We’d like you to invite you to invest in the platform that represents the next generational shift of the internet. Gides.com (web, iOS, Android) has been in stealth development for three years and will be launching in April 2020. What is Gides? It is a platform that provides all the features of a personal or business website—without the need for a website.
Gides gives everyone access to a suite of tools and opportunities that currently only the educated or affluent have. We are a social publishing platform that enables anyone to create, edit, and share website-quality content from their phone. We marry speed and simplicity with advanced functionality. Flexible, feature-rich posts are as quick and easy to make as sending a text message and can easily be paired with powerful eCommerce functions.
We’ve noticed that there is a disparity of access to knowledge and the tools to share it on the open web. Language differences and resource inequities prevent billions of people from taking full advantage of and contributing to what should be a World Wide Web. Our mission is to give everyone on earth with a phone the same opportunities as a web professional with a desktop. If we succeed, we will not only open up opportunities to millions across the globe to more fully participate in the digital ecosystem, we will reap extraordinary profits by helping them to do so.
We invite you to take a look at our investment documents and contact us to discuss this opportunity at your earliest convenience.
The common challenge of using the internet across the globe is how much more difficult it is to create and distribute content on the open internet (websites, blogs, and articles) than it is to search for it. Most people across the globe share information using social media, which utilizes predefined, restrictive post formats that end up on a timeline and confine the information they share to the platform. This limits its discoverability and gives most of the economic benefit to the platform.
With that in mind, we designed Gides unencumbered from the perspective of the way things are. We asked: "What if the internet were designed from scratch? How would we design useful tools to enhance opportunity for everyone, regardless of education or location?” Our answer to that question was to create a platform that enables anyone to create, edit, and share website-quality content from their phone. By marrying speed and simplicity with advanced functionality, we reduce the barriers faced by internet users worldwide.
Our flexible, webpage-style posts are as quick and easy to make as sending a text message and can easily be paired with powerful, integrated eCommerce functions. This gives everyone access to features currently available only to the educated or affluent. Our mission is to give everyone on earth with a phone the same opportunities as a web professional with a desktop.
Gides is a social publishing platform that offers the power, flexibility, and income potential of websites without the need for one, allowing us to derive income from advertising, hosting services, and a percentage of our users’ sales made through the platform.
• Design: Our design team is relentlessly focused in making it as easy as possible to create and edit sophisticated content from a phone. We utilize chat-style features in a revolutionary way, allowing anyone to easily create and share posts that have the power and flexibility of web pages. This allowed us to develop patent-pending technology to synthesize the functions of multiple systems and pair them with a familiar and easy-to-use UI, creating a foundation for global participation
• International IT/Web Experience: Our team’s previous experience in using websites to market, educate, monetize digital content, and sell events and products in dozens of countries has given them the unique insight necessary to create and market a platform that gives these tools to everyone, regardless of skill level.
• “Social” Websites: All content on the web is consumed by scrolling—including both social media posts and the individual pages on a website. Realizing this, we introduced a groundbreaking paradigm shift in social platforms, allowing posts inside of Gides to be dual-purposed and used to simultaneously build custom websites with a unique domain name. No other platform in the world has this feature.
We are two weeks away from launching our beta iOS, Android, and Web (www.gides.com) apps. Our research has found high levels of interest across all target markets, and we have a growing waiting list of users for our beta phase. Our capacity for expansion is much higher than most other platforms because of the unique nature of the services we provide, which include solutions for a wide swath of internet users, ranging from purely social media users (B2C), to influencers (B2C and B2B), to business (B2B).
The business model is predicated upon a broad-based revenue approach where we derive income from different user segments. This diversifies our income streams and positions us for worldwide growth. Our revenue model consists of:
B2B Revenue
• Monthly/Yearly Subscription revenue. Subscriptions sold to businesses, influencers, and power users unlock advanced features, such as custom website hosting, lead generation, marketing services, and special content types.
• Commissions from all eCommerce sales, including digital content, products, events, tours and experiences.
• Enterprise services such as white label versions of the platform
B2C Revenue
• Advertising shown to viewers of other user’s content. This includes viewers that do not have user accounts but who are accessing publicly accessible content (like YouTube).
THE PROBLEM
Most individuals and SMB's worldwide are unable to take full advantage of the internet’s opportunities due to limitations imposed by social media platforms or by the challenges involved in building and maintaining a website. This gives the affluent, the highly-educated, or those with technical skills more opportunity than everyone else—reinforcing a digital divide based on location or background.
THE SOLUTION
We created an easy-to-use platform that combines the best features of chat, websites, and social media. Gides pairs mobile-friendly chat-like creation with powerful website-like formatting, adding social following, notifications, & collaboration. Integrated ecommerce tools easily enable monetizing content or selling products and events. Features and posts can be utilized entirely in-platform, or if desired can be dual- purposed to build custom websites.
Social Users (B2C): Hobbyists, DIY, parents, photographers, fitness professionals, homemakers, travelers, arts, college students, lifestyle, cooking
Influencers (B2C/B2B): Journalists, Patreon users, YouTubers, etc.
Businesses (B2B): Businesses who use only social media instead of websites, WordPress/Wix/Weebly/ Squarespace users, Travel/Tourism businesses, Online educators, Museums/ Landmarks/Tourist sites, Event/Tour/Experiences operators
Gides has no direct analogue. Rather, several sites offer portions of our functionality, but with their own significant limitations:
•Website Hosting (Wix/WordPress, etc.)—Creation is largely desktop based and requires an administrative interface. Pages are for the most part static, and there are no social-style features. The site itself is separate from the owner’s online social presence. Setting up ecommerce and membership functions is complex and arduous.
•Social Platforms (FB, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, etc.)—Each of these platforms has a rigid, inflexible post format. There is no collaboration on post creation. Posts are put onto in infinitely-scrolling timeline that buries past content and makes it hard to access. There is no direct way to monetize content.
•Social Content Monetization (Patreon/YouTube)—YouTube is video only, significantly limiting monetization potential. Patreon is set up on a separate platform from where the content is, and is limited to donations only.
•eCommerce (eBay/Shopify)—The seller’s online social presence is disconnected from their ability to sell, requiring prospective buyers to show up at a separate site to buy. Largely limited to physical goods, missing out on vast markets for digital-only sales opportunities. Only offer sales, not rentals or subscriptions.
•Online Education (Udemy/Coursera/Linda)—Teachers/creators receive a relatively small portion of the income. Educators build the platform’s brand but gain little social benefit outside the platform. Not mobile friendly for creation, hard to update.
•Events/Experiences/Tours (Airbnb, Eventbrite, Viator)—These sites offer ticketing/registration services only. The information for the product isn’t integrated into the platform, requiring separate systems for agendas, maps, directions, notetaking, and participant input. Communication between host and participant is email-based.
Jeff Medford (Founder/CEO) and Doug Leigh (COO) have extensive global experience in IT/Web across dozens of countries. Between them, they've built over 30 ecommerce websites, generating $17+ mil in revenue with 1M+ unique viewers, and have collaborated with over a hundred national and multinational corporations, securing both sponsorship and marketing support.
Jeff graduated LSU with a B.S. Psychology. He previously founded/sold an online training and events business (MZed.com). Jeff has 30+ years in IT, experience in 44 countries, and has produced & marketed 15 individual 30-40 city photography and filmmaking training tours, working with talent in London, NY and Hollywood. He has also produced and marketed 10 international week-long masterclasses in Europe as well as individual classes in Canada, The Philippines, and Australia. Jeff sourced over $1 million in cash sponsorship arrangements and millions of dollars’ worth of marketing support from several multinational corporations, including Canon and Adobe. His in-person training was attended by over 25,000 paying customers.
Doug graduated Harvard with an A.B., Engineering and Applied Sciences, cum laude and Berkeley Law with a J.D. He was emergent growth counsel at Pillsbury advising clients re corporate formation, general start-up advice, equity financing, initial public offerings and intellectual property licensing. Thereafter, he assumed executive roles at 5 companies ranging from General Counsel of a $600 million a year division at General Instrument Corporation to EVP HR, Operations and Legal. Doug has 3 exits, including Musicmatch to Yahoo! for $160 million.
End of Year 2020
• Milestones: Broad-based social user growth
• Feature Additions: Location tagging and search, enhanced collaboration features, languages and translation, slideshows
• Markets: Scrapbooking, DIY, Personal (sharing focused) blogging, Professional photographers, Filmmakers, Podcasters, Hotel & Concierge
• Users: 500,000
• Revenue: n/a (Revenue features begin 2nd Quarter 2021)
2021
• Milestones: Business and Influencer Services, Begin Revenue
• Feature Additions: Template creation, Website hosting, Membership Features, Digital content sales, POS support, multiple currencies
• Markets: SMB’s who have/need websites, Online education, Professional (income-focused) blogging, Patreon-type Influencers, Tourist businesses that rent onsite audioguides
• Users: 2 Million
• Revenue: $4 Million
2022
• Milestones: Event Servicing, Tour/Experience hosting, goods-based eCommerce support
• Feature Additions: Front end and backend management for—Event ticketing/sales/marketing, Personal (social users) tours, Business (SMBs) stores, Inventory/Shipping management
• Markets: Events, Conferences, Tours, Experiences, Business eCommerce, Personal eCommerce
• Users: 6 Million
• Revenue: $46 Million
2023
• Milestones: Advertising, White labeling
• Feature Additions: Backend advertising engine, connecting white labeled versions to public platform, Allowing users to earn revenue from advertising on their content
• Markets: Digital Advertising, Enterprise
• Users: 15 Million
• Revenue: $170 Million
2024
• Milestones: In-house Content Production & Sales, School & university distance learning
• Feature Additions: Account as an app, Institutional education support
• Markets: App development, Digital content production, Education (worldwide)
• Users: 40 Million
• Revenue: $500 Million