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ITAMAR S. BAR-ZAKAY 155 North Michigan Avenue, Apt. 1703, Chicago, IL 60601
[email protected] • (609) 240 7283 EDUCATION THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO BOOTH SCHOOL OF BUSINESS Chicago, IL Master of Business Administration, Concentration in Strategy Operations and Finance Sep 2012 – Jun 2014 • Chicago Booth 1898 Merit Scholarship • Amazon case competition finalist; elected by peers and administration to Leadership Challenge competition • Active member of the Corporate Management and Strategy Group and the Dean’s Student Admissions Committee • GMAT: 750 (98th percentile)
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY Princeton, NJ Bachelor of Arts in Analytic Philosophy Sep 2004 – Jun 2008 • Davis Scholar: full tuition and expenses for four years, merit-based; GPA: 3.7, Cum Laude • Awarded two Best Thesis prizes; published in Georgetown Philosophical Review • Elected officer of Terrace, Princeton’s largest social eating club (300 members); organized and led all club events • Consistently worked 20 hours a week for four years, producing over 90% of output for research project
EXPERIENCE MMG PARTNERS – Management Consulting Firm Specializing in Financial Services New York, NY Associate Jul 2010 – Apr 2012 • Pitched and sold firm’s first engagement with a $3 billion international investment bank; initiated and maintained
relationship which ultimately led to ongoing client account • Managed team of three analysts streamlining business processes at a major asset management firm; saved client $5
million annually through spend optimization and adoption of best practices • Spearheaded investigation of new business opportunities in healthcare technology, working closely with firm’s
CEO; presented findings to senior management, successfully defending rationale against market entry • Led client meetings on gap analysis of newly released flagship product; over 30 recommendations implemented • Directed firm-wide recruiting efforts, attracting record number of applicants; trained and mentored new hires Analyst Oct 2008 – Jul 2010 • Interviewed client executives at Fortune 200 bank to identify cost-saving strategies; prioritized opportunities to
save $40 million annually, exceeding original savings target • Modeled competitive landscape for $8 billion financial services division of major IT company; created final
deliverable to be presented to client’s Head of Strategy, winning repeat business from client • Conducted acquisition due diligence for financial-services software company; recommendation to acquire
ultimately acted upon by client
WINDCATCHER CAPITAL – Algorithmic Foreign-Exchange Hedge Fund New York, NY Partner, Business Development Oct 2010 – Oct 2011 • Founded hedge fund together with professor of financial engineering at Columbia University, commercializing a
foreign-exchange trading algorithm • Raised $9 million in eight months by identifying potential investors and pitching the fund, which now operates
with $150 million under management in-house at a major international bank • Designed fund’s marketing strategy, creating unique liquidity structure suited to fund’s target investors MAGNOLIA CAPITAL – Venture Capital Firm Tel-Aviv, Israel Intern Jun 2006 – Aug 2006 • Participated in meetings between high-tech and healthcare entrepreneurs and VCs discussing business model
viability and financing possibilities • Executed CRM system upgrade, including product research, system optimization and merger of outdated system
ADDITIONAL • Lived 4,000 miles away from family since the age of 16, first in Hong Kong, then in the U.S.; traveled throughout
five continents along the way • Avid rock-climber: recently enjoyed two months and 10,000 miles of backpacking and rock climbing along the
Pacific Coast and the Canadian and American Rockies (Tallest climb: 1,500 feet and 12 hours in Banff, Canada) • Accidental owner of an aquatic turtle
PREM NIMISH PANCHAL 151 North Michigan Avenue, Apt 1114 | Chicago, IL 60601
(817) 896-7889 | [email protected] EDUCATION THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO BOOTH SCHOOL OF BUSINESS Chicago, IL Master of Business Administration; Analytical Finance, Strategic Management, Entrepreneurship August 2012 - June 2014
• GMAT: 740 (97th percentile); Quant: 51 (98th percentile) • Active member of Entrepreneurship / Venture Capital, Real Estate, Emerging Markets and Wine Clubs; DSAC • Winner of the 2012 Chicago Booth LEADership Challenge case competition; Placed 1st individually and 2nd as a team • Top selection for the 2012 Sterling Partners Investment Thesis Challenge, Selected for 2013 NVC with Matchist
SOUTHERN METHODIST UNIVERSITY Dallas, TX Cox School of Business August 2002 - May 2006 Bachelor of Business Administration in Finance – Finance GPA 3.92 Bachelor of Science in Economics with Financial Applications Specialization – Economics GPA 3.96
• Graduated Cum Laude, Overall GPA 3.77/4.00 with University Honors Program and Cox BBA Honors Program • Gained BBA Scholar distinction in inaugural class of program and received University Academic Scholarship • Selected to manage $2.5M portfolio and produced 18% TTM return as IT Analyst for Ann Rife Cox Investment Fund • Study Abroad: Denmark's International Study Program – International Finance and Global Business Strategy
EXPERIENCE WAREHOUSE INVESTIMENTOS, venture capital firm with R$100mm fund size São Paulo, Brasil Summer Associate July 2012 - August 2012
• Led analysis and negotiations with key technology-centric investment targets with Brazilian market focus • Developed fund investment thesis on rapidly growing $89B gaming industry and benchmarked online fashion industry • Represented firm at industry events in lieu of partners and met with entrepreneurs and industry leaders
GETNINJAS.COM.BR, Brazil’s first online services marketplace São Paulo, Brasil Summer Strategy Intern, Monashees Capital Portfolio Company July 2012 - August 2012
• Created strategic user experience framework by analyzing and benchmarking competitive set and industry leaders • Researched and implemented gamification and trust design which drove user engagement and increased site traffic by 300% • Part of team named - Brazil’s Startup of the Year by The Next Web in 2012
PANCHAL INVESTMENTS, INC. Fort Worth, TX Principal Contact and Director of Operations May 2007 – April 2012
• Partner and operator of three family-owned, brand-affiliated, limited service hotels in suburban market • Formulated and implemented turn-around strategy by developing new mid-scale hotel and revitalizing other properties by
renovation & reflagging o Acquired $9.0m loan from commercial bank, oversaw construction and opened hotel to above market profitability o Established 11 new corporate accounts in 2009 to drive $100k of new business while maintaining 94% guest
satisfaction score and improving revenue growth to 55% above the competitive set within six months of opening o Guided $400k renovation of FF&E in two mid-scale hotels to improve overall portfolio competitive positioning
• Hired, trained and developed staff of 30 to exceed service requirements and drive marketing leading sales performance • Evaluated accretive options of two pad-sites for development of retail/restaurant to aid growth of top-line revenue
SABRE HOLDINGS Southlake, TX Financial Analyst August 2006 –May 2007
• Executed financial planning and analysis for the CTO and CIO of the world’s largest global travel technology company • Designed extensive savings model which captured $10m in efficiencies gained in switch to Linux-based server architecture
and presented to senior company leaders including CEO and CFO • Modeled multiple financial scenarios to quantify $5m in savings through employee offshoring to meet required IRR for
transition from public to private firm (Acquired by TPG Capital and Silver Lake Partners) • Performed DCF and WACC analysis to determine optimal levels of investment amongst multiple, capital-intensive projects • Analyzed changes to monthly/quarterly expense drivers for $500m in technology spend and presented to senior management
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
• Conversant in Spanish, Portuguese • An avid traveler – 26 countries – across Asia, Latin America, the BRICs, Europe; Highlights – Train travel in China, trekking
in India, dancing the tango in Argentina and surfing in Brasil; Challenges – a five-day climb in the Andes, distance-cycling in the Baltics, midnight whitewater rafting in Bolivia and navigating a traditional Turkish yacht in the Mediterranean Sea
RISHI M. KUMAR 151 North Michigan Avenue, Apartment 3108 | Chicago, IL 60601
(732) 407-8428 | [email protected]
EDUCATION
THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO BOOTH SCHOOL OF BUSINESS Chicago, IL Master of Business Administration Sept 2012 – June 2014
Concentrations in Marketing Management, Entrepreneurship, and Econometrics & Statistics
First place - Booth film contest | First place - Building the New Venture | Finalist - Amazon Case Competition
GMAT: 730 (96th percentile) | LSAT: 174 (99th percentile)
THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA Chapel Hill, NC Bachelor of Arts, Public Policy Analysis, Graduated with Distinction Aug 2004 – May 2008
Awarded the Trademark Scholarship (merit) | Dean's List every semester
Created a career development program from a $25K grant; exceeded enrollment target by 90%
EXPERIENCE
DELOITTE CONSULTING – Commercial Strategy and Operations McLean, VA Consultant (Promoted from Analyst) – Focus on Technology, Media, and Telecom July 2008 – July 2012
New Product Development and Growth Strategy
Created a new business vertical within a $103B firm; collaborated with an international, cross-functional team to develop sales demo and go-to-market strategy for an industry-disrupting digital media platform
Took initiative to address a client’s product gap; created Excel-based tool used by client to win $500K contract
Led a team evaluating a national education firm; created sales/pricing strategy, prevented $250K in losses
Persuaded a Board of Directors to spin-off its crowd-source funding platform; led market research efforts
User Experience and Operations Management
Designed the guest experience for a new $300M hotel; garnered high approval ratings from frequent travelers
Engineered a major Healthcare Reform customer outreach process for a $14B health payer; independently supported senior management; exceeded customer response rate expectations by 80%
Successfully coordinated sixteen workstreams during a construction build; led a series of innovative workshops
Data-Driven Marketing and Financial Modeling
Developed an innovative proposal for the US Govt. based on European practices, identified $320M in benefits
Conducted preliminary due diligence regarding a hospital chain’s M&A opportunities; advised management to instead pursue organic growth, leading to a $250M investment in a new research center
Firm Leadership and Career Progression
Selected by Deloitte partners as Editor-in-Chief for a global publication forecasting issues in Media & Tech
Chosen to support CEO; created custom analysis reports to prepare him for meetings with Fortune 100 CEOs
Created a workplace culture initiative; introduced three highly-regarded programs (e.g., on-site dry cleaning)
OTHER RELEVANT EXPERIENCE
MATCHIST – Marketing Lead for a platform that matches technical developers to projects March 2013 – Present
SPOTHERO – Business Development Lead at a venture-backed startup Nov 2012 – Jan 2013
RBW BRANDING AND ADVERTISING AGENCY – Marketing Intern Oct 2007 – Feb 2008
MARWOOD GROUP – Startup Intern, translating legislative insight into financial advice June 2007 – Oct 2007
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Co-Founding member of a charter school’s Associate Board in the Lawndale neighborhood of Chicago
Coursework and project experience in linear/ non-linear programming & statistical analysis (SQL, SAS, and R)
Interests include tech blogs, cooking (and eating), college basketball, trivia, media, education, and cycling
Rode a bear, swam with the world’s largest shark, & organized two Polar Bear Plunge teams
STELLA FAYMAN 21 E. Huron St. #803 | Chicago, IL 60611
(309) 368-5987 | [email protected]
EDUCATION THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO BOOTH SCHOOL OF BUSINESS Chicago, IL Masters of Business Administration; Entrepreneurship, Marketing Sept 2012- June 2014 • Awarded Herman Family Fellowship for Class of 2014 • Active member of Entrepreneurship and Venture Capital Group NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY Evanston, IL Bachelor of Arts, Psychology, Business Institutions Sept 2005-Sept 2009 • Dean’s List • Founder of Sex Week, Director of College Feminists, Director of 85 Broads EXPERIENCE FEEFIGHTERS Chicago, IL Founding Member, Marketing Sept 2009- March 2012 • Planned and executed marketing plan for early stage financial start-up through content, established blog as top B2B
blog with over 50k monthly views over 2.5 years with consistent, varied content, acquired by Groupon • Developed social media strategy and newsletter, with 11k Twitter followers and 20k monthly newsletter recipients,
Developed initial Google AdWords and Facebook marketing campaigns Business Development • Established partnerships with startup focused groups such as Startup Weekend, Founders Card • Represented FeeFighters as community leader; spoke on panels, judged business plan competitions Public Relations • Developed all PR campaigns, landing mentions in TechCrunch, New York Times, BusinessWeek, Mashable, The Wall
Street Journal, Entrepreneur, Inc, VentureBeat, Chicago Tribune, etc. • Created all press releases and outreach materials over three years Customer Service • Handled majority of customer service requests, including payments questions over phone and email • Performed over 500 savings analyses, using knowledge of payments and software to create apples-to-apples
comparisons for users to compare to FeeFighters marketplace ENTREPRENEURS UNPLUGGD Chicago, IL Co-Founder Dec 2012-present Developed brand and concept for intimate event series aimed at inspiring entrepreneurs through storytelling; held 6
events in first year with average of 200 attendees PUBLIC SPEAKER Topics: Entrepreneurship, Women in Startups • Extreme Entrepreneurship Tour Keynote, TechCocktail, Kellogg, Booth School of Business Women in Business Event,
TechWeek, Northwestern University, Collegiate Entrepreneurship Organization Annual Conference ADDITIONAL • Volunteer for Future Founders program, Help inner city students write business plans, judge business plan
competition • Active blogger on startup related issues, has written or been quoted in Bloomberg BusinessWeek, Entrepreneur,
Forbes, INC Magazine, Wall Street Journal, Mashable, TechCrunch • Fluent in Russian and semi-fluent in Spanish, Traveled to over 20 countries in last 4 years
timjahn 6910 W. Farragut Ave.Chicago, IL 60656
http://linkedin.com/in/timjahn
objective:experience:
education:
To help companies solve problems using efficient technology solutions.
January 2008 - January 2010Senior Developer - Blueye CreativePioneered creation of custom in-house project management system tostreamline business operations; developed various client projects.
- Blueye Loop I pioneered the creation of an internal project management system to streamline business operations and help teams communicate better. I was the senior developer on the project and consulted with the product team what technology to use for various features.
October 2005 - June 2011Freelance PHP DeveloperDevelop various websites/applications usingHTML/CSS, PHP/MySQL, Wordpress, Drupal, CodeIgniter
August 2003 - May 2007Bradley UniversityBachelor of Science in Multimedia and Electronic Media
skills: HTML, CSS, PHP, MySQL, Javascript, jQuery, Drupal, WordPress,CodeIgniter, Photoshop, Illustrator, SVN, Basic Linux
June 2011 - PresentTech Lead - Edelman Digital Consult and educate both internal teams and clients on the best technology solutions and practices to use for various types of projects.
- Disney InsidEARS I was the technical lead responsible for managing the development team as well as tracking bugs and new features. I interacted daily with the client to ensure progress was always made.
March 2010 - March 2011Web Developer - HS2 Solutions Developed many Drupal websites for healthcare clients, as wellas custom PHP web applications for internal and external use.
Table of Contents
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY...........................................................................................................................2
COMPANY OVERVIEW............................................................................................................................3
PRODUCT…………………............................................................................................................................6
MARKET OPPORTUNITY…...................................................................................................................10
TRACTION………………….........................................................................................................................13
COMPETITION…………............................................................................................................................14
FINANCIALS…………….............................................................................................................................16
STRATEGY FOR EXECUTION..............................................................................................................16
FUTURE GROWTH AND EXIT…..........................................................................................................18
MANAGEMENT TEAM AND ADVISORS…......................................................................................21
APPENDIX……….………...........................................................................................................................23
2
Executive Summary _________________________________________________________________________________________________
As technology has become a mainstay for companies to compete in today’s
economy, integrating tools to help companies run more efficiently, and offering tools
to customers is paramount. However, finding the right technical talent to build or
integrate these tools has become a big problem given today’s tech talent crunch. 1
To find this talent, companies are increasingly turning to freelancers.2 When
hired for the right project, freelancers tend to complete projects faster, bringing in
their targeted skills and zeroed-‐in focus, and doing so while eliminating the high
costs of full-‐time hiring (monetary costs, time costs, and the risk of recruiting a bad
apple). 3 However, companies have trouble accessing quality freelance developers
because the two parties operate in different worlds. As a result, companies are left
with a quandary: with no efficient solution for finding freelancers with specific
skillsets, they are left to gamble on outsourced labor job boards or personal
referrals.
matchist launched last fall to solve this problem. matchist connects top
freelance web and mobile developers to projects based on experience, skills, and
preference. Companies simply input their needs, and our matching algorithm and
process connect them to top developers who represent the best fit for their project.
1 “Help Wanted: Competition For Tech Talent Heats Up” http://www.itbusinessedge.com/slideshows/show.aspx?c=90484 2 http://management.fortune.cnn.com/2012/11/27/freelance-jobs/ 3 http://management.fortune.cnn.com/2012/11/27/freelance-jobs/
3
Our payment and contract system mitigates risk for both parties, leaving freelancers
happy doing work they love while getting paid on time, every time.
Company Overview _________________________________________________________________________________________________
matchist is a community of high-‐quality US based web and mobile
developers, vetted based on their technical and communication skills. Clients first
input their project needs and preferences, and then receive curated developer
matches. They are given access to reviews and portfolios of the developers on their
matchist profiles. Clients receive quotes, choose a developer, and determine the
terms of work with the developer. They initiate contract and payment through
matchist: our escrow based payment system mitigates risk on each side of the
market. Holding funds until both sides agree parts of projects are complete helps
protect both client and developer. matchist adds value to three user groups:
1) Companies-‐ For companies, matchist provides a streamlined user
experience, with an emphasis on fit between developer and project. matchist greatly
lowers their search cost, both in time and energy spent searching for a developer.
Companies currently hire developers for two main reasons: to build a new web or
mobile application, or to integrate tools into their existing platforms. For example,
companies need to integrate a payment processing gateway to accept payments
online. Successful execution of this project both in a secure and efficient manner
allows the company to get paid, while also ensuring their customers’ personal data
4
is stored securely. There are hundreds of applications like the one above, and they
will be addressed below.
2) Freelance Developers-‐ Professional freelance developers have two
major pain points: finding projects suited to their skills and preferences, and being
paid on time. Many lack sales and marketing skills and even those that can create
stable client flow still prefer to spend their time doing what they do best:
development. After over 50 in-‐depth customer interviews, we have identified how
freelance developers qualify clients, and have codified this data into the matchist
product. Our value proposition to developers is clear: we send them curated clients
based on qualifying information they tell us in their profiles (starting with languages
of frameworks they use for development, through project size preferences, all the
way down to interests) and we give them the opportunity to win these clients on
matchist. Our escrow-‐based payment system allows developers the ability to work
in peace, knowing clients will compensate them when their work is completed.
3) Tech Platforms-‐ A third category of players for whom matchist adds
value is companies that have technical platforms such as APIs, payment gateways,
and ecommerce platforms. A primary goal for these companies is getting customers
set up using products as quickly and painlessly as possible. A portion of their
customers lacks the technical resources to implement these products, and ask these
companies to perform the integration or refer them to a developer who can perform
the integration. Both of these solutions are suboptimal because companies often
5
lack technical resources to actually do the integrations for their customers, and
referrals to developers are fragmented by the developers’ schedules and skillsets.
In addition to using matchist for their own technical needs, these companies
now partner with matchist to provide customized referrals to top developers for
these customers. For example, Twilio, a large communications technology company,
partnered with matchist in January. Customers who come to Twilio and require
assistance or customization in their integrations are now referred to matchist. For
example, Twilio referred a customer looking to integrate the Twilio SMS API in his
web application. matchist connected him to a developer with experience using the
Twilio API as well as PHP (the language in which the customer’s site was built).
Upon completion of the project, Twilio receives over $15,000 monthly from API calls
from this particular customer.
As seen above, matchist serves two types of customers: business owners who
approach us with specific projects, and customers of tech companies who need help
integrating those companies’ products. We refer to the former as Direct projects,
and the latter as Partner projects. Our customer acquisition strategy differs for both
markets, as we will describe below. These different types of projects represent an
interesting mix of projects for developers in our network, and offer valuable
freedom and volume to our developers to help suit their needs.
6
Product __________________________________________________ Clients sign up by submitting project and contact information.
Their projects are approved (or rejected) almost immediately and someone from
the matchist team gives clients a call to learn more about their project. After a brief
conversation where clients can ask questions, matchist determines key elements of
the project, and both parties form a relationship, the project is matched.
Our matching process is proprietary. Through hundreds of interviews
with potential as well as real customers, we have perfected how we screen
developers, clients, and match them together. We have developed an algorithm that
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determines “matchist rank” or how well suited developers are for certain projects
by an objective score. The algorithm produces better results after receiving
feedback from project pitches that developers receive.
Below is a “match list,” essentially how matchist rates developers for the project
based on 1) how well they are qualified for the project 2) their matchist rank. The
higher the score, the more projects the developer has completed with positive
ratings (as well as other criteria).
Developers are sent “pitch emails” which indicate they may be a match for a project
and ask them to opt into being one of the final three matches. In the project above,
the developers in green indicated they were interested in being a match. The
developers in red indicated they were not interested. This feedback is put back into
the system to generate better matching.
Currently the matching process is done manually, but there is a roadmap to
automation that will enable instantaneous matches. Once both sides are notified
they are either a match, or their matches are ready, they can contact one another
8
using our messaging system. They can login to matchist to send messages, or
respond directly via email (responses are still logged into matchist).
Once the client has chosen a developer, the developer uploads a contract with
milestones to the system, as determined by the developer and the client. The client
approves and funds the first milestone. At this point, the developer begins work on
the project. When the milestone is complete, the developer will indicate to the client
that payment should be released. The next page shows a project in process.
9
Once the project is completed, both parties are asked to review one another. If there
is a dispute, the client can file a dispute with matchist. We have an Online Dispute
Resolution (ORD) system that is standard among the industry and includes
mediation or arbitration (depending on what the parties choose).
Not shown is the developer onboarding experience. Developers sign up on
matchist, and submit their portfolio for review. After reviewing portfolio for skills,
experience, and professional presentation, a matchist team member schedules a
10
vetting call with the developer where he/she is assessed for communication style.
Often, the biggest problem with client/freelancer relationships comes down to
communication issues. If the developer meets matchists’ vetting criteria,
information regarding the developer’s skills and preferences is put into their
matchist profile. The matching algorithm then uses this information. The result is
personalized matching to projects. Developers input their payment preferences, and
update or change their availability and skills at any time. Since vetting and ensuring
high quality is a staple of the matchist value proposition, we’ve rejected over 70% of
developer applicants to the platform to date.
Market Opportunity _________________________________________________________________________________________________
Our view of our attainable market is based on our initial understanding of
our customers and their needs. Our customer base (and customer acquisition
strategy) is divided into two channels -‐ Integrate (Partner) and Build (Direct).
Integrate Channel
Definition: Our Integrate clients are generally improving their existing product or
platform (as opposed to building new product). These customers are looking to
integrate a solution into their product such as integrating an API into an existing
website.
What is an API? An application-‐programming interface (API) is a set of programming
instructions and standards for accessing a Web-‐based software application or Web tool. A
software company releases its API to the public so that other software developers can design
products that will be powered by its service.
APIs provide technical competencies that would otherwise need to be built from scratch. For
example, want a text when your pizza is ready? Pizza Barn doesn’t need to build that
11
functionality, they can integrate Twilio. Want to display travel information? Expedia does
over $1 billion in bookings through the Expedia Affiliate Network API.
The integration of an API generally has well-‐defined parameters regarding
functionality and interface. It often requires competencies based in experience of
APIs. For these reasons, it is a prime example of a type of project that many
companies feel require a freelancer, particularly one that has experience with that
API.
Overall Size: Our potential customer count is driven by API use. There are currently
over 9,000 APIs, with 1,000 coming just in the last year. There are many different
types of APIs across many different industries (see Appendix). Not all API usage
will require a technical developer. About 23% of APIs are direct-‐consumer business
models and this will be our primary focus.4 Among those APIs, we further target
solutions that, with reference to the end-‐consumer, have these features:
1) They are difficult to implement, i.e., require a developer.
2) They are costly to implement. Implicit is the need and the cost of failure.
e.g., accepting payments is generally a bigger concern than enabling
comments.
We use these parameters to prioritize our Business Development efforts, on the
hypothesis that this will be where matchist can add the most value.
4 http://www.3scale.net/2012/06/surveying-1000-apis-think-apis-are-for-startups-only-think-again/
12
Growth: Our Integrate Business will grow with
the rise of the API Economy
As the API economy grows (and it is growing! See
graph to right), matchist will increasingly become
the destination for businesses looking to
create/integrate APIs.
Based on partner acquisition rates and customer conversion
rates we have already achieved in recent months, our projections
suggest that within 5 years we can reach close to 600 partners.
Build Channel
Definition: Our Build clients are generally creating a new product.
Given our initial customer base focused on entrepreneurs, these early
projects often involved creating MVPs.
As we have moved our focus more toward large businesses, we have seen our
developers build exceptional websites, mobile apps, and databases. We’ve even had
hardware projects (e.g., a wearable computing project).
Overall Size:
We’ve collected data from over 300 customer interactions and the vast majority fell
within these two categories:
1) Building fully-‐functional websites / web apps. Demand for this development
of this category is growing: there were over 51 million new websites in 2012.
13
In the next year, based on our growth rates and conversion rates from recent
months, our projections show we aim to complete 100 Direct projects, resulting in
$160,000 of revenue (assuming an average project size of $10,000).
2) Building mobile apps-‐ These range from $20K to $200K. There are roughly 300
mobile apps released daily and ~650,000 listed on Apple’s App Store.
In the next year, based on our growth rates and conversion rates from recent
months, our projections show we aim to complete 30 mobile app development
projects, resulting in $50,000 of revenue (assuming an average project size of
$10,000).
Traction ________________________________________________________________________________________________
Over 300 developers applied in the first few days after our launch in
November of 2012. With no marketing expenditure, we’ve had over 500 developers
sign up for matchist, and we’ve accepted 150 onto the platform. To build matchist
differentiation, we have created a vetting process to ensure our developers have top
skills, experience, and communication skills. We conduct personal phone calls and
reviews of their portfolios.
On the client side, over the last four months, we’ve helped developers
provide $30,000 of services to companies. The majority of this business has come in
the last two months and has included international projects. Twenty projects have
been completed on the platform, with many more currently active.
Having launched our partner acquisition strategy at the start of NVC, we’ve
secured 12 partners (8 in the last month). The partners are:
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• Twilio-‐ Tech communication company that has raised over $35 million.
• KISSmetrics-‐Leading funnel analytics company.
• Stripe-‐ Next generation payment API valued at $500 million.
• Nexmo-‐ Telephony API.
• SendGrid-‐ Transactional email company.
• BluePay-‐ Credit card processor to SMBs
• Zapier-‐ Connects various APIs.
• Phaxio-‐Only existing fax API.
• Venture Connects-‐ Service providers for startups.
• 1871-‐Chicago startup coworking space.
• The Starter League-‐ Beginner focused software school.
All partners have co-‐branded landing pages (Appendix ) where they direct
customers.
Competition _________________________________________________________________________________________________ Currently companies rely on two sources for developer referrals: word of
mouth and outsourcing marketplaces. While larger companies rely on technical
recruiters, their cost (20%-‐40% of project size) is prohibitive to the size of business
we’re targeting.
Word of mouth is inefficient both from a time and match perspective:
someone’s brother-‐in-‐law may be a programmer, but that doesn’t mean he
possesses the skillset the business needs. Outsourcing marketplaces are extremely
difficult to navigate, with hundreds of low cost options populating searches. For a
non-‐technical business owner, managing an outsourced worker presents issues such
15
as trouble with communication, both from a project and expectations perspective
(English is often a second or third language for workers). There are also logistical
concerns such as time differences and project management. High quality developers
generally do not participate in these marketplaces, as they commoditize
development work, and are not worth the developers’ time. There are also
intellectual property issues when contracting code overseas: contracts are only
valid domestically, and intellectual property assignment can’t be enforced. The
result: Customers don’t actually own the code they paid to develop.
The chart above positions matchist shows the competitive landscape of contract
development. Most companies sit at two extremes: providing full time hires, or low
16
quality, outsourced labor. matchist sits at an opportunistic place, occupying a space
that marries quality with contract development.
Financials _________________________________________________________________________________________________ The matchist financials are a concerted effort to reflect the realities of the
business today with the plans for expansion through demand-‐driven investment in
business development, product development, headcount growth and market
expansion.
Included in Appendices D – H is a summary of the financials on a go-‐forward
2-‐year, 5-‐year and 7-‐year basis. These figures include Peak Cash need to support the
business of roughly $800k and a 5-‐year CAGR of 90%. In addition, investors can
expect a 5-‐year IRR and COC of 45% and 4.0x, respectively, and a 7-‐year IRR and
COC of 63.1% and 10.5x, respectively.
The numbers are based both upon business actuals today and an average of
businesses we consider analogs across similar business models. These extend to
headcount, capital expenditure and top-‐line and expense growth assumptions.
Strategy for Execution _________________________________________________________________________________________________
We are using a channel partner effort to drive growth. This effort aligns
closely with our previously defined Integrate channel as we have been creating
partnerships with companies in which their client needs to implement the
company’s API.
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For example, a beekeeper may want to sell honey on his website. In order to
collect payments, he decides to use Stripe, a payments platform. In order to have the
Stripe functionality, he needs to integrate Stripe on his webpage. He goes to the
Stripe website looking for a developer. He is directed to a co-‐branded page
(matchist and Stripe) where he can submit his needs to matchist and find a high-‐
quality developer.
The majority of partnerships will be established through active business
development outreach. We see already network effects of more partners joining as
established brands become partners in increasing numbers. The founding team will
spend the majority of Q3 and Q4 developing these relationships with business
development managers at tech companies, providing sales materials and education
to their respective customer service and sales teams. A co-‐branded landing page will
serve as a guide to the success of partnerships, with more successful verticals being
tapped for more partnerships (Appendix B).
In addition to business development, we will spend the majority of
marketing dollars on an integrated SEM and SEO strategy in order to acquire
customers. This aligns more closely with our Build Channel.
To increase acquisition, we have
1) Optimized our site for SEO/SEM-‐The SEO strategy will be to optimize pages
and terms relating to development, specifically buying keywords and creating
content around partnerships (ie “Twilio developer.”) We refer to this as our “long
tail” SEO strategy. For SEM, we are currently conducting experiments around
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retargeting and the most cost effective search terms. We will establish a more
precise SEM strategy after we receive data from these experiments (end of NVC)
2) Content Marketing Focus-‐ Created tailored content in our blog. Our most
recent post had 1000 unique views in one day and coincided with our best day in
conversions (client and developer sign ups). The team has significant experience in
leveraging content marketing to drive traffic and conversion growth for the future.
3) Online advertising -‐ We are beginning an AdWords campaign this month and
have started a Retargeting efforts (see Appendix). We also benefit from our indirect
sponsorship and exposure to Entrepreneurs Unplugged (a Chicago-‐based events
company run by Stella and Tim) and regular articles on Forbes.com (authored by
Stella).
Future Growth and Exit _________________________________________________________________________________________________ As we prove the marketplace functions for developers and clients, we plan to
move into a few other categories:
• Full Time Recruiting-‐ A portion of freelancers are open to full time
opportunities. We will cater to these developers with curated job
opportunities.
• Design-‐ Freelance designers in the US have similar needs to developers,
often working in tandem. We plan to build the ability to hire both designers
and developers, or strictly designers. We currently have a waiting list of
designers who have expressed interest in this service.
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• Specialty Technical Services-‐ Fields like User Experience (UX), User
Interface (UI), SEO Consulting, and SEM Consulting are all growing. We plan
to recruit these tech specialists and offer the opportunity.
• International Growth-‐ We already have customers from the UK and
Australia requesting our service in their own countries. We plan to expand to
these markets next, with additional international rollout as resources permit.
There are a few likely acquirers for matchist: technical recruiting firms and
outsourcing sites. Technical recruiters have a reputation among developers for
being “clueless,” they don’t have technical skills and generally follow a “spray and
pray” strategy instead of offering curated job matching. The industry average Net
Promoter Score is a measly 35%. The value in acquiring matchist would be our
matching system as well as our pool of developers.
Outsourcing sites specialize in automated bidding for projects that are low
budget. They would acquire matchist to be a higher quality, brand extension.
Potential acquirers would be Elance, Guru, Freelancer, and oDesk.
We enable companies to grow by creating and integrating technical products.
We allow them to open up their business -‐ building new projects or using APIs to
unlock more potential for commerce. We’re going to do the same for ourselves.
Our short-‐term vision is to create a valuable service of matching businesses to
freelance talent. We’re in a learning phase – we are figuring out how freelancers
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tend to work and how clients tend to use freelancers. We’re getting better at it every
day.
Our long-‐term vision, (i.e., within the next few years) is to transition matchist
into a platform where the value can transcend the manual matching/algorithimatic
matching we currently provide. We want to be indispensable to freelancers, so much
so that even engagements not matched by Matchist will still be processed on our
platform.
As we scale and have additional investment:
• Freelancer Tools-‐ We will make matchist more attractive to developers by
including features and services that make their businesses run more
smoothly. For example, certifications, year-‐end tax planning, calendar
services, and hosting a technical reputation/portfolio system are all potential
improvements to our service.
• Subscription Fees-‐ As matchist becomes a sticking point for developers, we
can begin exploring additional revenue streams (e.g., membership fees,
certification fees).
• Ubiquity-‐Then we will begin to open up the platform so that matchist
becomes the single location for freelance work contract processing -‐ even
word-‐of-‐mouth matches will result in a transaction on matchist.
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Management Team and Advisors _________________________________________________________________________________________________
matchists’ management team brings over 30 years of experience in technology,
marketing and finance to the company.
Stella Fayman-‐ Cofounder/CEO-‐ Stella was a founding member of venture backed
payments startup FeeFighters, which was acquired by Groupon in 2012. In addition
to leadership, she brings significant online marketing and PR experience to the
table. She currently has a column in Forbes and was named one of Crain’s Business
Chicago “20 in their 20s.”
Tim Jahn-‐ Cofounder/CTO-‐ Tim has been a web developer for over 10 years. He’s
currently a technical lead at Edelman Digital where he manages technical teams
building web and mobile apps for Fortune 500 companies.
Rishi Kumar-‐ Sales/Marketing-‐ In his past life, Rishi was a management consultant
focusing on marketing, specifically within technology, media, and telecom. He’s
worked at several startups including The Marwood Group and SpotHero. He is
passionate about recruiting -‐ he previously interned at University Career Services at
UNC Chapel Hill and will be interning at LinkedIn this summer.
Prem Panchal-‐ Business Development/Finance-‐ Prem spent six years developing
and operating hotels in Texas. He’s worked as a financial analyst at Sabre Holdings
(Travelocity), with a top Brazilian venture capital firm and with the 2012 Latin
American Startup of the Year, GetNinjas.
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Itamar Bar-‐Zakay-‐ Business Development/Finance-‐ Prior to matchist, Itamar
started a hedge fund and worked as a management consultant for financial services
companies. He has spent time working at Israeli venture capital firms, and will be
working at Amazon this summer.
Advisors
Elan Mosbacher-‐As Director of Marketing at Sandbox Industries, Elan brings his
years of expertise in online marketing (e.g., growing portfolio company DoggyLoot.)
Scott Komineers-‐ One of the foremost scholars on marketplaces, Scott works for the
Becker Friedman Institute for Research in Economics at the University of Chicago.
He completed his PhD in Business Economics at Harvard University, with the
dissertation, "Matching Models of Markets.”
Troy Henikoff-‐ Troy’s significant entrepreneurial experience and his role as
Managing Director of TechStars Chicago make him an invaluable resource.
Matt Moog-‐ Matt is founder of Viewpoints, Built in Chicago, and FireStarter Fund.
His extensive experience lies in the realm of digital marketing and
entrepreneurship.
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Appendix
Appendix A-‐ matchist Homepage
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Appendix B-‐ Cobranded Partner Landing Page Headline
Appendix C-‐Example of Retargeting Ad
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Appendix C-‐The API Industry is Diverse and Growing
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Appendix D – Income Statement / Cash Flow Statement – 7-‐year Rollup
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Appendix E – Income Statement – 2-‐year Quarterly Summary
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Appendix F – Income Statement – 5-‐year Annual Summary
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Appendix G – Assumptions related to Financials Profit & Loss (based on actual data and analogs)
20% conversion rate from Direct Matched Projects to Active Matched Projects
$10,000 average Direct Project Size 3 month average Direct Project Length Start with 5 partners and add 10 partners per month Each partner delivers 10 new projects per month Partner projects convert at 20% to Active Partner Projects $2,000 average Partner Project Size 1 month average Partner Project Length 17% Matchist Fee (after discounting credit card fees) CAC Direct is $150.00 / project CAC Partner is $2.50 / project Labor (based on analogs) is concentrated in hiring Business Development
and Back-‐end Developers to rapidly grow volume of Partners and ability to support
Customer Acquisition Assumptions (based on actual data and analogs)
