MindBanking is a global business networking portal that aims to become the main working platform for entrepreneurs. It will offer various services like business networking, a working platform with project management and business plan tools, and tools to connect with investors. The business aims to capitalize on trends like increased time spent online and more people pursuing entrepreneurship by creating an active online community for business development. The founder has extensive experience in media and will leverage her expertise to strategically position and market MindBanking in the growing market for online business networking and collaboration services.
2. Confidentiality Agreement
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business plan is confidential; therefore, reader agrees not to disc lose it without the express
written permission of _______________.
It is ac knowledged by reader that information to be furnished in this business plan is in all respec ts
confidential in nature, other than information which is in the public domain through other means
and that any disc losure or use of same by reader, may cause serious harm or damage to
_______________.
Upon request, this document is to be immediately returned to _______________.
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Signature
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___________________
Date
This is a business plan. It does not imply an offering of securities.
3. Table of Contents
1.0 Executive Summary.............................................................................................................................1
1.1 Objectives ...................................................................................................................................2
1.2 Mission........................................................................................................................................3
1.3 Keys to Success ........................................................................................................................4
2.0 Company Summary.............................................................................................................................6
2.1 Company Ownership .................................................................................................................6
2.2 Start-up Summary ......................................................................................................................7
3.0 Products and Services .....................................................................................................................10
4.0 Market Analysis Summary................................................................................................................12
4.1 Market Segmentation..............................................................................................................16
4.2 Target Market Segment Strategy...........................................................................................18
4.3 Service Business Analysis .....................................................................................................18
4.3.1 Competition and Buying Patterns .............................................................................19
5.0 Strategy and Implementation Summary..........................................................................................21
5.1 SWOT Analysis ........................................................................................................................21
5.1.1 Strengths ......................................................................................................................22
5.1.2 Weaknesses................................................................................................................22
5.1.3 Opportunities ...............................................................................................................22
5.1.4 Threats .........................................................................................................................22
5.2 Competitive Edge....................................................................................................................23
5.3 Marketing Strategy ..................................................................................................................24
5.4 Sales Strategy..........................................................................................................................26
5.4.1 Sales Forecast............................................................................................................28
5.5 Milestones ................................................................................................................................30
6.0 Management Summary ....................................................................................................................31
6.1 Personnel Plan.........................................................................................................................31
7.0 Financial Plan ....................................................................................................................................32
7.1 Projections................................................................................................................................32
7.2 Start-up Funding ......................................................................................................................32
7.3 Important Assumptions............................................................................................................33
7.4 Break-even Analysis................................................................................................................33
7.5 Projected Profit and Loss .......................................................................................................34
7.6 Projected Cash Flow...............................................................................................................37
7.7 Projected Balance Sheet ........................................................................................................38
7.8 Business Ratios .......................................................................................................................39
7.9 Long-term Plan.........................................................................................................................41
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4. MindBanking
1.0 Executive Summary
MindBanking is a global business networking portal, offering services which empower
users to fully develop manage and build their projects. MindBanking is a one-stop-shop
which has a certain potential to become fully equipped and serviced global office.
MindBanking.com is a console for developing business.
The objective is to create vibrant an interactive online business portal, where biggest
and smallest entrepreneurs could meet, providing a generator or incubator of ideas, for
new business opportunities that are about to lead to new businesses, products and
services.
Mindbanking project belongs to the online business social networking online services.
Revenue models for this kind of services include subscription fees, advertising, service
sales (pay per piece and subscription), and respectively brokerage.
Our position in the business social networking market would be significant since we
would be offering a unique online working and developing platform and hope to create
unique, vibrant and powerful community.
The main objective of MindBanking.com is to become an entrepreneurs' main working
platform; to become their office, business space and their home page; the first thing to
visit when they go online, as well as the last before going offline; spending an average
4 hours per day using MindBanking portal/application/platform.
The goal is also to create such a powerful and vibrant community, which would
respectively compel investors to become active in searching and "pulling" projects.
Furthermore socio-economic trends like hard labor as well as repetitive labor being
replaced with machines, technology and robotics, is shaping our social landscape; as well as
trends in economy such as domination of services economy and inauguration of post-
industry which puts the intellectual production, “virtual” goods and services at the pivotal place
in the economy. For example estimated worth of Facebook at the beginning of 2011 have
been around 50 billion USD; however the value is not estimated as the value of brick and
mortar properties, but the equity is measured by the value of its community, quality of its
intellectual goods and services, (and a basic social networking service is free!), and its impact
and influence on the social reality.
All mentioned are the arguments that the project has anticipated the future market, new
economies and new business infrastructure.
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5. MindBanking
1.1 Objectives
The objective of this project is to perceive the new media and communication world as a
(new) business developing platform. Social networks proved to be a new media mantra;
however its business developing potential has yet not been proven. MindBanking project is
as much community and development as it is profit driven. The objective is to create
vibrant an interactive online business portal, where biggest and smallest entrepreneurs
could meet, providing a generator or incubator of ideas, for new business opportunities
that are about to lead to new businesses, products and services. The project has a
strong market (or attention) value since its target groups belong to both consumers and
businesses. MindBanking caters to all business interactions; B2B, B2C, C2B, C2C and all
other future ones.
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6. MindBanking
1.2 Mission
MindBanking generates business ideas that could bring together entrepreneurs and
potential entrepreneurs. This online service would help generate profit by creating a
community that would among other things develop projects using unique working/
development platform, furthermore by constantly upgrading services and by building a
community. Interaction (a network) of market sectors could create exciting business
scene.
The system used in building infrastructure of the project is drawn from network
theory, system theory and the Attention Economy. The program strives to comprise
complex and dynamic infrastructure to be able to ensure sustainability as well as
constant progress and development thus constant growth of revenue. The system
and infrastructure of the project will also be continually scrutinized and upgraded.
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7. MindBanking
1.3 Keys to Success
Although global economy is a reality, only several business enclaves like New
York, Dubai, Silicon Valley, Hong Kong or similar could claim its business
supremacy since they represent centers or/and conglomerates of business
activity. We could say that being in one place gives them the strength or better said
energy to progress and develop and to become economic forerunner.
MindBanking prospers on that same premise. To put in the same space independent
innovators, SME, global corporations, investors, thriving individuals with new ideas,
entrepreneurs, and such, and to deploy its multi-interaction could truly produce
new marketplace as well as new economies or new business idioms.
The project presupposes a vision of a new business scene and its infrastructure
through the idea – everyone is an entrepreneur. Numerous trends show that
developing own business is the future of economic scene, thus the project meets
that basic need.
Almost every innovator claims the same – we do not know how to do the business!;
MindBanking is empowered to deal with the mentioned problem through offering
online business plan platform, production, workflow and project management tools,
interaction tools and playful and user-friendly business environment.
Furthermore, the main objective of MindBanking is to become an entrepreneurs' main
working platform; to become their office, business space and their home page; the
first thing to visit when they go online, as well as the last before going offline;
spending an average 4 hours per day using MindBanking portal/application/platform
as their ultimate business console.
The goal is also to create such a powerful and vibrant community, which would
respectively compel investors to become active in searching and "pulling" projects.
MindBanking thrives on the premise that everyone is a potential entrepreneur; if we
furthermore take into consideration digitally converged media environment that
empowers every user to create its own business opportunity, along with the idea that
the online infrastructure will prevail in the future of business operations, we could
claim we hit the target. So the strategy proposes for the MindBanking to become the
platform for creating endless number of (original) business communities and a
vigorous and self-producing new business scene.
Mindbanking is a vision of new economy which presupposes development of the new
market technology, which perpetuates network distribution, niche markets, dynamic-
modular production units, which would respectively replace mass production and
liberalize working processes.
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8. MindBanking
The project anticipates or even brings about new paradigm shift at a production process at
large. Some of the trends are already taking place as a part of production process; such
as, fluid working hours and Sunday as a working day shows that our working week has
been submitted to significant changes. It is what theoretician Leadbeater in his Knowledge
Economy calls “graying the calendar” (Leadbeater, 2000).
Furthermore, there is also a trend of working from locations other than office, in small
groups, using communication tools such as Skype, MSN, or mobile phone applications;
thus the conditions for the development of like economy has already been sketched.
Even some new trends in hardware technology are proving the way we
communicate, work and spend our daily lives is changing. For example
tablet phenomenon (e.g. Apple iPad, BlackBerry PlayBook, HTC Flyer,
Samsung Galaxy Tab etc.); book reading devices/tablets (e.g. Kindle).
Mentioned trends show that everything becomes “on the go”, even
production.
Furthermore socio-economic trends like hard labor as well as repetitive
labor being replaced with machines, technology and robotics, is shaping our
social landscape; as well as trends in economy such as domination of services
economy and inauguration of post-industry which puts the intellectual
production, “virtual” goods and services at the pivotal place in the economy.
For example estimated worth of Facebook at the beginning of 2011 have been
around 50 billion USD; however the value is not estimated as the value of
brick and mortar properties, but the equity is measured by the value of its
community, quality of its intellectual goods and services, (and a basic
social networking service is free!), and its impact and influence on the social
reality.
All mentioned are the arguments that the project has anticipated the
future market, new economies and new business infrastructure.
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9. MindBanking
2.0 Company Summary
Ana Soric is the bearer of the project MindBanking, also, a founder, owner and a
CEO of Jedna od tri d.o.o. / One of Three LLC; company responsible to carry out
MindBanking project. Furthermore, Ana Soric is a founder of the Sail Media
department and board member of the company Sail LLC. She is a media expert
with a master’s degree (MA in Communications) obtained in 2002, from the
Universiteit van Amsterdam, International School for Humanities and Social Sciences.
Also she has a degree of mag. in Journalism from the Faculty of Political Sciences,
University of Zagreb. She has been engaged in production, able to manage and
strategise award winning media: press, TV, internet, animation film, and persuasive
media, as a writer, columnist, editor, producer, account manager, project manager,
strategist and consultant. She had positions such as: an editor of a magazine (3),
editor of a TV show, one of the producers of an internationally award winning 3D
animated movie, main strategist and media consultant for jutarnji.hr (EPH online),
etc.For the last couple of years she has been engaged in business strategy, planning and development.
2.1 Company Ownership
All the companies included in the project are LLC companies. The bearer and the
owner of the project is Jedna od tri d.o.o. / One of Three is a LLC, however it is in
partnership with some experts (e.g. Word Press Croatia team) and some partner
companies, e.g. Arterion LLC.
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10. MindBanking
2.2 Start-up Summary
Research & Analysis
Trend analysis
Market analysis
Case studies
Comparative analysis
Business info interpretation
Interpretation of goals & Business model proposal
Business Plan
Strategic positioning of a business case
Communication strategy
Proposal for creative concept
Proposal for technical concept
Project diagram development
Business model proposal
Front End & Information Architecture
Communities analysis
Concept elucidation
Content inventory
Building topology
Graphic design concept & development
Documentation - graphic standards
User experience research
Graphic user interface development
Administrative interface
Intranet interface
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11. MindBanking
Designing Information architecture
Designing Wireframes
Gathering and processing content
CSS
Back-end
Designing data base
Designing web pages
Programming graphic interface
Application building
Data base programming
Documentation - application code
Documentation - system requirements
Installation & implementation
HW plus connection
HTML / Flash
Billing system development
Search engine optimization (SEO)
Beta testing
Maintenance
Mobile application Mobile application prototype development, testing and implementation
Marketing the product
Positioning the product
Marketing plan development
Marketing campaign - launch
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12. MindBanking
Table: Start-up
Start-up
Requirements
Start-up Expenses
Front End / Design / Information Architecture €49,000
Back-end Development €137,000
Testing & implementation €16,650
Mobile applications development €78,000
Total Start-up Expenses €280,650
Start-up Assets
Cash Required €96,000
Other Current Assets €0
Long-term Assets €0
Total Assets €96,000
Total Requirements €376,650
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13. MindBanking
3.0 Products and Services
Business Networking Service
Create a profile,Submit idea/project, Browse people, Browse projects,Instant messaging,
Connect with people,Find investors, Find collaborators, Mention user, Debate/Forum,
Create Groups
Working Platform
Discussion Board, Project management tools, Business Plan Development Application
(BPDA), Milestones Alert, Sync (synchronizes with email client, material stored locally
etc.), Storage, Define your team, Chat, Whiteboard; all of which enables users to organize,
manage and develop their projects from A-Z.
Workflow tools (part of Working Platform)
Status Report Alert, Project Update Notification,Task List Management, Project Progress
Viewer, My Tasks Reminder., etc.
BPDA Business Plan Development Application (part of Working Platform)
Service of online application for creating business and financial plan, including tables with
formulas and instructions.
Investors database
Browse investors, Find investors, Connect with investors.
Legal
Legal FAQ; Custom Legal Advices will be available exclusively in a Large subscription
package; service assumes an attorney answering via email or/and MB instant messaging,
any questions subscriber might have regarding legal issues about projects.
Mobile
Mobile service: application customized for web usage, mobile to internet messaging, mobile
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14. MindBanking
arranging tasks and mobile alerts. Plus other mobile apps and games, some will be free,
and some would be sold. Mobile applications would also include games, which would
equally serve as a marketing tool as well as to generate revenue.
Promote
User will be able to promote the idea or project through the application 15 Minutes of
Glory, or similar.
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15. MindBanking
4.0 Market Analysis Summary
TREND 1: INCREASE IN TOTAL TIME SPENT ONLINE
Total time spent online up 24.3% in October 2007
Compete published its findings on total time spent online. From October 2006 to
October 2007 the total time spent online by US online users is up 24.3%.
Source: IT Facts, Nov 29, 07; http://www.itfacts.biz/index.php?id=P9174
86.6% of Internet users spend more than 6 hours a week online
86.6% of internet users now spend 6 hours or more online a week when they are at
home, up from 83% at the end of 2006 and 50% at the end of 2005. Perhaps most eye
wateringly almost 5% of respondents claimed to spend more than 80 hours a week
surfing from home, Point Topic reports.
Source: IT Facts, Sep 30, 07; http://www.itfacts.biz/index.php?id=P9004
Average number of hours spent on a weekly basis by American Internet users
1999 : 7 hours
2000 : 7 hours
2001 : 7 hours
2002 : 7 hours
2003 : 9 hours
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16. MindBanking
2004 : 8 hours
2005 : 9 hours
2006 : 9 hours
2007 : 11 hours
2008 : 14 hours
2009 : 13 hours
source: http://gorumors.com/crunchies/average-time-spent-online-statistics/, 2010
TREND 2: INCREASE IN REVENUE OF SOCIAL NETWORKING PORTALS
Social networks made $400 mln in revenues in 2006
IDC estimates that social networks only made about $400 mln in revenues in 2006, but
could make as much as $1 bln in 2007. IDC expects that most social network services will
employ a mix of business models, including advertising, subscriptions, and
ecommerce. Of these three models, only advertising scales well enough to make social
networks interesting for portals and major media companies.
source: ITFacts; www.itfacts.biz/social-networks-made-400-mln-in-revenues-in-
2006/8936
TREND 3: INCREASE (DOMINATION) IN TIME SPENT ON SOCIAL NETWORKING
New and returning visits to US social networks
Rank Name Domain Returning New
1 Myspace www.myspace.com 95% 5%
2 Facebook www.facebook.com 93% 7%
Source: Hitwise
Published on: May 21, 2008 Department: Web traffic
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17. MindBanking
Who got traffic from search engines in April 2008
Category Percent of Category Percent Change in Percent of Percent Change in
Share Category Traffic
Traffic from Search Share of Traffic From
of Traffic From Search from Google, Apr-07
Engines, Apr-08 Google, Apr-08 -
Engines, Apr-08 - Apr-07
Apr-07
Health and Medical 46.00% 3% 30.73% 4%
Travel 33.94% 8% 23.31% 16%
Shopping and 25.40% 0% 16.61% 4%
Classifieds
News and Media 21.88% 8% 14.60% 11%
Entertainment 23.79% 15% 15.20% 17%
Business and 18.08% 12% 11.65% 22%
Finance
Sports 12.43% 17% 8.37% 24%
Online Video 28.88% 35% 19.70% 46%
Social Networking 16.74% 17% 10.08% 17%
Source: Hitwise
Average US time spent in April 2008
Rank Name Domain Apr 2008 Apr 2007 Growth, YTY
1 Myspace www.myspace. 29m54s 30m40s -3%
com
2 Facebook www.facebook. 20m52s 13m19s 57%
com
3 myYearbook www. 32m54s 21m46s 51%
myyearbook.com
4 Bebo www.bebo.com 30m01s 30m52s -3%
5 Black Planet www. 24m39s 22m43s 9%
blackplanet.com
Source: Hitwise
Social Networking Dominates Our Time Spent Online
Social networking now eats up twice as much of our online time as any other activity.
According to new stats from Nielsen, sites like Facebook and Twitter now account for
22.7% of time spent on the web; the next closest activity is online games, which make
up 10.2%.
The stats also show the degree to which social networking is displacing other forms of
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18. MindBanking
communication, with e-mail as a percentage of online time plunging from 11.5% to
8.3% from June 2009 to June 2010. Instant messaging also saw a significant drop in
share, with a 15% decline from last year.
However, e-mail use on mobile is still on the rise – from 37.4% to 41.6% — presumably
as users continue to migrate to smartphones from feature phones.
source: (http://mashable.com/2010/08/02/stats-time-spent-online/,2010)
TREND 4: USAGE OF MOBILE(SMART) PHONES FOR NETWORKING
One Fourth Of Adults in the U.S. Use Mobile Apps
MASHABLE - Sep 14 - According to the Pew Internet Project, 82% of U.S. Adults are
active cellphone users, and 43% of those have downloaded apps to their phones. This
equates to 24% of the adults in the United States. Of these users, 13% have paid for at
least one of their apps. Not surprisingly, games are the most popular downloads. Also
of note, women favor social networking apps significantly more than men.
SORUCE: (http://www.socialnetworkingwatch.com/all_social_networking_statistics/, 2010)
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19. MindBanking
4.1 Market Segmentation
Target groups
Innovators
– is a main target group, which represents a community using MindBanking platform in
the first place to submit ideas and find investors. However, the same group is also the
main user of all services offered on the MindBanking portal/platform. They will try to
find collaborators, will use the working platform and will have a need to use business
plan templates and legal advices. More detailed segmentation: Entrepreneurs, SME-s,
Inventors, Media professionals, Artists, New media freaks, Media semi-professionals,
Independent scholars, Independent researchers, Universities, Grad Students, etc. In
the broad scope our main target group (communities) are early adopters/trend setters/
tech savvy users and independent innovators.
Investors
– are uising portal in order to find ideas, projects, products, business solutions etc.
Segmentation in this group could also be detailed as: corporations, SME-s, individual
investors, venture capital houses, producers, publishers etc. Investors will also have to
build their profile through company logo, investment portfolio, project portfolio and such.
Collaborators
– is a target group mainly seeking for interesting projects to collaborate in, to get
experience, and respectively would become Innovators.
User Scenario
User 1 – innovator
Fruitful idea maker sits in front of the Facebook sending his friends chocolate, gummy
bears and smiles; throwing sheep and philosophers at his colleagues; waiting for
something exciting to appear on a horizon. He (let us say is a he) is inhibited to think
about piles of ideas stocked in his drawer, because every time he does, a rush of
frustration and disappointment overwhelms him. Suddenly information appears like an
epiphany, a thunderstruck. MindBanking.com – submit ideas, find collaborators,
develop projects, and find investors.
Just what I needed! I am going there right away!
After exploring possibilities MindBanking is offering, he starts to submit ideas. Oh, my
ideas seem to be even better than I thought, mumbles he, let us now find some
people who could be interested to work with me on my projects . Swiftly he became a
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20. MindBanking
friend with a programmer from Indonesia and a developer from New York and they
started to develop one of his projects.
Going deeper into the MindBanking portal he discovers he could do everything in one
place in order to develop his project: he can manage it through Workflow tools, develop it
through the Working platform, he finds a business plan development application
extremely useful, as well as a database of investors.
After a couple of months MindBanking becomes his global office, his conditio sine qua
non. Every day he wakes up and starts his working day at the MindBanking. He spends
the whole day managing his tasks, checking status of collaborators tasks, setting new
tasks, managing possible problems in a project development, communicating with
collaborators, finding investors or communicating with investors he had already make a
connection with, developing business plan(s) etc., in a nutshell, developing his
business. And suddenly like he never intended to, finds he had became an entrepreneur.
Even better, he realizes that around him grew a brand new, exciting and vibrant
business scene.
User 2 – investor
She is sitting with the head in her hands, under pressure to find new business ideas;
but where to find them? Desperate, she opens a www.ft.com. Yeah,like they are going
to offer fresh ideas on a silver platter, crosses her mind. She opens the www.ft.com
page and there it is, a banner: MindBanking.com, the source of business ideas! All of a
sudden the world seems completely different. She rushes to the MindBanking, and
finds not only what she was desperately looking for, but an extraordinary vigorous and
exceptional business scene. At once she finds couple of mind-blowing projects
matching her interest, and right away starts communication with the team working on it.
Her business routine takes a different shape.
Every morning she checks what has been done with the project she invested into. If there
are any alerts, how the production is going. Also she is onto new ideas and new projects.
She had moved her business activity almost entirely at online sphere creating not only
a global office but an entire new business.
Table: Market Analysis
Market Analysis
2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
Potential Customers Growth CAGR
Innovators 260% 20,000 72,000 259,200 933,120 3,359,232 260.00%
Investors 180% 14,000 39,200 109,760 307,328 860,518 180.00%
Collaborators 370% 30,000 141,000 662,700 3,114,690 14,639,043 370.00%
Total 314.32% 64,000 252,200 1,031,660 4,355,138 18,858,793 314.32%
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21. MindBanking
4.2 Target Market Segment Strategy
The project focuses on this target groups because they are main production force,
three pillars of any market; people with ideas, developers and investors (money force).
Communicating to them, bringing them together and engaging them in a production (even
of their own projects) could produce uncanny business scene, which of course
presupposes raising attention to high level consequently generating revenue through
conveyed business models.
4.3 Service Business Analysis
MindBanking project belongs to the online business networking online services.
Revenue models for this kind of services include subscriptionfees, pay per piece
(regarding mainly mobile applications), advertising, service sales (pay per piece and
subscription), and respectively brokerage.
Xing.com – mainly subscription fees (premium membership)
LinkedIn.com – mainly advertising (plus premium membership)
Facebook.com – mainly advertising
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22. MindBanking
4.3.1 Competition and Buying Patterns
Broad market
Xing.com
Advantages for Mindbanking
Xing.com merely offers database of professionals, no other services; it takes a lot of
effort to utilize the service they offer.
Three moths premium membership plus a moth gratis costs 18 Euros, too expensive,
especially for young people struggling in a entrepreneurs world.
Threats
for Mindbanking
Xing.com already has 7 million users (2009).
LinkedIn.com
Advantages for MindBanking
Our research shows social networking platforms that do not offer added value but
merely profile upload and possibility to connect with friends and colleagues do not
have much action going on and as a result the portal quickly loses its attention, its
Premium Membership still does not offer much in utilizing business opportunities
especially for entrepreneurs beginners, which again does not solve problem(s) for the
user. Such is the case with LinkedIn. Our added value: MindBanking is a one-stop-
shop which has a certain potential to become fully equipped and serviced global office.
MindBanking is a console for developing business.
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23. MindBanking
Threatsfor Mindbanking
LinkedIn.com had an estimated 43 million users in 2009.
According to the LinkedIn website, by April 2010 there were more than 65 million
members, located in more than 200 countries.
Facebook
More than 500 million active users.
source: (http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics, 2010)
Narrow market
Projects sharing the market with MindBanking; a niche market is yet to be created, and
KickStarter did a lot in creating the same market. Mindbanking has an advantage in the
context that Kickstarter does not allow investments, selling a share of the project etc.; it
is a crowdfunding and merchandising service, and it doesn't have project development
and management platform.
1. Kickstarter (http://www.kickstarter.com/)
2. Amazee (http://www.amazee.com/)
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24. MindBanking
3. OpenInvo (http://www.openinvo.com/)
All of the mentioned businesses do not have significant market share (apart from
KickStarter). However, their relatively recent appearance show the market calls for a
communities/applications that offer a tool that can enable collaboration on a projects, also
stock markets for ideas, or to create the places where capital and ideas/innovations
could meet. Furthermore, instead of posing as a threat for MindBanking, it represents
an opportunity since the mentioned projects would create the niche market.
5.0 Strategy and Implementation Summary
5.1 SWOT Analysis
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25. MindBanking
5.1.1 Strengths
1. Multi-interactional environment - Hypermedia; which means endless number of
interactions, thus endless possibility of development and growth.
2. Endlessly upgradeable / expandable environment
3. Interactions of all market sectors
4. Creating new business community
5. Strong attention and market value of the project
5.1.2 Weaknesses
1. Relatively expensive production
2. Relatively slow production
3. Huge
5.1.3 Opportunities
1. To create new markets, economies and values
2. To create new communication and business paradigms
3. To generate substantial revenue
4. High and fast ROI
5.1.4 Threats
1. Strong competition
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26. MindBanking
5.2 Competitive Edge
Main social/business network web sites are LinkedIn, Xing, and of course Facebook,
absolute winner in number of registered users, impact and revenue.
Xing.com as a business (social) network was founded in 2003 had 5 million users in
2008, and an estimated revenue of €10.1 million in 2006; source Wikipedia.com, http://
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XING, April 2008. In 2009 number of users for Xing.com grew to
7.000.000, representing 40% growth.
LinkedIn.com, had an estimated 20 million users in 2008 and 43 million in 2009.
Facebook.com was founded in February 2004, had an estimated 69 million users in
January 2008 (source, Facebook, January 2008), and revenue of 150 million USD;
(source, Forbes, March 6, 2008.) In 2009, number of users grew to 250.000.000,
representing 262% growth. Potential for revenue growth from that position is huge.
Facebook ended 2008 making between $280 million and $300 million, according to
many reports. The company’s revenues likely reached between $600 million and $700
million for 2009. sources estimate the company could make between $1 billion and $1.1
billion in total revenue this year. (source: Inside Facebook; www.insidefacebook.
com/2010/03/02/facebook-made-up-to-700-million-in-2009-on-track-towards-1-1-billion-
in-2010/, 2010)
Our position in the business social networking market would be significant since we
would be offering a unique online working and developing platform. In a nutshell, our
competitive advantage is to be the first in a global market offering services to help
develop and deploy projects online. Furthermore, if we compare ourselves with other
social networking portals, even the business ones, like LinkedIn.com and Xing.com, we
believe that our portal will have much higher business utilization than any of them.
Furthermore, our competitive edge and our biggest strength is in the vision of the project.
The vision where almost every business could be conducted, every product produced, as
the almighty business, development and production console, which would be more and
more possible by the further development and implementation of the Cloud technology.
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27. MindBanking
5.3 Marketing Strategy
Marketing strategy lies on using exact or narrow marketing channel for
each target group (community). For Inventors, our most important
target group, we intend to use mainly Facebook social ads and
respectively Google Adwords. We can position our key target group as
spending a lot of their time on Facebook, since it is a rather creative portal
in entertainment kind of way, and bypassing business social networking
portals since they do not offer much and require much effort for
business utilization. The plan is to draw their attention from Facebook and
channel their energy and ideas towards production and
entrepreneurship. Furthermore, for that target group we wouldn't use
online banners as a mean of communication, but more involving Social
ads (social groups, fan clubs, applications, etc.)
Target group Investors also require special attention. The strategy is to
reach them at FT.com and the Time Magazine online or New York times.
Target group Collaborators will be reached through banners and WOM on
the LinkedIn.com, and other social (and business) networking portals.
Launch campaign will consist of two phases:
Phase 1 (Beta testing period)
Since we will have 45 days of Beta testing period the strategy is for that
period to deploy Facebook social ads, Google Adwords, WOM, guerilla
marketing (blogs, forums, chats…) which will serve for all three target
groups. In this kind of communication methods possibly the least
covered are Investors.
Phase 2 (100% ready)
Banners on Facebook.com, LinkedIn.com, FT.com, Time Magazine online
or New York times online; 100.000 impressions.
1.0. Beta testing campaign
1.1. Social campaign and applications - 10.000 Euro
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28. MindBanking
1.2. Google Adwords - around 20 key words for 1 month - 1.000 Euro
1.3 Direct Ads, targeted on communities - 10.000 Euro
1.4 Guerilla marketing & WOM daily for a month on blogs, forums etc. -
1.000 Euro
2.0 100 % ready campaign
Strategy is to keep running social networking campaign and Google
Adwords all the time. Furthermore, to put banners on business and
news portals with around 100.000 impressions, one by one.
2.1 NYTimes.com - around 100.000 impressions - 11.000 USD
2.2 FT.com - 468x60 banner, contextual targeting (business) plus
geographical, Cost per Thousand Impressions (CPM) = 55, 00 GBP.
Plan: 100.000 impressions = 5.500,00 GBP = 11.000,00 USD.
2.3. Facebook.com - at least 100.000 impressions
2.4. LinkedIn.com - at least 100.000 impressions
More detailed marketing strategy will be developed before it would be
launched.
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29. MindBanking
5.4 Sales Strategy
The main business model is a subscription fee and pay per piece (as far as mobile
applications are concerned). We believe that as soon as we get critical mass of
audience and the activity (serious projects), as well as we develop the platform into a real
business console, there wouldn't be a problem to get subscription fees from the users,
especially if we bring serious investors and become a nursery of important projects.
Furthermore, selling advertising space is always a viable business model. We also
believe we could apply service of brokerage.
At the end MindBanking is hoping that through its development that numerous new
revenue and business models would be generated and deployed.
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31. MindBanking
Subscription will be available as a 3/6/12 months packages:
As for the advertising, the equation is simple; greater the number of user (eye-
balls), more advertising space is sold. Great advantage with internet advertising is
that we are not only able to count every single user, we also know their names,
preferences and interests, so we could adapt our business and tech/development
strategy accordingly.
5.4.1 Sales Forecast
We predicted that by the end of the first year we will have 64.000 active users, which
of 50.000 would spend for our subscription about 50 USD per year, we could have
revenue of 2.500.000 USD. We assume our users will be willing to pay 50 USD per year.
The price definitely represents value for money, since some other social networking
portals charge much more for less utilization.
Advertising revenues are more of a educated guess and could only be higher since
globally revenues from online advertising are growing every year.
In 2012 21% of global ad spending will happen online
Interactive advertising revenues will increase significantly from $45 bln in 2007 to $147
bln globally in 2012, representing a 23.4%, according to Kelsey Group. Interactive
advertising, which comprises search (including local search), display advertising,
classifieds and other interactive ad products, grew its share of global advertising
revenues from 6.1% in 2006 to 7.4% in 2007. By 2012 Kelsey Group analysts expect the
interactive share of global ad spending will reach 21%. During the forecast period
(2007-2012), the United States will see interactive advertising revenues grow from
$22.5 billion to $62.4 bln (22.6% CAGR), with interactive revenues in Canada
increasing from $1.3 bln to $3.3 billion (21.3% CAGR).
Source: ITFacts; www.itfacts.biz/in-2012-21-of-global-ad-spending-will-happen-
online/10034
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33. MindBanking
5.5 Milestones
Table: Milestones
Milestones
Milestone Start Date End Date Budget Manager Department
Platform/Mobile Development 6/6/2012 10/25/2012 €365,000 Ana Soric IT, Design
Launch Marketing Camp 10/25/2012 12/28/2012 €250,000 Ana Soric Marketing
Mobile App Development 2 1/7/2013 5/1/2013 €750,000 Ana Soric IT
Mobile Marketing Campaign 5/1/2013 7/1/2013 €400,000 Ana Soric Marketing
Platform Development 2 7/1/2013 10/1/2013 €2,300,000 Ana Soric IT, Design
Platform Development 2 camp 10/1/2013 12/24/2013 €1,300,000 Ana Soric Marketing
Next phase development 1/7/2014 4/1/2014 €3,000,000 Ana Soric R&D
Totals €8,365,000
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34. MindBanking
6.0 Management Summary
6.1 Personnel Plan
In the first year the plan is to hire as few personnel as possible. Most of the
development and production will be done by outsourcing. In the second FY when we
anticipate revenue is to start pouring in, would hire small but high quality team. In the FYs
that follow we would expand significantly our personnel, with the special consideration
on R&D (Research and Development) team, and would form Board of Directors.
Table: Personnel
Personnel Plan
FY 2013 FY 2014 FY 2015 FY 2016 FY 2017
Strategy, Consultancy, Management, Board €20,000 €130,000 €350,000 €550,000 €670,000
Design & Development €13,000 €300,000 €600,000 €1,000,000 €1,646,000
R&D €0 €250,000 €550,000 €1,100,000 €2,646,000
Tech Maintenance €7,000 €170,000 €370,000 €430,000 €1,130,000
Customer Support €6,000 €150,000 €250,000 €450,000 €696,000
Legal €0 €97,000 €160,000 €190,000 €696,000
Marketing €0 €195,000 €250,000 €550,000 €1,046,000
Maintenance €0 €95,000 €110,000 €150,000 €349,000
Total People 0 0 0 0 0
Total Payroll €46,000 €1,387,000 €2,640,000 €4,420,000 €8,879,000
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35. MindBanking
7.0 Financial Plan
7.1 Projections
7.2 Start-up Funding
It is planned that the start-up funding will be mainly covered with investors funding.
Although it is planned to finance part of the investment via loan. The amount of the
loan would be around 80.000 - 90.000 Euro via Croatian Bank for Reconstruction and
Development.
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36. MindBanking
Table: Start-up Funding
Start-up Funding
Start-up Expenses to Fund €280,650
Start-up Assets to Fund €96,000
Total Funding Required €376,650
Assets
Non-cash Assets from Start-up €0
Cash Requirements from Start-up €96,000
Additional Cash Raised €0
Cash Balance on Starting Date €96,000
Total Assets €96,000
Liabilities and Capital
Liabilities
Current Borrowing €0
Long-term Liabilities €0
Accounts Payable (Outstanding Bills) €0
Other Current Liabilities (interest-free) €10,000
Total Liabilities €10,000
Capital
Planned Investment
Owner €0
Investor €366,650
Additional Investment Requirement €0
Total Planned Investment €366,650
Loss at Start-up (Start-up Expenses) (€280,650)
Total Capital €86,000
Total Capital and Liabilities €96,000
Total Funding €376,650
7.3 Important Assumptions
7.4 Break-even Analysis
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37. MindBanking
Table: Break-even Analysis
Break-even Analysis
Monthly Revenue Break-even €39,020
Assumptions:
Average Percent Variable Cost 31%
Estimated Monthly Fixed Cost €26,868
7.5 Projected Profit and Loss
Page 34
48. Appendix
Table: Cash Flow
Pro Forma Cash Flow
Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar
Cash Received
Cash from Operations
Cash Sales €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €23,400 €84,223 €112,300 €145,200 €179,100
Subtotal Cash from Operations €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €23,400 €84,223 €112,300 €145,200 €179,100
Additional Cash Received
Sales Tax, VAT, HST/GST Received 25.00% €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €5,850 €21,056 €28,075 €36,300 €44,775
New Current Borrowing €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0
New Other Liabilities (interest-free) €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0
New Long-term Liabilities €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0
Sales of Other Current Assets €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0
Sales of Long-term Assets €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0
New Investment Received €0 €0 €0 €130,000 €0 €0 €0 €250,000 €0 €0 €0 €1,300,000
Subtotal Cash Received €0 €0 €0 €130,000 €0 €0 €0 €279,250 €105,279 €140,375 €181,500 €1,523,875
Expenditures Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar
Expenditures from Operations
Cash Spending €3,000 €3,000 €1,000 €3,000 €3,000 €4,000 €5,000 €5,000 €5,000 €3,000 €5,000 €6,000
Bill Payments €463 €13,745 €9,566 €10,834 €11,271 €15,209 €16,597 €17,378 €39,187 €59,724 €76,542 €93,196
Subtotal Spent on Operations €3,463 €16,745 €10,566 €13,834 €14,271 €19,209 €21,597 €22,378 €44,187 €62,724 €81,542 €99,196
Additional Cash Spent
Sales Tax, VAT, HST/GST Paid Out €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €3,200 €9,600 €16,000 €23,000 €25,000
Principal Repayment of Current Borrowing €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0
Other Liabilities Principal Repayment €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0
Long-term Liabilities Principal Repayment €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0
Purchase Other Current Assets €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0
Purchase Long-term Assets €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0
Dividends €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0
Subtotal Cash Spent €3,463 €16,745 €10,566 €13,834 €14,271 €19,209 €21,597 €25,578 €53,787 €78,724 €104,542 €124,196
Net Cash Flow (€3,463) (€16,745) (€10,566) €116,166 (€14,271) (€19,209) (€21,597) €253,672 €51,492 €61,651 €76,958 €1,399,679
Cash Balance €92,537 €75,792 €65,226 €181,392 €167,121 €147,912 €126,316 €379,988 €431,479 €493,131 €570,088 €1,969,768
Page 4
49. Appendix
Table: Balance Sheet
Pro Forma Balance Sheet
Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar
Assets Starting Balances
Current Assets
Cash €96,000 €92,537 €75,792 €65,226 €181,392 €167,121 €147,912 €126,316 €379,988 €431,479 €493,131 €570,088 €1,969,768
Other Current Assets €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0
Total Current Assets €96,000 €92,537 €75,792 €65,226 €181,392 €167,121 €147,912 €126,316 €379,988 €431,479 €493,131 €570,088 €1,969,768
Long-term Assets
Long-term Assets €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0
Accumulated Depreciation €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0
Total Long-term Assets €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0
Total Assets €96,000 €92,537 €75,792 €65,226 €181,392 €167,121 €147,912 €126,316 €379,988 €431,479 €493,131 €570,088 €1,969,768
Liabilities and Capital Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar
Current Liabilities
Accounts Payable €0 €13,427 €9,205 €10,462 €10,766 €14,656 €16,042 €16,095 €37,215 €57,191 €73,459 €89,432 €109,142
Current Borrowing €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0
Other Current Liabilities €10,000 €10,000 €10,000 €10,000 €10,000 €10,000 €10,000 €10,000 €12,650 €24,106 €36,181 €49,481 €69,256
Subtotal Current Liabilities €10,000 €23,427 €19,205 €20,462 €20,766 €24,656 €26,042 €26,095 €49,865 €81,296 €109,639 €138,913 €178,398
Long-term Liabilities €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0 €0
Total Liabilities €10,000 €23,427 €19,205 €20,462 €20,766 €24,656 €26,042 €26,095 €49,865 €81,296 €109,639 €138,913 €178,398
Paid-in Capital €366,650 €366,650 €366,650 €366,650 €496,650 €496,650 €496,650 €496,650 €746,650 €746,650 €746,650 €746,650 €2,046,650
Retained Earnings (€280,650) (€280,650) (€280,650) (€280,650) (€280,650) (€280,650) (€280,650) (€280,650) (€280,650) (€280,650) (€280,650) (€280,650) (€280,650)
Earnings €0 (€16,890) (€29,413) (€41,236) (€55,373) (€73,534) (€94,129) (€115,779) (€135,877) (€115,817) (€82,509) (€34,825) €25,370
Total Capital €86,000 €69,110 €56,587 €44,764 €160,627 €142,466 €121,871 €100,221 €330,123 €350,183 €383,491 €431,175 €1,791,370
Total Liabilities and Capital €96,000 €92,537 €75,792 €65,226 €181,392 €167,121 €147,912 €126,316 €379,988 €431,479 €493,131 €570,088 €1,969,768
Net Worth €86,000 €69,110 €56,587 €44,764 €160,627 €142,466 €121,871 €100,221 €330,123 €350,183 €383,491 €431,175 €1,791,370
Page 5
50. Appendix
Table – work and services already invested in MindBanking project
Job Hours Team Total
hrs
Research & Analysis
Trend analysis 77h Ana Sorić Sail Media/One
of Three
Stipe Splivalo Arterion
Market analysis 66h Ana Sorić Sail Media/One
of Three
Stipe Splivalo Arterion
Case studies 80 h Ana Sorić Sail Media/One
of Three
Comparative analysis 30 h Ana Sorić Sail Media/One
of Three
Business info interpretation 50h Ana Sorić Sail Media/One
of Three
Stipe Splivalo Arterion
Interpretation of goals & 60h Ana Sorić Sail Media/One
Business model proposal of Three
Stipe Splivalo Arterion
363h
Business Plan
Strategic positioning of a 50h Ana Sorić Sail Media/One
business case of Three
Concept elucidation 30h Ana Sorić Sail Media/One
of Three
Stipe Splivalo Arterion
Communication strategy 45h Ana Sorić Sail Media/One
of Three
1
51. Project diagram development 30h Ana Sorić Sail Media/One
of Three
Business & finanacial plan 750h Ana Sorić Sail Media/One
creation & update of Three
Business plan evaluation (first 50h Hassan Jaferi; Canadian
draft) Intellectual Property
Office; PARTEQ
Innovations
Total hrs 955h
Branding 150h Ana Sorić Sail Media/One 150h
of Three
Stipe Splivalo Arterion
Front End & Information
Architecture (IA)
Communities analysis 30h Ana Sorić Sail Media/One
of Three
Stipe Splivalo Arterion
Proposal for creative concept 30h Ana Sorić Sail Media/One
of Three
Stipe Splivalo Arterion
Proposal for technical concept 50h Ana Sorić Sail Media/One
of Three
Stipe Splivalo Arterion
Content inventory 25h Ana Sorić Sail Media/One
of Three
Stipe Splivalo Arterion
Graphic design concept & 250h Stipe Splivalo Arterion
development
Documentation - graphic 50h Stipe Splivalo Arterion
standards
User experience analysis 30h Ana Sorić Sail Media/One
of Three
Stipe Splivalo Arterion
IA – Information architecture 200h Ana Sorić Sail Media/One
design of Three
Stipe Splivalo Arterion
2
52. Total hrs 665h
Investor relations 770h Ana Sorić Sail Media/One 970h
management of Three
Natko Vlahović HOK
Stipe Splivalo Arterion
Tomislav Ilić Reprograph
Legal 50h Tomislav Šunjić 50h
Aljoša Šerić
Building Mindbanking Bruno Buljubašić & Andrea 150 h
platform in Word Press / Pomper (Word Press
Buddy Press infrastructure; Croatia)
testing Ana Sorić One of Three
Design & CSS Stipe Splivalo Arterion 70h
Saša Celinšćak
Bruno Buljubašić & Andrea
Pomper (Word Press
Croatia)
TOTAL HOURS 3373h
3