Brilliant Points, Inc.
Management Summary
The Company’s Management Team provides solid, proven experience in successful companies, with demonstrated competence in high tech, marketing (both consumer- and business-oriented), business development and sales (domestic and international), intellectual property protection, and business finances. All members of the team have experienced the “explosive growth” environment of successful start-ups and contribute unique talents and essential skills which will make Brilliant Points successful. The members of the team beyond Mr. Hansen have committed to come on board once funding is obtained. All members of the team are bi-lingual, and many have multi-national business experience. The team currently consists of:
Karl Hansen, Chairman of the Board, CEO, CTO, VP Engineering
Karl Hansen is the Company’s founder and chief executive officer. Mr. Hansen has a long history of technology development, having created the intellectual property (U.S. Patent #5,832,263) around which a start-up, DigiDox, was formed in 1994. He served as the CTO and Vice President of Engineering at DigiDox until its sale to Adobe Software in 1997, for $4,000,000.
Mr. Hansen’s recent activities have included IT consulting for Hamilton-Sundstrand, BF Goodrich, and Teradyne, where he was engaged in designing high-speed, high-reliability, embedded, real-time software and hardware. At Hamilton-Sundstrand he created the world’s first FAA level-A certified real-time multi-tasking kernel, and also developed the software driving the hydraulic system for the next-generation Space Shuttle. He holds a BS in Computer Engineering and a Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering, with doctorate-level studies during his tenure at DigiDox.
Mr. Hansen is also a registered Professional Engineer, a member of the National Society of Professional Engineers, the American Management Association, the Association of Computing Machinery, the Experimental Aircraft Association, and is a private pilot. Over the course of the last eight years Mr. Hansen has developed the technologies and received the patent that is the foundation of Brilliant Points’ business endeavors. Mr. Hansen’s success as a consultant and in the DigiDox start-up venture has enabled him to fund Brilliant Points from concept through obtaining the critical IP patent awarded last fall. Mr. Hansen has personally invested approximately $750,000, in addition to his “sweat equity”, in the Brilliant Points venture. Mr. Hansen is also fluent in Spanish, and has moderate ability in several other languages.
VP Operations [Name omitted for confidentiality in this sample plan]
The VP Operations candidate has an MBA from the Marriott School of Business Administration. Most recently he has been serving as the Director of Marketing at a B2B start-up where he is responsible for strategic and tactical marketing. At this start-up, the VP Operations candidate was instrumental in securing almost $30,000,000 in first-round funding. He is also the primary point of contact for industry analysts for the company. The candidate was recruited from Hewlett-Packard, where he worked in a variety of business units, and was instrumental in developing and rolling out a start-up business under the HP umbrella. In this role, he grew the start-up to over $10,000,000 in business and leveraged acquired technologies into other HP product areas. The candidate has additional business development, management, and contract negotiation experience with a major storage-provider and a software start-up. He is fluent in German.
VP Marketing [Name omitted for confidentiality in this sample plan]
The VP Marketing candidate has an MBA from the Anderson School at UCLA, where he focused on Marketing and International Business, and also participated in the Exchange Program with L’Institut Superieur des Affaires, Groupe HEC, FRANCE. Currently working as a Marketing Consultant, he recently left a high-tech medical devices company, where he served as Vice President, Marketing & Customer Service, after wrapping up a successful IPO that took them public in January 2001. This IPO achieved the largest valuation ever for an emerging medical device company (>$500MM). At that company, the VP Marketing candidate conceived and developed their trade-names, and secured domestic and international trademark protection. The candidate was also responsible for the PR program which garnered feature stories and placements in Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Associated Press, Fortune, People, NY Times, LA Times, and major television networks across the country.
The VP Marketing candidate was recruited to the medical devices start-up while working at Pharmacia & Upjohn, where he managed several extremely high-profile products and brands with annual retail sales of $150MM+. The candidate led the program which identified and successfully recruited celebrity user-endorsers for the product public relations campaigns and advertising, including NBA MVP Karl Malone, NFL Super Bowl Champion Coach Mike Holmgren, Tennis Champion John McEnroe, and others. Prior to his work at Pharmacia & Upjohn, the candidate worked at an international beauty-care company where he led the rollout of the first mass-marketed alpha hydroxy make-up, and at The Procter & Gamble Company where he developed world-class advertising programs which received the highest trial potential results in the history of that P&G product category, and was adopted as the model by foreign P&G units. The candidate is also fluent in French.
VP Corporate Strategy, Business Development and Sales [Name omitted for confidentiality in this sample plan]
The VP Corporate Strategy candidate was educated in Switzerland, receiving a Swiss Degree (comparable to an American BS degree) for Structural Engineering from the Schweizerischer Bundesverband, and additional education from BWI Business Institute of ETH (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology), both in Zürich. Presently he is serving as VP of Business Development and Corporate Strategy for a privately held international business software start-up headquartered in Canada, where he develops and manages corporate strategic alliances and partnerships, has defined the sales and marketing strategies for the core server applications, and serves on the Board of Directors. The candidate has served as Director of Sales at another Canadian software company, where he developed and managed global strategic sales with multi-national accounts and OEM customers. He also has served as Director of Worldwide Business Development and Sales at two well-known California software start-ups, and as European Sales Manager, for two major applications and networking companies.
As Director of Worldwide Business Development and Sales, the candidate was responsible for identifying, developing, and executing strategic alliances and partnerships, new products and product lines, and assisting executive management with technology acquisitions. He also managed OEM sales and business development for the Asia-Pacific countries and Latin America, where he took OEM revenue from an annual $100K to $4 Million in 7 months, and reorganized and turned around sales operations, nearly doubling corporate sales in under a year. He developed and managed the inside and outside sales organizations, including recruiting, training, and managing the sales staff, and developed and implemented a corporate Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system to measure, analyze, and strategically utilize marketing and sales information. As European Sales Manager with the networking and applications companies, the candidate developed and executed international sales and field marketing strategies, built strategic alliances, developed multi-national sales teams, and identified and exploited new or underdeveloped markets and vertical market opportunities. The candidate is fluent in English, with German his native language.
Director of Finance [Name omitted for confidentiality in this sample plan]
The Director of Finance candidate has a BA in Finance from Utah State University, and is on track to complete an MBA at Babson College, in Wellesley, MA, in early 2003. The candidate recently left a Voice-over-IP start-up, where he worked for four years, most recently as Finance Manager for the $20 million IP Communications Services (IPCS) business group. In his role with IPCS, he was responsible for developing economic models, strategic financial planning, budgeting, forecasting, and analysis for IPCS and senior executives. Prior to his role as Finance Manager, the candidate served as Account Manager where he researched and analysed accounts to improve penetration, and booked $2 million, over 250% of quota, as Commission Accounting Supervisor where he automated commission calculations by implementing a sales compensation database in Oracle, submitted payroll, and developed commission submission and payment processes, and as Senior Specialist over Compensation/Quota where he developed and administered compensation plans, researched and resolved compensation discrepancies, and submitted biweekly payroll. The candidate is fluent in Spanish.
6.1 Personnel Plan
The personnel plan calls for immediate hire of the four key management personnel, followed by the staff for each of the functional areas in the Company. We intend to “run lean”, in that we will staff as appropriate to achieve the sales targets, as shown in the following personnel table. Assuming sales targets are met, it is projected that by year end staffing will be in the neighborhood of 16 people, with part-time help assisting in the order fulfillment area. If we exceed sales targets, it may be necessary to increase staffing levels to meet demand. As the heads of the functional areas flesh out their respective areas, these figures may be revised up or down to reflect their needs and sales growth. The majority of any staffing growth beyond the initial 16 people will most likely be in the areas of sales, marketing, order fulfillment, and customer service.
Salary and compensation are intended to be extremely competitive to attract and retain the best employees. Brilliant Points intends to be both a technology leader and a desirable place to work. As such, Brilliant Points intends to offer above average packages to attract and retain above average employees.
Personnel Plan | |||
Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | |
Karl C. Hansen, Chairman/CEO/CTO/VP Engineering | $180,000 | $240,000 | $280,000 |
VP of Operations | $150,000 | $180,000 | $190,000 |
VP of Corporate Strategy, Business Development and Sales | $150,000 | $180,000 | $190,000 |
VP of Marketing | $150,000 | $180,000 | $190,000 |
Director of Finance | $108,000 | $120,000 | $130,000 |
Lisa Hansen, Executive Assistant, Market & Usability Research | $72,000 | $76,000 | $80,000 |
Office Manager | $55,000 | $60,000 | $65,000 |
Order Fulfillment | $38,500 | $40,000 | $42,000 |
Order Fulfillment | $27,000 | $35,000 | $38,000 |
Sales | $77,000 | $80,000 | $82,000 |
Sales | $54,000 | $70,000 | $72,000 |
Marketing | $77,000 | $80,000 | $82,000 |
Marketing | $54,000 | $70,000 | $72,000 |
Developer | $93,500 | $90,000 | $93,000 |
Developer | $70,200 | $82,000 | $85,000 |
Developer | $42,000 | $74,000 | $77,000 |
Total People | 16 | 16 | 16 |
Total Payroll | $1,398,200 | $1,657,000 | $1,768,000 |