anthony amodeo

Land O Lakes, FL (USA)
Role(s):
Founder/Owner/Principal

Flippy

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Location: Land O Lakes
Industry: Internet
Year Founded: 2015
Number Employees: 1-10 people
Business Stage: Creation/Idea
Entity Type: Not Incorporated
Description: Flippy which is a copy of YikYak allows users to anonymously post photos or videos, instead of only posting text. The app, therefore, stays almost exactly the same to ensure a higher probability of success, with only that one main adjustment. The following will: 1) describe app market conditions by providing examples of app companies that have risen to multi-million or multi-billion valuations. 2) discuss the actual app itself that I have named Flippy, and then finally. 3) lay out my planned growth strategy, expected valuation, and capital amounts I hope to raise. 1. THE APPLICATION: Flippy As stated in the introduction, Flippy will retain all the major characteristics of YikYak, except that users will be allowed to anonymously post pictures and videos, instead of the basic text comments currently found on YikYak. Flippy users will also be able to add in their location by geofencing services, so pictures can be shared from sporting events, parks, beaches and other gatherings. In keeping things mostly the same, I believe we can expect a much higher probability of success. On the other hand, you might be thinking that this is too similar to what is already offered by YikYak, but I assure you, I will keep an eye on the design to make it sufficiently different so that it is not an exact copy. By moving from text to photo and video, Flippy will have already differentiated itself enough to get into the App Store. Then of course, there will be different logos, color schemes, etc. Users will be able to draw and write on the photos they post, similar to SnapChat (see again I am snagging one of SnapChat’s best features and incorporating it here with a variation of YikYak). Once we have the app developed, I will let everyone test it out, and we will run a beta test in one community, before opening it up for mass release just to ensure all the bugs are fixed and the app operates smoothly. 2. GROWTH STRATEGY I intend to follow the exact same growth strategy that YikYak employed to get them to it to its current valuation. To understand the YikYak promotion strategy, it is best to check out their YouTube Channel. YikYak gained widespread acceptance among the college crowd, by throwing exclusive parties at major college campuses, to get the most popular people on each college campus using the app. I plan to follow this same exact strategy. There are plenty of articles online that discuss how these apps grew so rapidly, and the common theme is that each company threw exclusive college parties, with the most popular people on campus (e.g. fraternities, sororities, athletes,), and forced people to download the app to gain admittance. By doing so, it can be ensured that the critical mass point is reached where enough people are using the app within a certain mile radius to actually make it useful to users. If critical mass had not been established in all of these instances, then these successful companies probably would not have risen to their current valuation levels. The YikYak/Tinder/WiGo campus-to-campus marketing techniques are a “for sure” way to grab mass appeal quickly. 3. EXPECTED VALUATION App valuation is pretty straightforward in this case. I expect to follow a similar growth pattern to that of YikYak because Flippy follows ultimately the same app structure and would be promoted through the same channels. In fact, given the popularity of SnapChat, I would not be surprised if we equaled or surpassed the valuation that YikYak has just recently obtained, which sets it in the $300-$400 million range, because younger people seem to like pictures, and the ability to edit those pictures, even better than text. 4. CAPITAL INVESTMENT If you agree with everything I have just laid out above, then even an investment of $1 million would only net you a 0.25% - .33% equity stake in my company. I realize that this is absurd for merely an untested idea. So what I am prepared to do is provide somewhere in the range of 8-15% equity in exchange for a capital investment in the range of $100,000-$300,000. I need enough capital to get the app built, run a beta test in select locations, tweak the app as needed, and then do a full release. At that point, I would also seek another round of funding from Angel Investors or Venture Capital Groups to cover all the marketing costs associated with promotion of the app.