The Wonderkind
Management Summary
The initial management team consists of the founders, Frank Peanut and Jacob Sweller. As we grow, we will be looking to recruit exceptionally qualified students. Both partners are currently taking on as much responsibilities as possible and working together on a number of critical issues.
6.1 Organizational Structure
Frank Peanut and Jacob Sweller will remain full-time partners for the short term. We will look to expand our organizational structure of student networks very shortly and have already contacted a select few potential analysts for The Wonderkind. These students come from universities including: University of Pennsylvania, University of Virginia, and Duke University.
6.2 Management Team
Both founding partners have unique resumes and background experiences. They each bring to the table distinct personal qualities that will complement one another as they manage and grow their business.
Frank Peanut is majoring in finance and is ranked in the top 5% of his class. His past experience includes being mentored under the guidance of two hedge fund managers in Minneapolis. Frank currently serves as the Co-fund Manager of the Investment Club at school responsible for approximately $400,000 in assets. Frank has been managing his own personal funds in the equity markets since the age of 14. His future plans after graduation entail working in the Investment Banking industry for a short duration and then attending graduate school.
Jacob Sweller is on track to receive a dual degree in finance and government. Jacob, enrolled in the Honors Program, scored a 1500 on the SAT exam and is currently ranked in the top 10% of his class. While at school, Jacob has been extremely active in the business arena and has directed business-consulting presentations to the Credit Suisse First Boston investment banking firm as well as McKinsey & Co. consulting firm. Jacob has received over 30 prestigious awards in academics and athletics over the past few years. Jacob currently serves as the Co-fund Manager of the Investment Club responsible for approximately $400,000 in assets.
6.3 Management Team Gaps
Our management team identified insufficient expertise in Web development as an area of concern. While both Frank Peanut and Jacob Sweller have some experience with HTML hard coding and building basic Web pages, neither has the expertise to develop the website that they had originally envisioned.
Several solutions to this problem were evaluated:
- Bringing in a third partner to specialize entirely in building and maintaining the company’s website.
- Hiring a professional Web-development team to build and host a custom website.
- Partnering with Vista.
Vista.com is a revolutionary e-Business Infrastructure Provider (eBIP) delivering a fully automated and integrated infrastructure platform for corporations to rapidly deliver e-business services to their small- and medium-size business customers. Vista will be providing us with an all-inclusive solution to develop our Web-based business. We are able to access a full range of tools through a Web browser platform from any computer terminal with Internet access. In addition, Vista will be hosting our site and managing a range of smaller details related to maintaining a business on the Web. They have provided us with the tools necessary to implement a fully enabled e-commerce site that has many features including customer database management, password protected content filled areas, email management, and a myriad of other back office applications that will prove extremely useful and necessary. While Vista has empowered us to create our website on our own, they also have customer support and technical specialists available twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week in the event that we need assistance with any area of our site. We feel that in choosing to setup our business with Vista, we have effectively filled the Web design gap that initially existed. Vista should allow for our growth and expansion plans as we envision them.
6.4 Personnel Plan
The Writers: Our writers will be students who submit articles for publishing on The Wonderkind website and newsletter. Only select articles that embody the quality and spirit of The Wonderkind will be published. The writers will not be paid but will gain the opportunity to be promoted to analyst status through exceptional written articles.
The Analysts: An analyst is defined as a consistent writer for The Wonderkind. These analysts will represent the best of our writers and will be true investment wunderkinds. We estimate that each analyst will make approximately $400 per month. Each analyst will be paid X amount of dollars per customer for every month plus a monthly commission determined by the analyst’s quality of service provided to the customers. We estimate the average commission at about $100 monthly for the first year.
The Wonderkind will not have any personnel during the initial stages of operation, during which the partners of the company will handle all services and site operations. We plan to employ 10 full-time analysts by the end of year one. By year three we plan to have 25 analysts on payroll. The table below indicates the payroll provided by The Wonderkind. Not all analysts are expected to produce articles for our company every month.
Personnel Plan | |||
Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | |
Frank Peanut – CEO | $5,000 | $12,000 | $24,000 |
Jacob Sweller | $5,000 | $12,000 | $24,000 |
Analyst | $200 | $3,500 | $7,000 |
Analyst | $400 | $3,500 | $7,000 |
Analyst | $400 | $3,500 | $7,000 |
Analyst | $500 | $3,500 | $7,000 |
Analyst | $200 | $3,500 | $7,000 |
Analyst | $500 | $3,500 | $7,000 |
Analyst | $200 | $3,500 | $7,000 |
Analyst | $400 | $3,500 | $7,000 |
Analyst | $300 | $3,500 | $7,000 |
Analyst | $200 | $3,500 | $7,000 |
Total People | 9 | 18 | 25 |
Total Payroll | $13,300 | $59,000 | $118,000 |