Shareworks - Business Plan Redefining support of project-based education.

Company Product Corporate Website Pilot Website Email Date Research Partner

Shareworks Shareworks Web Platform http://www.shareworks.nl http://shareworks.tudelft.nl info@shareworks.nl 9 October 2012 Delft University of Technology

Shareworks: the web platform for project-based education.

Executive Summary
Our society and knowledge economy is developing at an increasing pace, mainly driven by regional and global challenges, global competition and enabling technologies. Therefore universities and students have rising needs and expectations in relation to online learning systems. 90% of universities are currently using all-in-one online Learning Management Systems (LMSs), such as Blackboard. However, LMSs are focused on content-based learning (lecture, exams, administration) and for that reason LMSs neglect the dynamic, clustered structure of project-based learning (teamwork, presentations). The results are ineffective course communication, lagging student motivation and a complete lack of project-based knowledge exchange within the campus and with commercial partners. An experimental system named Shareworks Alpha has been developed at the TU Delft to research this problem and to establish a proof-of-principle. Despite of its limitations, the system proved to interest students, teachers and university during multiple project courses with more than 400 users in total. Acquired knowledge will be applied in an entirely new Shareworks platform which will redefine support of projectbased education within universities to improve course organisation, engagement and knowledge valorisation. The proposed Shareworks platform will be the worlds premier learning system focused solely on project-based education. Its infrastructure is from both functional and technical level unique. Todays online learning systems are commonly a walled garden of virtual course environments controlled by course coordinators (figure 1 a). In contrast, on Shareworks the course environment is a dynamic clustering of intertwined virtual environments which reflects project-based education in the real world: A general Course by coordinators, Studios by coaches and Projects by students (figure 1b). All these virtual environments together eventually form a unique campus-wide Knowledge Network. The Shareworks Infrastructure dramatically increases and enriches internal and external knowledge exchange possibilities because contents and activities are contextualized. This means for instance that Project hand-ins arent hidden in some course archive but collected in the Student Projects, thus providing easy overview and access by applicable stakeholders, i.e. a client company.
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Figure 1: Unique infrastructure of Shareworks, compared to contemporary learning systems.

In October 2012, Shareworks applied for a STW Valorization Grant of 25.000 to continue research and development in a cross-faculty collaboration with Industrial Design and Computer Sciences at the TU Delft. A private beta of the new platform will start in September 2013. After a successful beta phase in the Netherlands, the platform will go worldwide and a USoffice will be opened. Shareworks will be a Software-as-a-Service driven by a freemium business model and targeted at innovation-oriented universities. Shareworks for Free allows basic support of project-based courses as a stand-alone environment. Shareworks Premium gives access to advanced tools (i.e. direct feedback within documents, secured video storage) and will open up their unique Knowledge Network. Premium requires a member-based subscription with a fixed pricing model and quantity discount. Shareworks aims to create a new niche in the global growth market of e-learning, projected at some $107 billion in 2015. In 5 years, Shareworks aspires to empower project-based education for 50 of the top 100 universities of technology with a yearly revenues of 17.2 million, a net income of 8.4 million and a bright future.

Concept Business Plan

Contents
Executive Summary ............................................................................................................................................................... 3 Contents ................................................................................................................................................................................ 4 1. Background .................................................................................................................................................................. 6 1.1. 1.2. 2. 3. 4. Growing importance of advanced online learning systems ............................................................................... 6 Growing importance of project-based education .............................................................................................. 6

Problems & opportunities in project-based education................................................................................................ 7 Proof-of-Principle at TU Delft ...................................................................................................................................... 7 Product: Shareworks Platform ..................................................................................................................................... 8 4.1. 4.2. 4.3. 4.4. Student Project Environment ............................................................................................................................. 8 Studio and Course Environments ....................................................................................................................... 8 Knowledge Network ........................................................................................................................................... 9 A Unique Semantic Web Infrastructure ............................................................................................................. 9

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Team .......................................................................................................................................................................... 10 5.1. 5.2. Management Team .......................................................................................................................................... 10 Research Group and Advisory Board................................................................................................................ 10

6. 7.

Competitors, Competitive Advantage & IP ................................................................................................................ 10 Market ....................................................................................................................................................................... 11 7.1. 7.2. Higher Education .............................................................................................................................................. 11 Target Market .................................................................................................................................................. 11

8. 9.

Business Strategy ....................................................................................................................................................... 11 Business Model .......................................................................................................................................................... 12 9.1. SwApp Market .................................................................................................................................................. 12

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Financial Plan ............................................................................................................................................................. 13 Premium Revenues .......................................................................................................................................... 13 Costs during Initial Development Phase........................................................................................................... 13 Pro Forma Cash Flow........................................................................................................................................ 13 Financial Projections ........................................................................................................................................ 14

10.1. 10.2. 10.3. 10.4. 11. 12.

Risk Analysis ...........................................................................................................Fout! Bladwijzer niet gedefinieerd. Planning ..................................................................................................................................................................... 16 Roadmap .......................................................................................................................................................... 16

12.1.

Shareworks: the web platform for project-based education.

Concept Business Plan

1. Background
1.1. Growing importance of advanced online learning systems
The internet is becoming ever more important in our society and thus educators and students increasingly expect advanced online learning systems in education. Visionaries such as Sir Ken Robinson have put education in the epicentre of attention, claiming it is time for transformation to meet the challenges of today and tomorrow. Together with increasingly disproportional costs and challenges in higher education , this has resulted in a new wave of online learning systems such as OpenStudy, OpenCourseWare, Khan Academy . A significant growth of venture capital investments in education technology companies since 2007 (Figure 2) illustrates the rising interest to be part of this transformational wave.
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Figure 2: US Venture Capital Investment in Education-Technology Companies. (National Venture Capital Association)

1.2. Growing importance of project-based education

With lectures and even complete courses slowly going online, universities are questioning what their added value will be 10 or 20 years from now. The Stanford University president predicts that the lecture hall will play a much smaller role in the future: I think we have learned enough about this [online education] to understand that it will be transformative. Its going to change the world, and its going to change the way we think about education. (kurzweilai.net, 20 12) In our increasingly complex and changing society where incredible amounts of knowledge are accessible online, education isnt only about giving students knowledge anymore. Todays complex and fluctuating knowledge economy requires lifelong, contextual and participative learning. With content-based education (acquire knowledge) going online, we foresee that the brick-and-mortar universities will increasingly focus on project-based education (learn to bring knowledge into practice) together with research and industry (Figure 3). The campus is slowly transitioning from a place of lectures and exams to a place where you network, collaborate and work in small groups, increasingly with real clients or researchers involved. This project-based education also reflects contemporary ways of working, it provides a more motivating approach for this generation of students and it fits with the knowledge valorization ambitions of universities.

Figure 3: Differences between project courses and content courses.

Shareworks: the web platform for project-based education.

2. Problems & opportunities in project-based education

As said, the growing needs and expectations of online learning systems has resulted in a wave of innovative applications for higher education. However, they are all focused on content-based education. This is likely due to the smaller amount of project-based courses, the relative ease of providing content-related support on the web and the extrinsic value of educational content. This negligence towards project-based education has a problematic effect on the course level: Courses use tools which are not design for (project-based) education nor fittingly supported by IT departments. Tools that are used (i.e. wikis and weblogs) lack sufficient privacy possibilities: It is often either public or closed. Teachers and students are burdened by lack of a systematic approach or default solution in the organisation. There is no easy access or overview to the (intermediate) results of the student projects because results often get emailed, printed or uploaded into restrictive course systems. These problems often result in poor course communication, lack of privacy-awareness, decreasing student motivation and therefore lower success rates. While project-based courses and online support as a part thereof - should be engaging and inspiring. Lack of proper online support of project-based education is also a missed opportunity, especially for innovationoriented universities. Research indicates that there is a third generation university evolving which has three core functions: education (1 gen.), research (2 gen.) and valorisation (3 gen.). A project-based learning system provides great possibilities to improve the intertwining of these layers from within education. Last but not least, literature indicates that next-generation learning systems will go beyond just supporting existing pedagogy and will allow for new pedagogical methods, such as peer-to-peer feedback before official hand-in.
st nd rd

3. Proof-of-Principle at TU Delft
These problems and opportunities were the motivation of the Shareworks research at the TU Delft faculty Industrial Design Engineering (IDE). The prototype web platform Shareworks Alpha (Figure 4) has been developed to assess during real project courses what benefits and requirements educators and students are looking for in project-based education. Four project courses with about 400 students and teachers in total have used Shareworks from 8 to 16 weeks. Each pilot has been better than the previous one and Shareworks managed to interest students, teachers and faculty. During the Fall of 2012, a contract will be set up with IDE to continue the research and experiments at the faculty. Last but not least, teachers have approached us to request a pilot with Shareworks this Fall, meaning a proof-of-principle is established. Through the feedback, statistics and insights, unique benefits and requirements have been found and the concept has been optimized accordingly . The pilots will continue on Shareworks Alpha for another year. However, the initial Shareworks Alpha prototype has critical limitations and therefore an entirely new system will be developed in parallel.
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Some of the Student Feedback: If you can ever get Dropbox integration to work with it, that would be awesome and a great boost for the usability! --- could it get online for every project? --- I've seen some nice posts of teachers in the elective course of ITD: this is useful to get feedback more continuously and with a more personal touch, while being a lower threshold for anyone (others students, teachers) to help out. --- easy way to share, and a nice reference to refer to. -- maybe create an overview of which projects are linked to which teachers, and to other projects. That would be nice I think.

Figure 4: Screenshot of prototypical Shareworks Alpha Platform at http://shareworks.tudelft.nl.

Concept Business Plan

4. Product: Shareworks Platform

The Shareworks concept: Shareworks is to become a web platform that will redefine support of project-based education for all stakeholders. Course coordinators can turn their project course into an advanced online community to improve course organization, engagement and informal learning. The teachers or coaches can have topic-specific communication with their students and easy overview of the student projects. Students have a secure project environment to easily connect their project with teachers, peer students, external partners such as client companies, or the world. The university has a unique networked ecosystem to improve entrepreneurship and knowledge exchange with research and industry. The Shareworks platform can be divided into four types of virtual environments which allow users to communicate, find and share all types of content in a contextualized setting. Projects, Studios and Courses are the fundamental environments and the connectivity between these environments automatically creates a growing campus-wide Knowledge Network, the fourth environment (Figure 5).

4.1. Student Project Environment

The Student Project is at the center of the Shareworks system with the student or project team in control. Each Project automatically becomes an addition to the students portfolio. It is a media rich environment with blogs, videos , images, notes and documents, depending on the users preferences. This contents can be shared, communicated and discussed with the project team only but also with project followers such as one or more coaches/teachers, course coordinators and valorisation clients. Students have the ability to invite these stakeholders, to customize their page and to make appropriate privacy settings.

Figure 5: Four interactive environments: Project, Studio and Course together creating a Campus Projects Network.

4.2. Studio and Course Environments

The Student Projects are connected to a Course environment and if relevant a Studio environment in between. A Studio is a cluster of Student Projects with the same teacher(s)/coach(es) and often with a similar topic/subject or client. A typical Course has multiple Studios and one Studio has multiple Student Projects. The Course is created, owned and managed by the course coordinator and the Studios by the designated teachers. The Course and Studio are very similar and they have three core functionalities: Owners can share and discuss content with students, post announcements and send hand-in requests to the Student Projects. Secondly, the students can use these environments to share and discuss inspirational or informative content. In a Course the focus is on general course information which is relevant for all, whereas in a Studio more explicit topic material can be shared. Lastly, the Course and Studio serve as a hub to the rich contents in the Projects, thereby making it easy for both educators and students to get fast insights into all the Projects.

Shareworks: the web platform for project-based education.

4.3. Knowledge Network

How many students are working on Sustainable Living at the TU Delft? Perhaps hundreds, but how are we currently enabled to find and connect with them easily? The Knowledge Network can provide a solution to this connecting the dotschallenge because it has unique project-based data from the activities and contents in Student Projects. In this Network, all the Projects are connected to each other through rich data relationships. This allows for smarter searching, browsing and suggesting of Projects that a user could be interested in. This is useful for both students and educators to find expertise, to connect with people of similar interests and to get inspired. The Knowledge Network can fill the gap between education-toresearch, education-to-industry processes and vice versa.

4.4. A Unique Semantic Web Infrastructure

Experience and research with Shareworks Alpha showed it is essential to make the knowledge exchange processes on Shareworks highly versatile, responsive, privacy-aware and accurate. To optimally create and exploit these knowledge exchange processes, the data within Shareworks should be enriched using Semantic Web models/techniques and multiple privacy levels from within the core of the new Shareworks platform. This will be done by the Semantic Web Infrastructure. The Semantic Web was coined by Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web. He defines the Semantic Web as "a web of data that can be processed directly and indirectly by machines". It refers to a set of models, standards and techniques that can be used to make data richer than a hyperlink that opens a page or an item. Data will have multiple hidden labels with additional information, such as who owns this, what is the relation, what content does it relate to, how old is it (Figure 5). This is increasingly useful to improve advanced information retrieval and possibilities in a world that is experiencing information overload. Semantic Web models are commonly used in web applications as an addition to an existing data infrastructure. Besides that, use of semantics is focused on Open Linked Data and easy data exchange with other applications and not within the application itself. The Shareworks Semantic Web Infrastructure (SSWI) will take this a step further. SSWI is to become a fully semantic data infrastructure that will not only be used for data exchanges externally but also internally. This innovative approach has several benefits: 1. 2. 3. 4. Data optimization: More efficient data infrastructure and storage. Shorter development time: Less complexity in developing or exploiting data exchange or enrichment processes with other Semantic Web-enabled data or applications. Search Engine Optimization: SSWI makes sure that the public data can optimally be found by search engines. Easy Integration: When Shareworks grows, other applications can easily integrate with Shareworks.

The SSWI literally creates the foundation of the core benefit of the proposed Shareworks platform: optimal support of all knowledge exchange processes within project courses, their student projects and with all relevant stakeholders. The SSWI will be developed in collaboration with the TU Delft department Web Information Systems (WIS). WIS has extensive expertise in the research and development of Semantic Web models and techniques. They have actively participated in two European FP7 projects concerning e-learning, where it was their responsibility to develop Semantic Web models. Their knowledge is therefore very valuable to research and co-develop the SSWI together with Shareworks.

Concept Business Plan

5. Team
5.1. Management Team
Flip van Haaren - Founder and responsible for Business & Product Development Flip is experienced in entrepreneurship, product development and front-end web development. Flip started a company in web design at the age of 16 and participated in numerous start-up related courses and activities. Within one year, he transformed Shareworks from an idea to a working prototype that has piloted with four intensive project courses at the TU Delft. Raymond Jelierse - Co-founder and responsible for Web Development Raymond has ample experience with back- and front-end web development from the age of 14, including PHP, Javascript, Zend, Symphony, Drupal. He works part-time at the TU Delft E-Learning Support desk and hence has insights in problems both students and teachers encounter with existing e-learning systems. Two members will have to be added to the Shareworks management team on short notice: an experienced web developer to speed up developments and an ambitious marketer/sales person to improve communication with users and customers.

5.2. Research Group and Advisory Board

Bart Gerritsen - Associate Professor IDE, TU Delft - Research Group: Bart Gerritsen is part of the Computer Aided Design Engineering group at the faculty of IDE. He will lead the research collaboration between Shareworks and the TU Delft. Together with Regine Vroom they are responsible for the functional research into Shareworks Alpha at IDE. Jan Hidders - Assistant Professor EEMCS, TU Delft - Research Group: Jan Hidders is part of the Web Information Systems group, which will support the technical research and development of Shareworks within the STW Valorization Project. Jan Hidders deployed his expertise within two EU FP7 projects that are related to both e-learning and Web Semantics. His familiarity with the theory and application of semantic technology will be important for a successful deployment of semantic data management within Shareworks. Hans Nouwens - ICT Architect, TU Delft - Advisory Board David Smit - ICT Support, TU Delft - Advisory Board

6. Competitors, Competitive Advantage & IP

A first category of competitors are the big players in the LMS market: Blackboard, Desire2Learn, Moodle, Instructure. 90% of universities use an LMS, which are often institutionalized in the organization and therefore difficult to compete with. However, LMSs provide an all-in-one learning solution whereas Shareworks aims to create a new niche for project-based education and knowledge valorization. As such, Shareworks can be seen primarily as an addition to a LMS instead of as a replacement. A second category of competitors are a growing amount of new startups which are also introducing niche learning solutions, such as Lore/Coursekit, Edmodo, Schoology and iVersity. Although none are focused on project-based education, their social learning solutions can be seen as a potential substitute for the Shareworks platform and they have the ability to embed project-based learning solutions in their products fast, especially compared to LMS providers. Besides its focus, Shareworks has acquired unique knowledge, a TU Delft research collaboration and the agility/flexibility to create a strategic advantage. Shareworks will connect know-how from Shareworks Alpha with a unique cross-faculty research collaboration at the TU Delft: Industrial Design Engineering for their activity and experience in project-based education and Computer Sciences (Web Information Systems department) for their knowledge on advanced Semantic Web models and techniques within high-tech e-learning systems. Past Shareworks research was done within the TU Delft graduation project of Flip van Haaren and is therefore owned by him. Possible IP that will be created during research in collaboration with the TU Delft, will be owned by the university. If IP is created, then Shareworks can make an arrangement with the TU Delft to obtain the right to use that IP.

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Shareworks: the web platform for project-based education.

7. Market
7.1. Higher Education
Higher education is a worldwide growth market as it is publicly acknowledged as a key instrument to strengthen a nations knowledge economy. In 2009 there were about 150 million higher education students globally, roughly a 53% increase over 2000 . There are about 20 million students in the EU with around 1,5 million staff. EU students are divided by more than 4.000 organizations, of which 700 are universities. A rough estimation is that about 30% of the students have a significant amount of project-based education in their curricula. With an estimated adoption rate of 20% that leaves a potential market size of 1,2 million students for Shareworks in the EU. Extruded to a worldwide context the current potential market size is about 9 million student users. This will likely grow due to further growth of education and the growing importance of project-based learning for the 21st century student.
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7.2. Target Market

The Netherlands counts 600.000 students (3% of EU) divided amongst 14 universities with 230.000 students and over 80 HBO institutes . Shareworks will first target Dutch universities of technology and other higher education institutes that focus on technology or creativity. Within the Netherlands there are three universities of technology: TU Delft, TU Eindhoven and TU Twente with a total of 32.000 students. There are also numerous technical/creative HBOs that have a high factor of project-based learning in their curriculum. Hogeschool Rotterdam is an innovation-oriented HBO with 28.000 students. Shareworks will target institutes in the Netherlands directly and through SurfNet. SurfNet is responsible for the nationwide distribution of cloud services to higher education, knowledge and research institutes with 1 million members in total. The TU Delft is an active member of SurfNet and therefore SurfNet is an interesting platform for promotion and distribution.
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8. Business Strategy
Universities are famous for their traditional, fragmented organisations and advanced IT solutions such as Shareworks have overlap with multiple departments: faculties, university policy, IT department, student boards, valorisation departments. Because of this overlap, selling Shareworks to a university top-down is extremely time-intensive and challenging. As a result, Shareworks will opt for a bottom-up approach like many other next-generation online learning systems are currently doing. This allows Shareworks to spread virally through social media or word-of-mouth and it gives Shareworks the ability to proof its value to the potential university and the respective stakeholders. This can drastically reduce the decisionmaking process. Shareworks will open up its platform gradually worldwide to limit the risk of too much traffic and to create a competitive advantage for the early adopters. In short, the business strategy can be divided in three phases: Initial Development phase (1 year Academic year 2012-2013) Continue with experiments on Shareworks Alpha at the TU Delft. Develop the new Shareworks Platform. Acquire at least 2 Launching Customers for a Private Beta in NL (i.e. TU Delft and Hogeschool Rotterdam).

Beta Phase (1 year Academic year 2013-2014): Private Beta in the Netherlands only, additional customers will be approached both bottom-up and top-down. Top-down approach will be done through distributor SurfNet and through alliances of the TU Delft (i.e. 3TU). Online bottom-up approach will be maximised using promotional activities and workshops at multiple campuses.

Growth Phase (3 years) Shareworks will open gradually open up its system to EU, US and eventually worldwide. We will Set-up a local Shareworks office in the US by ambitious US student entrepreneurs. Their responsibility is initially support and sales in the US and to a lower extent additional web development for Shareworks. Focus on bottom-up approach: viral online promotions and a student ambassadors program, where students can earn gadgets in exchange for promotional activities and Shareworks workshops: by students, for teachers.

Concept Business Plan

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9. Business Model
Shareworks will be a Software as a Service (SaaS) driven by a freemium business model. Freemium is a business model by which a product or service is provided free of charge, but a premium is charged for advanced functionalities. Shareworks for Free Shareworks for Free allows teachers worldwide to use the basic features of the platform to support their blended or online project courses as a stand-alone environment. Teachers from all over the world can easily set up their project course, invite students and manage their course on Shareworks. Students can control and update their student project environment for the course and teachers can follow the projects. From a project education perspective there are no restrictions. Offering Shareworks as a free tool is essential to get viral publicity and traction within the worldwide higher education community. Shareworks Premium Universities with a Shareworks Premium subscription get access to advanced features, such as Secure Video Storage and Full API access (Table 1). Perhaps even more important, Premium universities can start creating and exploiting their own Knowledge Network on Shareworks. When there is a high volume of project-based courses on Shareworks from the same university, the platform becomes an interdisciplinary knowledge exchange & networking system. It allows students to share their projects with peer students, friends and client companies and it allows students, educators and researchers to easily find and follow Projects in the university. The proposed business model is a preliminary result of the current plans and has to be rigorously tested and further developed in cooperation with our partners and launching customers. One of the things that need more attention is whether Shareworks for Free should have more restrictions, such as a limited amount of courses per university or a trial course per course coordinator. A small fee per additional course when a trial course has been done - could also be an option. Much also depends on the financial situation, because practice indicates that it is necessary to have an (informal) funding round in order to fully exploit the freemium model without risking liquidity problems.
Table 1: Comparison of features between Shareworks for Free and Premium Shareworks Features Create, manage and update Project Courses Project courses with video, documents, announcements and links Create, manage and update Student Projects Student projects with video, images, documents and blog Popular Cloud Integrations (Google Docs, Dropbox) University Activity Feed Browsing/Searching of members, courses and projects in university Guest Project or Course Followers Special Apps to extend Shareworks platform functionality Secure Video Storage Collaborative Document Annotation Tool On-premises (local) data storage API access Free Version Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No No No No No Limited Premium Subscription Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Optional Optional Optional Full

9.1. SwApp Market

An App Market - called SwApp Market - will be developed once Shareworks will grow internationally. Universities can then choose to add Apps to their Shareworks Premium environment. To add functionality to their Shareworks platform or to integrate Shareworks with existing applications on the campus. There will be three types of Apps in the SwApp Market: Cloud Integration Apps and Shareworks Add-on Apps, for which the client needs to pay an additional fee per member. The Cloud Integration Apps are interesting because Shareworks can offer these third party integrations at a very economical price through quantity purchasing. A university can also create and implement Custom Apps and share them with others.

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Shareworks: the web platform for project-based education.

10. Financial Plan

10.1. Premium Revenues
The Premium subscription and fees for optional tools will create the revenues for Shareworks. Universities can subscribe to Shareworks Premium on a per-member basis for both students and employees. The fixed pricing with quantity discount is derived from existing pricing in the Learning Management System (LMS) market. Pricing of a hosted high-end LMS for a public university - such as Blackboard at the TU Delft - fluctuates between 8 and 25 per member. The Shareworks pricing is indicative (Table 2).
Table 2: Pricing model of Shareworks Premium University Members (students & employees) 100 500 500 - 2.000 2.000 - 5.000 5.000 - 10.000 10.000 - 20.000 More than 20.000 Annual Fee per Member 15 13 11 10 9 8 Total 1.500 - 7.500 1.200 - 24.000 20.000 - 50.000 40.000 - 80.000 70.000 - 140.000 120.000 and more

Since Shareworks originates from the TU Delft, it is evident that the TU Delft is an interesting launching customer. More launching customers are planned to be approached within one year. Hogeschool Rotterdam is interesting because of its vicinity and its entrepreneurial, innovation-oriented mindset. Table 3 shows a possible list of first customers in the Netherlands together with the revenues they would create with a Premium subscription for their students. As soon as Shareworks has set a firm base in the Netherlands it will open up the platform gradually worldwide and set up an office in the US.
Table 3: Example list of potential first customers in the Netherlands University Delft University of Technology Hogeschool Rotterdam Eindhoven University of Technology Codarts School for Arts Student members 16.000 28.500 7.000 1.000 Total Annual Revenue: Total 112.000 171.000 56.000 12.000

360.000

10.2. Costs during Initial Development Phase

There are three large and fixed cost drivers during the start-up phase: salaries of team members, office space and promotional/marketing activities. The hosting and ICT support of the Shareworks Alpha platform are offered by the TU Delft for the duration of the piloting phase. The disbursement of team members will be in equity and a low salary that slowly increases. Office space at Yes!Delft will be about 500,- per month.

10.3. Pro Forma Cash Flow

To cover for costs during the development and piloting phase, Shareworks will try to get access to loans, subsidies and business competition awards. Shareworks can get a 12.000,- EUR personal loan from the Rabobank if it becomes a member of the Yes!Delft Incubator. In October 2012 Shareworks applied for an STW Valorisation grant of 25.000,- EUR. More subsidy and loan possibilities are being investigated and also informal investments are interesting once Shareworks has acquired a launching customer, especially in combination with a subsidy.

Concept Business Plan

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Table 4: Pro Forma Cash flow per quarter until end of 2014 Cash Received Rabobank Loan Personal Investments STW Grant phase 1+2 TU Delft Support Launching Customers Cash Received Expenditures Flip van Haaren (CEO) Raymond Jelierse (CTO) 2nd Developer Marketing Manager Office space Marketing Activities Other costs Cash Spent Net Cash Flow Cash Balance 0 0 0 0 0 0 1.000 1.000 11.000 11.000 1.500 1.500 1.500 1.500 0 200 200 6.400 2.600 13.600 1.500 1.500 1.500 1.500 1.500 1.000 2.000 10.500 9.500 23.100 1.500 1.500 1.500 1.500 1.500 3.000 1.000 11.500 8.500 31.600 3.000 3.000 3.000 3.000 1.500 3.000 1.000 17.500 - 17.500 14.100 6.000 6.000 6.000 6.000 1.500 3.000 1.000 29.500 70.500 84.600 6.000 6.000 6.000 6.000 1.500 3.000 5.000 33.500 - 33.500 51.100 6.000 6.000 6.000 6.000 1.500 10.000 2.000 37.500 16.500 67.600 6.000 6.000 6.000 6.000 1.500 10.000 2.000 37.500 16.500 84.100 Q4 - '12 12.000 0 0 0 0 12.000 Q1 - '13 0 0 9.000 0 0 9.000 Q2 - '13 0 0 0 20.000 0 20.000 Q3 - '13 0 20.000 0 0 0 20.000 Q4 - '13 0 0 0 0 0 0 Q1 - '14 0 0 100.000 0 0 100.000 Q2 - '14 0 0 0 0 0 0 Q3 - '14 0 0 0 0 54.000 54.000 Q4 - '14 0 0 0 0 54.000 54.000

10.4. Financial Projections

Table 5 shows the total revenues which are 100% derived from Premium Subscriptions on the short-term. On the mid-longterm Shareworks also aims to create additional revenues from optional Apps and perhaps from post-graduates that would like to keep using Shareworks. Those are not included in these projections. Tables 6 and 7 give a total costs indication for respectively Shareworks Premium and Shareworks for Free. Tables 8, 9 and 10 show a projected income statement from 2013 to 2017, based on the expected scenario, worst-case scenario and best-case scenario. In the expected scenario, Shareworks will create break-even around February 2015 with. In 2017 Shareworks will have 4.3 million in revenues and a net income of 1.8 million. The worst-case scenario shows a debt of almost 500.000. This should be avoided and therefore additional limitations will be created in the Freemium model, such as a larger Premium client base before Shareworks opens up its Free version.
Table 5: Total Revenues Premium Subscriptions 9.000 Average Projected Revenues per month per 10.000 users

Table 6: Total Costs - Shareworks Premium Fixed Costs p/m Cloud Hosting Office Space Marketing UserVoice Management Team Employee Salaries Other Costs Total 2.000 11.000 8.000 500 500 Variable Costs p/m/10.000 users 1.500 100 200 100 200 500 100 2.700 Comments 1GB per user Yes!Delft office Promotional Activities Feedback + Support system Four MT members Primarily developers & sales

Table 7:Total Costs - Shareworks for Free Cloud Hosting 300 Average Costs per month per 10.000 users (200MB per user)

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Shareworks: the web platform for project-based education.

Table 8: Pro Forma Income Statements - 5 years Expected Scenario 2013 Premium Users Sw Premium Costs Sw for Free Users Sw for Free Costs Total Costs Total Revenues Profit before Taxes Income Taxes (25%) Net Income Cash 0 132.000 0 0 132.000 0 - 132.000 0 - 132.000 - 132.000 2014 10.000 164.400 5.000 1.800 166.200 108.000 - 58.200 0 - 58.200 - 190.200 2015 50.000 294.000 100.000 36.000 330.000 540.000 210.000 52.500 157.500 - 32.700 2016 150.000 618.000 500.000 180.000 798.000 1.620.000 822.000 205.500 616.500 583.800 2017 400.000 1.428.000 1.200.000 432.000 1.860.000 4.320.000 2.460.000 615.000 1.845.000 2.428.800

Table 9: Pro Forma Income Statements - 5 years Worst-case Scenario 2013 Premium Users Sw Premium Costs Sw for Free Users Sw for Free Costs Total Costs Total Revenues Profit before Taxes Income Taxes (25%) Net Income Cash 0 132.000 0 0 132.000 0 - 132.000 0 - 132.000 - 132.000 2014 10.000 164.400 30.000 10.800 175.200 108.000 - 67.200 0 - 67.200 - 199.200 2015 20.000 196.800 100.000 36.000 232.800 216.000 - 16.800 - 4.200 - 12.600 - 211.800 2016 30.000 229.200 500.000 180.000 409.200 324.000 - 85.200 - 21.300 - 63.900 - 275.700 2017 30.000 229.200 1.000.000 360.000 589.200 324.000 - 265.200 - 66.300 - 198.900 - 474.600

Table 10: Pro Forma Income Statements - 5 years Best-case Scenario 2013 Premium Users Sw Premium Costs Sw for Free Users Sw for Free Costs Total Costs Total Revenues Profit before Taxes Income Taxes (25%) Net Income Cash 0 132.000 0 0 132.000 0 - 132.000 0 - 132.000 - 132.000 2014 40.000 261.600 40.000 14.400 276.000 432.000 156.000 0 156.000 24.000 2015 180.000 715.200 400.000 144.000 859.200 1.944.000 1.084.800 271.200 813.600 837.600 2016 500.000 1.752.000 1.000.000 360.000 2.112.000 5.400.000 3.288.000 822.000 2.466.000 3.303.600 2017 1.600.000 5.316.000 2.000.000 720.000 6.036.000 17.280.000 11.244.000 2.811.000 8.433.000 11.736.600

Concept Business Plan

15

11. Planning
11.1. Roadmap
In the academic year 2012-2013, Shareworks will focus on research with the old system and development of the new system (Figure 6). After that period, Shareworks hopes to have proven the possibilities of Shareworks at the TU Delft. In the second phase, the positive feedback will be used to acquire at least two formal deals with higher education institutes (TU Delft + another) to start a private beta. After that milestone Shareworks will scale up development, business management and marketing.
2013
s o n d j f m a m j j a s o n d

2014
j f m a m j j a s o n d

STW Valorisation Grant Pilots on Experimental Platform Write Business plan Improve Experimental Platform Join Yes!Delft New Platform development Business plan competitions Acquire TU Delft as Launching Cus. Private Beta (Premium clients only) Acquire Additional Customers (NL) Public Beta Worldwide (Freemium)

2 Phase 1 1 3

Phase 2

4 5 6

Start Global Premium Sales Figure 6: Roadmap of Shareworks with numbered milestones (description of milestones below).

11.2. Milestones
Milestones in scheduling will be created to make sure that targets are clear and right decisions will be made on the right moment. The milestones created so far: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Shareworks becomes a BV and Shareworks is strengthened with a web developer and a marketer STW Valorisation Grant phase-1 honoured and research collaboration with TU Delft formalized Start Large Scale pilots at the TU Delft and get financial support from TU Delft Acquired TU Delft as a launching customer for the private beta Shareworks admission to Dutch organisation SurfNet Acquired at least two Dutch higher education institutes other than the TU Delft First transactions from launching customers

Dziuban, C.D., Moskal, P.D. & Hartman, J. (2005). Higher education, blended learning, and the generations: Knowledge is

power: No more. In J. Bourne & J. C. Moore (Eds.), Elements of Quality Online Education: Engaging Communities. Needham, MA: Sloan Center for Online Education.
2

Van der Zanden, A (2009). The Facilitating University - Positioning next generation education technology. Eburon, Delft, Dziuban, C.D., Moskal, P.D. & Hartman, J. (2005). Higher education, blended learning, and the generations: Knowledge is

the Netherlands.
3

power: No more. In J. Bourne & J. C. Moore (Eds.), Elements of Quality Online Education: Engaging Communities. Needham, MA: Sloan Center for Online Education.
4

Haaren, F.J.M., Moes C.C.M., (2012). Shareworks Creative Networking for Universities through Ubiquitous Computing. Haaren, F.J.M., (2012) Graduation Report: Shareworks: a web platform to support project courses, Repository Delft Altbach, P., Reisberg, E. and Rumbley, L. (2009) Trends in Global Higher Education, Paris: UNESCO. Eurostat, (2009): http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/statistics_explained/index.php/Tertiary_education_statistics

Proceedings of TMCE 2012, May 711, 2012, Karlsruhe, Germany.

5

University of Technology
6 7

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Shareworks: the web platform for project-based education.