Overview

Hi: I’m Jim Parsons founder of WheelchairJimmy.com and the WheelchairJimmy YouTube Channel. I created the website to improve the lifestyles and travel opportunities for persons with disabilities. We have created a unique travel advisory website geared to make disabled travel more fun, accessible, convenient and hassle free.

During my career, I have traveled the globe in a wheelchair but have encountered about every accessibility issue imaginable: multiple steps at the front door, restrooms that are not accessible, properties located on dangerously steep streets, historic buildings which are not accessible, and the dreaded small hydraulic lifts that half the time don’t work. Today, many hotels, restaurants, cruise ships and city attractions say they are accessible or ADA compliant, but it’s just not so. Our government’s definition of “ADA Compliant” is over 25 years old, and believe me, needs an upgrade!

Our strategy has been to build a database, a wheelchair accessibility index and a unique user-friendly website with detailed accessibility reviews on thousands of facilities worldwide. We advise wheelchair travelers which hotels, restaurants, cruise ships, city attractions and mass transportation are wheelchair friendly and importantly which properties to avoid. 

At this point we have created the engine and processes but we still need to build out the content management platform, extend our digital technology initiatives including data driven interactivity, mobile and tablet usability and add new cities. To accomplish our goals we need your help, donations and support. 

The wheelchair community needs a trusted name in accessible travel. 

Together we can make the world more fun and accessible!

Our Needs and Your Sponsorship

As part of our travel database methodology, we interview 100% of the facilities on our website and have to date interviewed over 1,000 hotels, restaurants, cruise ships and city attractions in 8 major U.S. cities and the country of New Zealand. To better "scale" the project, we  need to extend our development team to enhance our dynamic content management platform. This will allow both internal resources and consumer travelers, via crowd sourcing, to upload images, reviews and content while we expand coverage to new cities.

We could also use a couple extra helping hands. Part-time initially. Over time we will hire some helpers, mostly disabled persons - creating the WheelchairJimmy Militia - to review and rate properties around the world and add social networking content. 

We want to build our community of wheelchair and scooter users and their families, and will promote our fund raising with WheelchairJimmy Militia T-Shirts, unique advocacy bumper stickers, portraits with WheelchairJimmy, personal sponsorship placement on our website and the opportunity to trudge along and ride with Jimmy on his city rating visits.

The founders expect to take NO salaries well into the foreseeable future. All revenues and eventual profits will be reinvested into the business to further our mission. 

Our Business Strategy

• Develop the WheelchairJimmy Brand Name as the Most Trusted Name for Disabled Travel: Over the next several years we intend to actively develop strategic relationships to generate revenue with multiple hotels, restaurants, city attractions and cruise ship owners to build our brand name.
  
• Develop a Dynamic Social Networking Site for the Disabled and Build Content: We anticipate building our community by providing substantive content on relevant topics about living life with a disability.
  
• Expand the Database of Hotels, Restaurants, City Attractions, Cruise Ships and Mass Transit: We believe today’s technology can be used to build and manage a comprehensive, scalable, accessible database relatively quickly and inexpensively.
  
• Develop the WheelchairJimmy.com Mobile App: This will be coordinated with engineering our website content management platform.
  
• Generate Ad Revenues from our Website and Mobile App: We believe there are numerous product placement and licensing opportunities relating to the disabled community and increasingly older demographic marketplace. We have already created revenue sharing affiliation agreements with Hilton Hotels, Intercontinental Hotels (Holiday Inn et al) and CityPass (city attractions).
  

TIMELINE AND BUDGET

We have created the engine, look, feel and functionality for our website but we still need to build out the content management platform and extend our digital technology initiatives. So first and foremost we will make our website "efficient and scaleable". We also need to upload the remaining cities we have interviewed, expand coverage to new cities and add a crowd sourcing feature. Here's our 4-year timeline:

As we expand to new cities and add content, we'll need to expand the WheelchairJimmy Militia, expand the revenue base by securing strategic marketing and licensing partners and raise additional capital.

OUR MANAGEMENT TEAM

WheelchairJimmy.com founders all have existing businesses and commitments but will dedicate substantial time to the Company and are committed to the success of the Company. The team includes:

·  Jim Parsons is currently CEO of Kingston Capital LLC, a Seattle based investment-banking firm (www.KingstonCapital.net). Jim has arranged over $10 billion in corporate financings over his 40-year career and was a co-founder of Sprint PCS affiliate UbiquiTel (acquired by Sprint-Nextel in 2006). He was previously Managing Director of the Corporate Finance Division of U.S. Bancorp and head of Bank of America’s Entertainment, Media and Health Care industries lending group. Jim received his Bachelor of Science degree in Marketing from Indiana University and his M.B.A. from Indiana University. Jim is on the Board of Directors and is Trust Treasurer for the Rotary Club of Bainbridge Island.

·  Michael Turta is a Seattle-based investor and entrepreneur, currently the
founder and CEO of KeyMetric - a leading Digital Analytics company with the
first analytics solution to track mobile and telephone responses back to
the exact advertising campaigns, search engine terms and pay per click keywords
that generated the sales conversion. Mike has been the General Manager of the
Interactive Media Group for Click Path/ Who’s Calling, a leading interactive
company with revenues in excess of $100 million, and Executive Vice President
with Agital – a digital content and analytics solution for businesses and supply
chains. He has consulted for many Fortune 500 firms, and is currently a member of multiple industry councils including Web Analytics Association, DMA Search Engine Marketing Council, DMA Marketing Technology and Internet Council and DMA Analytics Council and often speaks at industry events around the globe.

·  Steve Forbes is currently President of Equity Funding Group LLC (NV LLC) and has 20 plus years of executive experience within Internet, e-Commerce and telecom business sectors as well as airline management. Steve was the founder of Y3K, an Internet shopping mall, President of Fox Communications and Who’s Calling North, managing telecom, Internet, and VoIP innovation. At Alaska Airlines (1975-’93), he held positions as an Analyst, which included aircraft acquisitions; and in earlier positions as a sales representative, adding roughly $100,000,000 in annual sales, and additionally managed the Flight Attendants (1,100 F/A’s) and Reservations (425 CSA’s) departments and call centers around the world..

The WheelchairJimmy.com founders are fully committed to our mission and have made great progress with our own time and capital over then past 18 months:

 We can't do this alone. We need your help and importantly need to build the wheelchair user community. Here’s an opportunity whereby You too can help make a difference! Please join us with your Support and Sponsorship! We need $50,000 to take WheelchairJimmy to the next level of success. Together we can make the world more fun and accessible!

 

indiegogo /  Perks  /  Email Friends

So please go to www.indiegogo.com, pick the level of your Support, select your Perk, then Share your support with your friends on email, Facebook, Twitter and Linked-in. Alternatively, go to www.wheelchairjimmy.com and we will direct you to indiegogo. And if  you cannot make a donation at this time, please repost and repost our message to your friends to help us get the word out. Roll-on America!