newsletterseptember 2008

introduction

With Wall Street reeling under the current spate of giant corporate casualties, stock prices continue to plummet and panicked investorsdon’t know where to turn. As Lehman Bros filed for the largest bankruptcy in American history, the Dow Jones fell on 15 September by504 points (4. 41%) – the worst day on Wall Street in seven years, according to CNNMoney. com. Following hard on the back of otherrecent major failures, including Bear Sterns, Indie Mac, Fannie May and Freddie Mac, the people that are smarting the most are likely

to be – as always – the man in the street.While news of the stockmarket meltdown filtered through the media, the Jemstep team was quietly working hard at finalising, ironically,its equities, mutual funds and other financial product offerings. Now more than ever, people need an application that willcomprehensively and objectively guide them through the financial maelstrom that has besieged global markets. They need anapplication that, whilst being super-intelligent and sophisticated in its back-engine processes, enables them to easily understand andidentify which products suit their circumstances, and why. They need to be able to validate what they read and hear about from third-

party sources. They need reliable and trusted tools that will enable them to make the right decisions about important issues – issuesthat have a lasting impact on their lives and prosperity.

In short, they need Jemstep, now more than ever.

palo alto

The set-up of our business in the USA will gain significant momentum in the coming weeks when our Executive VP, Kevin Cimring,relocates to Palo Alto with his family at the end of next month to firmly entrench Jemstep’s headquarters in Silicon Valley. Kevin’sdecision to move with his family to the Valley underscores the belief we all have in Jemstep and the commitment of our team to makeJemstep a success.A few short months ago, none of us here at Jemstep knew much about Palo Alto, or Silicon Valley for that matter. Fast forward to thepresent, and we have learned that Palo Alto, which is approximately 30 minutes drive from San Francisco (depending on traffic), is

home to Stanford University and forms the central point of Silicon Valley: it is flanked to the West by Menlo Park, Redwood City andSan Mateo; and to the East by Los Altos, Mountainview and San Jose.Silicon Valley, we have learned, is more than an industrial hub of PC manufacturers – it’s the world’s epicentre of start-up companies,

especially those focused on the Internet and related technologies. This will be Jemstep’s future home and the perfect launch-pad for

our unique Internet offering.And Kevin can barely contain his excitement at being part of the buzz, innovation and entrepreneurial spirit that is synonymous with theregion. Having become quite an expert on the new posse of successful Web 2. 0 start-ups, Kevin believes that – contrary to worldwidefinancial gloom – Silicon Valley is experiencing a bit of a tech-bubble that he believes will continue for the next several years. Some ofthe more successful start-ups are attracting stunning valuations which have effortlessly shrugged off the depressing sentiment

surrounding other sectors and markets. This, combined with the real value-proposition that Jemstep offers its users, continues toenthuse and motivate the entire team as we move closer towards Jemstep’s beta launch.I take this opportunity of wishing Kevin and his family much happiness, success and prosperity as they embark on this hugely excitingadventure. I have no doubt they will carry the Jemstep flag high and be eloquent evangelists of the Jemstep vision.

upcoming US trip

Prior to Kevin’s relocation, we are squeezing in one more trip to the USA (bringing our total to five US trips this year), with the importantobjective of appointing an executive in charge of our sales and marketing. Web 2. 0 companies carry the (dubious) hallmark oflaunching their website, gaining traction and only then devising ways of earning revenue. I am not afraid to say that, when it comes torevenue and monetisation strategies, we are still old school and are focusing on our revenue models upfront.After an intense search led by our San Francisco recruitment agency, we have narrowed our list of potential candidates down to fivetop-calibre executives. We will be interviewing them during the course of the trip and will be bedding down a firm monetisation strategyin consultation with our appointee well ahead of beta launch.

alpha and beta versions

Alpha

Superb progress is being made on our alpha version, in terms of both our back-end processing through to our user-interface. MatthewRennie, our head of technology, is walking around the offices with a broad smile after making several enhancements that have greatlyimproved the speed and efficiency of the ranking engine. On the front-end, our goal is to have a practical and user-friendly interfacewhich will allow alpha-users to easily test some of Jemstep’s core features, and we believe we have achieved this with the alpha designwhich is now complete.We will be taking the opportunity to demo our alpha version to various US experts during our forthcoming trip so as to get feedback onthe user experience and general features of the site. Their comments, together with those of our legal counsel and branding agency,will be collated and applied to the site before the public release of our beta.

Beta

Once we have received feedback and comments on the alpha version over the next few weeks as mentioned above - and added someadditional functions - we will be ready to publicly launch our beta version. The exact timing of the launch is therefore dependant on how

quickly we receive the various feedback and comments, and incorporate them into the application.

interact with us

Feedback

In early October our alpha version will be privately available to select users for feedback and comment. Users with access will be