KnowledgeSite,
Inc.
Business Plan March 2000
Contact: Peter Ciuffetti CEO 27 Nimrod Dr Concord, MA 01742 +1 (617) 694-5429 PeterC@aeicunet.Net
CONFIDENTIAL
KNOWLEDGESITE
BUSINESS
PLAN
Contents
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY .............................................................................................................. BUSINESS MODEL ........................................................................................................................ INDUSTRY DESCRIPTION .......................................................................................................... PRODUCT DESCRIPTION ........................................................................................................... 1 3 4 6 12 17 19 24 26 27 28 29 32 35
MARKET POTENTIAL ............................................................................................................... COMPETITION ............................................................................................................................ MARKETING STRATEGY & TACTICS ................................................................................... FOUNDING TEAM ...................................................................................................................... OPERATING FINANCIAL PLAN & SCHEDULE ........................................................................................... OVERVIEW ...........................................................................................................
INVESTMENT REQUIREMENTS .............................................................................................. FEATURE LIST .......................................................................
APPENDIX 1 - KNOWLEDGESITE APPENDIX H - COMPETITOR APPENDIX IH- FINANCIAL
MATRIX .......................................................................................... PROJECTIONS ..................................................................................
CONFIDENTIAL i
KNOWLEDGESITE
BUSINESS
PLAN
CONFIDENTIAL ii
KNOWLEDGESITE
BUSINESS
PLAN
1. Executive 1.1.
Summary
Introduction
KnowledgeSite, Inc. is an Intemet starmp founded by Peter Ciuffetti in December 1999. A veteran technologist formerly employed by SilverPlatter Information, Inc., Pete first built the concept described in this plan as a spinoff from SilverPlatter in 1997 (it was at that time called KnowledgeCite with a 'C'). KnowledgeCite's product was originally conceived as an Intemet search service for researchers in academic settings, but a series of developments led to the present focus on knowledge workers in corporate settings. In October 1999, SilverPlatter stopped investing in KnowledgeCite and Pete and two other team members developed this plan to start KnowledgeSite as an independent firm. 1.2. Mission The KnowledgeSite Za'brary is a webbased
The mission of KnowledgeSite is to be the number one supplier of authoritative digital libraries to the knowledge economy.
1.3.
Product Description
The KnowledgeSite Library is a web-based multidisciplinary multi&'sciplinary reference library for corporations. It supplies authoritative external reference h'brary for information that can be used to supplement, validate and inform an corporations. organization's intellectual property creation efforts. By using the KnowledgeSite Library, knowledge workers are more effective since Knowledgethey are able to quickly fred authoritative answers to the challenging management problems they face each day. Section 4 describes KnowledgeSite's content purchases innovative approach to 'knowledge integration,' a process that will be $4.S billion in uniquely combines and organizes disparate resources licensed from 1999 and are growing electronic publishers into a more useful digital library. The at arateof38%per KnowledgeSite Library is positioned to complement other year horizontal information services such as competitive intelligence, news and web search engines already popular on corporate desktops. Its distinction of authoritative business-ready content makes it a unique companion to these services.
1.4.
Market Potential
The KnowledgeSite Library will appeal to the entire range of knowledge workers. In 1999 there were 28 million knowledge workers in the U.S. and a 'rest of world' market of an additional 41 million knowledge workers. As an industry, knowledge-management content purchases will be approximately $4.6 billion in 1999 and are growing at a rate of 38% per year 1.
1Combined estimates from Garmer, Dataquest, Ovum, Lotus/IBM. Refer also to a Lucid white paper commissioned by SilverPlatter describing the Knowledge Managementindustry in further detail. CONFIDENTIAL 1
KNOWLEDGESlTE
BUSINESS
PLAN
1.5.
Marketing
Strategy
The KnowledgeSite Library will be sold on a per-user basis to corporate institutions. It will be distributed through channels that are already supplying components of the knowledge worker environment. These include suppliers of corporate university courseware and technology, vertical and horizontal desktop information products, and implementers of knowledge management solutions. Effectively, the strategy is business-to-business-to-business. 1.6. Founding Team
The founding team consists of Peter Ciuffetti, Ken Rodrigues, Amy Lidstone and Rich Gazan who were on the original KnowledgeCite team. Ken is VP of Operations and has extensive technical management experience. Amy is the product manager and Rich is a knowledge integrator. Both are recent recipients of Masters in Library Science. Rich is at UCLA working on his Ph.D. The team will be joined by Andrew Cheng who is a veteran technology developer currently employed by e-Business Technologies. This team has all the product development and operational know how required to get the I