You wouldn't believe how I wound up here! - A Startup, Entrepreneur and Investor's Manifesto.

I want to talk about what lead me to this world of innovation, startups, development, and investing; for the 2nd time in my life (1st time as an adult).

You see, I am a problem solver... Which is why I cozied up so nicely to product-manager / scrum-master (plus prior technical experience/easy adoption). And I suppose why I snuggled up nicely to Construction Super/GC, as well. (Lots of unique problems to solve in that industry as well.)

The problem that lead me to startups though, was #onlinedating. Almost exactly 3 years ago I really took notice of it, specifically on social media. - Yes I know dating and relationships are... Lets just say, "Subject to lots of complaints, suggestions, and improvement.."

But man, why am I seeing all those good looking, successful (or well on their way to be) people struggling to even find a date!? - And it's not just them, it is/was me as well!!

Connecting with dozens of people on dozens of dating apps (most of whom never respond, or you never reach out too), so now I have a big list of people I most likely won't meet, great.

Oh also, they're pretty much all free (the dating apps), so be prepared to weed out those who are quite frankly unambitious, never moved out from home, you get the idea... I mean free dating apps? (I get it, you have to offer something of value for free, as I marketer, I always liked customer education). But the date, or connection itself, free?

I mean shouldn't dating be the one thing, that shouldn't be free? Wouldn't it be nice to know, other members can afford $15-20/month, that are looking to date as well?

I think people (investors) (despite the fact we have major support from anyone that is single and doing ok/well/great), may think I'm/we are a bit na?ve when it comes this, but I and my co-founder Lauren are not. And I also understand many don't recognize or experience the problem, especially those in late Gen-X and Boomer gens.. Many are and have been married for decades to the same person..

I didn't say: "Hey I want to get rich (well yes I did, the grind life wasn't cutting it for me), and online dating is a over a $12 billion /year business (I think COVID has doubled that now), with tons of competition (140+ #datingapps Match owns, or is heavily invested in {roughly 80% of the market}, leaving eHarmony, and Bumble, as the two remaining non-Match, major-competitors), so why don't I get into that?"

No, the deeper we dug, the more we found out, including the competition info above. We also started reaching out, and connecting with these people who were like us, struggling to find decent dating..

Many opinions and overall collectiveness has shaped Love The Network (which may, or may not limit itself to just a dating platform), and they continuously do so, from all over the world. (The UK / India / South America, Japan, and onward.) - I recently connected with a woman who is in a huge Single Dallas Woman Texas group. You know what she does, and recommends others do, when looking to meet a potential date? - Run a background check on them through a 3rd party system she and others pay for, that she actively advocates to do...

Ok so now why am I going up against this ridiculous competition, who's modus operandi is to buy competitors, before they become a threat and Bumble?>>>(Who has brought a little relief to some, but still doesn't full address the problem in my opinion, and many others as well.)

Because we can't still find a decent date easily enough... Women and men are playing texting games. They are testing others patience, essentially putting them through self created hoops, to prove they aren't crazy. (Crazy in itself right? So is sending unrequested NSFW pictures to someone you don't know... But people do it..) The problem with that? (The tests, not the pics, which is why we have an in-app reporting system, to remove these bad actors who slip through.)

Us, the same people who test others, also don't have time for that.. So we send a few messages back and forth and they get lost in the dozens of others connections..

Catfishing, love-scammers ($220 million scammed from Americans last year from these scammers *that's just what was reported*), and general distrust from one-party-to-another. I mean how could we solve all these problems, so when someone they found attractive and matched with was is:

• Who they say they are.
• Can at least afford $15 a month. (It's really a low bar, and I'm gonna be frank, honestly if I'm single, and I'm tired of it, and ready for a real date, or relationship, I need that, before I need Netflix, but hey I'm a special breed, not sure the masses feel the same ;-)
• Not a violent predator.

Ultimately, despite searching, and having this not be our original model, brand, product or name, we found the solution, and it was really simple... Identity verification and background checking (only excluding those of the felonies nature, involving fraud, domestic, or sexual registrants). We believe in 2nd, and even 3rd chances when merited, and I think most others agree. However there are triggers, like recent criminal behavior, which is flagged, that require some hand analysis; which we reserve the right to deny service, based on our Terms of Use.

We didn't want to make this too 'Niche' or for the 'Elite' only. - Successful and happy couples can be the oddest match up.. Sure people have preferences, and we are going to give our users the option to use them. But we don't believe an algorithm can decide for you, when it comes to emotions and experiences, from individual-to-individual, involved with dating and intimate partnerships. It could help suggest preferences, but not decide.

And lets not forget before we get too picky, that finding that initial 'date', to begin with has proved hard enough. I mean dating is dating; you might have to try it with a couple people, and 'Netflix and Chill' (Marc Randolph I hope you read this, you created the Netflix portion of that, and the users adopted/created the 'Netflix and Chill', here's your opportunity to get involved in that other half, that provides that winning combination), or go out a few times, with a couple different people.--I don't want to define for that people. But I do know, it shouldn't be that big of a chore, to meet these basic qualifications, when so many others are looking, who qualify as-well, right? - Not when you weed out the scams, fakes, phonies and losers, no.

Alright so, you may have noticed this is a some-what pitch now right? So if you're still interested in reading, or potentially investing, lets get to the next elephant..

"A simple solution like identity and background checking can implemented by anyone easily enough." - Can it though? I mean I want you put yourself in the Execs shoes at Match, or even Bumble, you have millions of users already right? Ok now go tell them all they have to go through an identity and background check to continue using their app. - You already know how that's going to work, or not. Yea maybe Facebook or LinkedIn could, and probably should adopt it, but lets be real.. No one including Match, has solidified a-go-to dating app. Whereas Facebook has such dominance most users would say ok, I I'll do that to stay. - I believe Fb and/or LinkedIn would still loose a significant portion of it's users initially, even if they did. (Plus in the free world, you're judged but how many users you have, not how much you profit/make.)

That's our advantage, this literally has to be built and integrated/adopted from the ground up. Just because we've been doing it the same way for decades, doesn't mean it's right, or works best; in this case it quite clearly hasn't. We are also far enough along, we don't see anyone up and coming, and stealing this "idea" from us, which is going to lead me to your already next question..

"But will people actually provide their information and pay for this service?" - This is simply a Yes. We developed a MVP last year, about this time, and when I say MVP I really mean MVP, (meaning created to test the market, not to scale, and not a fun or great app honestly).

So yes, through the power of using actual real local people (those who supported us, and via offering free membership in exchange for promotion of you/your photos on the app), and the power of copywrite, we were getting app downloads for less than $1 piece. From there, we pulled a 32% complete registration fill out (enough info to run the check). From that number, we pulled an initial 7% sales, despite not having "free market product(s) providing value to users" at this time, and upwards of 12% with email remarketing efforts (no use of SMS or in-app push at this point). We are still seeing with 0 paid marketing 5-10 sales a month.. And yes, 2.0 has some great features and other tools for the free market (besides the ability to message the potential date).

Now we only had about 500 registrations here in the Northeast, but the app really isn't good, and we need an app that is good. Users who find us off the "block" (not referred by us), will expect a nice real-good working app, and you don't get a second shot at getting these users back after they say: "this app sucks (despite the fact I like the concept and checks)". - And we had dried up what little money for marketing anyway, so it was time to revaluate with our new data..

It's now Feb 2020, the seasonal spike is over from the Holidays, and the next one is May-June. Boom, COVID, re-organize, re-evaluate. Start planning version 2.0, start planning to get a seed raise, heck create a second business offering the services I do, and chasing my new found passion!! Take some money you make/had, and re-invest into Reg CF raise, spend $1500+ on that, to realize you(I) need some bigger investments first, to trigger the "crowd raising aspect". Get pissed I wasted $1500 on chasing investments, and marketing it, when I could have used it for developing. Start taking money you have left/make and start development on 2.0.

V2.0 has provided free value to users, lots of great functions, great working, video chat has been added sooner in response to COVID, I mean we are really stepping it up here to make this a sweet app as well. Including education to help you successfully find a date, and keep it, if you both want (because no one educated us on relationships, besides the mostly toxic, or lack of any relationships we saw growing up in the bottom of Gen-X to Gen-Z). Also more trade secrets. Also, automated background checking via APIs and our BG checking company, through our admin panel, also automated marketing, that we own directly on our servers including in-app-push, web-push, email and SMS--All customizable/automated campaigns that can be created for a year to-go or more, as we continue adding to it.

So iOS is just about finished (2.0), and we are done with the background checking API automation. This cost the last $10k we really have to tie-up into it, this year. It was clear we needed double what we had spent to finish up properly (Android/Google and remaining back end), plus marketing costs, and the rest. - Yes time for seed money, no it doesn't have to be huge, or all at once. We are lean, and I'm not going to pretend I know all about this stage and what exactly I'll need, so I'd like some advice or input from others. I know the average seed raise is $2.2million but to me that seems a lot, and again this is my first at this so I could just be new / na?ve to it.

And no, we aren't reaching back out or doing the bootstrapping thing still. We managed to raise $47,500 from 6 individuals last year via bootstrap raising like this on Facebook actually (half whom we never met / knew), in addition to putting our own $25k in then, along with another $10k plus this year. I went to the Facebook Developers Concert which helped me meet some other great entrepreneurs from across the world, and expanded my network further..

Regardless, whatever the investment amount we want to be setup to succeed (and we assume our investors want the same, regardless of amount and equity %). This means one person making executive decisions, and not wasting valuable time or bureaucracy while we are going from startup to grown company, and leaving room for a A/B or B/C rounds if necessary after seed. (Honestly I'm thinking international expansion will require a 2nd round, after the seed is successful here in America. However, being a pay-per-use / SaaS model, and some other streams of revenue planned (trade secrets currently, and without ruining UX with tacky ads), we intend to take as little investment as possible. We want to find the path to sustainability and profitability, as quickly as possible, avoiding those further rounds.

With that being said, we are a registered c-corp. here in Maine. 20% preferred stock, 10% class B (which we have given away 4.75% of already). and the remaining 70% Class A to be split between my co-founder Lauren and I, with her currently holding the majority shares. Prior to our seed raise I was majority holder, but per our last SEC filing, Lauren is majority. - A choice I/we am/are standing by for now.

Here I like to reference that Match gave Tinder an evaluation of $3.5Billion at the time of acquisition. - I don't want to get hung up on the negation process, we should all be working towards a similar goal, which is ensuring the success of this company, be it private sale/acquisition, or IPO. - No I don't intend too stick with it forever, I can't speak for Lauren on this behalf, her heart may be in this for the longer haul, but I will see it through until is 100% successful. - I just have big dreams for other projects and innovations now, startups to work with, or on, regardless of how big my payout from this is.

So through my quest to solve problems (the bigger the better in my eyes), online dating being a significate one, I found my true passion for startups, innovation, and future technology. I want to be a part of that, and I believe despite the fact I'm not nearly as smart as so many of you others out there, that I can provide ideas, solutions, and connections to other major crises hint is the construction labor shortage that is here already, and really it's going to get much worse over the next 10 years, aka our outdated infrastructure), but that's another story.. Once I realized how much I enjoy this aspect, I developed a growing and meaningful Facebook Group for Entrepreneurs, Innovators, Startups, Investors, Coders/Hackers and the like.

We have connected with a few VC's and Angels that would go in on this, but essentially don't or won't want to be the lead. - We are looking for the lead investor, and we would assist the confirmation from other investors, who will follow your lead, if this is something you, or your company is interested in.

Regardless, keep connecting and keep building! 1% better every day goes a long way in the long haul!!

PS: I am thoroughly interested in solving world problems, and future innovations; to which I have many ideas for, 'That Will Never Work' (Marc Randolph's book) ??. I hope this is a start to a very successful future journey with us; solving and investing in solutions, to many of these world problems!