan industries markets categories include:
Aerospace & Defense, Automotive and Transportation, Chemicals, Materials
& Food , Electronic & Security, Energy & Power System , Environment
& Building Technologies, Healthcare, Industrial Automation & Process
control, Information & Communication Technologies, and Measurement &
Instrumentation.
Competition
.22
23. Business Plan
Other Online Market
Competitors
The Secular Café
Provides a venue in cyberspace for people who want to socialize, share,
support, and debate or discuss intellectual subjects such as religion, science,
or politics in a relatively civil and friendly environment. The Secular Café
Primarily Serves a non-religious community, but diversity is encouraged;
people from any religious perspective are welcome to participate and
become a part of the board’s community. They have User Agreements and
Moderators. Navigation is difficult.
Care2
The largest online community (19,114,254 members) empowering people to
lead a healthy and green lifestyle while taking action on important causes.
There are different groups based on interest. A lot of groups are based around
causes, so if you join a group, then you join the cause.
FledgeWing
Provides aspiring student entrepreneurs with the framework needed to
develop, build, and launch innovative new companies. When you sign up there
is an Intellectual Property Policy and User Agreement that you must adhere
too. And you have to type in your real name when you agree. They also have
an Pitched Ideas Pages that have sub categories like financial services, energy
& power. The website keeps track of the idea starter, who commented last,
how many comments have been made and the number of views. The site also
has articles on case studies, and projects for people, mostly students, to get
involved in. They also have a place to post your resume with in your profile
and you are able to connect through Facebook
The Executive Channel
They interview executives from all over the world and discuss different topics.
The site is basically a collection of video’s and then comments on those
videos.
.23
24. Business Plan
External Competitors The company is in a unique situation that it also as external competitors,
outside their market place that compete for our user’s time. Top scholarly
journals, new papers such as the New York Times & Wall Street Journal, as
well as magazines like Good Magazine, The Atlantic or National Review, and
even TV and radio shows, all are potential competitors for ThoughtSpark.
.24
25. Business Plan
Overview The company plans to locate itself in a metropolitan area that is supportive of
start-up companies, has a high level of participants for initial testing, and local
sources of financial capital. Currently, ThoughtSpark is run out of Savannah,
GA, and will continue to have a location here in the event that headquarters
is moved. The company plans to stay a privately owned corporation, thought
the potential to gain non-profit status is attractive.
Business Model Structure
.25
26. Business Plan
Organizational Structure •Board of Directors - Oversees all major company decisions, explores and
researches expansion possibilities and benefits as well as the long term
financial and practical wellbeing of the company
•President -Main responsibility would be to manage and guide the Board of
Directors, and act as guide for facilitation and management of the company
•CEO - Main responsibility is to run day to day operations and act as a
mediator on the companies behalf with external factors
•Director of Finance and Operations- Responsibilities include financial
oversight, safeguarding of assets, and human resources management
•Director of Information Technology - Responsibilities include overall
technological efficiency, software development, and information control
•Director of Sales and Marketing - Responsibilities include sales
generation, marketing programs development, and public relations
.26
27. Business Plan
Overview The following financial plan does not take into account any of the initial funds
raised or donations received. The company plans to gain income through
selling memberships to companies and organizations and allowing them
to keep track of their own users on their own profile. Also they would have
the ability to sponsor the question if it meets our criteria for an appropriate
question.
Financial Plan
.27
28. Business Plan
Projected Cash Flow While the membership of individuals and access to the website is free, the
app would cost $.99 and companies would be offed a membership fee.
Initially we are going to offer 100 companies yearly memberships of $500.
With that they will have access to their own profile and automatic connection
to their employee users. There will only be paying companies and individual
free accounts to discourage false accounts. The corporate accounts give
prestige to the companies with the most members/participation. It wills also
allow for a company to appoint someone as that companies “ThoughtLeader.”
Furthermore, while ThoughtSpark will automatically link companies to their
employees, it will be each company’s responsibility to maintain their own
profile. Eventually more and more companies will be added, however it is
more about taking note of the individuals that are connected to the company
and not about a corporate takeover of the product. There will be an additional
$1,000 charge for companies to summit problems, although if their problems
aren’t selected for posting no charge will be made.
.28
29. Business Plan
Break- Even Analysis With the addition of the first 100 company, ThoughtSpark will meet its initial
investment point of $50,000. With the yearly renewal, addition of companies
and eventual outside donors, a profit will be made on a yearly basis.
.29
30. SWOT Analysis
1. Unique to market
2. Speaks to unique, relatively untargeted user
3. Beneficial to society
4. Provides deeper level of entertainment
5. Positive, constructive collaboration with little room to deviate
6. Invitation only society speaks to user
1. Social forums are less accepted with this user
2. Hard to regulate properly
3. Attracts a very specific user
1. Has the ability to prompt real, actual change within communities.
2. Can prompt change on a judiciary or legislative level
3. Easily expandable to different language and demographic platforms
4. Able to develop relationships with affiliate networks easily.
1. Very low acceptance if not marketed properly.
2. Lack o credibility within contributors.
3. Bias can develop within issues, thus tarnishing unbiased reputation.
4. Could get discouraging or monotonous if no action is ever taken.
5.Could spiral into something destructive quickly if not moderated correctly.
Strengths
Weaknesses
Opportunities
Threats
.30
31. User Personas
User Persona 1.
User Persona 2.
Jake Hodesh is the Executive Director at the Creative Coast. An Ohio Native
with an impressive resume, Hodesh has worked with Tulane University, was a
Policy Analyst at the White House, Co-founded Thinking Cap Inc. and worked
countless projects with his wife Miriam under the Moniker of New Moon of
Savannah. Hodesh joined the Creative Coast in the spring of 2010 and has
been there since. Hodesh is interested in ThoughtSpark as a tool to not only
keep in touch with the opinions of people like Wes Anderson and Thomas
Freedman, but to also publicize issues that he wants solutions for that will
help with the Creative Coast. Jake Hodesh wants interesting questions and
intelligent people answering them.
Karen Toler is a Mensa member and a mother of two. She works at Amwins
Insurance group where she works with high-risk policies and tough to insure
products. She travels for her work a lot and would most likely use this app
while waiting on her flights or in long car rides. Her main goal in interacting
with the program is to learn and grow with hers and others ideas. She would
also use this as a way to relax from a hard day at work rather than watching a
television show. Toler is also intrigued by the possibility of being involved and
apart of something positive.
.31
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54. Rachel Adrangna Project Leader
Trey McKay Head Developer
Wade Winebrenner Creative Director
Soyoung Kim Developer User Experience Cordinator
Mel Futscher Media Collateral Coordinator
Kerry Stephens Business Manager
Erin Kelly PR Social Media Coordinator
Project Team
55. Carmichael,Matt (May 16, 2011)Ad Age Blogs The Demographic Of Social Media
http://adage.com/article/adagestat/demographics-facebook-linkedin-myspace- twitter/227569/
Pingdom.com (Febuary 16, 2010) Study: Age of Social Network Users http://royal. pingdom.com/2010/02/16/study-ages-of-social-network-users/
Rubin, Courtney (Aug 30, 2010) INC. Internet Users Over Age 50 Flocking to Social Media http://www.inc.com/news/articles/2010/08/users-over-50-are- fastest-growing-social-media-demographic.html
(June 20, 2010) NielsenWire Users 50 and Older Drive Half of Latest U.K. Web Surge http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/global/users-50-and-older-drive-half- of-latest-u-k-web-surge/
Lai, Eric ( May 15, 2012) ZDNet SAPPHIRENOW: Some Cool Mobile Business Apps Demo-ed Video-ed http://www.zdnet.com/blog/sybase/sapphirenow- some-cool-mobile-business-apps-demo-ed-video-ed/3181
Startup Nation Estimating Startup Costs For A New Business http://www. startupnation.com/business-articles/1248/startup-costs-new-business.asp/
McArdle, M., Walter, K., Leitch, W., Rauch, J. Crook, C., Fallows, J. , Rosin, H etc. (July 2011) The Atlantic Magazine The 14 Biggest Ideas Of the Year http:// www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2011/07/the-14-biggest-ideas-of-the- year/8556/1/?single_page=true
Research
56. Frost Sullivan http://www.frost.com/prod/servlet/top-of-mind.pag
Moyer, Liz ( Nov. 14 2005) Forbs.com America’s Most Generous Corporations http://www.forbes.com/2005/11/11/charities-corporations- giving-cx_lm_1114charity_2.html
Borden, Christine (Aug 17, 2011) Use App Backr To Fund Your App’s Development, Promotion http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/next/ archives/intellectual_property/
Ueland, Sig (June 15, 2011) Practical Ecommerce: Insights For Online
Merchants 13 Crowdfunding Websites to Fund Your Business http:// content.usatoday.com/topics/topic/Intellectual
Entrepreneur Startup Financing http://www.entrepreneur.com/ article/52718
VFinance INC. http://www.vfinance.com/
