Seeking folks for advise & support for new business venture

[Moeen Raoof]

My proposal is to seek funding and support for a new business venture that would bring global small and large business within reach of each other. Presently, businesses around the world are not directly aware of the requirements nor the types of differing products available.

Would like to set-up a central IT based intelligence tool for both vendors and buyers globally.
A vendor, in this instance a small farmer in Mozambique seeking to sell Cashew nuts at the best price possible can only rely on local information in terms of prices and need. Similarly, a chocolate producer in Switzerland seeking to purchase Cashew nuts can only rely on a procurement agent.

The problem, the vendor may not be getting the real value that would create wealth for him or his co-operative members.

The essence of this Web based intelligence tool would be to provide information on product, cost, delivery, quality, and most importantly, create fairer opportunities for all concerned. I believe that this would create opportunities for new business as well as entrepreneurs.

Would you kindly consider this proposal as I believe that it would go a long way in wealth creation and add value to a fairer trading block for businesses around the world.

As I will be seeking a venture capitalist for this, would highly appreciate it if anyone can and able to provide excellent support for the same.

I believe that we will bridge the gap for even remote businesses to start trading around the world, open new markets and doors if you will.

Thank you.

[Moeen Raoof]

Agreed, excellent points Shishir. Yes, Bullhorn will appoint agents in the countries or Regions to provide back-up and support. In addition, will have preferred companies, i.e., companies that we recommend to companies such as shipping companies locally or nationally, banks, etc.

In addition, once Bullhorn can attract the right funding and support, it will incorporate information on Government export laws, procedures, etc.

Ideally, the cost for export will be borne by the purchasing party, as well as all costs of transportation, paperwork, etc.

Thanks for your comments.

[Li HONG]

This is like a marketplace just for global SME/Individuals. However, the challenge/opportunity I see is really how to fulfill the online/offline gap. For SMEs that already online, eBay/Alibaba etc could be a no-brainer choice and I hardly see any unique value bullhorn could really bring in for them except a "focus" approach. But if you can figure out a way to aggregate millions of if not billions global SMEs like the Cashew Nut farmer in Africa that never have a computer, that will be a big golden mine.

You can either make money by making the exchange of information more efficient/effective like eBay/Alibaba/NASDAQ those market place, or by "creating" the information that largely resides out side the Internet world like those offline SMEs.

[Maggy Young]

Does itmatter so much about just agriculture anyway ? What you gave us was just an example. You are proposing empowerment of the poorer indiiduals & groups through information & this allows dispensing with the middle man. I think we have to accept that certain groups will catch up quicker or slower, but given the opportunity, collectives will arise & will form the role of sales trade unions using your data as bargaining power. I suggest this will happen inevitably & the real ? for your company is therefore the lead times & to what extent social funding might be available to facilitate this process. Good luck anyway

[Douglas Hutchison]

Perhaps a way to approach this idea might be similar to how amazon.com allows other vendors to sell items... sort of a hybrid across ebay/amazon where merchants offer goods and / or services and others can purchase said items.

And its not inconceivable that you might approach amazon.com with your business plan (and that they might act as your VC) as a new market segment for amazon.com... one not necessarily competing with ebay so much as acting as the global market place for goods and services...

Additionally, you might seek some funding from the international shipping organizations that could benefit from the shipping of goods sold. In fact, said shipping companies might also be potential clients who offer competing bids on the shipping of goods.

Overall, what you propose sounds like something of a global bazaar where all vendors might meet in order to transact business and as such your role is in facilitating said transactions. Thus, perhaps an additional reason to seek partnership with amazon.com or even google.com is to gain their facilitation in the transfer of value (money for goods / services rendered) in order that you might make use of the financial infrastructure that they already have in place.

An additional note might be to make user related ratings available similar to the comments allowed on amazon.com so that users might spread the word about one another, the level of satisfaction with services, etc.

Finally, a consequence of this type of service might be allowing the smaller producers to compete / gain access to / and provide for the larger consumers in the market... thus a Starbuck's might discover additional coffee sources heretofore unknown...

Overall it would appear your mission / goal is to act as catalyst / facilitator so others might successfully meet and transact business. Would you concur?

[Douglas Hutchison]

Perhaps a way to approach this idea might be similar to how amazon.com allows other vendors to sell items... sort of a hybrid across ebay/amazon where merchants offer goods and / or services and others can purchase said items.

And its not inconceivable that you might approach amazon.com with your business plan (and that they might act as your VC) as a new market segment for amazon.com... one not necessarily competing with ebay so much as acting as the global market place for goods and services...

Additionally, you might seek some funding from the international shipping organizations that could benefit from the shipping of goods sold. In fact, said shipping companies might also be potential clients who offer competing bids on the shipping of goods.

Overall, what you propose sounds like something of a global bazaar where all vendors might meet in order to transact business and as such your role is in facilitating said transactions. Thus, perhaps an additional reason to seek partnership with amazon.com or even google.com is to gain their facilitation in the transfer of value (money for goods / services rendered) in order that you might make use of the financial infrastructure that they already have in place.

An additional note might be to make user related ratings available similar to the comments allowed on amazon.com so that users might spread the word about one another, the level of satisfaction with services, etc.

Finally, a consequence of this type of service might be allowing the smaller producers to compete / gain access to / and provide for the larger consumers in the market... thus a Starbuck's might discover additional coffee sources heretofore unknown...

Overall it would appear your mission / goal is to act as catalyst / facilitator so others might successfully meet and transact business. Would you concur?

[Moeen Raoof]

Douglas, superb comments, thanks very much. Yes I do concur and will look into your suggestions. Cheers.

[Shishir Sharma]

Moeen,

When do you plan to start this venture, and what is the current state of the whole concept?

Have you already done a feasibility study, and what about the business plan?

Basically, how can we begin contributing (Other than our suggestions/initial thoughts that we post here) to this venture?
I'm not sure in what areas of the business do you need help.

Maybe if you post the requirements (that you already have figured out), we can see where we fit in and where all we can contribute.

Cheers,
Shishir