The document discusses problems faced by both event hosts and guests. For hosts, it is difficult to efficiently check-in attendees, measure event quality, and facilitate ongoing connections between guests. For guests, it can be hard to identify relevant people to meet and maintain connections after the event. The proposed solution is a mobile app that streamlines check-in, provides feedback, and allows guests to easily share contact info and mark favorites to follow up with. This addresses key issues for both groups while also creating monetization opportunities through targeted ads and premium sponsor packages.
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Event Check-in Solution Streamlines Networking
1.
2. The Problem for Event Hosts
Problem 1: The Check-in bottleneck
Ø Several people needed
at the door
Ø Getting attendees
checked-in is very slow
Ø You don’t know who
was actually there!
3. Ø Surveys sent out late,
low response rate
Ø No method of
determining in-demand
guests to invite again
Ø No feedback on
medium term outcomes
(hires, funding,
partnerships)
Problem 2: Measuring and improving the quality of events
The Problem for Event Hosts
4. The Problem for Event Guests
Ø “Guests at a mixer tend
to spend the time
talking to the few other
guests whom they
already know well.” 1
-Paul Ingram,
Columbia Univ.
Ø Difficult to keep track of
everyone you met
Problem 1: Where do I start to look for relevant people?
1. Source: Paul Ingram, “Do People Mix at Mixers?”, 2007
5. Ø Business cards are
antiquated and a pain to
organize
Ø Exchanging email addresses
is cumbersome
Ø If you forget/lose their
contact info, you’re out of
luck
Problem 2: Keeping in touch and staying connected
The Problem for Event Guests
6. One solution for Hosts and Guests
+
• Have guests quickly check-in
via mobile web solution or
native app
• Measure attendance and
guest engagement in real time
• Assess quality of events
through light in-app surveys
• New channel for sponsor ads
Hosts
• See list of all attendees and
view suggested connections
• Quickly mark “favorites” for
follow-up
• Seamlessly share contact info
and connect on LinkedIn to
solidify connection
Guests
7. Market Size (U.S.)
Total Addressable Market
70mm guests at 2.3mm events1
30mm students at 200k college events2
100mm annual event guests
2.5mm annual events
1. Source: Eventbrite “2012 year in review” and Meetup “RSVP count”. Assume average 30 guests/event
2. Data provided by Columbia, assume 1,000 U.S. institutions with over 5k students
Share of the Market within 1.5 Years
1.0mm guests
0.5mm students at college events
1.5mm annual event guests
40,000 annual events
8. Revenue Streams – Freemium Model
• Ads delivered directly to user as
banners or interstitials
• Served through ad-network on a
CPM basis
• Ads specifically targeted to type of
event (industry, demographic etc.)
Free Ad-Supported
• Targeted ads from event
sponsors directly to smartphone
• Suggested guests based on
event “popularity” and expertise
• Premium stats based on event
outcomes (hires, partnerships)
Premium Host Package
Expected Revenue After 1.5 Years
• Assume eCPM of $1.001
• 1.5mm annual users
Ad Revenue: $1.5mm
1. Source: MoPub “Mobile Advertising: Marketplace Report 2012”
• $100 fee/event, paid by sponsors
• 5,000 annual events w/ sponsors
Premium Revenue: $500k
Total Revenue: $2.0mm
9. Customer Acquisition & Use of Proceeds
Seeking $50,000 convertible note to fine tune app and scale business
• Develop small sales team to monitor event management sites and
reach out to event organizers
• Travel to major urban areas to meet with large event organizers,
sponsors, and university career management centers
• Once product/market fit has been solidified, will seek Series A
funding
10. Competition
Event Hosting Services
• Meetup, Eventbrite
Casual Location-Based Networking
• Highlight, Sonar, banjo
Social Networking at Conferences
• Lanyrd, Shhmooze
Social Networking at Conferences + Some Hosting Features
• Presdo, Bizzabo, OleaPark
How is ntroduce.me better?
• No mobile app download required => frictionless check-in
• Feature set provides more value for hosts and sponsors
• Use as “check-in” tool results in 100% guest participation
• Works well with shorter events, not just conferences
11. Team
Nick Fisher, MBA
Columbia University
Co-Founder
Business Development
Product Marketing & Mgmt
Former Director of
B2B software &
analytics provider
Mobile product
management and
sales experience
Vince Crossley, MBA
Columbia University
Co-Founder
Front-end lead
Design
Co-Founder of
OffMetro.com
Product management
experience at IAC
and Amazon (Kindle)
Priyank Singhal, MS
Columbia University
Co-Founder
Back-end lead
Award winning developer
Founder and Lead
Developer of
CollegeShack and
ShoutStreet
Expertise in HTML5
13. Who have we talked to?
Dozens of students
Over 30 people at the NYC TechCrunch Meetup
Interviews with Columbia Professors Paul Ingram & Michael Morris
Greg Calkins at Xconomy – organizes events and secures sponsors
The organizer of the NYC Startup Job Fair
Head of the Career Management Center at Columbia Business School
Assistant Director of recruiting at Columbia University
Our Mentor, Shari Ford, who has ample experience with event hosting
14. Interesting Discoveries
The organizer of the NYC Startup Job Fair
• Demonstrating value to event sponsors is key
• Would love to know long-term outcomes of connections made
Columbia recruiting heads
• Want to know attendance in real-time so they don’t violate fire code
• Sometimes don’t take attendance at all! (but they know they should)
Paul Ingram and Michael Morris
• Explicit matching doesn’t work well. Don’t tell people why they are
matched
• Most people need a “push” to meet strangers
Guests at large events
• Everyone happy to share their LinkedIn profiles
• In-demand guests not interested in being bombarded with messages