Te Companion Where Fans Go After the Show We’re creating “The Athletic” for Entertainment Lawrence Kao: [email protected] Nick Hayward: [email protected] November 2020 What Is the Companion? We’re the ultimate companion app for passionate fans who want higher quality content around flms, shows and games. It’s what the Athletic is doing for sports coverage or the Atlantic is doing for news and culture. We’re 1 of 3 Worldwide Film/TV Publishing Apps (iOS and Android) Premium Articles, Podcasts & Video Features Written by Show Creators (think Player’s Tribune) Deep Dive Guides and Infographics (think The Economist) ‘Behind-the-Scenes’ Features (think DVD extras) Community Features Customized Feeds and Personalization Features No ads, no clickbait All on a Premium Subscription Model - $70 per year. Why an App and Our App Allowed Us To Where We Are Jump Major Competiion In Q2, We Raised $190k Acquired by Newscorp for $650 With a tight budget we made strategic decisions for Million building long-term value Invested in an app creating an asset almost no other major content publisher had Raised $150 Million The App increases our ability to be the home where people go after - and during - the show. We made only 1 hire: Editor-in-Chief of Future Publishing at a major discount We launched in October w/ $190k Where We Are Now 300 Lifetime and Annual Memberships Pre-Product Launch ($70 Membership) Leads Pipeline of 6,000 on Newsletter Entertainment Weekly, Empire, Total Film - Huge Content reaches 3X the number of our members: They read every article then shared with friends Magazines with No Platform Publishing Maintain a lean team of 5 full-time staff members * Full Competitor Analysis and App Landscape in Appendix Where We’re Headed: Publisher To Platform Instead of focussing on editorial. We decided to create value by building a platform. This separates us from the other competitors. Competitor Apps are PDF Readers, which their fans hate. Our app’s flexibility takes us onto the path to becoming the Platform. “For the overwhelming majority of traditional publishers, so as is at Future, PDF readers are the default app because the process of a print publication treats the PDF as the fnished product. We experimented with interactive apps, but it didn’t increase magazine sales so it was deemed absurd to do anything else but a PDF reader. It’s why We Know our Next Step Is To Grow From I left.” 300 To 1,000 Members - James Hoare, Editor-in-Chief at Future Publishing Te TV & Film Indusry Is We’ve Identifed the Bigges $450 Billion Annually Category: Sci-Fi TV viewers watch sci-f 1-in-3 monthly Stranger Things The Mandalorian The Handmaid’s Tale People in the US Netflix Disney+ Hulu consider themselves 200 Million sci-f fans Netfix Top Sci-Fi & Fantasy are Netfix’s biggest Category investment category Westworld Avengers Star Trek: Picard HBO Marvel Studios Amazon Fandom Is for Life: Tey Inheri It From Teir Parents and Pass It Onto Teir Kids. My trading card collection turned into buying every piece of merchandise I could get my hands on, and I gotta buy ten. Why ten? I don’t know, but I have to buy ten. - Jim Thornton | From our latest X-Files Article ‘Merching for the Truth’ On average, a super fan spends $2,480 annually We’re Seeing Tat Fanatical Our Articles Evoke Deep Love: our Early Tracion Emotions Our members read every article, cry and laugh while doing so, then they share with at least 1 non-member friend. We have 2X-4X as many unique reads on each article than we do members We’ve facilitated word of mouth sharing by 300% allowing members to share without paywall Our focus are on in-depth long-read articles: 15-30 min each Our last member newsletter open rate 75% Vs entertainment industry ave 21% What We’ve Achieved Wih Only $190k Launched User Testing to 200 Users (US, UK and Europe) - January Launched Marketing Website 300 x Pre-Orders ($70 annual) Built Newsletter Leads to 6,000 Launched Content Website - September 2020 Launched App (iOS and Android) - October 2020 Hired Editor-in-Chief of Future Publishing Articles reach 2-4X the number of our members (They read every article then shared with friends) Key Talent: Stargate and Travelers Creator Brad Wright Partnerships with: MGM, SciFiNow Magazine, 20 Fan Blogs, Arthur C. Clarke Foundation Monthly Burn $42k Steps To Transform To Platform We’re currently the high-quality Publisher. We know our next step is to grow to a critical milestone of 1,000 members, Validate the Product and CAC. We have clear plans on how this will help us become the Platform. Step 1 - Grow from 300 to Step 2 - Focus on Product Step 3 - Expand to adjacent 1,000 Members Optimization categories: Horror, Fantasy, Gaming Diversify to related categories We’re a product focussed team, but want to Build new data driven personalization features grow a sizeable enough base to test Continue expanding to 10x Sci-Fi Franchises Acquisitions and Partnerships of Communities and Struggling Publications Hire to Strengthen Growth with Talent, Partnerships & Community Manager UGC Member Campaigns Result: Increase Customer LTV Result: Test, Learn and and Defensibility Result: Growth Vertically and Validate Horizontally Cusomer Acquisiion Channels Tat Are Working Hard We’re already optimising these most effective channels: Pulling Power From Talent - One showrunner article brought in 26 signups Partnerships and Fan Communities - One featured article brought in 20 signups What we are planning next: Newsletter Leads List Conversion UGC Content and Events New Types of Partnerships Fan Blogs and Influencers Studios and Production Companies Comic Cons Partnershi Announcement: More Opportuniies If We Move Fas We’re Becoming the Trusted Source SVOD & Digial Media Consumption Is Higher Ad-Funded Magazines and Tan Ever in Covid Outlets Are Struggling Advertising down 20% in H1 2020 Hard for publishers to change Ad Model Infrastructure OTT Subscriber Growth Slow to move to Subscription Model 7x Rate But with consumption rising - People want this! Digital News & Media 3x Subscriber Growth Rate We Are the Solution Trough our New Partnershis Announcement: SciFiNow Magazine Joins Us Exclusively SciFiNow, one of the most beloved genre magazines, will join under the Companion umbrella. All of their biggest new ‘magazine features’ and their entire 13-Year back catalogue will be available to our members EXCLUSIVELY. Their Online readership is at all time highs on their website, newsletter and social… Increase from this time +40% last year 44k Peak circulation …Our platform is the best way to transition from traditional magazine into premium digital subscription. Our Team & Abiliy to Attrac Top Talent New Org Chart Lates Talent Addiion Showrunner Brad Wright Veteran Executive Brad Wright has joined as a Creative Advisor and is contributing Extended Team original writing and hosting member AMAs. Neil Blair - Investor and Chairman of Wizarding World, Harry Potter Brad has written sci-fi for three decades as Creator of the Netflix series Travelers and Co-Creator of the beloved Stargate TV Franchise (17 seasons of SG-1, Atlantis, Michael Kuhn - Investor and former Exec of Polygram Filmed Entertainment Universe). Amelia Gammon - ex-VP 20th Century Fox Jamie Barnes - Facebook UX Designer Keiran Doyle - Google Kaldor - Technology partner (The New Yorker, The Economist, Wired) Design Laboratory - Design Fellows from world renowned Central St Martins Mike Collins - Comics Legend and Artist for Doctor Who and Good Omens Our New Org Chart Lawrence Nick Current Team CEO President Brad Wright Lawrence, Founder & CEO - Senior Management Copa90 ($80 million Creative Advisor val, soccer version of the Companion) Nick, Founder & President- Ex-YouTube Exec, Head of Talent & James Commercial Partnerships Editor-in-Chief Sci-Fi James, Editor - Former Editor-in-Chief at Future Publishing Tommy, Partnerships - ex-StudioCanal Marketing Ben Tommy Ben, Analyst - Former Trading Analyst at Shell Analyst Partnerships Additions Talent & Influencer Growth Expert Brad Wright - Veteran Sci-Fi Showrunner (Travelers & Stargate) Outreach Extended Team Of Advisors and Experts Talent & Influencer Outreach Community Manager Sophie Davies Growth Expert Community Manager Join A Stellar Invesor Why We’re Raising Group Investors We want to build on our growth strategy by raising a faster, smaller round of $500k to increase our speed. Localglobe - Top Early Stage Investor GMG Ventures - The Guardian’s Investment Arm Main Objectives: Neil Blair - JK Rowling’s Agent and Chairman of Wizarding World Growth to 1,000 Members Michael Kuhn - Former CEO of Polygram Pictures Supercharge our Strategic Partnerships (40%) David Rowan - Founding Editor of Wired UK Supercharge Pulling Power in Talent Pool (40%) Test other acquisition channels for effectiveness (20%) Begin Testing Adjacent Categories (e.g. Horror, Fantasy, Gaming) Model - our Milesone of Once We Hi our 1,000 1,000 Users Takes 3 Months Milesone We Can Scale Key Milestones Model factors in annual memberships / 12 months 15,000 Members 500000for MRR, trials and discounts for new members $80k MRR 1,000 Members Cont. Validation and Lower CAC $417k total Strengthen Talent & Partnership Channels 10,000 Members $52k MRR Optimize New Acquisition Channels $270k total Product Optimization 5,000 Members $27k MRR Expand Franchises and Categories $140k total 2,548 Members Breakeven Series A Raise for Scale 1,000 Warming up Series A Members $4k MRR $30k total Profitability at 2,500 Members Ave Monthly Burn: $63k 0 M1 M2 M3 M4 M5 M6 M7 M8 M9 M10 M11 M12 Appendix Details and Analysis for Media in a Post Covid World Our Members Getting to know them in detail Other Companion Fan Love Other Companion Love From Fan Outreach Our Members Every one of our new members are invited to a 1-hour Zoom call to welcome them to The Companion.