SellShed by Websoft Limited

By Brendan Howell

PledgeMe.Investment

Technology,



NZ $711,100 pledged


68 people pledged


Closed


NZ $250,000 minimum target


Min

NZ$250,000

Max

NZ$1,000,000

100 100% Complete

This campaign was successful and closed on 09/04/2015 at 6:00 PM.

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About

SellShed by Websoft Limited

SellShed is a Social Marketplace software platform.  A revolutionary mobile trading app with more than 13,000 current users in its community and growing fast. The platform allows local classified trading and highlights special offers from online traders. SellShed uses strong viral systems (within Facebook) for growth, and uses  push notifications to alert users to deals they’re looking for within their geolocation to ensure locally relevant advertising. The app is available on iOS and Android, and is also  accessible on our website www.sellshed.co.nz.  You can download and try our app for free from iTunes or Google Play.

SellShed is fast, locally relevant, socially integrated, and most importantly, easy for users to use. People can list Wanted or items for sale in 30 seconds or less.  SellShed offers users the opportunity to get everything they want from their pocket.

Because SellShed is free for individuals to use and is designed for mobiles, it’s an attractive alternative to existing pay-to-list or pay-upon-success online shopping/classifieds platforms which rely on desktop computer access.  The future is social, and we are tapping into this current market trend.

An analysis of the international marketplace and competition shows there is global potential in the classifieds industry which seems to be well guarded, and we are planning to tap into that stream.  We are currently in discussion with two strategic international partners regarding rolling out the app in their markets. The app is social-focussed and can be used anywhere in the world. Social integration is also an important aspect of the design, users can easily share our app with their friends and start trading within their community - including Facebook groups.


Share offer

This is an offer for you to buy ordinary shares in Websoft Limited for $2.50 per share.  
Sell Shed New Zealand Limited is a subsidiary of Websoft Limited. Websoft Limited holds 97.5% of the shares in Sell Shed New Zealand Limited, which acts as a trading entity for Websoft Limited.  We are offering a minimum of 100,000  shares and up to 400,000 shares at $2.50 each in Websoft Limited. This represents 4.76- 16.67% of the company.

This offer is for ordinary voting shares. These shares enjoy all rights associated with an ordinary holding in any New Zealand company, including dividends (at the board’s discretion), and inclusion of voting rights. We have chosen to not offer pre-emptive rights in order to reduce admin time, expense, and to enable the board to react without encumbrance when considering a potential buy out or IPO.

Websoft Ltd is the overarching entity that owns SellShed.  You are buying shares in Websoft.  There are also future projects in the pipeline, so you are investing in the holding company that owns SellShed and will potentially create other future projects and products.

Clarification of Terms: Throughout this campaign page, we use the reference "SellShed". This means the SellShed application, which is owned by Websoft Limited. "We" means Websoft Limited.
 

The Founders


Co-founders of SellShed - Vince Edwards (CTO), Peter Howell (CEO), Brendan Howell (COO)

As SellShed co-founders, we have the know-how to quickly establish online social communities. We have extensive and proven experience in Social web and Facebook projects and eCommerce and through our other businesses (prior to SellShed) having a turnover of more than $1.5 million per year and an online social project that reached over 18 million monthly active users. We have engaged in serious validation of our product through our major buy/sell Facebook groups with over 100,000+ members which we have built up and moderated for the last 12 months.

We have also formed a strong development team - which includes an experienced CTO, web developer and talented ios and Android developer.  We believe we have some of the best tech minds and skilled developers in New Zealand!  Although a small team, we are on the cutting edge of technologies and knowing how to make a business like this scale, and scale fast.

We have a proven product that our customers and traders enjoy using.  There has been a massive  uptake of new users since our soft launch in October. We have already attracted $300,000 in private capital to go towards development, and we need more hands on deck to step things up.  We are only a young company, but we have a combined 70 years worth of strong experience.

For media releases visit this page:
http://www.sellshed.co.nz/invest/news


How we'll use the funds raised

SellShed is going to use the money we raise through this PledgeMe campaign to market and further develop the platform. We have created a suite of marketing campaigns which will be rolled out through traditional, digital and social media, and we have a development roadmap designed to keep us at the cutting edge of innovative app development.

 

 

About our Team

Based out of Mt Maunganui in Tauranga New Zealand, we have a full time team of five, together with a formal Board and advisory group. Our board and advisory group are responsible for governance and strategy.

 

Mark Bayly – Non-executive Director. Mark holds an interdisciplinary PhD (Law and Business) from the National University of Ireland, University College Dublin. Mark has 18 years of international business and marketing experience advising clients in Food and Beverage, Banking, Telecommunication and Primary Industries.

He has served on the boards of Zespri International, Kiwifruit New Zealand, Plant and Food Research, and was Chairman of Milfos International at the time of its sale to Germany-based GEA Farm Technologies. Mark has also worked for Saatchi & Saatchi where he launched Eircell’s successful “Ready to Go” prepaid offering.

 

 

Peter Howell - CEO. Peter holds a Bachelor of Communication Studies from the University of Waikato. With 15 years of business experience in industries including advertising, wholesale distribution, and online marketing he is skilled in sales, sales management, marketing, capital raising, strategic planning, and business management.

Peter is currently Managing Director of EKEN Sports Ltd which has offices adjacent to the SellShed business. EKEN Sports is a stand alone business and Peter now assumes a monitoring role only in order to focus full time on SellShed.
View LinkedIn profile

 

Brendan Howell - COO. Brendan is an Aeronautical engineer with 17 years of business experience. He left the aircraft industry to pursue a business career in 1998. His skill set includes brand development, art direction, IT recruitment, operations management, capital raising, and business planning.

Brendan is also a shareholder and director of EKEN Sports Ltd. Brendan’s principal responsibilities within SellShed are geared around the user aspects of the design, ensuring the cognitive ergonomics are optimised and functionality is consistent with users WANTS.
View LinkedIn profile

 

Vincent Edwards - CTO. Vince is a web software developer with 20 years’ experience. Vince started developing web software as a hobby which quickly turned into a track record of successful projects. Some of the projects Vince built have been bought out by other companies such as Codelock and Ning. His most recent project was a social website app (“iwipa”) which featured in the top 10 of Facebook apps and had over 18 million monthly users.

Vince leads the two dedicated programmers in terms of design briefing, technical aspects of coding, and quality control.
View LinkedIn profile

 

Advisors

Our advisors consists of Bruce Sheppard, (Shareholders Association founder and Financial Markets Authority, Gilligan Sheppard Chartered Accountants), and Keith Young (Jones Young Lawyers).

What we've done so far

We have now completed a fully functional website, ios and Android apps, that are used and enjoyed by a flourishing community of over 13,000 users, and we are experiencing rapid and continual growth.  The first version has validated proof of concept, and we are ready to scale the growth.

The project began in a garage in Mt Maunganui late in 2013. Since then we have spent over 10,000 hours developing and coding. All these hours took us from crude sketches on scraps of paper to a real life prototype in a matter of months.

In October 2014 we soft launched the product so we could test it and get user feedback on how to make it better. The platform is now a custom built, slick, user-friendly, and highly functional mobile trading platform with a large and growing userbase.

The business has grown from one part-time staff member to a full time team of five.

 

What's next?


Growth and Monetization


Now that we have completed the foundational architecture and core function (MVP), the next steps are to implement more viral mechanisms (such as deeper facebook group integration) and other systems, to increase users exponentially. Very shortly, we will also start implementing monetization systems (If you would like more information about these monetization systems, please email us on [email protected]). The revenue model will kick in within the next 3 months.

Gilligan Sheppard have completed detailed financial projections which map out how the capital raised will be used. A summary is in our business plan and detailed projections are available upon request. The main focus of this raise is to provide a cash injection to allow us to spend on the following:

  1. Acquire users – as confirmed by our marketing testing over the last four months we have our user acquisition cost down to $1 per user. We have budgeted $1.50 in order to be conservative.
  2. Technical Development – being a high tech software project the SellShed platform will require ongoing development over the next 3+ years. Part of the ongoing technical development also includes new features that will aid in the commercialisation of the platform by providing value for business customers.
  3. Advertising Sales – we have budgeted to build a highly effective sales team to sell advertising and business subscriptions. Along with the CEO the sales team will be responsible for generating advertising revenue from September 2015 as per our financial projections.
  4. Operations – We have chosen to keep the operational costs of SellShed to a minimum in order to make capital available for user acquisition, technical development and sales. 

 

Growth

Initially we will focus on New Zealand and when we achieve our growth targets look to expand into Australia, Ireland and the USA. We have already seen interest from investors and potential strategic partners in Australia and Ireland.


We are focussing on these main key areas to grow SellShed:

  • Finalize negotiations with key networks, businesses and retailers
  • Begin our retail strategy
  • Complete the development of viral mechanisms
  • Implement monetization systems
  • Increasing the number of listings
  • Increasing the Total User Base
  • Increase Daily Active Users
  • Continual development and improvement


Success for us can be measured in many ways, our key targets are:

 

 

2015

2016

2017

Total User Base (TUB)

188,000

376,000

1.5 million

Daily Active Users (DAU)

37,000

74,000

294,000

 

For more information on our plan for growth, please read our summarised projections or email Brendan for the full forecasts.

 

 

Reinvestment

The board intends to reinvest any profits for the first 2 years in order to aid growth of the company. This policy will be reviewed annually.

 Shareholding

This is the shareholding pre- and post- offer (if fully subscribed).

 

Pre-offer

Name

 

Shares

 

%

Post-offer

Name

 

Shares

 

%

Brendan HOWELL
REX A HARDING

TRUSTEE CO LIMITED

500,000

25%

Brendan HOWELL
REX A HARDING

TRUSTEE CO LIMITED

600,000

25%

Peter HOWELL
REX A HARDING

TRUSTEE CO LIMITED

500,000

25%

Peter HOWELL
REX A HARDING

TRUSTEE CO LIMITED

600,000

25%

Vince EDWARDS

500,000

25%

Vince EDWARDS

600,000

25%

Vince EDWARDS
Brendan HOWELL
Peter HOWELL

342,000

17.1%

Vince EDWARDS
Brendan HOWELL
Peter HOWELL

10,400

0.43%

Paul Stanley HARRIS

100,000

5%

Paul Stanley HARRIS

120,000

5%

Minor shareholding (shown in Companies office)

68,000

2.9%

Minor shareholding (shown in Companies office)

80,000

2.9%

 

 

 

New investors

400,000

16.67%

TOTAL

2,000,000

100%

 

2,400,000

100%

 

 

Risks and Challenges

Risk

Mitigation

Technology Challenges


Staying up to date with technological changes and being able to scale the platform as user demand grows.

The SellShed platform was built by our team of software engineers in Mt Maunganui. We have a full time technical team on hand to deal with any potential issues quickly. The architecture has been designed to provide reliability and scalability. Our platform is running on Amazon EC2 and RDS servers, which means we can currently handle the same volume of traffic as Trade Me, and can easily scale resources linearly with increased traffic and usage. Furthermore, technical reporting and review is a key agenda item for the Board and ensures that threats (and opportunities) are formally addressed on a regular basis.

User Governance

As the app is a venue for trading there is the risk of inappropriate content being posted by users.

We have created strong policies to protect SellShed from a legal standpoint. Policy documents include a Privacy Policy, Terms of Service, Acceptable Use Policy, Community Rules, and Restricted Items. Our staff actively monitor content and investigate reported content to assess compliance with our terms. Algorithms have been developed to detect illegal or inappropriate posts.

Competitor Risks – Eventually competitors may enter the space with a similar offering.

We have a patent pending for unique technical processes that the SellShed app uses, including protection of the ‘WANT’ function in relation to its functionality. There is also increased difficulty for competitors to penetrate the market once SellShed has critical mass.

Data Security, Extreme Growth, & Hacking Risks – At some point we may experience attacks on our servers by competitors, or extreme load demand due to rapid viral growth.

Unlike companies that have fallen prey to technology failures and attacks (eg: Wheedle), we have built our architecture from the ground up to provide scalability and robust security. While large companies can be slow to make changes, SellShed, being a small team, is very responsive both from a business and technological standpoint. We run the latest Amazon EC2 and RDS servers, which are some of the most secure in the world. We have chosen not to host the software in-house due to cost and the speed at which technology evolves. Partnering with Amazon ensures we are always at the forefront of server technology, scalability and security.

Staff Risks – Attraction and retention of key staff.

We share our future plans with our team and get their commitment and buy in. The SellShed office is very much a community with the whole team believing that we are making a difference by creating a cutting edge technology product with global potential that rivals any hi-tech start-up in Silicon Valley. Our office being located at Mt Maunganui is also a drawcard for many technology professionals who wish to migrate to the area for lifestyle reasons. The COO’s experience in IT recruitment means staff can be quickly recruited as and when required..

Budget Risk – How will we stay on budget.

Our financial advisors, Gilligan Sheppard, have created comprehensive financial projections out to 2017. We have spent many months working with Gilligan Sheppard on the numbers and underlying assumptions. Our board meets monthly to review financial performance and make adjustments if necessary to stay on target.

 

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.

Updates 4

Thankyou to our amazing supporters

09/04/2015 at 4:23 PM

Hey all you amazing Pledgers & SellShed Followers


Exciting news! - we made our minimum target!! and it looks like we're not too far off our max target $1 million!

In the last few days we've had over $400,000 pledged. That's fantastic!

We still have a little more room at the top for anyone still considering the opportunity. We're pretty close to that $700,000 mark, it would be amazing if we hit $1 million! We think we can do even better with your help, but time runs out in 2 hours.

To all our supporters... we just want to say a huge thank you to everyone who has already invested, as well as to everyone who as helped us along the way. This is a very exciting time for us, and we're looking forward to growing with you.  Onwards and upwards!

Let's do this!

SellShed Investment Event - Tauranga FREE Beer and Nibbles!

25/03/2015 at 4:16 PM

SellShed in Idealog!

10/03/2015 at 7:50 PM

Team Launch Party!

10/03/2015 at 7:46 PM

Hi guys,

Thanks for pledging or following us. Here are a few shots of our team launch party. We all ate waaaay too much pizza but had a great time. If you haven't already pledged now's as good a time as any! If you already have thank you for supporting a kiwi startup. Please share this page with your friends and give them the opportunity to come on board.

Vince and Kris cheesie selfie

Vince and Kris cheesie selfie.

BH Aircon

Brendan trying to get some aircon up there.

 Nothings going to get in between Kris and his pizza!

Pete's stuffing his face.

    Details

    Offer Details

    Current Valuation 5,000,000
    Raise Minimum 250,000
    Raise Maximum 1,000,000
    Share Price 2.50
    Minimum Pledge 500.00
    Maximum Shares Offered 400,000
    Explanation of valuation:

    In consultation with Gilligan Sheppard Accountants, Websoft Limited's valuation is based on a number of key drivers including: The IP and technology created, the team we have assembled, our freedom to operate in this space (not infringing any existing technologies), our ability to execute this project, and the number of users we have.

    Financial Summary

    Prev Year Current Year Est. FY 2025 Est. FY 2026
    Revenue NZ $0 NZ $0 NZ $2,913,018 NZ $9,411,090
    Operating Expenses NZ $0 NZ $213,783 NZ $1,010,568 NZ $2,114,862
    EBITDA NZ $0 -NZ $213,783 NZ $924,406 NZ $5,336,010
    Net Profit NZ $0 -NZ $213,783 NZ $725,432 NZ $3,841,927

    Company Details

    Company Name: Websoft Limited (registered as WEBSOFT LIMITED)

    Company Number: 4636726

    Companies Office URL: http://www.business.govt.nz/companies/app/ui/pages/companies/4636726

    Incorporation Date: 03 Oct 2013

    Company Status: Registered

    Entity Type: Registered

    Constitution Filed: Yes

    Annual Return Filing Month: October, last filed 20 Oct 2014

    Addresses:

    Registered Office 9 Prince Avenue
    Mount Maunganui
    Mount Maunganui
    Address for Service 9 Prince Avenue
    Mount Maunganui
    Mount Maunganui

    Company Documents

    Documents no longer available to download, as this campaign has closed

    Director Details

    Name Role Profile URL Invested?
    Mark Fred BAYLY Non-executive Director https://www.linkedin.com/pub/mark-bayly/a/301/665
    Vince EDWARDS Director / CTO http://nz.linkedin.com/in/vincentedwards/en
    Brendan HOWELL Director / COO http://nz.linkedin.com/pub/brendan-howell/45/a14/115/en
    Peter HOWELL Director / CEO http://nz.linkedin.com/pub/brendan-howell/45/a14/115/en

    Questions 2


    Hi Brendan and team. As an investor I shared the site with 6 of my younger millennial connections and asked them to what they thought. I did not reveal my interest. Just for interest, this is the feedback:

    One said "This is kind of cool."

    Another :"A bit hard to use on a phone, and strange that it is advertising stuff that is sold already."

    Another said " a cool idea."

    Another said "I expect the search to geolocate me, but it didn't"

    Another: where's the FAQ and help area?"

    cheers

    Gary Mersham

    Posted on 20-04-2015 by Gary Mersham

    You recently had an investor evening where you were to discuss, among other things SV investors and a trial with a retain brand. Are you able to comment on those items?

    Posted on 05-04-2015 by First Heritage Ltd

    Pledgers 68

    Kellie Deuchar
    09/04/2015 at 5:59pm
    Justin Wallis
    09/04/2015 at 5:34pm
    Justin Souto
    09/04/2015 at 5:14pm
    Christian Pieler
    09/04/2015 at 5:08pm
    Lloyd Davidson
    09/04/2015 at 5:07pm
    Christian Pieler
    09/04/2015 at 5:05pm
    Luke Sygrove
    09/04/2015 at 4:34pm
    Bill O'Sullivan
    09/04/2015 at 4:30pm
    tony
    09/04/2015 at 3:01pm
    Paul McGregor
    09/04/2015 at 2:48pm
    Ross Jenkins
    09/04/2015 at 2:35pm
    Fiona Coupland
    09/04/2015 at 1:19pm
    Glen Chappel
    09/04/2015 at 12:44pm
    Ian Gleghorn
    09/04/2015 at 12:26pm

    "Looking forward to the journey"

    jason manning
    09/04/2015 at 12:24pm
    Greg Pert
    09/04/2015 at 10:47am
    James Johnston
    09/04/2015 at 10:34am
    Blair Cashmore
    09/04/2015 at 10:29am

    "Excited to be on board!"

    Matthew Bird
    08/04/2015 at 9:42pm
    Bryce Vendt
    08/04/2015 at 8:48pm
    Nathan
    08/04/2015 at 8:22pm

    "Looking forward to sharing in the future success of this awesome technology company"

    Shane
    08/04/2015 at 8:20pm
    Darryl
    08/04/2015 at 6:53pm
    Pleayo Tovaranonte
    08/04/2015 at 5:46pm

    "Supporting our local innovation."

    Deven Russell
    08/04/2015 at 10:56am
    Alice Johnson
    08/04/2015 at 9:03am

    "Amazing to see the many years of hard work come to life. A very exciting business, which I'm looking forward to watching grow. "

    Chris
    07/04/2015 at 7:34pm
    Gary Mersham
    07/04/2015 at 3:03pm

    "Pleased to support Brendan and his team who have have built a unique solution to the interactive classified. "

    Paul Tidmarsh
    07/04/2015 at 2:42pm
    Carolynn Cryer
    07/04/2015 at 2:40pm

    SellShed by Websoft Limited

    SellShed is a Social Marketplace software platform.  A revolutionary mobile trading app with more than 13,000 current users in its community and growing fast. The platform allows local classified trading and highlights special offers from online traders. SellShed uses strong viral systems (within Facebook) for growth, and uses  push notifications to alert users to deals they’re looking for within their geolocation to ensure locally relevant advertising. The app is available on iOS and Android, and is also  accessible on our website www.sellshed.co.nz.  You can download and try our app for free from iTunes or Google Play.

    SellShed is fast, locally relevant, socially integrated, and most importantly, easy for users to use. People can list Wanted or items for sale in 30 seconds or less.  SellShed offers users the opportunity to get everything they want from their pocket.

    Because SellShed is free for individuals to use and is designed for mobiles, it’s an attractive alternative to existing pay-to-list or pay-upon-success online shopping/classifieds platforms which rely on desktop computer access.  The future is social, and we are tapping into this current market trend.

    An analysis of the international marketplace and competition shows there is global potential in the classifieds industry which seems to be well guarded, and we are planning to tap into that stream.  We are currently in discussion with two strategic international partners regarding rolling out the app in their markets. The app is social-focussed and can be used anywhere in the world. Social integration is also an important aspect of the design, users can easily share our app with their friends and start trading within their community - including Facebook groups.


    Share offer

    This is an offer for you to buy ordinary shares in Websoft Limited for $2.50 per share.  
    Sell Shed New Zealand Limited is a subsidiary of Websoft Limited. Websoft Limited holds 97.5% of the shares in Sell Shed New Zealand Limited, which acts as a trading entity for Websoft Limited.  We are offering a minimum of 100,000  shares and up to 400,000 shares at $2.50 each in Websoft Limited. This represents 4.76- 16.67% of the company.

    This offer is for ordinary voting shares. These shares enjoy all rights associated with an ordinary holding in any New Zealand company, including dividends (at the board’s discretion), and inclusion of voting rights. We have chosen to not offer pre-emptive rights in order to reduce admin time, expense, and to enable the board to react without encumbrance when considering a potential buy out or IPO.

    Websoft Ltd is the overarching entity that owns SellShed.  You are buying shares in Websoft.  There are also future projects in the pipeline, so you are investing in the holding company that owns SellShed and will potentially create other future projects and products.

    Clarification of Terms: Throughout this campaign page, we use the reference "SellShed". This means the SellShed application, which is owned by Websoft Limited. "We" means Websoft Limited.
     

    The Founders


    Co-founders of SellShed - Vince Edwards (CTO), Peter Howell (CEO), Brendan Howell (COO)

    As SellShed co-founders, we have the know-how to quickly establish online social communities. We have extensive and proven experience in Social web and Facebook projects and eCommerce and through our other businesses (prior to SellShed) having a turnover of more than $1.5 million per year and an online social project that reached over 18 million monthly active users. We have engaged in serious validation of our product through our major buy/sell Facebook groups with over 100,000+ members which we have built up and moderated for the last 12 months.

    We have also formed a strong development team - which includes an experienced CTO, web developer and talented ios and Android developer.  We believe we have some of the best tech minds and skilled developers in New Zealand!  Although a small team, we are on the cutting edge of technologies and knowing how to make a business like this scale, and scale fast.

    We have a proven product that our customers and traders enjoy using.  There has been a massive  uptake of new users since our soft launch in October. We have already attracted $300,000 in private capital to go towards development, and we need more hands on deck to step things up.  We are only a young company, but we have a combined 70 years worth of strong experience.

    For media releases visit this page:
    http://www.sellshed.co.nz/invest/news


    How we'll use the funds raised

    SellShed is going to use the money we raise through this PledgeMe campaign to market and further develop the platform. We have created a suite of marketing campaigns which will be rolled out through traditional, digital and social media, and we have a development roadmap designed to keep us at the cutting edge of innovative app development.

     

     

    About our Team

    Based out of Mt Maunganui in Tauranga New Zealand, we have a full time team of five, together with a formal Board and advisory group. Our board and advisory group are responsible for governance and strategy.

     

    Mark Bayly – Non-executive Director. Mark holds an interdisciplinary PhD (Law and Business) from the National University of Ireland, University College Dublin. Mark has 18 years of international business and marketing experience advising clients in Food and Beverage, Banking, Telecommunication and Primary Industries.

    He has served on the boards of Zespri International, Kiwifruit New Zealand, Plant and Food Research, and was Chairman of Milfos International at the time of its sale to Germany-based GEA Farm Technologies. Mark has also worked for Saatchi & Saatchi where he launched Eircell’s successful “Ready to Go” prepaid offering.

     

     

    Peter Howell - CEO. Peter holds a Bachelor of Communication Studies from the University of Waikato. With 15 years of business experience in industries including advertising, wholesale distribution, and online marketing he is skilled in sales, sales management, marketing, capital raising, strategic planning, and business management.

    Peter is currently Managing Director of EKEN Sports Ltd which has offices adjacent to the SellShed business. EKEN Sports is a stand alone business and Peter now assumes a monitoring role only in order to focus full time on SellShed.
    View LinkedIn profile

     

    Brendan Howell - COO. Brendan is an Aeronautical engineer with 17 years of business experience. He left the aircraft industry to pursue a business career in 1998. His skill set includes brand development, art direction, IT recruitment, operations management, capital raising, and business planning.

    Brendan is also a shareholder and director of EKEN Sports Ltd. Brendan’s principal responsibilities within SellShed are geared around the user aspects of the design, ensuring the cognitive ergonomics are optimised and functionality is consistent with users WANTS.
    View LinkedIn profile

     

    Vincent Edwards - CTO. Vince is a web software developer with 20 years’ experience. Vince started developing web software as a hobby which quickly turned into a track record of successful projects. Some of the projects Vince built have been bought out by other companies such as Codelock and Ning. His most recent project was a social website app (“iwipa”) which featured in the top 10 of Facebook apps and had over 18 million monthly users.

    Vince leads the two dedicated programmers in terms of design briefing, technical aspects of coding, and quality control.
    View LinkedIn profile

     

    Advisors

    Our advisors consists of Bruce Sheppard, (Shareholders Association founder and Financial Markets Authority, Gilligan Sheppard Chartered Accountants), and Keith Young (Jones Young Lawyers).

    What we've done so far

    We have now completed a fully functional website, ios and Android apps, that are used and enjoyed by a flourishing community of over 13,000 users, and we are experiencing rapid and continual growth.  The first version has validated proof of concept, and we are ready to scale the growth.

    The project began in a garage in Mt Maunganui late in 2013. Since then we have spent over 10,000 hours developing and coding. All these hours took us from crude sketches on scraps of paper to a real life prototype in a matter of months.

    In October 2014 we soft launched the product so we could test it and get user feedback on how to make it better. The platform is now a custom built, slick, user-friendly, and highly functional mobile trading platform with a large and growing userbase.

    The business has grown from one part-time staff member to a full time team of five.

     

    What's next?


    Growth and Monetization


    Now that we have completed the foundational architecture and core function (MVP), the next steps are to implement more viral mechanisms (such as deeper facebook group integration) and other systems, to increase users exponentially. Very shortly, we will also start implementing monetization systems (If you would like more information about these monetization systems, please email us on [email protected]). The revenue model will kick in within the next 3 months.

    Gilligan Sheppard have completed detailed financial projections which map out how the capital raised will be used. A summary is in our business plan and detailed projections are available upon request. The main focus of this raise is to provide a cash injection to allow us to spend on the following:

    1. Acquire users – as confirmed by our marketing testing over the last four months we have our user acquisition cost down to $1 per user. We have budgeted $1.50 in order to be conservative.
    2. Technical Development – being a high tech software project the SellShed platform will require ongoing development over the next 3+ years. Part of the ongoing technical development also includes new features that will aid in the commercialisation of the platform by providing value for business customers.
    3. Advertising Sales – we have budgeted to build a highly effective sales team to sell advertising and business subscriptions. Along with the CEO the sales team will be responsible for generating advertising revenue from September 2015 as per our financial projections.
    4. Operations – We have chosen to keep the operational costs of SellShed to a minimum in order to make capital available for user acquisition, technical development and sales. 

     

    Growth

    Initially we will focus on New Zealand and when we achieve our growth targets look to expand into Australia, Ireland and the USA. We have already seen interest from investors and potential strategic partners in Australia and Ireland.


    We are focussing on these main key areas to grow SellShed:

    • Finalize negotiations with key networks, businesses and retailers
    • Begin our retail strategy
    • Complete the development of viral mechanisms
    • Implement monetization systems
    • Increasing the number of listings
    • Increasing the Total User Base
    • Increase Daily Active Users
    • Continual development and improvement


    Success for us can be measured in many ways, our key targets are:

     

     

    2015

    2016

    2017

    Total User Base (TUB)

    188,000

    376,000

    1.5 million

    Daily Active Users (DAU)

    37,000

    74,000

    294,000

     

    For more information on our plan for growth, please read our summarised projections or email Brendan for the full forecasts.

     

     

    Reinvestment

    The board intends to reinvest any profits for the first 2 years in order to aid growth of the company. This policy will be reviewed annually.

     Shareholding

    This is the shareholding pre- and post- offer (if fully subscribed).

     

    Pre-offer

    Name

     

    Shares

     

    %

    Post-offer

    Name

     

    Shares

     

    %

    Brendan HOWELL
    REX A HARDING

    TRUSTEE CO LIMITED

    500,000

    25%

    Brendan HOWELL
    REX A HARDING

    TRUSTEE CO LIMITED

    600,000

    25%

    Peter HOWELL
    REX A HARDING

    TRUSTEE CO LIMITED

    500,000

    25%

    Peter HOWELL
    REX A HARDING

    TRUSTEE CO LIMITED

    600,000

    25%

    Vince EDWARDS

    500,000

    25%

    Vince EDWARDS

    600,000

    25%

    Vince EDWARDS
    Brendan HOWELL
    Peter HOWELL

    342,000

    17.1%

    Vince EDWARDS
    Brendan HOWELL
    Peter HOWELL

    10,400

    0.43%

    Paul Stanley HARRIS

    100,000

    5%

    Paul Stanley HARRIS

    120,000

    5%

    Minor shareholding (shown in Companies office)

    68,000

    2.9%

    Minor shareholding (shown in Companies office)

    80,000

    2.9%

     

     

     

    New investors

    400,000

    16.67%

    TOTAL

    2,000,000

    100%

     

    2,400,000

    100%

     

     

    Risks and Challenges

    Risk

    Mitigation

    Technology Challenges


    Staying up to date with technological changes and being able to scale the platform as user demand grows.

    The SellShed platform was built by our team of software engineers in Mt Maunganui. We have a full time technical team on hand to deal with any potential issues quickly. The architecture has been designed to provide reliability and scalability. Our platform is running on Amazon EC2 and RDS servers, which means we can currently handle the same volume of traffic as Trade Me, and can easily scale resources linearly with increased traffic and usage. Furthermore, technical reporting and review is a key agenda item for the Board and ensures that threats (and opportunities) are formally addressed on a regular basis.

    User Governance

    As the app is a venue for trading there is the risk of inappropriate content being posted by users.

    We have created strong policies to protect SellShed from a legal standpoint. Policy documents include a Privacy Policy, Terms of Service, Acceptable Use Policy, Community Rules, and Restricted Items. Our staff actively monitor content and investigate reported content to assess compliance with our terms. Algorithms have been developed to detect illegal or inappropriate posts.

    Competitor Risks – Eventually competitors may enter the space with a similar offering.

    We have a patent pending for unique technical processes that the SellShed app uses, including protection of the ‘WANT’ function in relation to its functionality. There is also increased difficulty for competitors to penetrate the market once SellShed has critical mass.

    Data Security, Extreme Growth, & Hacking Risks – At some point we may experience attacks on our servers by competitors, or extreme load demand due to rapid viral growth.

    Unlike companies that have fallen prey to technology failures and attacks (eg: Wheedle), we have built our architecture from the ground up to provide scalability and robust security. While large companies can be slow to make changes, SellShed, being a small team, is very responsive both from a business and technological standpoint. We run the latest Amazon EC2 and RDS servers, which are some of the most secure in the world. We have chosen not to host the software in-house due to cost and the speed at which technology evolves. Partnering with Amazon ensures we are always at the forefront of server technology, scalability and security.

    Staff Risks – Attraction and retention of key staff.

    We share our future plans with our team and get their commitment and buy in. The SellShed office is very much a community with the whole team believing that we are making a difference by creating a cutting edge technology product with global potential that rivals any hi-tech start-up in Silicon Valley. Our office being located at Mt Maunganui is also a drawcard for many technology professionals who wish to migrate to the area for lifestyle reasons. The COO’s experience in IT recruitment means staff can be quickly recruited as and when required..

    Budget Risk – How will we stay on budget.

    Our financial advisors, Gilligan Sheppard, have created comprehensive financial projections out to 2017. We have spent many months working with Gilligan Sheppard on the numbers and underlying assumptions. Our board meets monthly to review financial performance and make adjustments if necessary to stay on target.

     

    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.

    Thankyou to our amazing supporters

    09/04/2015 at 4:23 PM

    Hey all you amazing Pledgers & SellShed Followers


    Exciting news! - we made our minimum target!! and it looks like we're not too far off our max target $1 million!

    In the last few days we've had over $400,000 pledged. That's fantastic!

    We still have a little more room at the top for anyone still considering the opportunity. We're pretty close to that $700,000 mark, it would be amazing if we hit $1 million! We think we can do even better with your help, but time runs out in 2 hours.

    To all our supporters... we just want to say a huge thank you to everyone who has already invested, as well as to everyone who as helped us along the way. This is a very exciting time for us, and we're looking forward to growing with you.  Onwards and upwards!

    Let's do this!

    SellShed Investment Event - Tauranga FREE Beer and Nibbles!

    25/03/2015 at 4:16 PM

    SellShed in Idealog!

    10/03/2015 at 7:50 PM

    Team Launch Party!

    10/03/2015 at 7:46 PM

    Hi guys,

    Thanks for pledging or following us. Here are a few shots of our team launch party. We all ate waaaay too much pizza but had a great time. If you haven't already pledged now's as good a time as any! If you already have thank you for supporting a kiwi startup. Please share this page with your friends and give them the opportunity to come on board.

    Vince and Kris cheesie selfie

    Vince and Kris cheesie selfie.

    BH Aircon

    Brendan trying to get some aircon up there.

     Nothings going to get in between Kris and his pizza!

    Pete's stuffing his face.

      Offer Details

      Current Valuation 5,000,000
      Raise Minimum 250,000
      Raise Maximum 1,000,000
      Share Price 2.50
      Minimum Pledge 500.00
      Maximum Shares Offered 400,000
      Explanation of valuation:

      In consultation with Gilligan Sheppard Accountants, Websoft Limited's valuation is based on a number of key drivers including: The IP and technology created, the team we have assembled, our freedom to operate in this space (not infringing any existing technologies), our ability to execute this project, and the number of users we have.

      Financial Summary

      Prev Year Current Year Est. FY 2025 Est. FY 2026
      Revenue NZ $0 NZ $0 NZ $2,913,018 NZ $9,411,090
      Operating Expenses NZ $0 NZ $213,783 NZ $1,010,568 NZ $2,114,862
      EBITDA NZ $0 -NZ $213,783 NZ $924,406 NZ $5,336,010
      Net Profit NZ $0 -NZ $213,783 NZ $725,432 NZ $3,841,927

      Company Details

      Company Name: Websoft Limited (registered as WEBSOFT LIMITED)

      Company Number: 4636726

      Companies Office URL: http://www.business.govt.nz/companies/app/ui/pages/companies/4636726

      Incorporation Date: 03 Oct 2013

      Company Status: Registered

      Entity Type: Registered

      Constitution Filed: Yes

      Annual Return Filing Month: October, last filed 20 Oct 2014

      Addresses:

      Registered Office 9 Prince Avenue
      Mount Maunganui
      Mount Maunganui
      Address for Service 9 Prince Avenue
      Mount Maunganui
      Mount Maunganui

      Company Documents

      Documents no longer available to download, as this campaign has closed

      Director Details

      Name Role Profile URL Invested?
      Mark Fred BAYLY Non-executive Director https://www.linkedin.com/pub/mark-bayly/a/301/665
      Vince EDWARDS Director / CTO http://nz.linkedin.com/in/vincentedwards/en
      Brendan HOWELL Director / COO http://nz.linkedin.com/pub/brendan-howell/45/a14/115/en
      Peter HOWELL Director / CEO http://nz.linkedin.com/pub/brendan-howell/45/a14/115/en

      Hi Brendan and team. As an investor I shared the site with 6 of my younger millennial connections and asked them to what they thought. I did not reveal my interest. Just for interest, this is the feedback:

      One said "This is kind of cool."

      Another :"A bit hard to use on a phone, and strange that it is advertising stuff that is sold already."

      Another said " a cool idea."

      Another said "I expect the search to geolocate me, but it didn't"

      Another: where's the FAQ and help area?"

      cheers

      Gary Mersham

      Posted on 20-04-2015 by Gary Mersham

      You recently had an investor evening where you were to discuss, among other things SV investors and a trial with a retain brand. Are you able to comment on those items?

      Posted on 05-04-2015 by First Heritage Ltd
      Kellie Deuchar
      09/04/2015 at 5:59pm
      Justin Wallis
      09/04/2015 at 5:34pm
      Justin Souto
      09/04/2015 at 5:14pm
      Christian Pieler
      09/04/2015 at 5:08pm
      Lloyd Davidson
      09/04/2015 at 5:07pm
      Christian Pieler
      09/04/2015 at 5:05pm
      Luke Sygrove
      09/04/2015 at 4:34pm
      Bill O'Sullivan
      09/04/2015 at 4:30pm
      tony
      09/04/2015 at 3:01pm
      Paul McGregor
      09/04/2015 at 2:48pm
      Ross Jenkins
      09/04/2015 at 2:35pm
      Fiona Coupland
      09/04/2015 at 1:19pm
      Glen Chappel
      09/04/2015 at 12:44pm
      Ian Gleghorn
      09/04/2015 at 12:26pm

      "Looking forward to the journey"

      jason manning
      09/04/2015 at 12:24pm
      Greg Pert
      09/04/2015 at 10:47am
      James Johnston
      09/04/2015 at 10:34am
      Blair Cashmore
      09/04/2015 at 10:29am

      "Excited to be on board!"

      Matthew Bird
      08/04/2015 at 9:42pm
      Bryce Vendt
      08/04/2015 at 8:48pm
      Nathan
      08/04/2015 at 8:22pm

      "Looking forward to sharing in the future success of this awesome technology company"

      Shane
      08/04/2015 at 8:20pm
      Darryl
      08/04/2015 at 6:53pm
      Pleayo Tovaranonte
      08/04/2015 at 5:46pm

      "Supporting our local innovation."

      Deven Russell
      08/04/2015 at 10:56am
      Alice Johnson
      08/04/2015 at 9:03am

      "Amazing to see the many years of hard work come to life. A very exciting business, which I'm looking forward to watching grow. "

      Chris
      07/04/2015 at 7:34pm
      Gary Mersham
      07/04/2015 at 3:03pm

      "Pleased to support Brendan and his team who have have built a unique solution to the interactive classified. "

      Paul Tidmarsh
      07/04/2015 at 2:42pm
      Carolynn Cryer
      07/04/2015 at 2:40pm
      This campaign was successful and got its funding on 09/04/2015 at 6:00 PM.

      This campaign has closed, but this company may choose to do more equity raises on PledgeMe in the future. If you're interested in investing in SellShed by Websoft Limited, you can sign up to be notified when a new equity campaign from this company is published.

      Notify Me

      Investor Perks

      All SellShed Shareholders

      NZ $500.00+

      * A lifelong 20% shareholder discount on any business package and platform premium fees & 20% discount on Advertising fees * Numbered Printed share certificate signed by founders * An invitation to the SellShed AGM and After Party (business up front, party at the back, as you’d expect).

      VIP Treatment

      NZ $2,000.00+

      * A lifelong 40% shareholder discount on any business package and platform premium fees & a 40% discount on Advertising fees * Early bird notification of special offers from businesses such as discounted accommodation, travel, food, giveaways etc, before they go live * Automatic entry into monthly cash prize draws, or platform credits * Limited edition SellShed supporter T-Shirt. * Numbered framed share certificate signed by the founders

      Extreme VIP Treatment

      NZ $20,000.00+

      * A lifelong 75% shareholder discount on any business package and platform premium fees & a 75% discount on Advertising fees * 3 limited edition supporter T-Shirts * Numbered framed share certificate signed by founders * Invitation for two to SellShed annual ‘We need to blow off some steam’ staff party * You'll be invited to meet the founders, hang out, discuss business ideas and have beers.

      Warning statement about equity crowdfunding

      Equity crowdfunding is risky.

      Issuers using this facility include new or rapidly growing ventures. Investment in these types of business is very speculative and carries high risks.

      You may lose your entire investment, and must be in a position to bear this risk without undue hardship.

      New Zealand law normally requires people who offer financial products to give information to investors before they invest. This requires those offering financial products to have disclosed information that is important for investors to make an informed decision.

      The usual rules do not apply to offers by issuers using this facility. As a result, you may not be given all the information usually required. You will also have fewer other legal protections for this investment.

      Ask questions, read all information given carefully, and seek independent financial advice before committing yourself.