Report for investors and fans of ccFound for Q4 2024
Dear investors and users of ccFound!
For your information: the original report was prepared in Polish. Automatic translations in other languages may contain minor errors.
Pivot
As you already know, ccFound has changed its strategy in recent months from social media to a platform for monetizing knowledge, specifically: for offering courses and paid groups.
In particular, platforms for managing closed groups are a new, emerging market and will take over the education market in the coming years.
The last quarter resulted in a pivot going even further in this direction: we introduced a pricing model for the ccFound service.
From now on, offering paid courses and closed groups on ccFound (any monetization) requires having a commercial package.
We are actively acquiring clients who can benefit from it: experts (monetizing knowledge) and influencers (monetizing popularity and access to themselves).
This means that ccFound has fully transformed from a social medium into a SaaS (software-as-a-service) platform with a subscription product.
In the following points, we will discuss the details of this change.
Promotion and Advertising
From the beginning of August to mid-November, we conducted advertising activities aimed at acquiring experts for the platform.
We created a funnel that leads interested individuals from ads on FB to watch a webinar about ccFound, and then directs them to register on the platform.
So far, we have acquired 11,338 people interested in the advertisement, of which 757 registered for the webinar.
367 people watched the live webinar, half of whom watched the entire thing, and the replay of the webinar was viewed by 126 people, of which 34% watched the whole thing.
After the webinars, a total of 87 trainers registered on the platform, who added a total of 19 products, of which 11 are groups (we also count groups as a type of product).
In the meantime, we conducted 21 individual conversations with trainers who registered on the platform.
As a result of the in-depth interviews conducted (a type of market research), we decided to suspend advertising and create a new offer for experts and influencers.
The premiere of this new offer took place on 10.01. Along with it, we relaunched advertising activities.
You can already read the new offer on the homepage of ccFound.com. The offer is visible to unlogged users (meanwhile, logged-in users see the start panel). Therefore, to see it, it is best to open a private window in the browser - or use a separate browser.
This is only the first version of the offer. We have already collected feedback from experts and are working on improving it and creating further versions. All your comments are also welcome - you can write them in the comments under this post.
We are split testing the offer in 3 versions, in an AABC type test – one version with video and text (2 copies of 25% traffic each), just text, and just video (25% traffic each). The English version does not yet have a video version; we are currently testing it only in Polish.
We are now creating new ads for this offer and new videos presenting the offer for four separate groups: experts and influencers - divided into Polish-speaking and English-speaking markets.
According to the assumptions, a challenge authored by Adrian Kołodziej was created to provide initial education for clients in the field of knowledge sales. The challenge itself not only provides knowledge but also teaches clients how to use the platform. Link to the challenge: https://ccfound.com/pl/marketplace/courses/3466/biznes/zacznij-sprzedawac-kurs-w-klika-dni-wyzwanie
We tested the payment model for the closed group (Virtual Real Estate - https://ccfound.com/pl/groups/wirtualne-nieruchomosci/1eed1955-348b-6a70-bb82-f3a1f057754b) in trial form. It turned out that trial payments allow for faster customer acquisition; however, these are mainly low-quality customers who rarely renew their subscriptions. Currently, we are leaning more towards promoting the sale of annual packages paid in advance, but tests will continue, and their results may depend on the market and target group.
An auto-webinar for selling the above group has been designed, which we will likely launch in mid-January. Its goal is to test the annual sales model. This will allow us to check which solution most effectively attracts customers to the platform at the lowest costs.
Additionally: in the third quarter of 2024, users gained access to 389 courses, of which 35 were paid courses.
At this moment, the total value of all products published on ccFound amounts to, broken down by currencies: 17,822 USD and 9,912 PLN - a total of approximately 81,734 PLN (19,687 USD).
There are a total of 205 groups on the platform, of which 56 are paid. The total number of added courses is 348, of which 294 are paid.
IT Work
In the IV quarter of 2024, the key goal was to technically adapt the platform to the new ccFOUND offer. The team implemented a series of actions that resulted in the implementation of the portal's subscription mechanism in two packages - Starter Pack and Standard Plan.
Each user can manage their subscription in the settings panel, which gives them the ability to change or cancel any package. The entire subscription mechanism includes many functions:
- the ability to add courses, ebooks, and paid groups requires a purchased subscription
- limit on creating paid groups and the number of participants in a paid group
- email notifications about reaching the limit
- notifications about purchasing a subscription and its expiration
- division into two currencies: PLN and USD
- automatic archiving of paid groups and unpublishing courses after an unsuccessful subscription renewal
- grace period lasting 7 days - this means that after an unsuccessful attempt to collect payment for the subscription, the trainer has another 7 days to renew the payment without unpublishing the products
- automatic invoicing for portal subscriptions
- division of subscription payments into monthly and annual
- new homepage with the portal's offer and the ability to insert videos
- hiding the marketplace throughout the portal
- mechanism for split testing offers
Additionally, Hybrid Groups have been implemented – a function that allows creators to divide content into free and paid within one group. The group owner can share some materials with all users while reserving access to the remaining ones exclusively for VIP subscribers. This way, experts and influencers no longer need to create separate open and closed groups and maintain two different groups simultaneously. One group is enough, where part of the content is free, and part requires a subscription.
Changes resulting from MiCA regulations (thank you to the European Union for further progress in regulatory actions in all areas of our lives!)
Due to the entry into force of regulations concerning crypto-assets (MiCA), we were unfortunately forced to stop storing $FOUND in our wallets:
- Staking and reward payouts ended on November 30, 2024.
- All funds had to be withdrawn by users by December 31, 2024.
- In the absence of withdrawal, accounts were blocked. They can only be unblocked after all funds have been withdrawn.
- Note: Funds remain assigned to the account and can be withdrawn at any time.
In the meantime, we added several other equally useful features to the platform:
- Unique author URL - this feature allows you to manually set the content in the link address to your profile. You can do this by changing your username, and the link to the profile will be generated automatically. You can do this in the profile settings, and the link can be obtained from https://ccfound.com/pl/secured-area/profile.
- Cover cropping for courses and groups - you can decide how the cover of your course or group will be displayed.
- Copying product links from within the app. You no longer need to enter the platform in the browser to copy the link to the product.
- Language selection when creating a group. This feature is mainly useful for the translation mechanism.
In this quarter, the transaction tax rate was reduced from 5% to 4%.
We also changed the tax allocation:
3% was allocated to the treasury to support the platform.
1% is permanently burned, which reduces the circulating supply of the FOUND token, creating a deflationary effect.
I remind you how to add liquidity to the token and earn from passive holding: https://ccfound.com/pl/articles/11900/jak-dodac-plynnosc-do-pary-walutowej-tokena-found-i-zarabiac-na-tym
Finances and Taxes
At this moment, the company has 1,383 thousand PLN in savings (333 thousand USD). These funds should be enough to maintain the project until September 2025 at the latest, but we are still waiting for a refund from the Tax Office (up to 1,366 thousand PLN, or about 329 thousand USD). The risk factor is when these funds will be obtained - these are different processes and matters, and the refund of individual amounts will occur at different times.
We are still waiting for the refund of VAT charged in the amount of approximately 903,639 PLN for the years 2022 and 2023, which led to the initiation of an audit by the Customs and Tax Office. The audit should conclude in the next quarter. (We received information about the extension of the audit deadline until the end of March 2025).
Regarding the matter described in the previous report with the Tax Office concerning the limited liability company - the Tax Office did not file an appeal against the ruling of the Provincial Administrative Court, thus conceding to us and recognizing the KIS Interpretation and the Court's decision.
We received a refund of the first part of the overpaid tax along with interest (156,000 PLN) and a refund of court costs (6,917 PLN). In the coming days, we will submit a correction of the declaration, which will allow us to recover another 300,000 PLN of overpaid tax.
Regarding the audit in the limited partnership, the Office made the same decision as regarding the audit in the limited liability company - they are sticking to their guns. In July, we submitted an appeal against the decisions contained in the protocol. The appeal was rejected; however, due to the fact that the Office accepted the ruling of the WSA, the matter of the limited partnership will likely be resolved in the same (favorable for us) way.
In July 2024, the Tax Office issued a decision to secure over 400,000 PLN in our account in case of the need to pay tax - we submitted an appeal against this decision to DIAS. DIAS agreed with us and overturned the Tax Office's decision. :-)
In summary, we are currently waiting for the conclusion of the audit in the limited partnership regarding the CIT tax and the Customs and Tax Office audit regarding the VAT tax, and we will systematically recover funds.
Summary
We have a mature product that we are still developing, especially to meet the needs of key clients - we are talking to large influencers who plan to open their groups with us for community monetization and are reporting specific needs. An example of an urgent change is adding video at the top of the group offer - this way, each group will be able to have its presentation and discussion, which will encourage joining or purchasing a subscription. There are more such marketing changes.
However, the most important issue now remains marketing and so-called "growth hacking," that is, working on the sales funnel to acquire and onboard clients to the platform. In this area, we are creating new versions of webinars. We are streaming webinars directly on YouTube - testing them as a long-form advertisement. Ahead of us is testing completely different offers and pricing, for example, a webinar will sell the third highest VIP package, which is not available on the homepage at all. We are recording new ads. We need new marketing employees for the SaaS business model - recruitment is starting. We have a lot of work ahead of us - we are on it.
Dear investors and users of ccFound!
For your information: the original report was prepared in Polish. Automatic translations in other languages may contain minor errors.
Pivot
As you already know, ccFound has changed its strategy in recent months from social media to a platform for monetizing knowledge, specifically: for offering courses and paid groups.
In particular, platforms for managing closed groups are a new, emerging market and will take over the education market in the coming years.
The last quarter resulted in a pivot going even further in this direction: we introduced a pricing model for the ccFound service.
From now on, offering paid courses and closed groups on ccFound (any monetization) requires having a commercial package.
We are actively acquiring clients who can benefit from it: experts (monetizing knowledge) and influencers (monetizing popularity and access to themselves).
This means that ccFound has fully transformed from a social medium into a SaaS (software-as-a-service) platform with a subscription product.
In the following points, we will discuss the details of this change.
Promotion and Advertising
From the beginning of August to mid-November, we conducted advertising activities aimed at acquiring experts for the platform.
We created a funnel that leads interested individuals from ads on FB to watch a webinar about ccFound, and then directs them to register on the platform.
So far, we have acquired 11,338 people interested in the advertisement, of which 757 registered for the webinar.
367 people watched the live webinar, half of whom watched the entire thing, and the replay of the webinar was viewed by 126 people, of which 34% watched the whole thing.
After the webinars, a total of 87 trainers registered on the platform, who added a total of 19 products, of which 11 are groups (we also count groups as a type of product).
In the meantime, we conducted 21 individual conversations with trainers who registered on the platform.
As a result of the in-depth interviews conducted (a type of market research), we decided to suspend advertising and create a new offer for experts and influencers.
The premiere of this new offer took place on 10.01. Along with it, we relaunched advertising activities.
You can already read the new offer on the homepage of ccFound.com. The offer is visible to unlogged users (meanwhile, logged-in users see the start panel). Therefore, to see it, it is best to open a private window in the browser - or use a separate browser.
This is only the first version of the offer. We have already collected feedback from experts and are working on improving it and creating further versions. All your comments are also welcome - you can write them in the comments under this post.
We are split testing the offer in 3 versions, in an AABC type test – one version with video and text (2 copies of 25% traffic each), just text, and just video (25% traffic each). The English version does not yet have a video version; we are currently testing it only in Polish.
We are now creating new ads for this offer and new videos presenting the offer for four separate groups: experts and influencers - divided into Polish-speaking and English-speaking markets.
According to the assumptions, a challenge authored by Adrian Kołodziej was created to provide initial education for clients in the field of knowledge sales. The challenge itself not only provides knowledge but also teaches clients how to use the platform. Link to the challenge: https://ccfound.com/pl/marketplace/courses/3466/biznes/zacznij-sprzedawac-kurs-w-klika-dni-wyzwanie
We tested the payment model for the closed group (Virtual Real Estate - https://ccfound.com/pl/groups/wirtualne-nieruchomosci/1eed1955-348b-6a70-bb82-f3a1f057754b) in trial form. It turned out that trial payments allow for faster customer acquisition; however, these are mainly low-quality customers who rarely renew their subscriptions. Currently, we are leaning more towards promoting the sale of annual packages paid in advance, but tests will continue, and their results may depend on the market and target group.
An auto-webinar for selling the above group has been designed, which we will likely launch in mid-January. Its goal is to test the annual sales model. This will allow us to check which solution most effectively attracts customers to the platform at the lowest costs.
Additionally: in the third quarter of 2024, users gained access to 389 courses, of which 35 were paid courses.
At this moment, the total value of all products published on ccFound amounts to, broken down by currencies: 17,822 USD and 9,912 PLN - a total of approximately 81,734 PLN (19,687 USD).
There are a total of 205 groups on the platform, of which 56 are paid. The total number of added courses is 348, of which 294 are paid.
IT Work
In the IV quarter of 2024, the key goal was to technically adapt the platform to the new ccFOUND offer. The team implemented a series of actions that resulted in the implementation of the portal's subscription mechanism in two packages - Starter Pack and Standard Plan.
Each user can manage their subscription in the settings panel, which gives them the ability to change or cancel any package. The entire subscription mechanism includes many functions:
- the ability to add courses, ebooks, and paid groups requires a purchased subscription
- limit on creating paid groups and the number of participants in a paid group
- email notifications about reaching the limit
- notifications about purchasing a subscription and its expiration
- division into two currencies: PLN and USD
- automatic archiving of paid groups and unpublishing courses after an unsuccessful subscription renewal
- grace period lasting 7 days - this means that after an unsuccessful attempt to collect payment for the subscription, the trainer has another 7 days to renew the payment without unpublishing the products
- automatic invoicing for portal subscriptions
- division of subscription payments into monthly and annual
- new homepage with the portal's offer and the ability to insert videos
- hiding the marketplace throughout the portal
- mechanism for split testing offers
Additionally, Hybrid Groups have been implemented – a function that allows creators to divide content into free and paid within one group. The group owner can share some materials with all users while reserving access to the remaining ones exclusively for VIP subscribers. This way, experts and influencers no longer need to create separate open and closed groups and maintain two different groups simultaneously. One group is enough, where part of the content is free, and part requires a subscription.
Changes resulting from MiCA regulations (thank you to the European Union for further progress in regulatory actions in all areas of our lives!)
Due to the entry into force of regulations concerning crypto-assets (MiCA), we were unfortunately forced to stop storing $FOUND in our wallets:
- Staking and reward payouts ended on November 30, 2024.
- All funds had to be withdrawn by users by December 31, 2024.
- In the absence of withdrawal, accounts were blocked. They can only be unblocked after all funds have been withdrawn.
- Note: Funds remain assigned to the account and can be withdrawn at any time.
In the meantime, we added several other equally useful features to the platform:
- Unique author URL - this feature allows you to manually set the content in the link address to your profile. You can do this by changing your username, and the link to the profile will be generated automatically. You can do this in the profile settings, and the link can be obtained from https://ccfound.com/pl/secured-area/profile.
- Cover cropping for courses and groups - you can decide how the cover of your course or group will be displayed.
- Copying product links from within the app. You no longer need to enter the platform in the browser to copy the link to the product.
- Language selection when creating a group. This feature is mainly useful for the translation mechanism.
In this quarter, the transaction tax rate was reduced from 5% to 4%.
We also changed the tax allocation:
3% was allocated to the treasury to support the platform.
1% is permanently burned, which reduces the circulating supply of the FOUND token, creating a deflationary effect.
I remind you how to add liquidity to the token and earn from passive holding: https://ccfound.com/pl/articles/11900/jak-dodac-plynnosc-do-pary-walutowej-tokena-found-i-zarabiac-na-tym
Finances and Taxes
At this moment, the company has 1,383 thousand PLN in savings (333 thousand USD). These funds should be enough to maintain the project until September 2025 at the latest, but we are still waiting for a refund from the Tax Office (up to 1,366 thousand PLN, or about 329 thousand USD). The risk factor is when these funds will be obtained - these are different processes and matters, and the refund of individual amounts will occur at different times.
We are still waiting for the refund of VAT charged in the amount of approximately 903,639 PLN for the years 2022 and 2023, which led to the initiation of an audit by the Customs and Tax Office. The audit should conclude in the next quarter. (We received information about the extension of the audit deadline until the end of March 2025).
Regarding the matter described in the previous report with the Tax Office concerning the limited liability company - the Tax Office did not file an appeal against the ruling of the Provincial Administrative Court, thus conceding to us and recognizing the KIS Interpretation and the Court's decision.
We received a refund of the first part of the overpaid tax along with interest (156,000 PLN) and a refund of court costs (6,917 PLN). In the coming days, we will submit a correction of the declaration, which will allow us to recover another 300,000 PLN of overpaid tax.
Regarding the audit in the limited partnership, the Office made the same decision as regarding the audit in the limited liability company - they are sticking to their guns. In July, we submitted an appeal against the decisions contained in the protocol. The appeal was rejected; however, due to the fact that the Office accepted the ruling of the WSA, the matter of the limited partnership will likely be resolved in the same (favorable for us) way.
In July 2024, the Tax Office issued a decision to secure over 400,000 PLN in our account in case of the need to pay tax - we submitted an appeal against this decision to DIAS. DIAS agreed with us and overturned the Tax Office's decision. :-)
In summary, we are currently waiting for the conclusion of the audit in the limited partnership regarding the CIT tax and the Customs and Tax Office audit regarding the VAT tax, and we will systematically recover funds.
Summary
We have a mature product that we are still developing, especially to meet the needs of key clients - we are talking to large influencers who plan to open their groups with us for community monetization and are reporting specific needs. An example of an urgent change is adding video at the top of the group offer - this way, each group will be able to have its presentation and discussion, which will encourage joining or purchasing a subscription. There are more such marketing changes.
However, the most important issue now remains marketing and so-called "growth hacking," that is, working on the sales funnel to acquire and onboard clients to the platform. In this area, we are creating new versions of webinars. We are streaming webinars directly on YouTube - testing them as a long-form advertisement. Ahead of us is testing completely different offers and pricing, for example, a webinar will sell the third highest VIP package, which is not available on the homepage at all. We are recording new ads. We need new marketing employees for the SaaS business model - recruitment is starting. We have a lot of work ahead of us - we are on it.
23 users upvote it!
7 answers
“From now on, offering paid courses and closed groups on ccFound (any monetization) requires having a commercial package.”..
“People value what they pay for - and they demand.”..
A tool used to make money must be paid.
I am very pleased with these changes..
BIG shoutout to the Team :-)
“From now on, offering paid courses and closed groups on ccFound (any monetization) requires having a commercial package.”..
“People value what they pay for - and they demand.”..
A tool used to make money must be paid.
I am very pleased with these changes..
BIG shoutout to the Team :-)
Machine translated
8 likes
Let’s keep building! I can sense success just around the corner. I believe that pivoting from an idea is not a setback; rather, it’s a crucial part of growth and development."
Let’s keep building! I can sense success just around the corner. I believe that pivoting from an idea is not a setback; rather, it’s a crucial part of growth and development."
5 likes
Piotr, the current lack of any form of token staking, meaning the direct participation of investors in the platform's revenues (current and future), leads me to the sad conclusion that you have intelligently used the implementation of MICA to "kick out" token holders from the interest.
Now I have to wander around some Pancake Swaps to have some illusory chance of gaining from the liquidity pool, which in turn depends on having a certain amount of BSC at the same time, which in fact drives traffic to another cryptocurrency.
This is particularly sad for me because I entrusted you with my capital in the very early phase of the project, and now I simply feel pushed out of it.
Additionally, what about the FV that I have in my wallet? Isn't it also a cryptocurrency covered by MICA?? What do you foresee for its future?
The liquidation of the community component was a big mistake. There was nothing to prevent creating your own community alongside the technological component supporting creators. Currently, the wind is blowing here more and more often. This is also sad because you have squandered significant human potential.
I only hope that we will somehow constructively survive the current pivot.
Besides, on my profile some time ago (I don't know why without my knowledge and consent) the tab with my responses to other platform users disappeared. Isn't this approach a form of censorship, or drawing patterns from YouTube? (according to early ideological declarations, ccfound was supposed to be the opposite of this). I have been using this platform for so long not to have to back up all my entries separately, for fear that they will disappear somewhere.
Piotr, the current lack of any form of token staking, meaning the direct participation of investors in the platform's revenues (current and future), leads me to the sad conclusion that you have intelligently used the implementation of MICA to "kick out" token holders from the interest.
Now I have to wander around some Pancake Swaps to have some illusory chance of gaining from the liquidity pool, which in turn depends on having a certain amount of BSC at the same time, which in fact drives traffic to another cryptocurrency.
This is particularly sad for me because I entrusted you with my capital in the very early phase of the project, and now I simply feel pushed out of it.
Additionally, what about the FV that I have in my wallet? Isn't it also a cryptocurrency covered by MICA?? What do you foresee for its future?
The liquidation of the community component was a big mistake. There was nothing to prevent creating your own community alongside the technological component supporting creators. Currently, the wind is blowing here more and more often. This is also sad because you have squandered significant human potential.
I only hope that we will somehow constructively survive the current pivot.
Besides, on my profile some time ago (I don't know why without my knowledge and consent) the tab with my responses to other platform users disappeared. Isn't this approach a form of censorship, or drawing patterns from YouTube? (according to early ideological declarations, ccfound was supposed to be the opposite of this). I have been using this platform for so long not to have to back up all my entries separately, for fear that they will disappear somewhere.
Machine translated
5 likes
I would like to present to the ccFound team the event that will be the twenty-ninth WallStreet Conference in Karpacz, scheduled for the days from May 23 to May 25, 2025. This could be a great opportunity to promote the portal and to establish new contacts. To avoid prolonging this statement, I encourage you to visit the event's website at: https://www.wallstreet.org.pl for more information.
I would like to present to the ccFound team the event that will be the twenty-ninth WallStreet Conference in Karpacz, scheduled for the days from May 23 to May 25, 2025. This could be a great opportunity to promote the portal and to establish new contacts. To avoid prolonging this statement, I encourage you to visit the event's website at: https://www.wallstreet.org.pl for more information.
Machine translated
3 likes
So all this money and organization resulted in the sale of 35 paid courses quarterly. 35 transactions for the entire quarter! Any trainer of anything, any lecturer alone is able to sell 35 courses in a single edition. For the entire platform to generate such negligible sales for all trainers is a joke, a pity, and a total failure of the manager's vision. What was the point of this whole pivot? What is the premise that this would make any sense since the numbers are crushing? On what basis is this pivot? Piotr Michalak, how did you investigate that there is demand for this and that it will sell? On what basis did you invest hundreds of thousands of money obtained from investors into this “pivot”?
So all this money and organization resulted in the sale of 35 paid courses quarterly. 35 transactions for the entire quarter! Any trainer of anything, any lecturer alone is able to sell 35 courses in a single edition. For the entire platform to generate such negligible sales for all trainers is a joke, a pity, and a total failure of the manager's vision. What was the point of this whole pivot? What is the premise that this would make any sense since the numbers are crushing? On what basis is this pivot? Piotr Michalak, how did you investigate that there is demand for this and that it will sell? On what basis did you invest hundreds of thousands of money obtained from investors into this “pivot”?
Machine translated
2 likes
1 like
Thank you for the report :) Regarding the token, now through Mica the token has no application?
Thank you for the report :) Regarding the token, now through Mica the token has no application?
Machine translated