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OEP
- 1. Crowdfunding software development Opportunity Execution Project
- 2. FLOSSfunder is a web-‐based funding platform that helps application developers and users identify desirable new features and fund their development. In this presentation, we consider several aspects of our business model – marketing, costs, revenue and risks. Our marketing strategy starts with developers. We acquire them through direct and viral marketing, SEO, and SEM, and activate them through a low-‐friction landing page. Developers, in turn, channel their users to our platform. Users submit feature requests, rank them through a voting process and then crowdfund the costs of development. We charge a small service fee for the use of our platform. Overall costs to develop and implement this platform should be modest. Technical costs include web design and hosting. Marketing will be done through the Internet -‐ primarily email, Skype calls and Google ads – to keep costs low. We will bootstrap this project as long as we can. Risks include lack of adoption, conflicts between developers and users, incorrect pricing, and competition from other feedback sites.
- 3. Freeware and freemium applications provide a convenient entry point for consumers, but many developers fail to convert their users into paying customers. At the same time, users often need specific new features but don’t know how to request them.
- 4. FLOSSfunder is a web-‐based funding platform that helps software developers and application users identify desirable new features and fund their development: • Developers direct users to a request form • Users submit new feature requests or up-‐vote existing ones • Developers select features for development & estimate their costs • Users crowdfund the developer's costs • When the developer completes the update, he is paid • We charge a small fee for the service
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- 6. We have segmentedthe total market into eight customer groups and are targeting three: The Total Available Market includes all • We help Hobbyists gain incremental developers who are looking for new or income from their applications by alternative revenue streams engaging Regular Users in the development process and converting The Served Market includes developers who could increase their income through them into paying customers. our web-based platform • We help Struggling Entrepreneurs The Target Market includes FLOSS increase income from their applications developers with popular apps but low by engaging Regular Users in the income and the regular users of their applications development process and converting them into paying customers. • We help Regular Users upgrade the applications they use by providing them with a way to request new features and to finance their development.
- 7. • We have conducted surveys of both users and developers and interviews with developers • 68% of application users would be willing to share in the cost of funding new features • Seven out of nine developers indicated they would be interested in using the platform; none have committed • One developer’s comment: We've actually considered doing this ourselves (and have had users beg us to consider the model), so it is not far fetched that we would look into it.
- 8. Interviews We use these with SEM tools to acquire developers developers Retention SEO blogs email A A quality email c product t Low-‐ friction blogs i landing page v a Customer t service No fees for i developers Referrals o n Incentives to developers for referrals 5 % service fee
- 9. Customer Developers service channel users to our website from Retention A quality their applications product widgets Acquisition Activation email Low-‐ friction landing page App Referrals websites Referrals 5 % service fee Social Media
- 10. • Technical costs include web design and hosting -‐ $ • We will do the backend programming, SEO, maintenance and support • Direct marketing via email and Skype calls • Google ad campaigns -‐ $ • No salaries until we have income • No need for additional staff until our user base grows • Costs for the first year should be under $5,000 • We plan on bootstrapping as long as we can
- 11. • We will charge a fee on top of the developer's costs • We will do a pricing analysis before finalizing our fee • 5% is the going rate for crowdfunding sites • Example: A developer estimates $1,000 costs; our fee is 5%; a crowdfunding goal of $1,050 is set • We rejected membership fees for developers and advertising as alternative revenue streams
- 12. • Developers might not find our value proposition compelling enough to convert. We will mitigate through marketing. • Developers may not be willing to channel users to our platform. We will mitigate through education and onboarding. • We may have to arbitrate disagreements between developers and users. We will mitigate by encouraging clear communications. • Transaction fees may eat into overall revenue. We will mitigate through our pricing analysis. • User review websites may implement a crowdfunding feature. We will mitigate through speed to market.