December 2020 Shareholders Update
Hello Shareholders,
Here we are, one week from Christmas and less than 2 weeks from 2021. 2020 has been quite a year, hasn’t it? Admittedly, our 2020 over here at MPP Software has been somewhat different from many others’, which we are very thankful for. Here are some of the highlights we are ending the year on.
Development
It has been a busy month for our dev team! Our commercial launch release, Version 1.0 went out on November 16th and we have already put out version 1.1 as of today. The new release includes some high value functionality that didn’t make it into our first release, as well as several key bug fixes to issues our early users have found. Some of the exciting features to look for in this release include the introduction of discount codes, weekend rates, variable rate cards (so you can change your rate by week or month), “delegation” of permissions on your properties so a property manager or spouse can manage your invites, bookings, and other updates, and some general workflow improvements based on user feedback. We hope you’ll look and let us know if you see anything else.
Going into 2021, beyond continuing to grow and improve the existing Eligere Estate product, keep your eyes open for the development of a standalone Eligere phone app, and our first expansion product using the same security model beyond real estate
Eligere Estate Customers
Since the V1 launch, we’ve had just under 40 users register on the site, and we’ve had our first subscription activations as well. We passed an exciting milestone in November. Despite the system only being live for 2 weeks, we received enough subscription revenue before November ended to fully pay for the hosting costs of our system, which means that the platform itself is a viable product. (Our total operations aren’t cashflow positive, but the system itself is.) So far in December we’ve already passed the November revenue milestone. Our support team has been very active in reaching out to our users to help them get used to the new system, and we’re very happy with the direct feedback we’re receiving on what’s working, what we need to work on, and how our users see us being able to grow the product in the future.
Sales/Marketing
On the front of acquiring new users, January is going to be a very active month of aggressive advertising and saturation marketing. We are kicking off a series of campaigns including a discount code program for the medical community, a social media campaign targeted at growing our online presence by 30%, and a partnership with Pocket/Firefox to get high visibility to our very specific market segment. We have our first 2 agents engaged and ready to start doing referral sales for us early in the new year, and we expect organic growth to pick up in the post-Christmas weeks
Revenue Diversification
We are currently working to diversify our revenue streams to improve organizational resiliency and avoid the need for a Round B financing next spring/summer. This is taking a few angles:
Corporate Sales
In presenting the solution to individuals during the early adopter period, some of our potential users definitely “got” the big picture of the solution. One of these approached us and laid out how he sees Eligere Estate being a fit for a variety of different corporate entities. He has joined our team part time as a commissioned sales representative to take and develop this pipeline, and we will be watching through early 2021 how this expansion works.
Advertising
As traffic to the application increases, we will be activating the advertising contract with the Accor group. This will not be a huge revenue stream, but it will augment our license sales through 2021.
Consulting Services
Several of our key staff are experienced professional consultants in various areas of IT and business management. In early 2021 we are expecting to sign at least 1 (if not more) part time consulting agreements where select staff will assist MPP’s short-term cashflow by tackling projects with 3rd party organizations. Though this is a divergence from our core business model, our first contract carries enough value to offset 50% of the entire business’ operating costs through 2021, so pursuing this series of opportunities provides security to the business cashflow.
Other Notes
The staff had a great time at our 2020 Virtual Christmas Party. Big shout out to Scott, our lead developer, who took some time during the week beforehand and put together a fun Christmas present scavenger hunt through our dev system. If you haven’t seen it yet, you should stop by and see some of our seasonal decorating at app.eligere.luxury.
As we head into 2021, I remain optimistic that we will reach revenue positive operations in the 2021-2022 Fiscal Year (May 2021 – April 2022). Our focus on sales and revenue diversification early in the next year will start to pay dividends around the start of the new fiscal, and we should see even a marginal month-over-month revenue increase compound into a strong recurring revenue base by the start of next fiscal. Early days of the COVID-19 vaccination programs are also buoying travel stocks and pushing a surge in year-end trip bookings, so that also bodes well for us riding that wave into 2021. From all of us here on the MPP Software team, we hope you have a great holiday season and are in high spirits going into the new year.
Colin Moreland, CEO, MPP Software