Have you ever noticed that when you’re showing someone a video on your phone you position it in a way to see both the phone and their face at the same time? We do this because the reaction of the people that we care about to the content that we care about, matters to us.  As awesome as social media and media sharing is…it's missing THAT feeling. It’s the same reason why we might wait to show content to someone when face 2 face rather than through text or some other platform. Through the sharing of real-time reactions facefwd creates community around moments and makes it so that you can replicate THAT feeling anytime, from anywhere. We're just trying to get a reaction out of you!!

who we are

Hi 👋🏾! We are facefwd....the leading digital space for authenticity through curated, reaction-based videos. We’re a Black-owned social media platform that lights up the comment section through the sharing of real-time reactions to content created by other members within our organic network.

Our founders, Shakur and Ian are life long friends that have known each other since elementary school. Who we are and what we are about is captured in our name, facefwd, always looking towards the future with a focus on growth, evolution, progress and optimism. We strongly believe in the power of relationships, community (bringing people closer together), authenticity, equity, and transparency. These values, which are so important to facefwd, are often lacking in many other social platforms. This is what truly sets us apart.

These values served as the inspiration and driving force behind the creation of facefwd and they form the foundation of every decision we make as a company. Our goal is to fulfill the promise of social media by building a platform that facilitates mobile interactions as emotionally fulfilling as face-to-face interactions. We want to create a sense of community and create connections that leave a lasting impact, just like real-life interactions do.

vision

In the next 5-10 years, we want facefwd will become the world's leading platform for mobile-based reaction content and videos, earning the reputation as "the world's feedback channel."  Whenever someone is curious how "x" person reacted to "y" event they will come to facefwd to find out.  As we develop the platform, our primary focus will be to enhance the user experience and extend the application's benefits beyond mere creation and consumption of reaction-based content. facefwd will adopt a C2B2B model, leveraging reactions to foster mutually beneficial partnerships between facefwd users and external companies. Our ultimate goal is to encourage industry-wide democratization of content and data, delivering on a model that respects user privacy while opening doors for exciting collaborations and compensation opportunities.

problem

We love ❤️ social media. It allows us to connect with strangers, friends, and loved ones to consume news, make change, drive business, create movements, and share moments....together.

BUT it's not all good...

• interactions aren't authentic
• communication is inefficient and ineffective
• users on both ends of the social media exchange want more - senders want to close the loop on the exchange. receivers want to communicate more effectively
• lack of accountability - faceless engagement encourages trolling
• privacy issues/lack of trust - they don't trust us...and we get why. social media companies capitalize information and content provided by users, often without their knowledge or benefit
• bad vibes - all the ism's!

...and these are just to name a few. As our relationship with social media evolves so too do our needs and expectations from it.

solution

LMAO is wildly unsatisfying compared to seeing a reaction

We love sharing funny videos on social media, but receiving a "LOL" or "LMAO"' is not the same as seeing our friends' reactions in person. That's why we created facefwd—to prioritize genuine reactions and foster a sense of community around shared moments. Our platform offers a more authentic and emotionally fulfilling social media sharing experience.

facefwd leverages reactions to create exchanges of information for compensation between our users and partner companies ensuring privacy and providing a benefit to all parties – everybody eats b!

how it works

We record the reactions of users ("face") as they watch content uploaded on our platform ("fwd"). Those reactions can then be played back in sync with the original ("facefwd"), for other users to see.

Fun right?! But that's not it...the real sauce that makes facefwd special is reactions are the heart of our platform, not just a feature. Imagine seeing your reaction with those of friends, family, and followers. With those you don't know, it creates a sense of community that wouldn't exist otherwise. And with those you do, it strengthens the bond within that community even more. It's all about fostering a sense of togetherness and belonging, whether you're laughing, crying or expressing any other emotion in between.

facefwd connects content senders and content consumers in ways that no other platform can. It's not just about your close friends reacting to viral moments; it's about the potential to bond with complete strangers. How awesome would it be to make new friends simply based on your shared emotions and experiences? Imagine seeing celebrities reacting to your content or to the same things that interest you. It's an incredible opportunity to bridge the gap between you and the people you love and admire.

facefwd helps by bringing people closer, fostering connections, and creating those unforgettable shared experiences.

why now, why us?

Reaction videos are popular and it’s easy to see why.  They are inherently social; viewers can vicariously experience others' shock, surprise, and humor creating a highly engaging and shared viewing experience.  The format has grown from niche to a content category that has garnered a significant following with reaction focused channels on various platforms having amassed millions of subscribers and billions of views. The growth of reaction videos aligns with the trend of interactive and community-oriented content on social media, including the rise of formats like live streaming and short-form video. All of this makes this the opportune time for a dedicated reaction-based platform that fosters community around shared moments.

We've been moving in this direction for quite some time. Since we've been communicating with our cellphones we've been conjuring up ways to convey how we feel in accurate and efficient ways, from short-form text, to emoji and gifs.

Reactions are the evolution, and natural next step of mobile communication

Reactions are the natural next step, bringing together everything we've had before into one powerful expression. They are not only incredibly effective but also super efficient, the perfect vehicle for conveying our emotions in the mobile era. Instead of struggling to find the right words or trying to convey everything through text or emojis, a simple reaction can do it all. It's a universal language that cuts through any barriers and gets straight to the heart of how we feel.

And we haven't even begun to discuss the shortcomings of social media, and the desire among many of its users to see change, and fast. We conducted a survey with current and potential facefwd and uncovered the following:

• Half of the respondents expressed being either undecided or dissatisfied with existing social media offerings

• 89% of users don't trust the data sharing practices of social media companies

• An overwhelming 90% of those surveyed felt that they had to compromise their data and privacy in order to access the benefits provided by social media platforms.
• While 72% of respondents felt they had little to no agency over their data, an equal 72% expressed a strong desire for complete agency.

These findings highlight the growing demand for a social media experience that prioritizes user-agency. Social media users would prefer to use a platform like facefwd that offers them benefits without compromising their privacy.

competition

facefwd exists in the mobile, short-form video, social media space. Our competition includes YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Marco Polo, Snapchat, and several other platforms. We share some similarities with these competitors, like media sharing , an emphasis on authenticity, and connecting people through video messaging. While reactions exist as a niche category on a few of these platforms , we are the ONLY ones who have reactions as THE core feature allowing us to take advantage of their intrinsic benefits and outcomes, including, but not exclusive to:

• maximizing engagement
• enhanced community building
• truly shared experiences

You see, social media has fulfilled its purpose of connecting people around the world. But facefwd's goal is to fulfill its promise by enabling authentic interactions that build community, and bring us closer together.

market

There are in excess of 4.9 billion (and growing) social media users! Video has become the premiere way for those 4.9 billion users to share and access online content. Not only that, but the amount of time that people spend online watching videos is growing year after year, and showing no sign of slowing down!

Most of this traffic is coming from social video platforms, where video continues to evolve as THE storytelling, marketing and overall engagement medium for content consumers and creators. Companies continue to spend a large part of their marketing budget on creating and running video on social media platforms.

As a result platforms are ramping up on emergent video formats to drive new and deeper forms of engagement across their sites and apps, yielding new opportunities for consuming and creating content. facefwd is uniquely positioned to use our core functionality to capture new monetization opportunities in both advertising and market research.

facefwd is poised to enter the market based on the continued growth of social video and its market differentiating focus on reaction content.

revenue model

As facefwd continues to evolve, our opportunities for generating revenue will as well. We're really focused on exploring ways to bring additional benefits to our users beyond just the pure enjoyment of creating and consuming reaction-based content. This focus is ingrained in everything we do, including our approach to monetization of the platform. We recognize that reactions offer companies fresh and innovative ways to connect with customers and, even more importantly, gain valuable insights from them. We're genuinely thrilled about leveraging them and creating a monetization path not just for our company, but also our users.

We will shift from a strictly B2C to a C2B2B model. How? By building strong and mutually beneficial partnerships between our facefwd users and external companies. We believe reactions hold many money making opportunities just waiting to be tapped into! Our goal is to empower users to monetize their actions on facefwd and exchange them with external companies of their choosing for compensation based on mutually agreed terms. Think of us as the "Uber of feedback and reaction-based content", where our users take on the role of drivers and external companies become the passengers in the vehicles. The information exchanged during this interaction is like the ride itself. We'll take a percentage of the agreed-upon compensation as our share.

In this model, companies benefit from enhanced feedback on their products and marketing campaigns, enjoy increased engagement with users, and do it all transparently to improve their standing with the public and users alike. Users gain greater control over their information and are fairly compensated when it is shared. This is truly a win-win scenario for both parties.

use of funds

We're focused on creating an amazing experience for the members of the facefwd community but we want our users to benefit beyond facefwd's unique and fun features. Our users are investors; they invest their time, energy, information, content, and attention into facefwd. And as our platform evolves, we prioritize ways to give our users a return on that investment. This crowdfunding campaign is the first example of that, offering facefwd community members the opportunity to make early stage financial investment for the chance grow with us, and reap the rewards from that growth.

In addition to general operations and talent acquisition (which will continually take place) the money acquired during this raise will be used for the following goals for the remainder of 2023:

Phase 1

• development of next version of facefwd
• release of an Android version of facefwd
• research and development of monetization strategies
• develop user acquisition strategy

Phase 2

• marketing and user acquisition strategy
• launch next version of facefwd
• launch facefwd Android

team

We wouldn't be anywhere without our team. We've been lucky enough to be surrounded by great advisors and teammates to help guide us and execute on our plans effectively. We're super excited about growing the team and leveraging the skills, knowledge, and experience of the collective to the benefit of facefwd, and its users.

thank you

Thank you for considering facefwd as part of your investment portfolio. Your support can help us bring our vision of a more transparent, connected, and emotionally fulfilling social media experience to life and make a significant impact in our industry. Join us on this exciting journey by investing in our weFunder campaign. Together, we can achieve great things. Click the "reserve" button to invest, become a ffam member, and be part of our success story. Thank you!