PROFONECT - CONNECTING PROFESSIONALISM

J Component Project

for

New Venture Planning and Management

(MEE-1017)

Submitted by

Kaustav Dattaray - 19BME0758

Nathaniel Savio Pereira - 19BME0800

Nityanta Sai Ramachandran - 19BME0851

Shishir Garg - 19BME0859

Dany Verghese - 19BME0864

Russel Sherif Andipattil - 19BME0875

Saurav Sathish - 19BME0922

Raghul Balu - 19BME0934

To

Prof. Jayant Gopal Thakare

In

Fall Semester 2021-22

VIT University, Vellore

 Review-1
INTRODUCTION
The reason we chose this app is because we want people with their innovative ideas to connect with
other like minded people so that their ideas don’t just fade away with their everyday work and lack
of necessary information that can support their ideas. Instead of going door to door they can look
for investors directly within the app thereby saving time and energy. The app has secure end to end
encryption thereby ensuring that your ideas or texts that you share with your partner won’t leak out
before the actual roll out. It can also provide financial advices on how to maintain their capital/
funds allotted to them by their investors. This app with its features mentioned below proves that
your billion dollar idea is just fingertips away.

BASIC KEY FEATURES

1. An app for business minded people to have a chit-chat and a cup of coffee to just share their
ideas and grow.
2. Categories to select your prime partners best suitable for your start-up/ business.

3. Contract/agreement to ensure no act of fraud takes place by stealing someone's work and ideas.

4. Looking for investors who are willing to fund their ideas/start-up.

5. Prime start-up locations best suitable for the business environment.

6. Latest relevant news personalised for the user himself by analysing one’s background and field
to help them maintain an edge.

7. Facial recognition and 'near me' feature to easily make out the passerby's public profile
highlighting only the general informations and keeping all the private infos really private.

8. Create groups with like minded people and topics of your interest.

9. Getting started is fairly simple. At launch, the app is able to automatically pull in
your information from existing networks like Twitter, LinkedIn and Google when
you sign up, making filling out profiles quicker.

10. Focus on photos by putting more text information on users’ cards that can be viewed without
having to leave their profile — like job history, skills, education, mutual connections and events
attending.

11. At the end of the day, this app shows you stacks of photos you swipe through, saying “yes” or
“no”.

12. Unlike in other dating apps, you can't see one's profile after swiping either right or left.

13. There are, of course, other concerns with a dating app-inspired business networking app: the
potential for harassment from people using the app for non- professional purposes.
This app will attempt to address this through a built-in reporting feature. The algorithms will
use this activity, combined with other signals, to filter out bad actors — including not only
harassers, but also those whose advances aren’t liked for other reasons, like pushy recruiters or
spammers. We’re going to be very aggressive in eliminating people who are doing things for
non-professional reasons.
WORK ALLOCATIONS

Kaustav Dattaray - Business Model

Nathaniel Savio Pereira - Legal Aspects

Nityanta Sai Ramachandran - Investment planning

Shishir Garg - Market Research

Dany Verghese - IT planning

Russel Sherif Andipattil - Financial Planning

Saurav Sathish - Location Research

Raghul Balu - Data Collection

 Review-2

SELECTION OF THIS SERVICE AND PROBLEM SOLVING

The factors that lead us to build this service is because we want people with their innovative ideas
to connect with other like minded people so that their ideas don’t just fade away with their everyday
work or lack of necessary information that can support their ideas. We have identified most of the
problems that many people face while trying to set up their business for instance googling for
investors, the right minded people for their particular idea and we have provided solutions for these
sort of problems that arise while kickstarting their business ideas. We have not seen this type of
service in the market thereby it gives us the opportunity to take control of this particular sector of
the market. Hence we realised that bringing up this innovative idea can create a huge demand in the
market which will be highly profitable to us and to the consumers.

POTENTIAL CUSTOMERS

This app would cater to age groups of 18 and above.

It would most likely be ideal for college students who are looking forward to start their own
start-ups, for them to have a better network of like-minded people and find good investors &
partners.

This app also has no age limit as to whosoever from a working atmosphere wishes to seek
knowledge from other successful likeminded businessmen, or to even find partners to help them
grow their business, this app is the perfect solution.

Students today have started to come up with very fascinating, sustainable and feasible ideas, and
this would be a perfect platform for such students to connect with like-minds to further develop
on it.

Today’s teenagers are fully immersed into the world of social media and communication. This
app also acts as a social media platform where one gets to connect and socialize with anyone. It
would appeal to these young minds and will eventually be a smooth transition from their usual
social media applications.

Companies and investors these days are looking for young minds and young startup
establishments to invest into. As our app enables the connectivity of investors/companies to the
users, it will only further motivate users to get more involved into using the app on a daily basis.

As mentioned this app has no age limit, hence not only young college students would benefit
from this app but also well established office goers who want to get into the line of their own
business would benefit immensely.

This helps in breaking the barrier and awkwardness of age and experience.
LOCATION OF SERVICE POINT

After extensive research, we have decided to go with Bangalore as the base of our company,
looking to expand to other major cities depending on our success in Bangalore.

Bangalore has a population of 8 million people, making it the 3rd most populous city in India
and 5th most populous urban agglomeration in India. It is known as the Silicon Valley of India,
which attracts lots of young members of society to work in their IT companies.

In Bangalore, there is relatively easy access to a large number of venture capitalists and angel
investors. You need to have a great idea, the right state of mind, vision, motivation and right
direction for your startup.

Bangalore is the city that organizes a wide range of meetups and many other events every year.
This fact contributes to one of the biggest reasons why the city is a heaven for startups. These
events enable budding entrepreneurs to mingle with the community, get a chance to share their
experiences of overcoming the challenges and achieving the goals.

FEASIBILITY ANALYSIS

Mobile application is trendy and receives high demand in marketplace. Thus, mobile technology
has been identified as a potential delivery alternative since it is able to provide services anywhere
anytime.

App Feasibility:

• It provides a platform for start ups and new businesses.

• Contracts to make sure no ones idea is stolen/used.
• Our app has a built in reporting feature to revive anyone who is like pushy recruiters or
spammers.

The above mentioned are just a few of many unique features that this app consists of, making it
more likely to be successful in the market.

Economical Feasibility:

• Most of the expenses were for the testing of the product.

• Employee cost are reduced to a bare minimum since it will just take a team of 4 people to
maintain this app.

• Maintenance of the app and the equipments that run it has to be done frequently.
Market Feasibility:

• Due to the pandemic this is the right time to release the app there is a huge gap in the market.
• Target audience is anyone who has a good idea.
Technical Feasibility:

• No relevant technology is mature enough to be easily applied to our problem.

• Technical analysis will be done by a professional.
Legal Feasibility:

• The app will be completed by said date.

• The review period was set well in advance.

MARKET SURVEY

Today, marketers are trying to get a place where they can accurately map the consumer journey for
different audience types. We understand the need to understand the impact of all touch points where
a potential customer is showing reliability towards our new venture. And simultaneously, we also
understand the impact of each of those touch point on acquiring the user by doing a market survey
through a Google form and analysing its results.
Crux of the Survey:

What customer wants?

- Ease of connecting mechanism

- Low cost / free service
- Focusing more on age group 18-28
- Connecting with people all over the world.
MARKET RESEARCH

Competitors in Market:

Ripple, Bumblebiz, Invitly, Meetup, Sharp.

Method of tackling such competitors:

• Our app PROFONECT encourages people to connect with each other to start their New Ventures
rather than it just being for an ideal conversation about an idea or concept.

• The competition doesn't prevent business people from stealing others' ideas or concepts with who
they have browsed against or interacted with, whereas with PROFONECT it ensures that parties
have signed an agreement/contract to prevent such mishaps from happening.

• All the information that the users upload into the app will be screened to check for legitimacy so
that the potential for fraud is eliminated.

• PROFONECT also connects investors who can review through various people's idea/concept and
are will to invest in their new ventures.

• PROFONECT also encourages interaction with students from various colleges who have ideas
for future startup projects and are looking for business partners.

These are just few of the many features that this app possess which makes it unique in the market,
not only enabling it to survive but also to succeed in the market. Apart from this, a survey has been
conducted to get direct feedbacks from our potential customers to understand their pain points and
help provide them a solution with this app. We will also be launching a landing page or kickstarter
for this app, helping us have an idea of how many people are interested.

CHANNEL OF DISTRIBUTION

The channel of distribution for downloading that we will be following will be ‘Selling through
Intermediaries’.
We will be utilising various intermediaries such as Apple App Store, Google Play Store, Samsung
Galaxy Apps, Sony Apps, Amazon App Store and many more making sure that our new venture
is reached out to every single user out there. Such intermediaries reach a wide global audience,
and don't require budget.

The key to a successful app distribution strategy is widening the net and diversifying the pool -
make sure not locking yourself into only few platforms and sources. Essentially, the more
channels you distribute your app on, the bigger your audience becomes, and the chances of an
install increases. That means, that in addition to publishing your app on the App Store and Play
Store, it’s wise to also run paid campaigns on ad networks and partner with a solution that runs
traffic through device manufacturers and carriers.

Channel of distribution for promotion would also be done. For this, we will be targeting on
implementing the following methods:
Social Media - We will be creating free accounts for this app on Facebook, Instagram,
Twitter, LinkedIn, WeChat, or any other social media platform relevant to the audience, and
post relevant content.

Email Marketing - Sending out email newsletter campaigns to leads and prospects is another
highly effective channel for this app distribution, as users have likely already expressed
interest in this app - the reason why they’re receiving the email.

Mobile ad Networks - App marketers can also use mobile ad networks to distribute their
apps via paid user acquisition campaigns.
 Review - 3

FINANCIAL PLANNING

Since we are a startup, we need to find an external source of capital to build our business from
ground level. We will search for an angel investor who will invest in our product in exchange for an
equity in our firm. We will also start a crowdfunding campaign to raise a certain portion of the sum
required. Our company would require an initial investment to meet initial costs of running a Social
Networking platform like building the application, office space, marketing, graphic designing etc.
After extensive research, we have decided that we require a sum of 6-8 lakhs INR to start this
venture as an initial investment.

Operational Expenses:

• Payroll for graphic/web designers, IT specialists, customer service agents, marketing executives,
as well as rent and utility expenditures, will total around 3-4 lakhs each month.

• We want to support these through seed funding in our early stages, and as our company expands,
we hope to attract venture capitalists who would invest in exchange for a part in our company.

• Our firm will eventually go public through an Initial Public Offering (IPO). We'll be able to raise
a lot of money and expand our business this way.

ANALYSIS

We plan on using a free to use model plus a subscription plan for those interested in our premium
features and services. As our business is a social networking application, we will be generating high
user traffic. Hence, we will run advertising that will be beneficial to users depending on their
searches within the app and help us generate a source of revenue to sustain the venture. We will
guarantee that our customers have a fantastic experience using our app while also helping our
business expand, and with more and more happy users, our software will become increasingly
popular in the app store/play store and many other platforms.
Rather than just spending time on social media, this will give our users a chance to be productive
and make proper use of social media.

BUSINESS PLAN

Location and Geographic information:

This is important as we target university students and then expand our business to local states and
places, then reach internationally. It depends on our users in different regions all connected to which
background they belong and to which profile people they wants to connect with.

Development Stage:

At this point in time, our startup has completed the business plan. We soon will be reaching the
MVP(Minimal Viable Product).
Milestones to be Achieved:

• Hire developers to develop our idea to make it a profitable business model

• Realistic Marketing Strategy
• Reach a significant number of users
• Expand into an online web-based and mobile digital storefront.

Main focus while developing the app:

• Plant and Facilities

• Manufacture/Production Plan
• Labour Requirements
• Supply and Distribution
• Contingency Plan - to answer the following questions:
What if we lose our largest customer region tomorrow?

What if our star developer leaves the company?

What if we get hacked?

What if disaster strikes our headquarters?

What if we cannot collect our receivables?

What if we launch a new product/service or location and it fails?

SELECTION OF APPROPRIATE FUNDING SOURCES

Setup a crowdfunding campaign

Raise donations - offering them a gift/pre-orders of the app once the app rolls out in return for
their contributions.

While going large scale (extending to international boundaries), if the required investment
amount is not satisfied by the profit gained, then a loan can be taken from the bank to ensure the
that the entire control of the venture still remains under us.
LEGAL ASPECTS

Jurisdiction - for international market

Incorporating with a business (LLC) to limit liability

Confidentiality agreement to protect business ideas - non-disclosure agreement (NDA)

Intellectual property rights to prevent the app from copycats - trademarks/copyrights

Contract issues

A Privacy Policy

The right app legals - terms & conditions, disclaimer

GOVERNMENT ASSISTANCE

The government has launched various schemes and programs and other measures to ensure that
startups in India do not face any capital shortage. There are also various other programmes initiated
by the government so as to help Indian tech entrepreneurs and startups to build strong ecosystem to
develop and promote indigenous world class apps.

One such scheme that would benefit our app would be the SAMRIDH Scheme:

It is a new scheme that was launched by the new minister of Electronics and Information
Technology(MeitY) Ashwini Vaishnaw, and under this the government will support
startups and entrepreneurs in their initial phase, where they face most challenges.

SAMRIDH will create a conducive platform for Indian software product startups to
enhance their products and secure investments for scaling their business. The initiative
will not only provide funding support to startups, but will also help in bringing skill sets
together which will help them become successful.

The programme will focus on accelerating 300 startups by providing customer connect,
investor connect, and international expansion opportunities in the next three year.

Also, an investment of up to Rs 40 lakh to startups, based on their current valuation and

growth stage will be provided through selected accelerators. It will also facilitate equal
matching investment by the accelerator or investor.

Another scheme that would be helpful is the AatmaNirbhar Bharat App Innovation Challenge
for Indian tech entrepreneurs and startups.

The programme will run in two tracks, which will be to promote existing apps and
develop new ones.

The focus of the track 1 app innovation challenge would be to identify the best indian
apps that are already being used by citizens and have the potential to scale and become
world class apps in their respective categories.
 This Innovation Challenge with various cash awards and incentives of featuring Apps on
Leader Boards seeks to create an ecosystem where Indian entrepreneurs and Startups are
incentivised to ideate, incubate, build, nurture and sustain Tech solutions that can serve
not only citizens within India but also the world.

The track 2 is also very ideal as it seek to identify Indian start ups / entrepreneurs /
companies and encourage them with ideation, incubation, prototyping and roll out of
applications. This track will run for a longer course of a time.

We shall be reaching out to such schemes to get a major boost start for the initial build up of this
startup.

BREAK-EVEN ANALYSIS

As the company keeps growing, the workforce will also grow in order to keep the app functional
24/7. We would also increase the number of servers so that our users will not face any issues while
engaging in our app.

Break-Even Point (sales rupees) = Fixed Costs ÷ Contribution Margin

Contribution Margin = Price of Product – Variable Cost

Fixed cost and Contribution margin:

Our fixed costs are those that include fees paid for services like graphic design, advertising, and
public relations. The contribution margin is calculated by subtracting an item’s variable costs from
the selling price. The contribution margin can be stated on a gross or per-unit basis. It represents the
incremental money generated for our app after deducting the variable portion of the firm's costs.

Price of Product:

We will be running ads in our app, ads that will be useful for the users based on their searches
within the app. With the work force that we hire we will ensure that our users will have a great time
using our app as well as helping their business grow, and with more and more happy users our app
will also be in demand in app store/play store. Through these methods we will be making money
that will be used to cover up the fixed costs. Our app is completely free but however we will be
providing premium services for those users who are willing to pay for it. As we keep growing, we
will also start providing courses(paid) on how to start a business and make it into a reality by
welcoming the leading experts in the industry. Our users will also include investors and VCs so, we
will also be providing marketing solutions in our app so that they could advertise in our app.

Variable Costs:

Our variable costs won't be too high (if not zero) because we wouldn’t be requiring any materials in
order to build the app. We only need the workforce that maintains the app and the servers and this
falls under our fixed costs along with public relations and advertising.

In order to be net profitable in the long term we will be putting targets each and every quarter and
by targets we mean the number of users having premium accounts and taking up paid courses as
well as attracting the top VCs and investors to advertise in our app.