1. OPPORTUNITY ANALYSIS REPORT
prepared for Stanford University’s Venture Lab
Technology Entrepreneurship Program
by Rick Carlile – E. Joël Cicéron– Peter Rankin
November 20, 2012
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2. our team
Rick Carlile
BA in Commercial Music, MA (Hons.) in Mental Philosophy
Originally from Scotland, Rick spends most of his time in the Asia-
Pacific region, living in the hills of tropical Taiwan. His guiding principle
is that advanced technology and evolving attitudes now allow any
enterprising individual to possess the choice, mobility, lifestyle and
level of personal freedom previously available only to the rich and famous.
With over a decade's experience in the worldwide IT industry, Rick is currently GM of
globally-distributed bespoke web development house Creadyne Developments, LLC
(www.creadyne.com). He has worked with numerous multinational corporations and tech
startups, including Interspire (www.interspire.com), BigCommerce
(www.bigcommerce.com), ZyXEL Communications Corp. (www.zyxel.com), Hitron
Technologies (www.hitron.com.tw) and Reach Investor Solutions
(www.reachinvestorsolutions.com).
Rick has at various times in the past worked as a nightclub bouncer and network engineer in
Scotland, and as a language teacher, technical writer, journalist and martial arts instructor
in Asia.
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3. our team
Peter Rankin
Diploma in ICT (Information Communication Technology)
Peter is Aegora's development lead and all-round tech maven; he's
also Senior Technologist at Creadyne Developments, LLC.
Peter started his corporate career at the age of 21 when he moved to Asia and joined
ZyXEL Communications Corp. as a technical specialist. He would later move onto
networking giant D-Link (www.dlink.com) in 2008 in a similar role.
Peter then joined Instek Digital (www.instekdigital.com), a provider of IP video security
solutions, as a technical marketing specialist and manager where he was in a position
to innovate a number of cutting-edge techniques and increase sales dramatically.
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4. our team
E. Joël Cicéron,
MBA, MS E.E., ACCA
Born in Martinique (French West Indies), educated in Europe
(Paris, London), Joël has been leaving and working in Asia
(Shenzhen, Beijing, Taipei) for the past 18 years.
Joël is a Senior General Manager with solid business management acumen: setting up
/ turning around operations; conducting merger & acquisition, disposing of
operations, managing organic growth; managing P&L; effective governance. He is also
board member; advisory board member (Toro NFC technology – G2J.COM video
conferencing).
Joël spent most of its international career with 2 world leading utilities companies:
Areva (power) and Veolia (water).
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5. problems with online marketplaces?
(1) signal-to-noise ratio problem
(2) limited trust, functionality, usability,
(3) information overload and communication
(4) “race to the bottom” in terms of cost and quality
(5) limited collaboration
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6. our solution
a multisided platform
whose genetic characteristics derive from two
parent models:
- the professional network (LinkedIn); and
- the freelance marketplace (oDesk).
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7. customer segments
(1) Networkers establish a promotional
platform and network with other users;
(2) Buyers locate other users from whom they
wish to purchase services related to their
professional activities or other projects;
(3) Sellers locate other users to whom they
wish to sell their professional services.
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8. customer development results
• overwhelmingly positive results
• direct feedback: twenty (20) individuals
• analytical feedback: eighty (18) users
• discussion with representatives of 2 sectors
of our target market:
– technology first-adopters
– existing freelancers
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9. served available market
• based on demographics of LinkedIn:
– 120musers x 56% (users in relevant industries)= 68m (high)
• based on existing online marketplaces:
– Freelancer+oDesk+Elance+wWorker = 5m (low)
5m to 68m users
ARPU = US$1.73 per month
US$104M to US$1,412M
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10. conclusion
- validation of our essential hypotheses
- demonstration to our satisfaction that Aegora has a fertile
ground of users with significant pain points, which we can
solve profitably
- need to redouble our customer development and user
acquisition efforts
- need to perform the next design and development push,
based on the findings of those efforts, that will allow us to
meet our constituents’ needs and fill in some holes in
execution
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