Opportunity Snapshot
- Country: USA
- Industry: Entertainment, Leisure, Film, Music, Sport
- Stage: Initial growth (first revenues)
- Years in operations: 1, Employees: 5
- Investment size: $250,000 / min. $100,000
- Type of investment: Debt, Equity
Investment Opportunity
Our company leverages school fundraisers to sell quality DVD/Blu-ray movie titles from major Hollywood studios. We need capital for 1) additional staff to penetrate the over 132k elementary and secondary schools throughout the U.S., and 2) expand the product offering to include digital download and video games.
U.S. consumers spend an estimated $2 Billion annually on purchasing products to support school fundraising initiatives. We are the only company that has distribution agreements with major Hollywood studios to sell quality DVD/Blu-ray movie titles through this channel.
There are over 132,000 elementary and secondary schools throughout the U.S. and each student has the potential to raise money for their school. We now allow these students to sell a more attractive product in exchange for their supporter's charitable dollar.
The studios discount their product in order for schools to benefit and we take 10% off the gross sale. If an average school has 500 students and each of them are able to sell at least 4 items at $15 each, that comes out $30,000 gross revenue, or $3,000 for the company. Just securing 1% of the 132,000 schools in the U.S. would yield $3.96 Million annually.
There are over 1,000 titles currently available for purchase through our website. Each school is given their own landing page on the website, which dictates what their consumers can buy. The ease of online sales makes the program more scalable with greater sales potential.
Now that our program is up and running, it doesn't matter whether there is only 1 school on board or 1,000 schools. It's just a matter of getting the manpower to penetrate more schools. In Fall 2012, the company will execute both online sales and catalog brochure, which is expected to satisfy schools of all types.
The owner of the company has already made a personal investment of $215k. An estimated $250k is now needed to expand into additional territories. We are open to various types of funding and would be happy to discuss terms with potential investors.
Competitive Advantage
Direct competitors include other fundraising companies ranging from chocolate sales to magazine subscriptions. Our team has many years of management experience in the entertainment industry, which is probably the main reason we were able to secure the studio contracts. We were even told by studios like Warner Bros., Sony and Paramount that if it weren't for our previous relationships with them, we would not have been granted a meeting.
Rationale for the deal
Regardless of the economy, philanthropy stays fairly constant. Schools are always faced with budget cuts, which causes them to look for alternative funding. That's why creating a partnership between schools and the studios can be so lucrative. We are not only making money for ourselves, we are also helping schools as well.
Now that we have a product that no one else is selling through this channel, if we can just get 5% of the $2 Billion fundraising pie, which makes it a $100 Million business for us.
We have heavy-hitters from the home entertainment industry on our team, as well as an experienced sales representative from the fundraising arena. Combine that with a fantastic title selection and a sophisticated website for online sales, it all equates to a company that is very well-positioned to take off.
Use of financing
Although nearly $300k has already been invested into the company, it still requires additional funding to build a sales team and penetrate the over 132k elementary and secondary schools throughout the U.S.
We also need to be able to expand our product offering into digital download and video games, which will require enhancements to our website.
Opportunity for the investor
• $250k cash injection
• 3-year convertible note
• 15% coupon
• Interest-only monthly payments
• Balloon payment or conversion into equity at end of term
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