Context

It might be blindingly obvious that technology is impacting on every aspect of modern life in most countries. Less obvious thought is the manner in which the world of work is being redefined on an ongoing basis. Automation has for many decades now taken over lower skilled and repetitive tasks while simultaneously creating higher value positions for humans to fill. Over the past decade or so though, the rate of job replacement has increased significantly with machines and software being ever more capable of replacing human workers. It is no wonder then that we see an increasing number of people taking on multiple jobs especially in what is known as the gig economy. Not all digital workers take this route though, with many opting to either take on freelancing for direct clients or venturing into internet marketing. Freelancers in this instance are different from gig workers in that they gain assignments directly from their clients (usually via online communities), typically have substantial experience in the field concerned and earn higher rates per hour. Internet marketers on the other hand, are not old school marketing professionals trying to do online branding. Instead they are self-employed individuals who make some or all of their income, by selling goods and services online.

With the number of people working in both these fields on the increase, it is notable that not only do they often do business with each other, but both groups face similar challenges. Chief amongst these is their reliance on online interactions to earn a living. This is doubly problematic since the internet marketing community has a particularly dubious reputation due to unscrupulous individuals exploiting new entrants or selling snake oil to an unsuspecting public. A typical case would be the ‘Football Loophole System’ linked to below, which promises to teach you how to make consistent profits on any league in the world.

Our idea

Since freelancers and internet marketers now often transact on the same sites (these used to be separate communities) and the major players in this space all have serious trust related issues, we intend to address this problem by establishing a new online community based on robust trust metrics. This solution comes in two parts, first is our internet marketing and freelancing community, The Buccaneer Network. The network will function as an extended forum with enhanced features, while the brand name evokes a spirt of daring and charting one’s own course, albeit within the bounds of certain rules. These are important factors as the current competitors in this field tend to use fairly basic forum layouts and often have far more extreme brand names, such as Black Hat World.

The second and mission critical part of our solution is a unique trust machine which will calculate a trust score for each user on The Buccaneer Network. The trust machine will integrate ratings and other pertinent data from a large cross section of a user’s other social media and attach the result in an anonymous, though easily understandable manner, to a user’s Buccaneer profile. This means that even before a user’s first interaction on the network they already have a certain standing and that this standing will be impossible to manipulate in the manner that is prevalent on systems such as that employed by eBay and others.

Feasibility

In the preceding discussion, we introduced an existing community with a clear problem to which we have a powerful solution. The way in which we intend to deliver this solution is along industry standard lines while the technology to be used is an innovative evolution on established systems. As such, potential investors have fewer unknowns to contend with than if there had been no previous service providers in this space. We can also show a clear societal good, given that an ever-increasing number of people are making their livings in these fields and those prospects are jeopardised by insecure and easily manipulated systems. This final point should be of key concern to any potential investor with a charitable remit. Not only will we be impacting positively on a growing segment of the population, but the Buccaneer Network will serve as a use case demonstration for the trust machine which we will then make available to various other clients using a rented access model. This has the dual outcome of spreading increased trust interactions to more networks and providing us and our investors with two revenue streams, the first of course being advertising on The Buccaneer Network.

Lastly, it is also worth noting that Warrior Forum has free cashflow to firm in the region of £150k to £230k per annum. Warrior Forum is one of the two major current players in this field and has an Alexa global traffic rank placing it in the top 6000 of all sites. It therefore provides a good benchmark and also affirms that setting up a sustainable business is indeed achievable. Stated differently; just one aspect of our proposed business will already be sufficient to make the entire venture viable with substantial positive cashflow and a market share that is eminently attainable by gaining buy in from those already dissatisfied with the incumbents.

Background information:

Humans need not apply: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Pq-S557XQU

Automation anxiety, will smarter machines cause mass unemployment: http://www.economist.com/news/special-report/21700758-will-smarter-machines-cause-mass-unemployment-automation-and-anxiety

What is the ‘GIG’ economy: http://www.bbc.com/news/business-38930048

Football Loophole System: http://www.footballloophole.com/?hop=info11