Bright Things Share Discussion Threads

[ldmachin] 02/11/2009 20:22

the analyst,

With BGT's very limited cash position, the only real option i see to enable them to compete is to do a profit sharing deal with ISPs (a couple in each territory may be). i.e. the ISP handles all the hosting issues and costs, and when someone buys a broadband connection package (say, in this country, with Virgin Media) they get a free Social Go network (with a few extras thrown in), the customer can then obviously upgrade their Social Go network by buying the extra bits and pieces as provided if they so wish.

They could also offer similar packages to businesses as well as individuals.

This would allow Social Go to reach a huge volume of customers, the ISPs have the hosting cost burden, and Social Go take a slice of the profits.

Social Go are late to market and all the big players have a taken a position. i.e. recently google with: www.orkut.com. Management now need to act fast and make some super smart moves otherwise it'll be game over before it even began.

[the analyst] 02/11/2009 20:17

Good to see this post:



"Q&A Workshop this Thursday, November 5
Published by: ryan on Monday 2nd November 2009 03:11pm


Hello, Networkers!

Join Alex & Will this Thursday for a LIVE and hands on Q&A session. We'll be covering NEW SocialGO features as well as answering any queries or issues related to your network you might have.

The workshop will be held on Thursday, November 5, 2009 at 5 p.m GMT (12 p.m. EST, 9 a.m. PDT). Come armed with questions and prepare yourself to be amazed by the many cool feaures we have in store for you.

If you would like to reserve a space in this unique workshop, then email us at [e-mail]. If you would like to receive information on upcoming workshops, please click here and enter the required details.

Be sure to reserve your space early - this one's gonna be huge!"

[the analyst] 02/11/2009 19:49

LDM,

If you were the Directors, with the limited funds they have (they probably have £500k left in the bank), what would you be looking to do?

Looking to sell shares to institutions at a premium and raise a couple of million, perhaps?

Given the valuation of ning, I expect that they could easily ramp the price up and place shares at 3p to raise a couple of million.

[ldmachin] 02/11/2009 19:40

Carl79,

Dear or dear, i think you'll find regarding 'one click of button' migration turned out exactly how i said it would. I said that the source social site (i.e. Ning) could easily put a stop to any tool that another social site (Social Go) came up with. I said Social Go would constantly need to change their migration tools as the source site could hamper things easily. I said comma seperated files would need to be used (or XML) to transport data...

and if you had half a brain you'd know that CSV only contains text data. Not video, pictures, etc that a site owner would want migrating too.

The only one click migration is the click the user makes to pay an extortiante $249.99 or $499.00 to get widget lab to do the migration process for them!!!!!!



Do you lie and distort the truth to your clients too Mr consultant?

[the analyst] 02/11/2009 19:38

The point is, going forward it makes a massive difference if the current conversion rate is closer to 1.5%, than if it's closer to 1%. It could make the difference between needing more cash when we are heading into 2011, or having achieved break-even

We know they had very few premium users from their first 30,000 registrations. They only had 250 people 'apply', which basically means they took the free one month trial.
So, it might be that the vast majority of those 1000+ networks came from the last 70,000 networks to register.

If we are looking at say, 1100 from the last 70,000 network registrations, that would be a conversion rate of 1.5%

[77monty] 02/11/2009 19:04

Which could mean they have 999'999 networks - brilliant

[the analyst] 02/11/2009 19:01

I don't know how relevant it is, but at the AGM when I spoke about the company now 'having 1000 premium networks', Dominic was very quick to correct me, stating that they had 'OVER' 1000 networks

[carl79] 02/11/2009 18:31

To touch on the issue of who is doing what...

Immediately following the Acquisition, Get on With
It Limited ('GOWIT'), a company controlled by the vendors of Commonworld will be
contracted to complete the development of the Social Network Maker product.

I am guessing that as the development is basically completed - ie product launched, I have assumed GOWIT are now taking a back seat - I stress the word assumed...


2. Details of the Acquisition

Under the terms of the Acquisition Agreement the Company has agreed to acquire
the entire issued share capital of Commonworld for the issue upon completion of
the Acquisition of the 7,500,000 Ordinary Shares in the Company. Subject to the
development and testing of the Social Network Maker product being completed by
not later than 31 July 2008, the Company has agreed to issue to the vendors of
Commonworld a further 3,091,250 new Ordinary Shares. In addition, if the net
proceeds of sales of the Social Network Maker product in the period of two years
following the commercial launch exceed #2,000,000, the Company has agreed to
issue to the vendors of Commonworld a further 3,091,250 new Ordinary Shares. The
maximum aggregate number of new Ordinary Shares that may be issued pursuant to
the Acquisition Agreement is 13,682,500 new Ordinary Shares. Assuming no further
issue of new Ordinary Shares is made by the Company following completion of the
Acquisition and Placing, other than the issue of all the new Ordinary Shares
pursuant to the Acquisition Agreement, the Consideration Shares would represent
approximately 20.1% of the enlarged issued share ordinary share capital of the
Company. The Acquisition represents a substantial transaction under the AIM
Rules.

From the above, it is clear that they have some way to go to generate £2M revenue from SG. If they do, the number of shares on offer is not as much in terms of % as it used to be - I do not know how this will effect the offer - ie are they stuffed or will BGT issue more shares in order to give them the same % of the company as they would have had under the original agreement...I guess the problem would be a nice one because it would mean from my estimates they need to generate in the region of 90k a month from now till the end of the 2yr period (Feb 2011)...

Edit - my bad, I estimate they need to average 130k per month revenue between now and then to hit this target...like I say, they have an awful lot to do!

[the analyst] 02/11/2009 16:28

I think we'd all like to see some BLUE, Monty...

[77monty] 02/11/2009 15:09

What's everyone's favourite colour?

[ldmachin] 02/11/2009 15:08

the analyst,

I guess it leads back to my original question, what do BGT actually own of Social Go. If gowit are a seperate entity not owned by BGT and gowit do all the code development and maintainence, then if it came to a sale of Social Go/BGT it seems a bit of a grey area of what the buyer would get? The development talent or just a continuation of the gowit development contract.

[the analyst] 02/11/2009 14:46

LDM,

Just from the accounts and talking to the guys at the AGM, it seems to me that BGT now employ them all, rather than outsourcing to gowit. I'm quite sure that Alex is classed as BGT staff and is paid a wage from BGT

Also, last time I looked at the accounts from companies house, gowit only had two staff (the two owners)

I could be wrong, though...

[ldmachin] 02/11/2009 14:43

the analyst,

Also, you state that Social Go have good 'programmers/developers'...

... is it not the case that it is 'Get on with it' have the development talent on this front... or do Social Go no longer outsource development/support work to them?

[the analyst] 02/11/2009 14:35

On the subject of Dom (and Ian Livingstone) - I would like to see their names out there more often in the press in relation to SocialGO. They are both well-connected, as you say and they should be appearing in the press, doing interviews etc on a regular basis.

They should be presenting at web 2.0 conferences, small business conferences, they should be presenting at 'Pubcon' in Vegas next week, but they are not.

I think they could be doing a lot more to promote the product and the company

[the analyst] 02/11/2009 14:32

Is it a question of them 'having to' stump up the cash, or wanting to, because they want the shares for themselves? MY preferred choice would be the later...

[ldmachin] 02/11/2009 14:17

the analyst,

The question also has to be asked... why do management and staff always have to stump up the rump of the cash everytime there is a fund-raising?

Are they struggling to get external interest of any kind (influential friends and institions? i thought Dom was a connected man?)... even when the fund-raising price is below market price?

[the analyst] 02/11/2009 14:14

You are right about BLNX, for sure, LDM

I'm thinking more like one rns per month to show people that the product is developing, that they are making deals, that they are genuinely helping business owners make money

They have great programmers and are incorporating plenty of the essential 'me too' web 2.0 features, but they need to be selling themselves in a creative fashion. Look at how dry everything they are doing is without WL. That is not good.

They need abstract thinking. We know that for web businesses the best marketing is viral marketing and that to do that requires real innovative and 'out the box' thinking, but do BGT now have anyone with those skills?

What can they do to get a real buzz going on?

[ldmachin] 02/11/2009 14:13

Carl79,

Now now your cage is obviously rattled by my presence... you know what you have stated is not true (just like your proven lie about me saying Social Go wasn't a good product).

What i did say was that you can't transfer your network from Ning to Social Go at the touch of a single button as you claimed. It takes multiple migration tools... and that has born out to be true.

In terms of market saturation... the fact that Social Go only has 1000 paying customers despite being offically launched for 8+ months shows that there aren't many customers out there doesn't it. Looks like Social Go are going to have to fight tooth and nail for custom and market share.

[carl79] 02/11/2009 13:51

Dom has never been one for information for information sake - only when there is real news has he tended to release something...now, my impression of real news and his might be at odds but there you go.

[ldmachin] 02/11/2009 13:40

the analyst,

Yep, keeping investors in the dark is very very very rarely a good thing... almost always turns in the nasty surprises and kills confidence. But i guess if BGT were going to learn their lesson, they would have done so by now, they've been floated long enough. They also need to be careful not to release an RNS every 5 minutes like BLNX...



... that bloody share is all hot air if i ever saw one. The PR guys must be well paid though.

[carl79] 02/11/2009 12:17

the analyst - 2 Nov'09 - 11:51 - 54 of 54

Yup, that is a fair argument, LDM

For me, there is suddenly a lot more risk than a few weeks ago, because WL have left

WL were in my opinion, the main guys marketing the site and the guys that had real energy and innovation. I don't actually see how SG could let them slip off by not paying them what they asked for. That is, unless they have a top-class replacement lines-up

They do need a catalyst.

I have some ideas for them, that could transform the profile of the company overnight. I'm wondering if it's worth me spending a few days putting something together for them that would make a difference

Unrelated, but one thing that investors could do to help, is find articles about ning and simply mention that SocialGO exists too and that they have better terms and conditions for any network owner that wants to run it as a business.

Hi TA - I have brought this over here as I think most watch this thread and not the other - and more importantly the conversation is now turning towards somethign more useful than the most recent postings from LDM although the last one was at least a credible position that made perfect sense...

I agree that WL leaving was a bit of a shock and did worry me slightly but I am not overly concerned any more - whilst they did appear to be doing a stellar job, they also had a tendency for exaggeration if the recent premium numbers are anything to go by...I mean looking at the comments coming from the WL team you could easily have thought that they were experiencing explosive premium growth month on month - ie after initial trial period! I can personally do without mixed messages concerning stocks I have invested in...

As far as programming skill, I do not think that BGT will struggle as there are many gifted programmers - as for widgets, WL forte, hmm, not sure. Are widgets really that important for SG or is the platform the main draw - widgets being the icing on the cake but not what gets people interested?? I don't know. I know that apps made the iphone but I am not sure people see network widgets in teh same light as phone widgets. It will be interesting to see if sign ups (generic) stagnate now that WL are not so up front and centre...

I am not sure what your idea is - im interested though if you want to share...But I think you should push it with them if you think it viable...