ConnectUpz

We help niche businesses to become part of an ecosystem application to:
1) Get their customers to come back.
2) Reach out to new customers around them.
3) Promote collaboration with other businesses or solutions.

Pre-revenue with some proof of revenue from early adopters.

There are 90 million facebook businesses pages with over 60 million operated by niche businesses. Most of these business pages are created to build online presence with less than 100 followers and little to no updates. Only 25% of facebook pages are active advertisers.

70% of small businesses are niche businesses (non F&B or Beauty) can't list on e-commerce platforms and they still face these issues:

1. How to get their customers to come back ?
2. How to reach out to new customers around them ?
3. How to collaborate with other businesses or solutions ?

We help these niche businesses become part of a ecosystem app to capture their customer database, promote within a geo-fenced ecosystem and connect with their customers and collaborators.

Competitors - Custom loyalty app developers that create applications for niche businesses that can afford it.

Competitors - Local business associations & business networking groups that have very small adoption rates in any country.

Competitors - Discount & Cashback platforms that are more bargain hunter centric, impose huge discount requirements to get featured and don't share customer data, since it’s a marketplace and not a database platform.

I and my co-founder have over 30 years’ experience in the retail sector as senior management and working with over 100 micro retailers. We have seen what makes small businesses resistant to changes or adoption and we have learnt how to address the mind-set of the small business owner.

Revenue stream from membership + referral fee + advertising

We estimate that we will achieve over $300M in revenue by 2025.

Freemium conversion membership model.

1. Start for free.
2. Promote their business with the geo-fenced ecosystem app.
3. Connect business needs with localized ecosystem partners.
4. Merchants upgrade to one of the paid plans to unlock features or to enjoy membership benefits.
5. Reseller partners to onboard and convert more merchants to paid.

Growing the team to develop the platform further, speed up onboarding process, and build the platform attractiveness to at least 50% conversion from free to paid.

$750,000 USD for 20 ~ 25% of the company.

We fear - Facebook or Google the most, since we would be more aligned with Facebook Business Pages or Google My Business. However since they are not focused on becoming a CRM tool or Business Connector, we assume that if we do become big enough for them to notice, they might offer to buy ConnectUpz instead. Since the merchant data and signup funnels, we use is from Facebook & Google.

We are in the Alibaba Cloud - SUSS Entrepreneurship Programme.