Little Yellow Bird
By Samantha Rae Jones
PledgeMe.Investment
Fashion,
NZ $470,818 pledged
244 people pledged
Closed
NZ $300,000 minimum target
This campaign was successful and closed on 29/05/2019 at 10:00 PM.
Make a PledgeAbout
Little Yellow Bird
Company Background
Little Yellow Bird makes clothes – beautiful, ethically made clothing and corporate workwear. Our ambition is to be New Zealand’s most loved brand and go-to company for ethically made apparel. We’re raising capital to help us scale even further: to increase our market reach, grow our sales and leadership team, and expand into new markets.
The Little Yellow Bird difference
Our point of difference is our absolute commitment to ethical manufacturing. We track every single item of clothing from source to sale, and we ensure we have transparency across the entire supply chain for our products. Little Yellow Bird specialises in 100% organic rain-fed cotton products: t-shirts, hoodies, hospitality aprons, business shirts, dresses, bags and tea-towels. We sell white label products to ethical fashion labels around New Zealand and internationally. We also create bespoke cotton products for all kinds of clients – we’ve done projects from socks to tablecloths to school uniforms. Basically, if it’s made from cotton, we can help.
Little Yellow Bird started out as a supplier of sustainably sourced uniforms and workwear. Over a few short years, we have built up an impressive customer base providing uniforms for over 400 companies. We consider our customers as partners and take care to work with values aligned organisations. We specialize in events, hospitality, and corporate uniforms, as well as the odd bespoke project.
We have achieved so many things together with our customers last year. We provide tailored impact reports with every order, showing the difference each conscious purchase makes so customers can start telling their own sustainability story. Last year, with all of our customer orders combined, was our biggest yet.
The valuation of Little Yellow Bird Limited was undertaken by the Company Director with internal and external advice. We have considered how the targeted fundraise would affect the turnover and growth of the business and determined a long-term view for Little Yellow Bird. We are valuing Little Yellow Bird at $3.4 million and looking to raise a minimum of $300,000 up to a maximum of $750,000. We have based our valuation on a four times revenue multiplier of our silver forecast which we anticipate to be $850,000 NZD.
We have three different share packages on offer. All include part ownership in Little Yellow Bird, discounts on product and an equal share in dividends and distributions.
Little Yellow Bird has had consistent growth over the last four years, we don't see this slowing down. In fact, we think we have the right systems, team, and processes in place to now scale our growth.
We have based our forecast on existing contracts, relationships with our current customers, a healthy pipeline and plans to grow our sales team. Uniforms are largely a repeat purchase item, and we have also recently signed a contract with our first school which will be delivered by the end of 2019. This market represents a growth opportunity for Little Yellow Bird and we aim to invest more heavily in this market from 2020. We have done three-year revenue projections based on two scenarios.
Risks:
Copycat brands: More and more apparel brands are adopting sustainable and ethical practices, we think this is great and it challenges us to be even more innovative.
Cashflow: Cashflow in retail can be difficult to predict. We aim to increase online sales to cover a greater percentage of our operational expenses.
Disruption to operations: We manufacture exclusively in India. To help mitigate this risk we are currently investigating suppliers in other regions to give us better business continuity.
Environmental contingencies: Drought and climate change have the potential to effect our operations. Catastrophic changes are likely to have an effect on operations 12-18months post an event. We hold sufficient stocks to act as a buffer for short term contingencies however if a major event took place we may have to source cotton from other regions.
Loss of key staff: We will continue to train our staff in multiple areas to diversify skills and continue documentation of our processes.
Our constitution is available to read here or on the Companies Office.
Note from PledgeMe
We have completed a Veda check on the company and their directors, as well as a google check. There were no adverse findings.
Video: David Binstead
Music: "Canary" by Jason Pemberton
Updates 12
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You need to pledge to see this update.
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MAY HIGHLIGHTS WITH TWO DAYS LEFT!
27/05/2019 at 3:50 PM
Kia ora koutou!
We're in the home stretch with 2 days to go and what a month it has been! Here are a few highlights from this month:
- Celebrated our 4th birthday
- Launched our crowdfund campaign
- Had one of our best sales months
- Had more inquiries and sent out more quotes and proposals than ever before
- Traveled up and down the country speaking from Dunedin to Auckland and a bunch of places in between
- Signed up some very exciting new clients all of who you have definitely heard about (but we can't quite spill the beans on yet)
- Facilitated a discussion between some of New Zealand's top leaders in the environmental and conservation space with world-renowned environmental activist, Jane Goodall
Saying we've been busy is an understatement! But it's all worth it and we are now at over 90% of our minimum goal with just 2 days to go.
If you've been thinking about pledging now is definitely the time.
Sam and the LYB team
Got a question? Come join us on Facebook Live at 7:30pm NZT tonight!
23/05/2019 at 5:38 PM
Kia ora koutou,
I'll be talking to Anna Guenther from PledgeMe and Brianne West from Ethique tonight at 7:30pm about social enterprise in NZ, why we do what we do, our impact and our crowdfunding campaign.
Have you got a question for us or keen to hear more about our kaupapa? Come join us via this link at 7:30pm.
Look forward to seeing some of you there but if you can't make it and have questions, please feel free to send them through.
Sam and the LYB team.
NINE DAYS TO GO - AND OUR 100th SHAREHOLDER
20/05/2019 at 3:59 PM
Kia ora koutou,
A quick message from me this Monday afternoon to let you know that we’re on the home straight for our equity campaign - but we need your help to finish strong!
If you’ve been meaning to purchase a part of New Zealand’s first community-owned fashion company, NOW is the time to join the other 100 people who have invested: join the LYB whānau and help us to make ethical fashion mainstream.
If you’ve already pledged - thank you - we would love for you to remind your friends & colleagues that time is running out. We also have a new product announcement happening on our Facebook page this evening.
As always, any questions, just get in touch.
Mā te wā,
Sam and the team at LYB
We've hit the halfway mark!!!
15/05/2019 at 1:39 PM
WOW! We’ve hit the halfway mark, raising over $150K! THANK YOU to all 79 of you who have believed in our vision and mission and have become a part of the Little Yellow Bird whānau. We’re thrilled to have you on board!
We have 14 days left to hit our minimum target and we would so love to get the ball rolling on some of our projects as soon as we do.
Thanks for your ongoing support!
We've hit 100K!
08/05/2019 at 12:06 PM
Kia ora koutou!
Thanks so much for following along with our equity crowdfunding campaign! We’re thrilled to have you as part of this journey. We were excited to wake up and see that we’ve hit the 100K mark!
This takes us one-third of the way to our target, but we need to hit our minimum of 300K to make this happen. Raising equity, for us, is all about -
- Scaling our Impact;
- Growing our product range; and
- Making ethical fashion mainstream
In the past three years, Little Yellow Bird has been built by dedicated people who want to see business as a force for good, and we’re so grateful for your support. You’re already a huge part of the success of LYB - and we’re really grateful to have you as a part of our whānau!
If you’re planning to but haven’t pledged yet or if you have any questions about an equity investment in Little Yellow Bird, we’d love to hear from you!
Sam and the team at LYB
Little Yellow Bird on tour
04/05/2019 at 10:47 AM
We're over 75K, thanks to everyone that has already pledged!! Hopefully, everyone has had a lovely start to the weekend. I'm spending mine in Christchurch with my family. We hope a few of you will enjoy reading and assessing our Investment Memorandum this weekend and hopefully signing up to become a shareholder. I'm available to answer any questions you have.
We are also doing a number of talks around the country this month. If you want to hear about the Little Yellow Bird journey and our growth plans in person fill in our 2minute survey. We'd love to speak with your school, community project, business or town and we will be in touch.
Sam and the LYB team
20% in Day 1
02/05/2019 at 11:31 AM
We're pretty stoked to see that 1 day since going public we are already over 20% of our minimum goal!! Thank you so much to our early supporters, it gives us so much encouragement to see these first pledges come in and to have 33 brand new shareholders and members of the team. We hope to welcome even more of you in the comings weeks and encourage you to pledge early so we can switch gear into executing some of our plans.
Much love from the Little Yellow Bird team.
You need to pledge to see this update.
You need to pledge to see this update.
Details
Offer Details
Current Valuation | 3,400,000 |
Raise Minimum | 300,000 |
Raise Maximum | 750,000 |
Share Price | 1.00 |
Minimum Pledge | 500.00 |
Maximum Shares Offered | 750,000 |
Explanation of valuation:
Revenue is based on current growth trajectory, assumption that our existing customer base will continue purchasing uniforms and the investment in additional sales personnel, marketing, and advertising will contribute to revenue growth. The numbers provided below are estimates based on our Silver scenarios.
Financial Summary
Prev Year | Current Year | Est. FY 2026 | Est. FY 2027 | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Revenue | NZ $412,772 | NZ $850,000 | NZ $1,300,000 | NZ $1,900,000 |
Operating Expenses | NZ $217,438 | NZ $441,820 | NZ $621,820 | NZ $782,820 |
EBITDA | -NZ $16,203 | -NZ $59,320 | -NZ $36,820 | NZ $72,180 |
Net Profit | -NZ $16,203 | -NZ $59,320 | -NZ $36,820 | NZ $72,180 |
Company Details
Company Name: Little Yellow Bird
Company Number: 5617106
Company Documents
Director Details
Name | Role | Profile URL | Invested? |
---|---|---|---|
Samantha Rae Jones | Founder CEO | https://nz.linkedin.com/in/samantha-rae-jones-08b479b3 | ✔ |
Questions 3
Firstly, well done on this offer. Beautifully presented.
I'm interested to know more about your operating cost so far. Are they fully costed?
I'm asking because the two past years look a bit light to include all staff salaries, including your own, website development, marketing, packaging, office space, warehouse space, utilities, communication costs, and travel to India.
Is there some netting off using funding from other sources? If so, how much?
Many thanks,
Ben
Hey Ben!
You are correct, we've operated a really lean organization.
In terms of office space we had free space as part of an accelerator program we did for the first 18months, we then moved to a very low cost 90sqm office, we stayed there as long as we possibly could as it was very affordable. Since December we have been in the warehouse you see in the video so you can expect to see a jump in office expenses from here on in as we were only in there for a few months of the last FY. We expect to be able to grow into this space and not need to move again for the next 2 years which is also the term of our lease.
Last year we had 2 FTE's employed and I took a small founders salary when cash flow allowed. The aim is to get me onto the same salary as our team (who are all paid the same). We've also had a couple of short term contractors and interns for various projects, all have been paid a minimum of the NZ living wage.
The website we manage mostly internally so this has never been a major expense for us. We do plan to invest a little in this area but it will most likely remain a Shopify / webflow site which we can continue to manage ourselves.
We're a creative and resourceful team, what we don't know how to do we learn and teach ourselves, only if it's really outside our comfort zone or it's more effective to bring in an expert will we hire a contractor. For example, our team pulled together the IM (even though we're not designers by trade).
Overall we operate lean and we spend money where it will make the most impact, this isn't going to change. You will notice our forecasted operational expenses are on the rise, this will mostly be to cover our warehouse space and to bring on more staff who will, in turn, drive more revenue.
Hope this helps. I'm happy to discuss more if you want more clarification - [email protected] // 0220971745
Answered on 21-05-2019 by Samantha Rae Jones
Hi team
Congrats on the success so far!
A couple of questions:
1) why the large jump in advisor costs for getting more than the minimum?
2) what are your current projections for future capital needs? Will further equity be required in your Silver projection?
3) Clause 4.2 of the constitution suggests there is a class of shares with preferential rights to distributions on liquidation etc but the class rights in 4.3 and 4.4 don't record this. Can you please clarify the rights attached to all existing shares and how the rights offered on the new shares will differ?
4) Are the voting rights offered on the shares for investments of less than $35k limited (as the summary info suggests) or nil as per the constitution?
Thanks!
Posted on 19-05-2019 by Nick LovegroveThanks for your questions.
1) I think you are referring to the capital raise costs for the maximum vs the minimum, this is primarily the additional fee PledgeMe would take which is a % on the amount raised. We also accounted for more advertising/marketing spend to reach the maximum however we have been really conservative here and haven't spent as much as we may have needed to.
2) We may consider selling more equity in the future but even with our silver projections, we don't think this will be necessary so it's not in our immediate plans.
3) There are no preferential shares, all shares issued to date are ordinary shares. All shares will have equal rights to dividends and distributions, the only difference is that the non-voting shares will not have voting right attached. With now over 100 shareholders it would be administratively difficult to coordinate signatures.
4) You are correct that shares of less than 35K are nil as per the constitution.
Let me know if I can clarify anything further, feel free to call or email me too - [email protected] // 0220971745
Answered on 20-05-2019 by Samantha Rae Jones
Hey
Looks interesting.
Few questions
What is driving the ballooning of operating expenses?
I noticed your cost of goods sold seems to be decreasing per $ of sales in the first few years yet in the projections this trend is reversed. Why is this?
Forecast growth is enormous. Particularly in this coming year, projecting a more than doubling of the previous years revenue. What proportion of this growth is directly attributable to the school contract? How big is the school? Is it in a growing or established area? (Does this client have room for growth basically).
Thank you
Sincerely,
Matthew Williamson
Operating expense increase is primarily driven by staffing costs, specifically in sales which is also what will help drive increased revenue.
Cost of goods has decreased overall but we have such a range of products with different margins. Larger projects and wholesale orders attract a smaller margin. We have conservatively estimated our cost of goods in our projections to leave us room to take on some larger value (but smaller margin) projects.
Forecast growth is based on our pipeline and the number of projects that we expect to convert. Without investment we expected this to be 600K this year, however, with additional resources in staff and marketing we feel that our forecast revenue is achievable.
The school is a new school with crica 150 students in Auckland, we expect this school to grow quite quickly and we will also use this to attract other schools.
Obviously, these are all estimates based on what you know today and may need to be reassessed in the case of any unforeseen circumstances and changing business environments.
Feel free to email me or call me if you want to chat more - [email protected] / 0220971745
Answered on 16-05-2019 by Samantha Rae Jones
Pledgers 244
20/05/2019 at 11:00am
20/05/2019 at 12:18am
19/05/2019 at 2:10pm
19/05/2019 at 12:57pm
19/05/2019 at 12:31pm
19/05/2019 at 12:26pm
19/05/2019 at 11:05am
19/05/2019 at 10:55am
"Go Sam! "
19/05/2019 at 9:41am
18/05/2019 at 8:07pm
"Very best wishes Sam."
18/05/2019 at 12:16pm
17/05/2019 at 10:28pm
17/05/2019 at 6:27pm
17/05/2019 at 5:26pm
15/05/2019 at 8:11pm
"Love what you’re doing! "
15/05/2019 at 6:50pm
15/05/2019 at 5:17pm
"Keep it up :)"
15/05/2019 at 2:01pm
"I've followed your progress with enthusiasm. It feels good to be part of the LYB story and what it stands for. "
15/05/2019 at 12:15pm
14/05/2019 at 11:09pm
"The change starts from us! Let's show the world you can do good and good business at the same time."
14/05/2019 at 8:06pm
14/05/2019 at 6:18pm
14/05/2019 at 6:04pm
14/05/2019 at 5:33pm
14/05/2019 at 4:51pm
"great going!"
14/05/2019 at 11:30am
14/05/2019 at 10:30am
13/05/2019 at 9:15pm
13/05/2019 at 5:01pm
12/05/2019 at 7:26pm
Little Yellow Bird
Company Background
Little Yellow Bird makes clothes – beautiful, ethically made clothing and corporate workwear. Our ambition is to be New Zealand’s most loved brand and go-to company for ethically made apparel. We’re raising capital to help us scale even further: to increase our market reach, grow our sales and leadership team, and expand into new markets.
The Little Yellow Bird difference
Our point of difference is our absolute commitment to ethical manufacturing. We track every single item of clothing from source to sale, and we ensure we have transparency across the entire supply chain for our products. Little Yellow Bird specialises in 100% organic rain-fed cotton products: t-shirts, hoodies, hospitality aprons, business shirts, dresses, bags and tea-towels. We sell white label products to ethical fashion labels around New Zealand and internationally. We also create bespoke cotton products for all kinds of clients – we’ve done projects from socks to tablecloths to school uniforms. Basically, if it’s made from cotton, we can help.
Little Yellow Bird started out as a supplier of sustainably sourced uniforms and workwear. Over a few short years, we have built up an impressive customer base providing uniforms for over 400 companies. We consider our customers as partners and take care to work with values aligned organisations. We specialize in events, hospitality, and corporate uniforms, as well as the odd bespoke project.
We have achieved so many things together with our customers last year. We provide tailored impact reports with every order, showing the difference each conscious purchase makes so customers can start telling their own sustainability story. Last year, with all of our customer orders combined, was our biggest yet.
The valuation of Little Yellow Bird Limited was undertaken by the Company Director with internal and external advice. We have considered how the targeted fundraise would affect the turnover and growth of the business and determined a long-term view for Little Yellow Bird. We are valuing Little Yellow Bird at $3.4 million and looking to raise a minimum of $300,000 up to a maximum of $750,000. We have based our valuation on a four times revenue multiplier of our silver forecast which we anticipate to be $850,000 NZD.
We have three different share packages on offer. All include part ownership in Little Yellow Bird, discounts on product and an equal share in dividends and distributions.
Little Yellow Bird has had consistent growth over the last four years, we don't see this slowing down. In fact, we think we have the right systems, team, and processes in place to now scale our growth.
We have based our forecast on existing contracts, relationships with our current customers, a healthy pipeline and plans to grow our sales team. Uniforms are largely a repeat purchase item, and we have also recently signed a contract with our first school which will be delivered by the end of 2019. This market represents a growth opportunity for Little Yellow Bird and we aim to invest more heavily in this market from 2020. We have done three-year revenue projections based on two scenarios.
Risks:
Copycat brands: More and more apparel brands are adopting sustainable and ethical practices, we think this is great and it challenges us to be even more innovative.
Cashflow: Cashflow in retail can be difficult to predict. We aim to increase online sales to cover a greater percentage of our operational expenses.
Disruption to operations: We manufacture exclusively in India. To help mitigate this risk we are currently investigating suppliers in other regions to give us better business continuity.
Environmental contingencies: Drought and climate change have the potential to effect our operations. Catastrophic changes are likely to have an effect on operations 12-18months post an event. We hold sufficient stocks to act as a buffer for short term contingencies however if a major event took place we may have to source cotton from other regions.
Loss of key staff: We will continue to train our staff in multiple areas to diversify skills and continue documentation of our processes.
Our constitution is available to read here or on the Companies Office.
Note from PledgeMe
We have completed a Veda check on the company and their directors, as well as a google check. There were no adverse findings.
Video: David Binstead
Music: "Canary" by Jason Pemberton
You need to pledge to see this update.
You need to pledge to see this update.
You need to pledge to see this update.
MAY HIGHLIGHTS WITH TWO DAYS LEFT!
27/05/2019 at 3:50 PM
Kia ora koutou!
We're in the home stretch with 2 days to go and what a month it has been! Here are a few highlights from this month:
- Celebrated our 4th birthday
- Launched our crowdfund campaign
- Had one of our best sales months
- Had more inquiries and sent out more quotes and proposals than ever before
- Traveled up and down the country speaking from Dunedin to Auckland and a bunch of places in between
- Signed up some very exciting new clients all of who you have definitely heard about (but we can't quite spill the beans on yet)
- Facilitated a discussion between some of New Zealand's top leaders in the environmental and conservation space with world-renowned environmental activist, Jane Goodall
Saying we've been busy is an understatement! But it's all worth it and we are now at over 90% of our minimum goal with just 2 days to go.
If you've been thinking about pledging now is definitely the time.
Sam and the LYB team
Got a question? Come join us on Facebook Live at 7:30pm NZT tonight!
23/05/2019 at 5:38 PM
Kia ora koutou,
I'll be talking to Anna Guenther from PledgeMe and Brianne West from Ethique tonight at 7:30pm about social enterprise in NZ, why we do what we do, our impact and our crowdfunding campaign.
Have you got a question for us or keen to hear more about our kaupapa? Come join us via this link at 7:30pm.
Look forward to seeing some of you there but if you can't make it and have questions, please feel free to send them through.
Sam and the LYB team.
NINE DAYS TO GO - AND OUR 100th SHAREHOLDER
20/05/2019 at 3:59 PM
Kia ora koutou,
A quick message from me this Monday afternoon to let you know that we’re on the home straight for our equity campaign - but we need your help to finish strong!
If you’ve been meaning to purchase a part of New Zealand’s first community-owned fashion company, NOW is the time to join the other 100 people who have invested: join the LYB whānau and help us to make ethical fashion mainstream.
If you’ve already pledged - thank you - we would love for you to remind your friends & colleagues that time is running out. We also have a new product announcement happening on our Facebook page this evening.
As always, any questions, just get in touch.
Mā te wā,
Sam and the team at LYB
We've hit the halfway mark!!!
15/05/2019 at 1:39 PM
WOW! We’ve hit the halfway mark, raising over $150K! THANK YOU to all 79 of you who have believed in our vision and mission and have become a part of the Little Yellow Bird whānau. We’re thrilled to have you on board!
We have 14 days left to hit our minimum target and we would so love to get the ball rolling on some of our projects as soon as we do.
Thanks for your ongoing support!
We've hit 100K!
08/05/2019 at 12:06 PM
Kia ora koutou!
Thanks so much for following along with our equity crowdfunding campaign! We’re thrilled to have you as part of this journey. We were excited to wake up and see that we’ve hit the 100K mark!
This takes us one-third of the way to our target, but we need to hit our minimum of 300K to make this happen. Raising equity, for us, is all about -
- Scaling our Impact;
- Growing our product range; and
- Making ethical fashion mainstream
In the past three years, Little Yellow Bird has been built by dedicated people who want to see business as a force for good, and we’re so grateful for your support. You’re already a huge part of the success of LYB - and we’re really grateful to have you as a part of our whānau!
If you’re planning to but haven’t pledged yet or if you have any questions about an equity investment in Little Yellow Bird, we’d love to hear from you!
Sam and the team at LYB
Little Yellow Bird on tour
04/05/2019 at 10:47 AM
We're over 75K, thanks to everyone that has already pledged!! Hopefully, everyone has had a lovely start to the weekend. I'm spending mine in Christchurch with my family. We hope a few of you will enjoy reading and assessing our Investment Memorandum this weekend and hopefully signing up to become a shareholder. I'm available to answer any questions you have.
We are also doing a number of talks around the country this month. If you want to hear about the Little Yellow Bird journey and our growth plans in person fill in our 2minute survey. We'd love to speak with your school, community project, business or town and we will be in touch.
Sam and the LYB team
20% in Day 1
02/05/2019 at 11:31 AM
We're pretty stoked to see that 1 day since going public we are already over 20% of our minimum goal!! Thank you so much to our early supporters, it gives us so much encouragement to see these first pledges come in and to have 33 brand new shareholders and members of the team. We hope to welcome even more of you in the comings weeks and encourage you to pledge early so we can switch gear into executing some of our plans.
Much love from the Little Yellow Bird team.
You need to pledge to see this update.
You need to pledge to see this update.
Offer Details
Current Valuation | 3,400,000 |
Raise Minimum | 300,000 |
Raise Maximum | 750,000 |
Share Price | 1.00 |
Minimum Pledge | 500.00 |
Maximum Shares Offered | 750,000 |
Explanation of valuation:
Revenue is based on current growth trajectory, assumption that our existing customer base will continue purchasing uniforms and the investment in additional sales personnel, marketing, and advertising will contribute to revenue growth. The numbers provided below are estimates based on our Silver scenarios.
Financial Summary
Prev Year | Current Year | Est. FY 2026 | Est. FY 2027 | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Revenue | NZ $412,772 | NZ $850,000 | NZ $1,300,000 | NZ $1,900,000 |
Operating Expenses | NZ $217,438 | NZ $441,820 | NZ $621,820 | NZ $782,820 |
EBITDA | -NZ $16,203 | -NZ $59,320 | -NZ $36,820 | NZ $72,180 |
Net Profit | -NZ $16,203 | -NZ $59,320 | -NZ $36,820 | NZ $72,180 |
Company Details
Company Name: Little Yellow Bird
Company Number: 5617106
Company Documents
Director Details
Name | Role | Profile URL | Invested? |
---|---|---|---|
Samantha Rae Jones | Founder CEO | https://nz.linkedin.com/in/samantha-rae-jones-08b479b3 | ✔ |
Firstly, well done on this offer. Beautifully presented.
I'm interested to know more about your operating cost so far. Are they fully costed?
I'm asking because the two past years look a bit light to include all staff salaries, including your own, website development, marketing, packaging, office space, warehouse space, utilities, communication costs, and travel to India.
Is there some netting off using funding from other sources? If so, how much?
Many thanks,
Ben
Hey Ben!
You are correct, we've operated a really lean organization.
In terms of office space we had free space as part of an accelerator program we did for the first 18months, we then moved to a very low cost 90sqm office, we stayed there as long as we possibly could as it was very affordable. Since December we have been in the warehouse you see in the video so you can expect to see a jump in office expenses from here on in as we were only in there for a few months of the last FY. We expect to be able to grow into this space and not need to move again for the next 2 years which is also the term of our lease.
Last year we had 2 FTE's employed and I took a small founders salary when cash flow allowed. The aim is to get me onto the same salary as our team (who are all paid the same). We've also had a couple of short term contractors and interns for various projects, all have been paid a minimum of the NZ living wage.
The website we manage mostly internally so this has never been a major expense for us. We do plan to invest a little in this area but it will most likely remain a Shopify / webflow site which we can continue to manage ourselves.
We're a creative and resourceful team, what we don't know how to do we learn and teach ourselves, only if it's really outside our comfort zone or it's more effective to bring in an expert will we hire a contractor. For example, our team pulled together the IM (even though we're not designers by trade).
Overall we operate lean and we spend money where it will make the most impact, this isn't going to change. You will notice our forecasted operational expenses are on the rise, this will mostly be to cover our warehouse space and to bring on more staff who will, in turn, drive more revenue.
Hope this helps. I'm happy to discuss more if you want more clarification - [email protected] // 0220971745
Answered on 21-05-2019 by Samantha Rae Jones
Hi team
Congrats on the success so far!
A couple of questions:
1) why the large jump in advisor costs for getting more than the minimum?
2) what are your current projections for future capital needs? Will further equity be required in your Silver projection?
3) Clause 4.2 of the constitution suggests there is a class of shares with preferential rights to distributions on liquidation etc but the class rights in 4.3 and 4.4 don't record this. Can you please clarify the rights attached to all existing shares and how the rights offered on the new shares will differ?
4) Are the voting rights offered on the shares for investments of less than $35k limited (as the summary info suggests) or nil as per the constitution?
Thanks!
Posted on 19-05-2019 by Nick LovegroveThanks for your questions.
1) I think you are referring to the capital raise costs for the maximum vs the minimum, this is primarily the additional fee PledgeMe would take which is a % on the amount raised. We also accounted for more advertising/marketing spend to reach the maximum however we have been really conservative here and haven't spent as much as we may have needed to.
2) We may consider selling more equity in the future but even with our silver projections, we don't think this will be necessary so it's not in our immediate plans.
3) There are no preferential shares, all shares issued to date are ordinary shares. All shares will have equal rights to dividends and distributions, the only difference is that the non-voting shares will not have voting right attached. With now over 100 shareholders it would be administratively difficult to coordinate signatures.
4) You are correct that shares of less than 35K are nil as per the constitution.
Let me know if I can clarify anything further, feel free to call or email me too - [email protected] // 0220971745
Answered on 20-05-2019 by Samantha Rae Jones
Hey
Looks interesting.
Few questions
What is driving the ballooning of operating expenses?
I noticed your cost of goods sold seems to be decreasing per $ of sales in the first few years yet in the projections this trend is reversed. Why is this?
Forecast growth is enormous. Particularly in this coming year, projecting a more than doubling of the previous years revenue. What proportion of this growth is directly attributable to the school contract? How big is the school? Is it in a growing or established area? (Does this client have room for growth basically).
Thank you
Sincerely,
Matthew Williamson
Operating expense increase is primarily driven by staffing costs, specifically in sales which is also what will help drive increased revenue.
Cost of goods has decreased overall but we have such a range of products with different margins. Larger projects and wholesale orders attract a smaller margin. We have conservatively estimated our cost of goods in our projections to leave us room to take on some larger value (but smaller margin) projects.
Forecast growth is based on our pipeline and the number of projects that we expect to convert. Without investment we expected this to be 600K this year, however, with additional resources in staff and marketing we feel that our forecast revenue is achievable.
The school is a new school with crica 150 students in Auckland, we expect this school to grow quite quickly and we will also use this to attract other schools.
Obviously, these are all estimates based on what you know today and may need to be reassessed in the case of any unforeseen circumstances and changing business environments.
Feel free to email me or call me if you want to chat more - [email protected] / 0220971745
Answered on 16-05-2019 by Samantha Rae Jones
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