Dadsnet

Idea

Introduction

In our experience, we know that the majority of dads feel lonely in their role as dads and that they felt completely unprepared to be a dad. Not to mention, dads feeling undervalued and misrepresented in the media.

Dadsnet exists to change this.

Dadsnet is an award-winning digital agency, at the heart of which and underpinning everything that we do, is a meaningful community of dads all striving to be a little better at raising their kids each day. This community is built on shared experiences and opinions that enable us to all reflect on our own journey as we navigate through fatherhood. And it’s this community that gives us our USP.

As we seek to serve this community, we partner with relevant brands seeking to engage within a niche that has been left out of marketing strategies for too long.

We create, produce and distribute exceptional video, influencer & podcast content through our online communities, earning unbeatable results for our clients.

Substantial accomplishments to date

Starting as a passion project, Dadsnet began as a personal blog for the founder, Al Ferguson. Along the way the platform has evolved and changed picking up awards and accolades at various points; each time projecting Dadsnet to the next level.

With countless testimonies about how Dadsnet has prevented individuals from ending their life or supported father's through the hardest of challenges that life throws at them, it would be unjust to talk about accomplishments without acknowledging these individual stories collectively. If we lose sight of this, we have nothing.

In regards to business, we believe that it's this ethos that has enabled us to grow to a profitable company in just a few years. Some of our proudest accomplishments include:

- Being invited onto the prestigious Facebook Community Leadership Partnerships program. This saw Facebook grant us $50,000 and gave us unprecedented access to their resources. Since then, we've continued as one of Facebook's chosen strategic partners.

- Our annual conventions are an accomplishment in themselves, as it’s one of the UK's only annual conventions for Dads.

- In the last few months our staff team is growing from 2 to 7 members.

- Seeing the engagement levels continue to grow on our social media channels.

Monetisation strategy

Dadsnet's business model & strategy is built around digital marketing.

97% of our annual revenue is from brand partnerships & sponsored content; offering brands a full suite of content marketing tools ranging from video & podcast production, editorial, awards & endorsements to events and influencer marketing & management.

We create content suites based on insight & data from our unique communities and then share it throughout those same communities, and beyond.

This formula (insight + content + community) creates an unrivalled impact when it comes to digital marketing.

Our income is predominantly from brand partnerships & sponsored content but a small portion is from video ad revenue, affiliate marketing and merchandise.

Use of proceeds

Dadsnet is built upon community & people and the most significant investment we need at the moment is personnel.

Our plan with the proceeds from this funding round is as follows:

70% towards personnel - although still TBC by the board of directors, we're looking at recruiting a 'head of community & research', 'head of sales' & 'head of branded content'.

15% towards web development - our consumer-facing site needs updating & improving the UX.

10% towards unique content, PR & marketing

5% available for contingency.