ShowUp — $1M Revenue Plan

The $1M Formula

Exact unit economics — step by step arithmetic

R1 — Transaction Fees
1
Transaction fee = $5 per booking
2
Bookings/month = 10,000
R1
= $50,000 / mo

R2 — Provider Subscriptions
1
Provider plan = $15 / month
2
Subscribers = 2,223
R2
= $33,345 / mo

Total Calculation

Monthly = R1 + R2 = $50,000 + $33,345 = $83,345

Annual = $83,345 × 12 = $1,000,140

Revenue Mix Breakdown

Transaction Fees $600K/yr (60%)

Provider Subscriptions $400K/yr (40%)

Enterprise (future) TBD

Enterprise wildcard

A single venue partnership @ $10K/mo replaces 667 provider subscriptions. One enterprise deal = game changer.

Pricing Tiers

PAY-PER-BOOKING

$5 / booking

Basic check-in link
Reputation tracking
30-day evidence storage

MOST POPULAR

PROVIDER PLAN

$15 / month

Unlimited bookings
Analytics dashboard
Priority dispute handling
180-day evidence storage
Profile boost

ENTERPRISE

$2K–$20K / mo

White-label
POS/booking integration
Multi-seat admin
Custom SLA
API access

Product Strategy

MVP → Growth → Scale

Target Verticals

💜

Dating

Gas money ghosting, commitment flakes. High emotional motivation to pay.

High value

🛒

Marketplace

Craigslist, FB Marketplace meetups. Real financial loss per no-show.

Mass market

🔧

Services

Barbers, tutors, photographers, contractors. Subscription-ready.

Best LTV

🔞

Air BNB, VRBO

Can be used for a wide variety of purposes.

Use For Anything

🎭

Entertainment

VIP events, nightlife, venue RSVPs. High ticket value per booking.

Enterprise play

🏢

B2B / API

"Reliability as a Service" — marketplaces query user score via API.

Future moat

MVP Product Flow

1. Reserve Booking

Payer creates booking, selects token stake (10–100 tokens). Tokens reserved in wallet. HMAC-signed QR token generated with nonce + expiry.

2. Send Invite Link

Recipient gets signed check-in link via email. Link contains encoded booking ID, nonce, and expiry. Single-use — replay attacks fail.

3. Check-In Verification

Recipient: (a) validates token → (b) takes selfie → (c) enters email OTP → (d) geo confirmed. Evidence chain locked to booking record.

4. Complete + Award

Booking marked completed. Recipient +100 rep, payer +25 rep. Tokens released. ReputationEvent logged. Badge eligibility checked.

5. Dispute / No-Show

If no check-in after grace period → auto no-show flag. Admin reviews evidence. Ruling within 72h. Tokens refunded or forfeited per policy.

Key Differentiators

🔐 Universal Token + Reputation

Portable across all verticals. Your ShowUp score follows you everywhere, unlike siloed platform ratings.

📡 Reliability API

Marketplaces can query any user's reliability score. Charge API access. This is the long-term moat.

🏷️ White-Label Venues

Venues run ShowUp under their brand. Reduces churn — they own the flow, you own the rails.

🔄 Viral Loop

Every booking sends an invite to a new user. Built-in acquisition engine that compounds with scale.

Go-to-Market Playbook

Provider-led growth → Venue partnerships → Channel scale

Stage 0 Validation — Weeks 0–4

Build one landing + scheduling flow. Run 50–100 pilot bookings in 1 city with 10 providers. Use email invites (no SMS cost). Measure: Do providers pay when trial ends? Does check-in flow work? What breaks?

Stage 1 Provider-Led Growth — Months 1–6

Target forums, local Facebook groups, Craigslist alternatives, marketplace sellers. Pitch: "Stop losing money to no-shows — 30 days free." Referral program: providers get $10 credit per provider they bring who completes X bookings. Goal: 100 providers, 1,000 bookings/month by end of month 6.

Stage 2 Venue & Marketplace Partnerships — Months 3–12

Offer B2B pricing + multi-seat accounts. One 10-venue partnership = thousands of bookings/month. Target: 5 active enterprise partnerships by month 12.

Stage 3 Channel Scale — Months 6–24

SEO for "no-show protection", "booking assurance", "commitment deposit". Integrations: Shopify, WooCommerce, booking platform plugins. Paid ads when CAC is proven acceptable. Reliability API launch.

Acquisition Channels & CAC

Channel	Est. CAC	Volume Potential	Priority
Organic SEO / Content	$0–$200	High (long tail)	Start now
Provider Outreach / Direct Sales	$100–$400	Medium (manual)	Month 1
Referral Program	$10–$50	High (viral)	Month 1
Paid Social (TikTok/IG)	$10–$40	Very High	Month 3+
Venue/Enterprise Partnerships	Custom deal	Massive per partner	Month 3+
API / Marketplace Integrations	Low	Compounding	Month 6+

🔄 Built-in Viral Loop

          Every booking → invite email to new user → onboarding funnel with one-click verify → new user creates their own bookings → they invite more users. Compounds exponentially as network grows.
          
          Social proof layer: "This user has 96% reliability — Verified 21 showups." Leaderboards per city. Reputation score as status symbol.

Revenue Item	Monthly
Transaction Fees (10K × $5)	+$50,000
Provider Subscriptions (2,223 × $15)	+$33,345
Total Revenue	+$83,345

Cost Item	Monthly
Payment Processing (~6%)	-$5,000
Marketing & Ads	-$20,000
Ops / Support	-$8,000
Hosting & Infra	-$1,500
Legal / Compliance	-$2,000
Engineering	-$12,000
Misc (tools, accounting)	-$1,000
Total Costs	-$49,500

Month	Bookings/mo	Providers	MRR	Milestone
1	100	10	$650	Pilot launch
3	500	50	$3,250	100 providers
6	2,000	300	$14,500	First venue deal
9	5,500	900	$41,000	$500K ARR run rate
12	10,000	2,223	$83,345	$1M ARR 🎯

Legal & Compliance

Practical paths to operate legally — background considered

✅ Your record is NOT a deal-killer.

It complicates becoming a licensed money-transmitter directly, but there are clean paths around it. Partner with licensed rails, bring on a compliance co-founder, or use non-custodial credits to start. Your equity, vision, and execution are all still yours.

3 Legal Operating Paths

Path 1 — RECOMMENDED Non-custodial credits + PSP rails

Keep everything as non-convertible ShowUp Tokens in MVP. No fiat custody = no MTL requirement. Use Stripe for $5 platform fee (simple charge, not escrow). When you need real payouts, use Stripe Connect — Stripe is the licensed custodian, not you.

Path 2 Licensed custodian partnership

White-label or partner with an escrow-as-a-service provider that is already licensed. You provide UX and product; they handle custody and payouts. You earn a revenue share. Treezpay, Dwolla, and similar platforms offer this model.

Path 3 Compliance co-founder / officer

Bring on a co-founder or hire a fractional compliance lead with a clean record and MTL experience. Licensed entity controls payouts; your equity and operational control remain. Common structure for fintech startups with complex ownership.

Minimum Compliance Checklist (MVP)

✓ Terms of Service with prohibited uses (trafficking, illegal services)

✓ Privacy Policy + data deletion process (GDPR/CCPA)

✓ Age verification (18+) for adult vertical — ID + selfie + review

✓ Evidence retention policy (90–180 days audit logs)

✓ Admin dispute + manual adjudication workflow

✓ Jurisdiction filter — block states/regions where activity is illegal

⚠ Anti-trafficking reporting mechanism (required for adult vertical)

⚠ Fractional legal counsel — budget $2K/mo when you have revenue

⚠️ Important Note

This is strategic guidance, not legal advice. Before launching adult verticals or handling fiat deposits, consult an attorney who specializes in fintech + adult content compliance in your operating states. Budget for this — it's an investment, not an optional expense.

90-Day Sprint to $100K ARR

Goal: validate willingness-to-pay · 100 providers · 1,000 bookings

Week	Focus	Actions	Target
Wk 0–2	Build Pilot	Landing page, signup, reserve flow, email invite, check-in (Vercel + Supabase)	Working MVP
Wk 3–5	Pilot Sales	Outreach to 50 local providers — barbers, photographers, event promoters. Offer 30-day free trial.	10 active providers
Wk 6–8	Run Bookings	Help providers generate real bookings. Observe check-in flow. Fix bugs. Measure showup_rate.	500 pilot bookings
Wk 9–12	Learn & Iterate	Measure CAC/LTV. Test $15/mo pricing. Harden fraud rules. Collect testimonials.	First $1K MRR
Mo 3+	Scale	Paid ads if CAC acceptable. First venue partnership outreach. SEO content push.	$100K ARR

KPIs to Track Weekly

📅

Bookings/Month

Core volume metric

✅

ShowUp Rate

Target: >85%

💰

CAC

Target: <$200

🔄

Provider Churn

Target: <5%/mo

📈

ARPU

Rev per active user

⚖️

Dispute Rate

Target: <3%

📧 Outreach Templates (ready to use)
Providers (barbers/tutors)
"Reduce no-shows by 50% — free trial for local providers. We help providers lock commitments with a simple deposit + verified check-in."
Venues / Promoters
"Big events lose money to no-shows. ShowUp guarantees: guests commit, check in on arrival, organizer gets notified + analytics."
Marketplace Sellers
"Stop losing money on meetups — buyers make a tiny commitment, sellers get confidence, both earn reliability reputation."
Adult Services (legal only)
"Private booking verification + no-show reliability. QR/selfie OTP attendance. Verified reputation ledger. Compliance-first."

Risks & Mitigations

Know what can go wrong — and how to neutralize it

HIGH

🏛️ Regulatory / Money-Transmitter Risk

Mitigation: Use Stripe authorizations (not custody) or PSP Connect in MVP. Partner with licensed custodian before handling real fiat flows. Get legal counsel before scale. Budget $2K/mo for fractional legal.

HIGH

🤖 Fraud & Collusion

Mitigation: QR nonce (single-use), OTP via email, selfie timestamp, device fingerprinting, IP logging, geo verification, velocity limits. Manual admin adjudication gates for suspicious flows. FraudFlag entity + escalation queue.

MED

📉 Network Effect / Cold Start

Mitigation: Start with a single city, single vertical (services — best LTV). Don't try to be everywhere on day 1. Marketplace and venue verticals have real financial motivation that beats cold-start problems.

MED

⚖️ Legal / Reputational Risk (Adult Vertical)

Mitigation: Age verification (18+), explicit anti-trafficking TOS, rapid reporting mechanism, jurisdiction filtering. Don't market to illegal markets — market to legal licensed agencies only. Legal review required before launch.

LOW

🏃 Copycat Competition

Mitigation: Moat is the reputation ledger (network effect), vertical breadth (multi-market = hard to replicate), and enterprise white-label lock-in. Move fast on venue partnerships and API integrations — these are durable advantages.

LOW

💸 High CAC Before Product-Market Fit

Mitigation: Don't run paid ads until CAC is validated in a pilot. Use organic channels (outreach, referral, SEO) first. Provider LTV is strong — $180/yr per subscriber at $15/mo — so even $200 CAC is a 3-month payback.

🎤 Pitch / Positioning
"ShowUp — lock a commitment, prove attendance, get refunded if they don't show. Trusted by venues and providers."
✅ Reduce no-shows with a simple commitment deposit & verified check-in
✅ Reputation ledger that increases your discoverability and reduces risk
✅ White-label partner packages for venues and marketplaces

ShowUp Business Plan · Prepared March 2026 · Confidential