SharperEdge Community

SharperEdge is a web community targeting leaders of North American manufacturing, engineering & distribution companies with an "at-your-fingers" resource for improving business performance across their respective organizations. A free, entry-level tier will attract members and support sponsors and underwriters while a paid, Pro-tier, featuring courses, Mastermind groups and more, will dive deeper as a low-cost, practical alternative to over-priced consulting companies.

The intersection of AI, web technologies, and new educational models has changed the way individuals seek and find knowledge and/or insight to improve their respective company's performance and outcomes. This creates new pain points and opportunity in the pursuit of progress. 

Meanwhile, there is a shift from generic online communities to more niche, high-quality ones that are more targeted with more personalized experiences. This is reflected in the rapid growth of web communities powered by the likes of Circle, which we've chosen, and other community platforms like Uscreen, Mighty Networks, Tribe and Hivebrite to name just a few. Specifically, these newer web communities are referred to as Outcome-Oriented Communities because they seek to improve outcomes for the joining members in some specific area, be it specific types of business performance, community impact, educational outcomes... whatever the area of focus.

Addressing the elephant in the room, yes... we are building a new business that completely relies on a 3rd party SaaS platform to operate. Similarly, Paycor, a payroll processing company started in Cincinnati, OH by founder Bob Coughlin in the early '90's, started as a franchise of another payroll processor. As Bob built his customer base, he simultaneously began developing his own payroll processing software, modelling what he liked best from both his previous employer, ADP, as well as from the franchisor whose software he was relying on to build his customer base. 30 years on, the Bengals now play in Paycor Stadium and Paycor is a half a billion annual revenue business.

We are not married to any one web community SaaS platform but are simply leveraging what we believe to be the best option that will allow us to build our membership today and into the future. In fact, we've organized under a holding company model so that we can build multiple communities, each unrelated to the other in terms of target audience, but united in the aspect of driving improved outcomes for the target members. Of course, we have to master one community first and that is our aim with SharperEdge.

Our two-person founding team consists of CEO Jon Breyfogle and COO Robert Coleman, PhD. 

Jon is a one-time US Marine with a 35+ year career in IT sales and marketing & multi-business entrepreneur who most recently led marketing operations for 10XTS, a blockchain developer building compliant, programmable Digital Securities and interoperable Web3-powered Capital Markets Infrastructure solutions. Among other initiatives, Jon led the development of a web community for 10XTS called DS Lab where he developed relationships with over 400 securities attorneys in less than six months. Across his sales career, Jon was a consistent sales leader with tens of millions of dollars in solutions sold across Fortune 500 and tech start-ups alike.

Rob recently stepped away from a brief, 3 year career as a college professor at the University of Findlay, where among other innovative ideas he created and led The Oiler 10 Consulting Agency, a full-service consulting group made up of UFindlay students who delivered real results for real regional area businesses. Prior to going into higher education, Rob provided engineering, data and business analysis, and process improvement to large and smaller corporations alike. His commitment to research and statistical analysis represents a through line in his career providing a well-tuned "BS Meter" that clients and colleagues alike know they can bank on for reliable outcomes.

While Rob leads the content and educational course development, Jon leads sales and marketing to both drive membership and attract sponsors/underwriters while also contributing to aspects of the content and leading the capital funding efforts. 

We are seeking $50,000 in seed funding to more quickly and assuredly drive annual revenues into the tens of millions by our 3rd full year in business.