DotCom Case Study: Timeismoney.
com 8th August, 2011 Rachit Tiwari P K raghav R K Soni Pankaj Jain Namit Modi D S Tadhiyal
Agenda
Market Background B2B VS B2C Vision Venture Capital Protagonists Idea generation timeismoney.com Building timeismoney.com Expanded Concept
Why TISM is an Entrepreneurial case? Strategy Market Correction Fall out Amendments in strategy 29 June, 2000 Need of the Hour Alternatives
Market Background
Boom phase
The dot-com bubble covering roughly
Burst phase
1995 2000 with a climax on March 10, 2000 (with the NASDAQ peaking at 4963.03 in March 24 and closing at 3321.29 on April14) during which stock markets in industrialized nations saw their equity value rise rapidly from growth
NASDAQ Composite index peaked at 5,048 in March 2000, reflecting the high point of the dotcom bubble.
in the more recent Internet sector and related fields.
B2B VS B2C
B2C=Business-to-Consumer Market = businesses sell products and services to consumers for household or personal use B2B=Business-to-Business Market= businesses sell products and services to other businesses for use in their daily operations or for making other products and services The B2B market is 5X as large as the B2C market in the USA. (source - iweb.tntech.edu) B2B Model is more Robust, Reliable, Stable and Easily Attainable
Vision Venture Capital
Founded in 1999 in Toronto, Canada. Focused on Encouraging and Developing youth Entrepreneurship. It provided not only money but also an expert advice to new startups. In March 2000, VVC Merged with an E-Commerce Venture Capital. Investor VVC
Raised $14 million in an IPO, Second Round financing, $250,000 to $500,000 for seed financing
Investor
Investor
Investor
E-Commerce
More Experienced Financiers
Total Assets $40 million $5 million cash
Investment
Timeismoney.com
Investment
Investment
Investment
Protagonists
Tao Chen and Len Kofman, students of university of Toronto. They started the software development company named CODEX CONSULTING in 1999. They produced a functional software prototype which generated a mutual fund portfolio for an investor.
Idea Generation
While operating at Codex Consulting chen and Kofman needed a legal advice. They required only 2 minutes from the lawyer for which they had to buy half hour block of the lawyer. Thus this inefficiencies in obtaining professional services envisioned them a business opportunity. On September 1999, timeismoney.com was born
timeismoney.com
Founders Tao Chen and Len Kofman. TISM - an exchange to buy and sell expert advice, operating online and in real time. TISM Would be an open source platform through which buyers and sellers can have face to face interaction using internet. Buyers would be charged only for the time they require from the experts.
Building timeismoney.com
Impressed by entrepreneurial concept of TISM, VVC provided seed money of $250,000 in return for 49% equity position. Apart from this, space in VVCs warehouse in Toronto was also provided. VVC also assigned one of its employees to act as a liaison. Monthly progress review Meetings with VVC officials. VVC expected TISM to start producing revenue within the first year itself.
Expanded Concept
timeismoney.com open free agency commercial website which would provide real time .comversation and .comferences with experts. Timeismoney corporate solutions (TCS) private internet communication tool that would allow organizations to conduct meetings, make announcements and present new products or services to company employees and customers without physically bringing them together.
Why TISM is an Entrepreneurial Case?
Innovative Concept. Converting the idea into a SOLID BUSINESS PROPOSAL - COMMERCIALIZATION. Addressing the needs of the customer. High involvement of Risk. It projected a positive business image in front of Venture Capitalist.
Strategy
First six months focus on timeismoney.com
Teacher
Facilities Free preliminary conversation. Rating system. Search Engine.
Buyer timeismoney .com
Consultant
Facilities Time Tracking Billing Invoicing Securing Transactions
Lawyer
Accountant Tax planner
Strategy
Second half of the Implementation strategy focuses on TCS. There will be 34 full-time staff by the end of a year.
Len Kofman (Chief Lateral Officer) Tao Chen (Chief Tactical Officer)
Gerry (VVC Liaison) Boris (VVC Business Development)
Aliyah (Marketing)
President
Lauren (Customer relations)
Rico (Technical Director)
HR - Sales Vice President (Finance) Vice President (Business Development)
Corporate Client Support
Account Managers
International Management Staff
Programmers
Strategy
Promotion
First major exposure of timeismoney.com through PR campaign. Online commercials , direct email marketing, Flash teasers. TCS will also have Wide PR coverage but in the second half of the year. Canadian Market coverage through print publications, radio etc. Print ad & billboard campaign in US.
Strategy
Marketing
Initially penetrate the Canadian Market. In the second half of the year coverage of US Market. Then at last Leveraging VVCs China.com partnership for full Coverage of Asian Market.
Market Correction Fall-out
DotCom Bubble Burst prompted VVC to reassess its investments.
Thus TISM needed to be redirected to B2B Model. Switching over to ASP would fetch TISM an additional loan of $240,000.
Amendments in Strategy
Rebuilding of the existing software within the month. In-House development of the software due to high outsourcing cost. Hiring of a programmer to launch the mini version of software by six weeks with regular update in every 3-4 weeks until the stable version is launched.
June 29, 2000
TISM was unable to rewrite the code within the stipulated time.
From Past 10 months TISM has not made any progress.
Thus VVC threatened to re-evaluate their position with TISM.
NEED OF THE HOUR
The 5 Ts
Team Team effort. Timing Timing is everything. Theme Working Sector. Terrain Size and Growth of Market Technology Potential barrier to entry.
NEED OF THE HOUR
The 4Es
Energy Top performers need high energy. Energize Ability to energize others. Execute Ability to deliver Desired results Edge Make difficult Decisions.
All the 4Es and 4Ts should be combined with 1p PASSION.
Alternatives
Look forward to some other Investors.
Long process and Challenging. Number of Investors available is less.
Move on with timeismoney.com with B2C model while developing the B2B model.
Software has already been developed for B2C Model Web domain has been acquired.
Look into for hiring of more software developers.
Speed up the coding process. Fully developed version can be launched directly.
THANK YOU
