Product-led first. A local person when they want one.
Most businesses find Simma, start free and run it themselves with the AI team, with no salesperson involved. In each area, an employed Simma Local Partner wins the businesses that want a person. Simma Sparks, our media brand, brings owners to both.
The Cascade makes Simma fit each business. A bike shop gets the platform for running a bike shop, a café the one for a café: their own words, features and country settings, on the same platform. The infrastructure is built; each industry is added as configuration, not new code. How the Cascade works →
Found, started and run without a salesperson.
Product-led is how most customers arrive and how most of them run: of the roughly 290 paying customers won in year one in the plan, about 190 come product-led and Local Partners win about 100 (271 are still customers at year end).
Marketing made centrally
The Simma site, search, AI answers and Simma Sparks, plus "Made with Simma" on every customer's website, booking page and receipt. Because every industry has its own version, each can have its own front door, such as "Simma for bike shops" (planned).
Set up by the owner
No bill on Free until the business is paid. The website is built from what they already have, in their industry's words, and the AI team does the repetitive setup. The welcome email introduces their Local Partner.
With the AI team
Bookings, payments, customers and email on one record. The AI teammates draft the work; the owner approves it.
Land with a website they can run. Expand into the whole business, with no migration.
Alongside it: referrals through "Made with Simma", alliances with associations and accountants that advise small businesses, and franchise and multi-location groups from year two.
Meet Jane. She wants capacity, not software.
Jane runs a dance and fitness studio in Loughborough with three part-time instructors. About 150 students, a website she can't easily change, bookings in one tool, payments in another and a spreadsheet she can't get rid of. Her evenings go on filling classes, chasing payments and following up enquiries.
Jane and Sarah are composites, not real people. Why instructors first: the sharpest pain (a timetable, bookings, payments and a website, run between classes) and a product that fits today.
For people like Jane, a person called Sarah.
An employed member of the Simma team, working flexible hours around the school day, who wins, launches and looks after the local businesses that want a person. Not a reseller, a franchisee or a commission-only salesperson.
Every business in the patch
Prospects from inside Simma, and goes to every local networking event and business group, in Simma-branded clothing. In a bike shop, the Partner shows the owner the platform for running a bike shop, not generic software. One Partner can approach any business on every high street, industrial estate and business park in their patch.
Live, trained, getting value
Gets each business set up, trains the owner and team, and gets them to real value quickly. AI does the repetitive work, so each Partner can look after more businesses.
Their person at Simma
Stays with each customer for as long as they're a customer, and brings what they need back into the product.
A Partner's portfolio is the customers they win. Businesses that sign up on their own stay self-serve, and the welcome email introduces their Local Partner. All of these numbers are hypotheses for the first Partners to test.
Tested in two or three UK areas first. Built to scale globally.
A media brand for small business owners.
Pro-business and practical: how to succeed, case studies, law changes and tax tips. It reaches owners who aren't looking for software, and gives them a reason to know Simma before they need it.
Owners come to Simma
Articles, a YouTube channel and a newsletter that bring owners to the Simma site and the free start.
Something to hand over
Copies to hand out at local events, and local customer stories to tell.
Not an advertising business
Funded as Simma's marketing, so it stays on the owner's side.
Content first. The printed magazine follows when it's ready, which may be after year one or year three.
Build. Partner. Scale.
Prove it, £250k
The founder and two Local Partners in different parts of the UK. Target: 30 paying customers by month six, about 10 per Partner, counted by source (self-serve, Partner, founder), with what each one costs. The ask →
More areas
If the first Partners prove it, more Partners in more areas, with the playbook, training and leads from the centre.
Market by market
Product, AI, brand and Sparks run centrally; relationships stay local. Each country opens when Simma Pay does.
From 271 to 53,500, by channel.
New paying customers won each year, by where they come from, and paying customers at the end of each year. Customers come out of what Simma spends, not targets.
| Channel · new paying customers | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | Year 4 | Year 5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Self-serve, straight to a paid planSite, search, AI answers, Simma Sparks: one sign-up in five | 183 | 991 | 4,996 | 16,195 | 36,006 |
| Free accounts upgrading3% of Free sign-ups within six months | 9 | 92 | 474 | 1,572 | 3,663 |
| Local PartnersEmployed, about five new customers a month each once settled | 97 | 573 | 1,280 | 2,150 | 3,838 |
| Central salesLarger accounts on Growth, Pro and Scale, from month 20 | – | 2 | 30 | 62 | 121 |
| Enterprise contractsFrom year three, after a readiness check | – | – | 6 | 12 | 24 |
| Paying customers at year end | 271 | 1,670 | 7,110 | 22,408 | 53,513 |
A plan, not a forecast. Customers lost each year, by plan: Lite 40%, Starter 30%, Growth 20%, Pro 15%, Scale 12%, Enterprise 8%; yearly customers leave only at renewal. Referral and alliances are not separate rows: their customers arrive through self-serve and the Local Partners. Free accounts are not customers: 195,282 are held at the end of year five.
Franchise networks, in order: one network shown working end to end
(head office to location to customer to payment to refund), then a yes or no on reopening the paused talks with a franchise operator,
a pilot only if both sides agree, then more networks. Head office buying is not every location adopting, so a pilot measures both.
Franchise sales are led centrally, not by Local Partners. Franchise networks →
Larger businesses: within five years, the ambition is dedicated mid-market and enterprise teams (sales, implementation,
customer success, security and governance), once the product and the earlier customers justify them. Their costs are not in the current model.
The model does count Enterprise contracts from year three, won centrally; they wait for a readiness check (the product, security and support
an Enterprise customer needs) before they are relied on. Franchise revenue is not in the model.