Apply HN: Mankind– Curates and Crowdsources for Ventures That Can Get Us to Mars | Hacker News Reader

Apply HN: Mankind– Curates and Crowdsources for Ventures That Can Get Us to Mars

5 pointshermanwe3 comments

URL: movemankind.com/

PROBLEM/OPPORTUNITY – Ventures that can help mankind go to Mars (in the fields of genetics, AI, renewable energy and space)

Ventures could do with more support from the masses beyond crowdfunding - SpaceX needed dairy farming machinery for its prototypes and Tesla needed accounting advice.

PROBLEM/OPPORTUNITY - Contributors

People already help to better the world by volunteering and signing petitions. However, we have no way of supporting sustainable ventures that can determine the future of the human race. With interest in space, genetics and all things survivalist at an all-time high, we think the opportunity is ripe to get people involved with such ventures.

MARKET OPPORTUNITY

Early-stage companies in the fields of genetics, AI, clean energy and space currently spend $13.5mn on online job ads a year.

No. of early stage companies in relevant sectors: 2,921 (CAGR: 10.6%)

Average no. of hires per company per year: 13

Average cost per online job ad: $475

Likelihood of a start up in these sectors advertising jobs online: 75%

2,921 x 13 x $475 x 0.75 = $13.5mn

CONDUCIVE MARKET TRENDS

1. We are at the beginning of a Fourth Industrial Revolution and high-tech companies in fields such as genetics and A.I. are forecasted to play an outsized role in job creation.

2. Online recruitment is growing 50% annually.

3. The nature of work is becoming more flexible and driven by interests rather than money.

4. Increase in co-creation. E.g. open source, feedback on HN, crowdfunding sites like IndieGoGo are shifting from just providing crowdfunding to helping ventures build their products.

(continued)

SOLUTION

Mankind curates and crowdsources resources for ventures that can help humanity become multi-planetary species. We crowdsource resources such as talent, freelancers, accounting advice… whatever these ventures need to succeed. The ventures we curate operate in the fields of genetics, AI, space exploration and sustainable energy – technologies that will most affect the future of humanity, according to Elon Musk. We’re like Product Hunt x Kritical Mass for ventures that can get us to Mars, with compensation (financial and/or Kickstarter-like) for contributors.

BUSINESS MODEL

Charge a fee for successfully connecting top talent whose aspirations and interests align with the mission and needs of these high potential, Mars-bound ventures. Future revenue streams: crowdfunding, freelance services, beta testing, ads

VALIDATION TO-DATE - ventures

- 6/13 cold calls responded positively

- 2 proactively reached out

- 4 out of 9 ventures retweeted our tweets about their needs

VALIDATION TO-DATE - contributors

Approx. 120 sign ups from Betalist (incl. marketers, journalists, developers, designers…).

Email open rate: 64.5%, click-through: 34.9% (Media & Publishing Industry Average - Open: 22.3%, Click-through 4.6%)

We are working on validating whether contributors will take active interest beyond passive info consumption (e.g. applying for jobs, sharing jobs, providing feedback).

ABOUT US

Ruby – Ex-Ogilvy & Mather Planner, full-stack Ruby/Rails developer, Head of Product at Instant Karma (online platform connecting people to hands-on and skill-based volunteering jobs in Asia).

Thomas – MSc in Actuarial Science, started a number of small business reselling a variety of goods

Thomas and I met as classmates in Year 10 (15/16 years old). We worked together on school work and numerous projects throughout high school and university.

Isn't a $13.5mn total market opportunity a bit small?

$13.5mn is just the initial market we think we can get by targeting early stage companies in these sectors for job recruitment only (excl. potential future revenue streams such as crowdfunding).

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