wommp

I hope everyone is enjoying the summer and taking time to celebrate it with friends and family. wommp has had an interesting year and I’d like to share it with you.

We spent May and June analyzing the business to determine our next steps. To recall, we were successful in raising a friends and family round in the fall of 2008, which allowed us to pursue a beta launch. We designed the platform and I moved to the location chosen for the launch, Kingston, Ontario, to pursue community relations and gather support and feedback from students at Queen’s University and the neighbouring restaurants and nightclubs.

Since fall 2008 the team has evolved. We opened our doors to several students, who started working on the marketing, public relations and logistics of the launch. We were also extremely lucky to welcome to our Board of Advisors another great mentor, Queen’s Professor and Marketing guru Ken Wong, who in addition to our current team of advisors, proved to be a highly valuable resource. And sadly we said goodbye to our Software Engineer, Tyler, and used the winter as an opportunity to fill his position; due to the limited resources and competitive marketplace, it took several months to find someone we who could work with us to continue building the platform we had been developing.

The economic downturn brought an interesting challenge. Youth wanted to live the lifestyle they were accustomed to living, but were receiving less financial aid from their parents and other resources. We reviewed our product offering and responded to the demand by concentrating our focus to help students “socialize on a budget.” The result was a simpler product: maximize the spending power of youth by helping businesses cater to their needs and simultaneously increase their revenues.

As we continued building the beta product, the landscape was rapidly changing. Mobile entered the market. We had acknowledged the potential of mobile when we started designing, but we had disregarded it because few students had access to smart phones and the development costs were high. Yet despite our analysis, mobile became king. When we recognized this trend, it was obvious that unless wommp could be accessible seamlessly via mobile platforms in addition to the web platform, we would be unaccessible to our target market via their preferred method of communication, leaving a huge opportunity for a competitor to enter the market and dominate.

We allocated our resources before this change in the market came to light. Thus, we do not have the means to invest in a mobile platform, or adjust our current software design to the continually changing demands of the market. These unforeseen costs have led to the difficult decision to refrain from the beta launch until we have the resources to do it successfully.

Reflecting over the last two years, we predicted it would take $1.0M CDN to finance wommp for the first three years, until we could reach positive cash flow and generate a profit. However, after a year financing the business, although we came close, we were unable to close a deal. It was at this point that we decided to scale down the product and with advice from several industry experts, raise a friends and family round to finance a beta product to prove our model. This shift was a great success as it allowed us to design wommp and continue to move forward. However, the beta launch is presenting us financial requirements that we will not be able to meet.

I have been working on wommp intensively for two years. Although the product has evolved, as has the team and the landscape, the one constant has been my passion for wommp. wommp improves our community at a global level by working at a local level to connect youth and businesses; we encourage businesses to build products and services for youth that will benefit future generations. Youth benefit from the efficient resource allocation, which is more sustainable as it reduces waste, and makes living more enjoyable and accessible to everyone, as it reduced noise in the market.

I have invested everything I have into wommp, both emotionally and financially, living at home to lower expenses and working at restaurants to support our negative cash flow. I have learned what it takes to bootstrap a company, and although we are close, I have the honest realization that unless we raise the original investment we will have to close our doors. I am looking at new investment possibilities, but acknowledging the last two years and the economic downturn, it is unlikely that we will meet our goal.

I want to let everyone who has been a part of this journey know what lies ahead. It is a result of your support, kindness and mentorship that has helped us reach this stage. Although we are at a different place than we intended, life is about the journey, not the destination. Through wommp we have challenged industry standards and created a brand that strives for a better place. Our efforts have been well spent and have paved the way for many successful companies. I am proud to have been part of such a wonderful and talented group, and I know the energy of our creations will continue.

And finally, with all my heart, I want to thank and acknowledge our investors, who not only believed in me but gave me the chance to pursue my dreams. Not everyone is that lucky.

I will keep you updated with our blog on any progress. In the mean time, I am happy to discuss our current situation or answer any questions at your earliest convenience. I can be reached via email at alexandra.skey@gmail.com or by telephone at 250.896.3564.


Best of luck on your adventures!
 

Alexandra Skey