SNW INTERVIEW -- Feb 14 -- Forces365.com is a social network for the ex and serving men and women in the Armed Forces run by 20 years old entrepreneur Jack Knowles.
What is your background?
I studied business in college for three years, and in my final year I had two options: Either go to university or start my own company. I thought I would go for a more risky option and I started my own company. I developed the site while working part-time to pay for the costs, and it launched last June.
What inspired you to start a Forces site?
I've always had a big interest in the Armed Forces. My granddad was in the Army, and I'm a member of the Royal British Legion, which is a Forces charity. There wasn't a social network for the Armed Forces. I've got a lot of friends in the Armed Forces who wanted a site out there to be a part of, so I created it for them.
How are the needs different from say, the needs of a user on MySpace? How does Forces365 look after its members in a different way?
Our site is just for Armed Forces members, ex and serving, and they all basically have the same interests, they've done the same job for so many years, and they can feel part of a decent community there. We also raise money for charity through our charity e-gifts.
What is the latest news with the site?
We've just been backed and praised by The Sun, the leading newspaper in the UK, and they're also known as the Forces paper, we have also featured in the Daily Mirror. We support Help for Heroes, the Royal British Legion and the Forces Pension Society, which are three of the leading charities in the UK for the Armed Forces.
How does the site make money?
The site is completely free to join and there are no costs whatsoever; it's a social network site as well as a reuniting site. There are no "paid to reunite" sites making money like they did five years ago. We make our revenue through advertising, which are all relevant to the site.
Where is the site headed? Where would you like it to be in a year's time?
We're growing the site and we are currently the biggest in the UK, one of the most important Armed Forces sites in the UK, I'm now known as one of the youngest entrepreneurs in the UK at 20 years old. We, and I, want to bring all that over to America next. We're growing the site to be the most important Armed Forces social networking site in the world. Social networking is going and has been going niche, whereas we've got LinkedIn for business users, networks for older generations, Facebook was a college network, we want to maintain our spot of Forces365 being the Armed Forces social network.
