1. We make corporate event planning easier
Total customer interviews this quarter: 97
Customer interviews this week: 10 + 2 phone interviews
Mentor interactions this week: 3, 0
Total mentor interactions: 15, 1
Surveys conducted: 1
Our team began as RoboTrip, an intelligent algorithm that would
provide travel proposals based on user-defined constraints.
Our Target Addressable Market was 60mm mobile travel
researchers in US @ $1 Average Revenue Per User: $60mm.
2. Aman Neelappa
Ladha
Background:
Computer Science
Expertise:
Backend Development
Role: Hacker
Sophia Tsang
Background: MS&E,
Computer Science
Expertise: Computer
Networking, Mobile
App Development
Role: Designer
Zoe Corneli
Background:
MBA
Expertise: Media,
Product Management
Role: Hustler
Saurabh
Background:
MS&E, Electronics
Expertise: Product
Management, Aerial
Robotics
Role: Product
Picker
3. A Many-Pivoted Journey
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Started out as a
summer project
Spent winter working
on a product that
users didn’t want!
Rapidly pivoted and
iterated throughout
class
7. Lessons Learned
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15/17 interviewees not very excited about it
Themes of trust & control
o
o
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“Having a prepared itinerary takes away the charm.”
“I’m scared that I’ll miss out on something because
your algorithm doesn’t know about it.”
Planning vs. spur-of-the-moment decisions
Discovery vs. execution needs of customers
o
“Discovery is fun, execution is painful. Why not do
‘Tinder for Travel’?”
8. Lessons Learned
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Top-of-funnel travel space is unappealing:
crowded, traffic is expensive, low loyalty
o
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“At Priceline, we spend millions bringing back our
own customers.”
After exploring and invalidating another idea
(data visualization of reviews), it was time
for a restart.
o
One interviewee had mentioned trouble
planning corporate events...bingo!
12. Lessons Learned
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Office managers and executive assistants
prefer NOT to use new venues because of:
o
o
Familiarity - “People hate novelty. Everybody hates
finding their way through a new hotel -- they want to
know where the bathroom is going be.”
Preferential treatment, i.e. discounts, etc.
13. Lessons Learned
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However, customers often search for novel
activities & entertainment, which are
fragmented and difficult to find
This sparked our next idea, which we
developed over the rest of the course
We pivoted from corporate event venues
to activities & entertainment
16. Lessons Learned
30% YoY churn
$5 CPC
Know your customer maximize CTR!
$500 CAC
AdWords can be expensive
Spend little until you know what’s
working
Viral coeff = 1.1 for 90 days due to
Social Network feature
17. Partner Diagram: Custom Merchandise Sellers
Corporation
Partner Relationship
T-shirt, trophy, and
swag makers
+0.5% ($65k/$15M)
API + addn.
revenue
Offer complete, onestop shop for booking
activities and swag for
activities
Traffic + revenue
+$500k
Reimburses
event
payment or
pays for
Corporate
Card
Book and pay
through website
Provide custom
products
Promote EventSpace on partner sites (e.g. Zazzle.com)
when activity-related merchandise is purchased there
Office managers,
executive assistants,
employees
18. Lessons Learned
•
Partnerships with eVenues & Big Frog are
promising ways to get early-stage traffic
o “I’m all for the idea of partnering. Certainly there is an
•
opportunity to add entertainment options for [eVenues]
customers going through our checkout.”
Realized the power of growth hacking
19. Payments Flow Diagram
Corporation
Marketplace to find
unique and fun
activities
Pay for
Services
Activity Providers
20% fee
~$320/event
Legend
Activity
Payment
Provide activity
services
Book and pay
through website
~$1600/event
Reimburses
event
payment or
pays for
Corporate
Card
Office managers,
executive assistants,
employees
20. Lessons Learned
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Revenue model is a challenge
o
o
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Leads - No leakage but low adoption
Bookings - High adoption but high leakage
Close integration needed
Companies like eVenues and Travelnuts
have grappled with similar problems
21. Market size
TAM: $8B is estimated market size for event planning industry in USA
SAM: ~12% spent on entertainment/team building
Target: Total spend on activities by companies
in “top places to work for” in California
TAM
$8B
SAM
$0.96B
Target
$50M
23. Investment Readiness Level
We have completed:
First-pass canvas
Market size/competitive analysis
Problem/solution validation
Prototyped low-fidelity MVP
But have not fully validated product/market fit,
completed high-fidelity MVP, etc.
IRL: 4
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24. In Conclusion...
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We learned a lot, but are not moving forward
with the business after class
One of the biggest learnings was how
important it is to be truly passionate about
the idea you are working on
35. Key Metrics
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Legend
Tested
Still Testing
Not Enough Info
Frequency of activities attended per employee (4-6 per year)
Event spend budget allocated per employee (average of
~$80 per person for individual contributors)
Average sales for individual activity provider (~100-200
events per year)
Number of corporate end users (1 admin. assist. per 20
employees=group size)
Churn rate
Revenue leakage (users book directly with activity provider)
Our employee salaries
37. Market size
TAM: $8B is estimated market size for event planning industry in USA
SAM: ~12% spent on entertainment/team building
Target: Total spend on activities by companies
in “top places to work for” in California
TAM
$8B
SAM
$0.96B
Target
$50M
40. Insights from income statement
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AdWords is expensive, but the unit
economics still show a 30% gross margin
Virality plays a huge role in reducing costs
Given capital requirements and small market
size this does not seem to be a venture
backable company
41. Financial operations timeline
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SAM is only ~1B i.e. not venture backable
Target Angel Investors
Capital Requirements
Year 1
$80k
Year 2
$750k
Year 3
$500K
42. Partners: Big Frog case study
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20k executive assistants use big frog online
every year
20K * 20% = 4k interested in activity
20% * 4k = 800 people come to our website
the next time
80% * 4k = 3.2k book through Big Frog (we
get 80% of Gross Margin)
43. Partners - eVenues
● Interview with the CEO of eVenues
● Built database using a combination of scraping hotel
websites and self-serve signups
● Monetize through both bookings and lead gen
● He validated our strategy of first providing leads and
then asking vendors to onboard
● Also validated our target customer segment of lessexperienced office managers, not FT planners
● He was very interested in the idea of a partnership, as
he is now hitting traffic targets and looking for “add-ons”
44. Resources
Resources Needed
Human resources:
1 full-time developer
1 product designer/UI
1 partner/vendor engagement manager
1 business development manager
Several content managers
When we need this
First few years
After few years
Advisory Board:
Expertise in team building events planning and management
Expertise in building two-sided markets
1st year
First few years
Financial: Salary for HR, customer acquisition costs, web server costs (AWS)
All years
Physical: Office space
When HR grows to
more than 10 people
