Proposal: Dash + The Acme
Prepared by: Brandon Willey, CEO + Stuart Rolinson, CTO October 2017
The Acme is a digital marketing and ecommerce technology company specializing in engagement and direct response marketing fueled by consumer data intelligence, machine learning, and digital payments. Our clients are brick & mortar local businesses (retailers) and online small businesses (etailers) that need more repeatable and predictable revenue from repeat customers. In collaboration with FetchRev, a customer retention marketing software company established in 2012, we have worked with over 3,000 small businesses to reach their customers with offers and coupons across multiple digital channels. Working with brands and companies like Elements Massage, 18|8, SkyZone, Precision Tune and Urban Air, our combined team of 30+ employees consistently sends over 28M emails and 21M social ads to over 19M consumers driving over $2M USD in additional revenue for our customers every single month.
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The Pain
The Dash Network benefits and grows when Merchants and Consumers come together to transact using
Dash digital currency. But Retailers and Etailers alike lack a strong incentive to accept digital currency as a viable payment option for their business, and Consumers often struggle to find an o pportunity to use their Dash wallet in the normal course of their day. Ultimately, the best way to increase usage on the Network will be to provide tangible user benefits like an exclusive offers and rewards platform, for example.
Additionally, those merchants already on the network (as well as any future ones) often struggle to bring
their customers back in their physical door or to their online store. The main p roblem is that the majority of small business owners lack the data, the expertise, and the time to effectively target their customers with relevant offers or content across the right digital channels at the right time in order to drive a return visit or direct purchase.
Many business owners attempt to send special offers or messaging using traditional digital marketing
methods (e.g. ConstantContact, Mailchimp) but they consistently achieve low open rates, low click rates and even lower conversion rates through poorly constructed subject lines, non-responsive design and weak calls-to-action.
In order to improve their results, these business owners need to first collect and a nalyze large amounts of transactional and demographic customer data, develop the expertise to create content that will generate
the interest leading to higher open and click rates, and lastly utilize or develop a system that will d istribute actionable offers to their customers across multiple digital channels that gives the consumer the ability to make an impulse purchase immediately.
They are simply too busy to find the time.
And while Dash Evolution is simplifying the digital wallet, The Acme will bring one-click offer purchases to the Network, along with exclusive Network-only rewards and repeat transactions for both the merchants and the Network as a whole. We will help Dash become top of wallet for e-commerce transactions. Evolution consumers and users will receive and purchase offers through a friction-free portal while
merchants on and off the Network increase their reach to new customers across the D ash Network while also re-engaging with past customers.
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The Solution
We believe that a fully automated offers and rewards platform on E volution will benefit all merchants on the network and will create one of the first real enticing incentives for new merchants to integrate and accept Dash as a viable cryptocurrency. And not only will an offers and rewards platform drive new
customers to merchants, it will bring even more value to the average D ash user, giving them an incentive to use the Dash wallet to get access to these exclusive offers. Consumers will even be able to purchase offers using Dash from merchants who are not on the Network since we will take their D ash transaction and immediately convert to USD and deposit in the merchant’s bank account.
We know that the best way to get consumers to take action and make i mpulse purchases is to send them individualized offers at the right time across the right marketing channel. Therefore, to increase consumer
engagement and utilization of Dash on the Network and to increase the revenue that merchants generate
from new and past customers, we will release a fully automated, machine learning, direct response offers and rewards marketing platform with Dash firmly in place as the exclusive digital currency.
This software will guarantee persistent engagement with a merchant’s existing and past customers
through targeted digital touches and nudges, delivered with individually-optimized offers, at the times and via the digital channels (Evolution) where each customer is most likely to take action--thereby m onetizing current and past customer data, continually engaging each consumer and m aximizing customer lifetime value.
Continuity - tirelessly engages customers around the clock with BEM*- and data-informed, individually-crafted and personally-timed Converters and Collectors. Push - strategically sends real-time bulk communications to customers with our custom content builder as well as request time-sensitive or occasion-dependent Converters for distribution en masse.
Pursuit - persistently retargets customers when they take a specific action or trigger predefined reactions as well as those customers that abandon your Continuity or Push landing pages before taking action.
Reach - consistently delivers those touches to customers across essential digital and social channels, including Dash Evolution. Learn - continuously improves results as it formulates insights and optimizes outputs, creating new neural pathways from its ever-growing database of past touches and nudges. 4
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Project Summary
*Behaviors, Emotions, Moments
We see the potential for the dual powerhouse of automated digital offers and rewards combined with
digital currency to revolutionize small business customer retention marketing, making it more relevant, convenient, secure and less time-consuming, thereby increasing overall Dash Network usage.
As merchants seek to increase the lifetime value from each customer and bring each one back in the physical or virtual door while saving time, The Acme seeks to completely displace traditional digital
marketing tools and drive consumers to make a digital purchase, using Dash, from Network merchants as a precursor to returning physically or virtually to the business.
Our system will generate increased direct revenue with little-to-no additional effort from the business owner by providing a network-based Offer-to-Consumer matching platform that can take a consumer,
augment the base consumer data, and then use machine learning to automatically match consumers to offers from products and offers uploaded by the business.
We have spent the last several months researching D ash, collaborating with Dash engineers, reviewing the BlockCypher-Dash API, the Evolution platform in development, and meeting with partners to bring
together all of the necessary components to build a system that will provide significant value to the D ash
Network of Consumers and Merchants alike. We will be integrating all of the components identified below together into a simple and cohesive solution.
Consumer This module provides the capabilities for the upload of Consumers and the management of preferences
and registration services. The objective is to make it easy for consumers to sign up for offer notifications and tailor the offers received to their personal preferences based on frequency and product mix. Initially
this will be a simple subscribe/unsubscribe with preferences that increase as the merchant network and product portfolio increases. ● ● ● ● 5
UI and API based module that allows Dash merchants to upload consumer lists UI and API for consumer online registration Backend data enrichment services
UI and API for consumer preference management Dash Pre-Proposal Version 1.0 - 10/17
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Unsubscribe and resubscribe services to support privacy legislation such as CASL
Business This will encompass the initial registration services and preferences with an automated onboarding flow to enable businesses to self-serve and benefit from automated campaign services once product information has been captured. ● ● ● ●
Business registration Business preferences
Customizable business onboarding
User management / Access control
Subscriptions Subscription management encompasses the creation of different subscription types that can be combined to form a complete monthly subscription charge. This module will also perform monthly billing, invoice
production and statement creation and delivery. This would work directly with the Dash Evolution system to perform monthly billing. ● ● ● ● ● ●
Subscription management Start new subscription Cancel subscription
Invoice creation & delivery
Statement printing & delivery Payments
Products The products component captures the data needed by the offer matching and creation engine. Products
are entered with details of the discount thresholds, industry, product category, descriptions and purchase options which are then used to create custom offers for consumers based on previous purchase history and demographic information. ● ● ●
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Add products
Delete products Edit products
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Offers In the same way that the offer matching engine can create offers unique to a specific consumer, it will also be able to match consumers to offers created by the business. This module allows the creation of those
offers, scheduling runs, throttling the frequency and retiring old offers. This is the most efficient method of targeting customers while purchase history and demographic data is limited. ● ● ● ● ●
Add offers Edit offers
Disable offers
Schedule offers / runs Throttle runs
Offer Matching Engine This is the heart of the system and brings all of the data collection components together and continuously
scans its consumer base to identify consumers who are ready for an offer. When a consumer is primed, an offer will either be generated or an existing offer matched to them and sent through email and the Dash
network, and complemented through additional channels such as SMS, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram. ● ● ● ● ●
Consumer monitoring
Offer matching engine Offer creation
Offer submission to delivery engine
Offer callback to allow custom delivery by merchant channels
Offer Delivery Engine Once offers and delivery channels are decided by the matching engine, details are submitted to the
delivery engine. The delivery engine will format the offers correctly for the channel they are being sent to and the associated connectors will deliver the offers. Logic is built into this delivery mechanism to allow
the throttling of send info to ensure delivery is successful and not stopped by velocity filters. The delivery call back mechanism allows customers to create their own delivery channels. ● ●
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Offer formatting engine
Social media connectors
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● ● ● ●
Mail connectors
Dash Evolution connector Delivery call back
Offer process tracking (delivery, opens, click, conversions)
Project Phases In order to get a working product to market in an accelerated timeframe, we will follow Agile/Scrum
methodology and divide the capabilities to get a fully functional product to the network and market sooner. Our Phase 1 and Phase 2 plan will allow merchants to automatically distribute timely, relevant,
individually-targeted offers across multiple channels, including E volution, to each of their customers while allowing them the ability to make immediate purchases with a secure Dash digital payment quickly and conveniently and then configure preferences for future offers. The phases, highlighting the requisite capabilities, are detailed below.
Phase 1 The initial phase focuses on the delivery of base capabilities from billing through to campaign creation. By the end of this phase merchants on the Dash Network will have the capability to push offers via the Dash Network and opted-in email to its customer base, driving repeat revenue and return customers.
Duration: 4-5 months Capabilities: ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● 8
Business Registration
Consumer Registration
Consumer Data Uploads
Consumer Preference Management v1
Customer Support-Assisted Onboarding Consumer, Business, Admin UI
Subscription Plans (Create/Edit/Retire Basic capabilities) Subscription Management (Assign/Start/Stop/Delete) Invoice Generation and Delivery Dash Billing
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Offer Management (Add / Edit / Delete / Schedule / Stop) Offer Delivery Engine (Dash Evolution & Email)
Phase 2 Phase 2 focuses on bringing significant levels of automation to the process by taking product information, enriched consumer information and automatically generating offers specifically designed to maximize
conversion of each individual consumer offer. This is achieved through machine learning algorithms that constantly learn as the dataset grows. To kickstart this process we will bring purchase history from the opted-in database of over 19M consumers from one of our strategic partners in order to train the foundational algorithm set, after which we will continue to refine as the dataset grows.
Duration: 4 months Capabilities: ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ●
Customizable Business Self-onboarding Business Preference Management User/Role Management
Subscription Management
Revenue Share Payment Processing
Revenue Share Subscription Management Admin UI Enhancements
Statement & Reports Generation & Delivery
Business Product Management (Add / Edit / Delete / Disable) ML Consumer-Product-Offer Matching Engine
Offer Channel Delivery Engine Phase 2 (Social, SMS) Consumer Preference Management v2
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Technical Development
The Acme has the relevant digital marketing, data science, and software engineering personnel and
expertise at its disposal. We are additionally partnered with both a digital marketing software company and a software development firm that together combine the innovative DNA of a start-up with the wisdom, scalability, and process rigor of a six-sigma company. They offer both technical implementation and
strategic advisory services including DevOps, Cloud, Mobile, UI/UX, Social Ad API, Big Data, Blockchain, Predictive Modeling, Database & System Architecture, Digital Payments, and User Testing.
Viability & Partnerships For the past several years, through our work with our strategic partners, we've developed significant and
unparalleled expertise in direct response and engagement digital marketing and have developed a large consumer-to-purchase data set with which to train our machine learning algorithms needed to automate our individually-targeted product-to-offer-to-consumer matching and distribution engine.
At our core, The Acme is a digital marketing company building an automated customer retention software platform that will generate direct revenue for merchants via consumer-targeted offers transacted on the Dash Network; leading to regular repeat customers for each merchant on the Network. As a business ourself, we will make money through monthly software subscription fees and a results-based revenue share. Beyond the Dash Network and integration with Evolution, we have several major verticals identified and solidified reseller partnerships that will roll out our software and its D ash-powered Offer Purchasing Platform to thousands of local businesses:
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Independent Software Vendors (ISV) – Point-of-Sale software partners, online marketing automation partner (~1,000 clients), and more
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Additional Brick-and-Mortar Retailers & Ecommerce Etailers Value Added Resellers (VAR)
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Dash Funding Details and Proposal Terms
We are asking the Dash network for 2559 DASH ($691,000 USD) for the development of Phase 1 and
Phase 2 with the capabilities as specifically detailed above throughout the timeline detailed below. The
Acme also has significant skin in the game. We have already contributed $479,000 USD to the project over the last year and are contributing another $764,000, which is approximately 64% of the total project costs.
We have requested that the Dash Core Team holds the project funds in escrow until requested for
product development requirements in order that the payments that will be adjusted according to the
Dash/US Dollar exchange rate at the time. This will protect Dash as the value is expected to increase. The funding schedule is proposed as follows:
1. Dash to fund The Acme 25% upfront to start the project, funded in a single disbursement by a project manager appointed by the Dash Core Team.
2. Dash to fund 20% in equal monthly disbursements over four months through the completion of the Technical Development for Phase 1.
3. Dash to fund The Acme the another 5% after all testing and the Phase 1 product is ready to launch. Only once Phase 1 is complete and a functional initial product made available to the Dash Network will the Phase 2 receive funding.
4. At which time, the Dash Core Team will fund 25% to start Phase 2, followed by 5% monthly
disbursements over four months through the completion of Technical Development for Phase 2.
5. Dash will fund The Acme the final 5% after all testing and the Phase 2 product is ready to launch.
The Acme has come to an agreement with the Dash Core Team that includes a penalty extending up to
36 months of digital currency exclusivity for Dash on the developed offer platform. The Dash project cost details are listed below.
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Project Development Timeline: 8-9 months
The Acme will provide a high level bi-weekly update (via Sprint Review) to the Dash Core Team. Detailed
updates will be tracked and communicated with the Dash Core Network Team and assigned Dash Project
Manager. The Acme will also generate a report to the community once each month throughout the term of the project.
Phase 1 Development Timeline: 4-5 months 1. Initial Funding Payment of 25% for Phase 1
2. Business Requirements and Design Sprints - 4 weeks
3. Initiate 10% Monthly Funding Disbursements totaling 20% 4. Technical Development & QA - 8 two-week sprints
5. Final Quality Assurance Testing, Load Testing, Bug Fixes - 2 two-week QA sprints 6. User Acceptance Testing/Usability Testing - 1 week 7. Time Variance - 2.5 weeks
8. Final Phase 1 Funding Payment of 5%
9. Phase 1 Push to Production and Go Live 2-3 days
NOTE: At the end of Phase 1, Offers/Rewards delivery functionality and Dash payments will become
available to the Dash Network. Funding for Phase 2 is dependent on the successful delivery of Phase 1.
Phase 2 Development Timeline: 4 months 10. Initial Funding Payment of 25% for Phase 2
11. Business Requirements and Design Sprints - 4 weeks
12. Initiate 10% Monthly Funding Disbursements totaling 20% 13. Technical Development & QA - 6 two-week sprints
14. Final Quality Assurance Testing, Load Testing, Bug Fixes - 2 two-week QA sprints 15. User Acceptance Testing/Usability Testing - 1 week 16. Time Variance - 2 weeks
17. Final Phase 2 Funding Payment of 5%
18. Phase 2 Push to Production and Go Live 2-3 days
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Dash's Total Contribution for Project 1. Technology Design Sprints, Business Requirements, Wireframe Design, API
$46,000
2. Technology Development (2 phases @ 4-5 months each)
$467,000
Review, Business Logic
Project Manager - Sprint Master
$45,000
Sprint Team 1 - 5 developers - API, Backend Development
$140,000
Sprint Team 3 - 4 developers - 3rd Party and Dash Integration
$112,000
UI Engineer - Front End UX Development
$28,000
Sprint Team 2 - 4 developers - Frontend & Associated API Development
$112,000
UI Designer - Graphic Design Services
$30,000
3. Quality Assurance Testing
$84,000
2 QA Engineers
$56,000
1 Dev Ops Engineer - Release Management, Infrastructure Management
$28,000
4. Product Manager and Product Documentation for 8 month term
$56,000
5. Third-Party Integration and Development Costs
$38,000
Total Dash Contribution Total for Project
$691,000
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The Acme’s Total Contribution for Project 1.) Prior Costs already Invested in the Project
$479,000
2.) Additional Technical Development/Dev Ops/QA
$264,000
3.) Administrative Costs
$82,000
4.) Operational Costs
$54,000
5.) Marginal Travel Expenses
$5,000
6.) Data Science Team
$113,000
7.) PCI and SSL Compliance and Testing
$9,000
8.) Additional UI/UX Development Costs
$52,000
9.) Project Variance/Hired Guns
$50,000
10.) Development Server, Software, and Network Costs 12 months
$38,000
11.) Production Server, Software, and Network Costs 12 months
$112,000
12.) Deployment & Code Management Software
$3,000
The Acme's estimated contribution to the Dash Project Total Dash Project Cost paid by The Acme + Dash
$1,261,000 $1,952,000
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Our Leadership Team
Brandon Willey, CEO
With more than 10 years of executive leadership experience in sales, marketing, product and business
operations, Brandon has established and grown scalable sales, marketing, customer success, product and fulfillment teams at Reputation.com, Recruiting.com, FrontSpin, Hopscratch and FetchRev. He has broad
knowledge of the local digital advertising ecosystem with extensive experience in social media, email and search marketing, retargeting, geotargeting and geofencing, segmentation, cryptocurrency, blockchain, automation, and machine learning.
Stuart Rolinson, CTO
A 26-year IT industry expert. 19 years at American Express overseeing technical development, he led the global core platform and product team for the Global Business Travel division, architected the global
distributed authorization network and ran the Mobile Infrastructure and Research & Development group. Stuart holds a variety of patents related to payments and Business Travel.
Greg McGuire, COO
15+ years extensive experience managing interactive projects including website buildouts, email marketing campaigns, online technologies, blogging & social networking platforms with the goals of increasing
company revenues, improving the standard of customer service, and developing business to business relationships while delivering completed projects on-time and on budget.
Alison Gerbens, CFO
Alison Gerbens brings 10 years of experience in accounting, auditing and reporting for a diverse set of clients and employers. Alison is a licensed CPA in Arizona and earned her Master of Science in Accountancy & Information Systems degree from Arizona State University in Tempe.
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Our Advisory Team
In addition to our wealth of expertise, we’ve partnered with several innovative companies and advisors in automation, machine learning, blockchain, and digital currency to create our simple, but powerful direct response marketing platform.
Brad Selby
Advisor & Investor, Weathering Steel
PayPal, Flixster, VerticalResponse, Affirm
Rick Oglesby
Product & Market Research, Payments Industry
Double Diamond Group and AZ Payments Group
Sean Coleman
Adjunct Faculty, Arizona State University
Director of Technology & Development, Drawbackwards
Carlos Noguera
Server, Cloud & Geospatial Architecture Cliffhanger Solutions, Inc.
Stephen McAleer
AI and ML PhD Student, Arizona State University Goldman Sachs, STORE Capital
Augustus Ge
Mathematics, Statistics, and Data Science, University of Arizona Machine Learning, Cliffhanger Solutions, Inc.
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