The first-ever crowdsourced corporation that is developed, run, and principally owned by the community is being formed by Antilope, LLC, the parent company of First Rate Crowd. The design democratizes the workplace and reduces Economic and Income Inequality through collaborative actions with its workers; this is an extremely motivational model for all participants.
Our company is developing a novel web platform that utilizes the "wisdom of the crowd" to create a new form of corporation for its community members, a corporation that ultimately will become their own. It is a platform desiring a more democratic workplace in which to launch their own community projects and reduce the deleterious effects of income inequality. The overall result is vibrant cooperative venture more efficient and effective at producing economic returns than is a traditional corporate structure while serving the needs of the community and society.
First Rate Crowd utilizes its advanced methodology to fundamentally turn the platform ownership and control over to the community. This gradual process for the company's navigation is anchored with both internal and external controls. The crowds will eventually be instrumental in the development of the corporation itself as it will be run and principally owned by them. The community will have its own company, one crowdsourced by the community, for the community, with its own interests in mind.
Once successful, a final goal of the project is to apply for an IPO, (Initial Public Offering) to bring the crowdsourced community venture to Wall Street as a publically traded corporation. This will be a new type of corporation listening to the will and voice of its members and not just marching to the drum of a traditional self-serving corporation.
How We Operate
A) Ratings
First Rate Crowd starts out as a ratings company. Our website incorporates its own Discussion and Rating software package as a major mechanism for creating our content. Integrated within this software package is the wherewithal to give our crowd members the ability to discuss and rate all aspects of any subject material across multiple dimensions, be it a company, a person, research or an idea. When published, this Formal Content and its associated rating will become the de facto standard for ratings within our crowd Communities and the public at large.
B) Our Community platform
We intend to create the first independent platform for the crowdsourcing community which is developed and sustained by the principle of, " The wisdom of the crowd", such that the community will ultimately take over the majority of the control and operation of the enterprise along with its associated rewards. This research based concept speaks of the ability for a large community to have more insight and power than if just a few experts were involved. This produces better outcomes by having a more collaborative stance for our members. Allowing the input of our many members provides us the betterment of the enterprise for all. Towards this end, we are a for-profit based business community which does good in the world by making a positive difference in the lives of others.
Individuals in the crowdsourcing community volunteer to help and fund other people's ideas on other people's platforms because they believe in the product or service asking for assistance. They believe the world would be a better place if these products or services exist. To many of these individuals, a more desirable crowd project would allow them a greater say and involvement in the platform itself. Our plan creates such a platform. It is a model for a new form of corporate control in a burgeoning and developing field. Such a model allows for the eventual transfer in a phased and controlled manner of the major share of control of the business and its rewards to the community by their participation.
Everyone is passionate about something and likes to share their interest with others. Our site starts out with crowds based upon traditional sources with everything from books and computers to politics and sports. We expect to quickly grow this number into the hundreds and then eventually thousands of crowds because our members are motivated to run their own platform. The more they participate, the faster the platform is turned over to them.
Our site is established for like-minded individuals who believe the world can be a better place through the process of crowdsourcing and promoting the values of cooperative action in a more democratic fashion. We are pleased to be the host company specifically designed to provide our crowdsourcing community unprecedented means to do good in the world by promoting crowdsourcing as the single most important function upon our site. We are equally proud to sponsor a new form of democratically controlled corporate structure to reduce local and global economic inequality.
Our Target Market Opportunities
A) Those who Crowdsource and Crowdfund.
"The Crowdfunding Industry Report," from Massolutions 2015 CF states; "We are forecasting $34.4 BN will be raised via Crowdfunding platforms in 2015, representing 112% annual growth over 2014." This is obviously explosive growth; they predict North America will remain the largest market in 2015.
B) Those who are against economic and income inequality.
Harnessing the intense frustration and power of individuals to reduce economic and income inequality represents a massive social market opportunity. Wikipedia states that economic inequality in the United States, (both income inequality and wealth inequality) has been growing significantly in the past few decades.
C) Those Individuals looking for Ratings.
The rating service industry, including Moody's, Consumer Report, and Angie's List, has experienced phenomenal growth as the demand for clear and accurate information continues to grow. The need for these services in our data-driven world continues to grow with many of these Rating Services setting the standards for their industries.
How we generate our revenue
A) Advertisements
Our members are aware the best ways to support our mission is to advertise with us or sell advertisements on our site to outside individuals and companies. These sales dollars are used as financial rewards for our members' participation, and will be used to grow the company. This is motivational for our members because the more advertisement revenue they generate, the sooner the community can acquire the platform.
Our advertisements are targeted and integrated with the many and various crowds upon our site. Each specific crowd allows for many advertisements to be focused in close proximity to the written content they produce regarding ratings. For example, our computer crowd will have advertisements related to their industry and our fashion crowds will have targeted advertisements in a similar manner.
To further drive these advertisement revenues, we have established a separate advertisement sales force for those individuals who do not necessarily believe in the goals of our site, but just want to earn an income for themselves. We have assets allocated to promote these positions on other sites in addition to utilizing our own internal sales force.
B) Donations
We expect donations from both crowdsourcing individuals and those promoting the reduction of economic and income inequality in support of our movement. However, only advertisement revenue is figured into our financial statements as we have no way to accurately forecast the size of these donations.
Our Management Team
Shameem Heetun, is a Fulbright Scholar with degrees in Mechanical Engineering, Accounting, an MBA, and a Doctor of Business Administration in Strategic Management. She will take the lead role in developing the project. She is the principal and CEO of Antilope LLC, the parent company for First Rate Crowd. Her participation in business spans four Continents, bringing an international and global perspective to the project's development.
Steven Riznyk, Esq, and San Diego BizLaw are business-oriented lawyers who run for-profit and non-profit corporations, as well as offering true business consulting services; they are uniquely qualified to understand what we are trying to achieve and how to execute on that model. They have been operating successfully for 27 years, serving one-man companies, as well as multinationals and Fortune 500 presidents.
Sean Connelly is our Enterprise Software Developer. He brings with him 20 years’ experience in software development and has developed enterprise software for industries as diverse as: mortgage finance, smart water irrigation, air medical transport, and even Cal-Trans FasTrak express lanes.
Our Financial Agreements with the Community ("Our own company is the goal.")
A standard practice used on many crowdsourcing platforms is an open challenge as motivation for the community. Examples of successful companies utilizing a goal to motivate their communities would be Kickstarter, Indigogo, and GoFundMe. In our company, the ownership and control of the company by the community is the goal; this is extremely motivational.
Our goal-based incentive system is predicated upon the fact the community can receive an additional 1% of the net revenue profits as cash rewards each time the number of active members and gross advertisement sales is doubled (after a starting threshold of 100 active members, and each time the sales revenue is doubled from a starting threshold of $2,500 per month in gross advertisement sales). Both criteria must be met; we call this our Doubling Number Formula.
If the community can meet this doubling number ten times on future bimonthly tests, the community will receive cumulatively 10% more of the net profit revenue and platform growth as their initial reward. Once this initial challenge is met, the community will receive operational rights to the corporation and platform with an 85% share of the net revenue profits as a final position. This goal is accomplished by having the community vote in a corporate operator to represent them.
The corporate operator will enter into a contractual operating agreement with the original LLC management to run the corporation and platform. Firm, yet flexible control guidelines will be in place. These include the original LLC management having access to weekly financial data and regular independent accounting reviews every 6 months. The agreement will be enforced by having the original LLC management always maintaining rights to take control of the organization should there be any egregious actions and through arbitration or injunctive relief against the corporate operator if necessary to protect the community's venture.
Financial Modeling
At the end of the goal challenge, we expect a full membership of 1,024,000 individuals earning $2,560,000 in gross monthly advertisement sales revenue. Once this threshold is accomplished, the community will have received a cumulative total of 10% more towards the net revenue profits of the enterprise in the form of cash rewards and platform growth. At this point the community will have won the goal and thereafter take the reins of control to operate the company; this is projected to occur at the end of the second year from the launch of our computer software. Additionally, the community will at this point receive their full 85% share of net revenue profits. The remaining 15% share of the net revenue profits will then be divided equally between the LLC and the national advertisement campaign for the lifetime of the project.
Based upon realistic and conservative assumptions about the number of crowds to be grown upon the platform, the number of members, the members’ degree of participation, and anticipated ad revenue, we can generate an accurate model of how the overall venture will perform. The model's projections are pragmatic and represent a down-to-earth representation indicating overall achievability is in line with the stated financial estimates.
Based upon assumptions of growth and income, the community is projected to have the following profits in their discretionary platform to work with when they take control of the company projected to occur at the 2-year mark. These figures represent 50% locked into platform growth for use by the community Operator and the remaining 50% to be voted upon and used by the community members themselves.
Community Platform Profits = Profits Locked/Platform Growth + Profits For community usage
2nd year Total = $459,294 | $229,647 | $229,647 |
3rd year Total = $3,365,755 | $1,682,878 | $1,682,878 |
4th year Total = $7,062,864 | $3,531,432 | $3,531,432 |
5th year Total = $12,193,354 | $6,096,677 | $6,096,677 |
6th year Total = $16,671,926 | $8,335,963 | $8,335,963 |
7th year Total = $21,455,798 | $10,727,899 | $10,727,899 |
8th year Total = $22,957,704 | $11,478,852 | $11,478,852 |
Finally, it is projected in year eight of the venture, nearly $23 million will be available during that year alone, just for member cash rewards; additionally, nearly $23 million will also be available to divide between growing the community platform or for member discretionary use. Over this approximate eight-year period, the community will have a cumulative $166 million at its disposal.
With these profits, a great many exciting and innovative projects can be accomplished for the betterment of the world by the community.
The Keys to our Success.
Our Crowdsourcing Community will ultimately operate their own Crowdsourcing company and ratings platform upon which they run projects. The more members participate, the greater percentage of the company it owns until, for all intent and purposes, it runs its own company. It is the goal they will have achieved for themselves. This level of involvement is extremely motivational for the members and a key to success; it ensures a large and active number of participants in the drive to reduce income inequality. Finally the community will have its own crowdsourced company, one offering the participating members the opportunity to have the freedom to change economic outcomes on a world stage while establishing a sizable profit for itself. All of this will be accomplished by helping others and doing good in the world.
The ability to monetize the platform through the use of focused advertisements around the strength of those who crowdsource and the power of individuals who wish to democratize the traditional corporate structure is another key to the success of the venture. Our timing is fortuitous as crowdsourcing is growing at an astounding rate, while simultaneously movements are gathering interest and momentum in the direction of ending income inequality.
These growing market segments, combined with a strong management team and a sophisticated business plan, firmly point in the direction of a successful and lucrative community business venture. Most importantly, society as a whole will benefit in direct proportion to our success.