As discussed on Operations » Volume SocialAir can only operate efficiently once it has achieved a membership volume of 10,000 Members or more.  Any time SocialAir remains open for operations at volume levels lower than that it risks degradation of Member satisfaction.  Furthermore, there is a latent demand for this product that is ready to be fully tapped right now.  And this is not the kind of business that grows steadily over the years. It must take off rapidly and forcefully—like a jet.

For those and other reasons, we will use a bold and ambitious strategy to not only achieve take-off, but full cruising altitude as rapidly as possible. To accomplish this, I have developed a completely new launch strategy:

Staged Exponential Expansion (SEE)

Staged Exponential Expansion is a new launch formula based on proven strategies used in many other types of launches, with a very original twist. It was custom-designed for Social Air, but it could be applied to a wide range of markets. It is a surprisingly simple formula, with just three key components.

Staged

Social Air will expand in several distinct product launch events.  Each product launch, or Stage, will be promoted in advance through all possible channels in order to stoke demand for a limited number of memberships. On a given date, that limited supply of memberships will be sold. The objective is to have demand exceed supply.

Stages are marked by a set of significant attributes. First, each Stage has a name, and members will bear the designation of the launch Stage they participated in. Those stages are:

Stage 1: Founder – The first ten Members/investors
Stage 2: Charter – The next 100 Members/investors
Stage 3: Lift – The next 1,000 Members/investors
Stage 4: Cruise – The next 10,000 Members/investors

Each Stage Event will feature the unveiling of the next generation web portal interface and features. Each website launch will include at least two to four marquee features and several new minor features or enhancements.

Special inaugural flights will mark each launch as well (except for the Founders Stage). For example, the inaugural flight of the Charter Stage could be a series of flights taking the Founders to the first annual corporate strategy retreat in Lake Tahoe.

Real-world celebration events will be held in the markets Social Air serves, as well.

And of course the event features a real-time online event in which the next round of members are announced. If demand can indeed be pumped up to exceed supply, then the event becomes an evening of suspenseful anticipation, as all of the people who made a bid for membership wonder if they will be one of the select who get to enjoy all the benefits that come with becoming a Social Air Member at this Stage.

Exponential

The scope of each Stage, i.e. how many Members are added to the membership base during the launch event, will increase by an order of magnitude with each successive launch.  Specifically:

Stage	Designation	Members	Event Date	Duration	Monthly Fees *
1	Founder	10	September 2, 2013	4 months	$0
2	Charter	100	December 31, 2013	6 months	$100,000
3	Lift	1,000	Jyly 4, 2014	6 months	$2,000,000
4	Cruise	10,000	December 31, 2014	6 months	$25,000,000

 

Expansion

As covered above, rapid expansion is not just a lofty goal for SocialAir. It is a necessity. Aggressive expansion through a rapid-fire (4 to 6 month ‘sprints’) series of staged launches, is the Critical Success Factor for SocialAir.

Expansion will happen on various axes, such as:

• Number of Members
• Revenue
• Number of Markets serverd
• Number of Airports served
• Flight volume
• Prospect database
• Various social marketing indicators

On all of these axes, SocialAir will need to expand by orders of magnitude four times in the space of one to two years.  The obvious question is:

How can this level of rapid expansion possibly be generated?

That question is answered throughout the rest of the Marketing section of this business plan.

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* These income figures are loose estimates based on the assumption that many members will purchase membership packages above the $10,000 minimum requirement, so the monthly income will be the number of members time some amount greater than $10K. Here we assume the average monthly income per member is approximately $2,000 in the ‘Lift’ stage and about $2,500 in the ‘Cruise’ stage. Since this price factor is really an unknown and as this is in the marketing section, the rough estimates are appropriate.