Bringing people together, one group at a time. By: Praneeth Denduluri, Shashank Bhargava, Praveen Prabhu

COMPANY PURPOSE  Establish a group centered collaboration platform that will make the art of collaborating with existing groups of people more engaging and effective.  We initially would like to spread this product around colleges and educational institutions to establish traction.  We have hopes of expanding our barriers to other types of groups in the future; such as study groups, relatives, or even board members of a nonprofit.

PROBLEM  Effective group collaboration on popular social sites such as Facebook and Twitter are heavily distracting and ineffective because of the loud noise and multitude of focuses these sites have.  As founders, we personally experienced a hard time collaborating with our groups on Facebook as very little group activity took place which led to uncertainty when important days came around.  This problem is currently addressed in multiple ways such as Facebook, Google groups and Yahoo Groups.  Collaboration over such noisy sites is difficult and our solution removes that and focuses on bringing people together.

SOLUTION  We feel we will offer a new innovative way for groups to collaborate as it will incorporate many exciting features to promote group collaboration.  With our vision, we feel we are offering a more engaging experience than and a less distracting one than a prominent social networking site.  We are confident in the future that we can attract all types of groups ranging from a project team at a company to a local hangout group.

SOLUTION, CONT.  Right now, we just have a visual prototype outlining what we want to do.  Have not started making the product yet, but have garnered heavy interest from a renowned tech. consulting firm named Sphere Inc.  In order to develop this product, we need money to pay the developers.

WHY NOW?  Over the past decade or so, most sites related to us have focused on the personal social networking experience.  All current solutions include options to use group collaboration, but don’t emphasize it well enough.  Now would be the best time to make this so it can add that group social element to the social networking marketplace.  As a general time period outline of social networking, we would spark a new trend. From personal  group.

MARKET SIZE  Initially, we want to target colleges and related educational institutions.  A respectable market at first because group collaboration is heavily relied on in college and education in general. (Clubs, intramural activities, teacher-student workshops, etc)  As stated before, we are confident we can expand our market size after we can some traction with our target market.

COMPETITION  Our competitors: Facebook groups, Meetup groups, Google & Yahoo Groups, .  Competitive advantages over Facebook groups: Features focused on sparking group collaboration, less distracting platform for groups to collaborate.  Over Meetup: Not meeting unknown people, simpler interface  Over Google & Yahoo: More engaging experience, more features  Over More engaging, more social related features  Unlike Facebook groups, Meetup, Google groups, or , we provide tools to increase collaboration and simplify management of existing groups and aggregates. We strive to do this by incorporating features that spark group discussion, interaction, and organization. Our long term vision is to expand and get every type of group to use this product.

PRODUCT  Right now we are focused on the Minimal Viable Product, but once we release and interpret customer behavior, we can make necessary updates and changes.  Development roadmap: In general, we want to continue making this easier to use and more engaging. Maybe incorporate more group related features along the way.  If you would like to see our visual design, please contact us at

BUSINESS MODEL  Revenue Model: Either freemium or Ad model, we are unsure. We hope to clear our uncertainty through your professional experience and mentorship.  Pricing: For now, free. Most other social network related sites are free, so we want to follow that same trend.  Average account size/Lifetime value: Although we don’t have specific numbers to work with, we believe we will have a high retention rate and a high lifetime value in our customers. We think we can establish a high volume of users. Hopefully, soon through some mentorship, we can figure out actual statistical values.  Sales/distribution model: Visiting local YMCA’s, word of mouth, crowdfunding, Facebook and Twitter pages, outreaching.  Customer/Pipeline List: College/educational groups at first and then expansion through marketing techniques.

DONATIONS  We believe we have a great vision and that our company can be worth a lot if we take the right steps, but we will need money to progress.  Help a team of incoming college students achieve their vision by donating some money to our crowdfunding campaign. Every little bit helps!  We will reward our donators by embracing them on our website thanking them, and potentially reward even more!  If you are unable to donate, please do try to help us spread the word by telling some of your family and friends.  Please like us on Facebook at facebook.com/pariter1  Thank you!