August 15, 2014
To Whom It May Concern:
My name is Steve Palley. I'm CEO and co-founder of ApplyMap, a new website that uses advanced statistics to help high school students decide where to apply to college.
My co-founder and I founded our small startup in the summer of 2013 because we want to provide expert college advice to everyone that needs it. Our mission is to help every aspiring college student, regardless of background, achieve his or her educational dreams.
To this end, we have developed a novel approach to the college search problem, as well as several innovative technologies. Our next job is to raise a seed round in order to achieve scale.
There are a few different ways for a new company our size to do this, but the most efficient way by far will be to go the equity crowdfunding route. Thus we are eagerly awaiting the final version of Title III of the JOBS Act.
When Title III goes into action and we are able to solicit investments from non-accredited investors online, we will raise about $1M through a crowdfunding platform. Much of this spend will be devoted to hiring engineers and marketing personnel . We plan to grow our team from 3 to 10 in the first year, followed by hiring an additional 12 employees in year two.
If we're going to achieve our mission, we must raise this capital ASAP. Please do everything possible prioritize the release of Title III.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
Sincerely,
steve