A.

Problem Statement:
AndFound is an online platform that connects investors to different startups and entrepreneurs. As a non-
profit organization, its finances are coming form advertisements and donations from its users. Sticking to their
business ideals and current model, Reza believed that Charging fees would drive investors and entrepreneurs away
from their platform. However, knowing too well that their business wouldn’t be able to survive with the same
model and to surpass the threats of its competitors, they are now looking for a revenue stream that comes out of
their core business and strength: connecting good start-ups with good funders.

B. SWOT Analysis
1. Strength:
 Connecting good start-ups with good funders; “the best thing that ever happened to the start-up
community” and is also free.
 Vast and Diversified network of investors, companies, and job seekers.
2. Weakness:
 Free, resulting to low revenue that is not enough to compensate for the business’ high
operational cost involving improvement of algorithms, maintaining the site infrastructure, and
meeting staff requirements as the business evolves.
 Premature commitment to a “Free” business model with a reluctance/trepidation of other owner
to turn it into a revenue generating business model.
3. Opportunity:
 Monetization strategies through minor sector of business as potential source of revenue
 Since they are working in a vast network of investors, they can easily find deep-pocket investors
who share the same vision.
4. Threat:
 Monetization efforts can draw team focus away from critical growth efforts, alienate customers,
and stall momentum.
 Continuous reluctance/trepidation from owner side

C. Recommendations
 Ideally, VV and Reza should find deep-pocket investors who share their vision and who believe in
AndFound’s ability to execute. With that kind of backing, they will be able to focus on growth for the
foreseeable future and think about monetizing only when AndFound finally dominates its market.
Facebook found such investors. So did YouTube. Because AndFound is in the financing business, VV and
Reza are better positioned than most founders to find believers among their users and raise capital
without too much dilution. They just have to make sure that investors will not limit their flexibility so that
they change their model during the course. Increasing a product feature. One idea: Asset management
for VC investors.
 A start-up can’t live on seed capital forever. VV and Reza can get away with postponing commitment to a
core business model for a while longer, but in the meantime they should be testing revenue strategies and
learning about what may or may not work. They should be thinking about how and when to introduce
paid features to the AndFound site. The business may consider the combination of User Communities
Business and Freemium Model, wherein they can grant its members or users an access to its usual free
features, then generates revenue through advertisements, and fees from upgraded or premium services
that the users are willing to pay for. For example, the Angie’s List, their business objective is to connect
top rated contractors with top rated homeowners and they worked because contractors were not
competing with other contractors, but they were competing for the attention of homeowners. Likewise,
the AndFound, where its strength is connecting good start-ups with good funders, and both, the start-ups
and the investors are competing for the attention of each other. With a reasonable and affordable rates or
fees, there could be a market and numbers of business/start-ups will come from AndFound like what
happened to Angie’s List.