TYPO3 Inc. Draft Business Plan - Public feedback needed!

I just come from hosting a webinar regarding the TYPO3 Inc. plans that are up for voting on the GA. Mathias Schreiber and myself presented the core business model, organization as well as financial plannind and funding to over 80 attendees from all over the globe.  While we decided to make the full business plan draft available to TYPO3 Association members only (you can get a copy by simply write me an email to <link>alain.veuve@typo3.org) I'd like to take the opportunity to share a management summary as followed ------------------------------------------------------------ In April 2015 the General Assembly of the TYPO3 Association voted on whether a company for commercial activities such as marketing and product development should be started. The vote was in favour of a preparation phase. Alain Veuve put together a diverse team of TYPO3 individuals and evaluated a way to start the company as well as find a sustainable business model. As a result the present business plan evolved from the preparation period. 

Strategy

The core strategy of the TYPO3 Inc. is to support the ecosystem by providing continuous powerful product development and marketing. With all activities, the TYPO3 Inc. shall support the TYPO3 Agencies and Association Members and not take business and/or opportunities away from them. The TYPO3 Inc. should follow the same strategic goals that also the TYPO3 Association is about to pursue. In that regard, the TYPO3 Inc. must be seen as a commercial and operational leg of the TYPO3 Association.  

Revenue Streams

The revenue of the TYPO3 Inc. shall come from three components: A electronic marketplace providing products and services from the community. The TYPO3 Inc. provides transactional, marketing/promotion and quality services and is taking a ~30% margin from all sales. In addition to this the TYPO3 Inc. shall continue what has been started with the ELTS 4.5 support subscription and extend this concept to vendor support SLA’s. In addition to this, the TYPO3 Inc. shall provide other minor service that support agencies and customers. The TYPO3 Inc. shall increase the number and size of TYPO3 events throughout the globe. As seen with other Open Source product communities, events can contribute substantially to funding the project.  Partners in the ecosystem should be able to contribute as a third pillar of revenue. A partner model, mainly focused on industry partnerships, shall bring 20% of the required revenue in the long run.  However, the TYPO3 Inc. will never do projects or integrations that could have been done by agencies. Its goal is not to bite into business of agencies.

Spending

The money collected through the products shall be spent 50% in product development, 30% to marketing and 20% max for administration (which would f. I. include travel reimbursement for sprints and such).

Funding

The funding of the TYPO3 Inc. should be done without external investors in order to preserve independency. The bill will ask the GA for a one time investment of € 500.000 which can be taken from TYPO3 Association’s assets without risking the TYPO3 Association altogether in case of failure of the TYPO3 Inc. Another estimated € 400.000 shall be raised by the member who have voted in a preliminary non-binding survey for doing a one-time double membership fee payment in 2016. In addition to this, the present and future budget of approximately € 350.000 should continue to go into the TYPO3 Inc. P&L. Other than this, no additional budget from the TYPO3 Association should be handed over leaving the TYPO3 Association with an estimated € 300.000 per year for individual and experimental budgets.  

Structure

The TYPO3 Inc. shall be an “Aktiengesellschaft” according to german law and be based in Düsseldorf. It shall be a 100% subsidiary of the TYPO3 Association. The board of the TYPO3 Association shall be reduced because of efficiency reasons, the Expert Advisory Board shall be ended. IN addition a new board called Market Research Committee shall conduct market insight research and provide it to both TYPO3 Association officials and TYPO3 Association members. The BCC remains untouched and both organizations, the TYPO3 Association as well as the TYPO3 Inc. shall be continued to be audited by a legal external auditor.  

Team

The initial team of the TYPO3 Inc. shall be of Mathias Schreiber, former TYPO3 Product Owner, who voluntarily took this role for more than one full year, as CEO, Benni Mack, who made the same contribution throughout 2015 as Head Product Development, a Chief Marketing Officer who needs to be evaluated still. The team will be accompanied by Alain Veuve who will act as interim CFO and growth manager and will be the connecting point to the TYPO3 Association in daily business. 

Start-Up Plan

After the voting at the General Assembly and if the assembly is in favour of the TYPO3 Inc. the process of setting up the company will start immediately. However the business should be set up on a long term perspective following a five year plan to reach the revenue and staff targets.  ------------------------------------------------------------ We hope to see as many people at the GA in Essen. We will hold a presentation and Q&A session of TYPO3 Inc. plans in the morning of April 6, starting 10 am.  Find the Slides from the presentation here: <link http: de.slideshare.net electronicfastforward typo3-inc-business-model-presentation _blank>TYPO3 Inc. preparation outline We set up a<link https: forge.typo3.org projects t3a-board-public boards _blank> feedback forum and encourage everyone to ask questions and give feedback. In addition to this, please feel free to drop me any kind of feedback through the communication channel of your choice.