PlandIt

Group travel simplified

Giorgi Suladze
Jake Kupperman
Poppo Hofsteenge
Anqi Yang

Day 5
January 13, 2017 Total # of interviews: 51
 PlandIt
Competitive Landscape

PlandIt
(Day 1)
Teams
Group-Focused

Great Planning

Photo Sharing

Split Costs

Book Directly

Consumer- Focused

Ad Revenue Model
 PlandIt
Market Sizing
SAM: All
potential users
Individuals 2 TAM: 20-39 year-olds
$9.9M who travel

Organizations 3
Advertisers 1

Target market:
77M
People with mobile
internet access
31M
$62M
$7.7B 27M SAM: # of businesses
regularly organizing
travel

28M
10M

4M

Key insights
- Total addressable revenue: $72 million Target market: TAM: All
- Advertising revenue upside: tentative addressable businesses
market in the US
- Growth rate for digital travel advertising: 11%

1. Total ad spend related to travel

2. Total potential ad revenue from users of individual group travel apps
3. Total potential revenue from subscriptions by companies and universities in the group travel
 PlandIt
Business Model Canvas - Day 1
# of interviews conducted: 0 (# of online surveys: 30)

•Influencers •Software •Centralized planning ● Self-service •Age group: 20 - 39

Bloggers development and coordination tool ● Community •Lifestyle: frequent
•Payment User interface ● Simple way to ● Co-creation traveler
providers •Marketing plan •Location: urban
Venmo, Stripe •User services ● Track and settle metropolitan
•Travel sites expenses
Tripadvisor •Trip-centric Millennials living in
Yelp Two or more people metropolitan areas
•Booking sites •Coordinate with sufficient
AirBnB •The application Receive and send •Blogs disposable income that
•Other apps •Application notifications •Social media / travel in groups
Google maps developers advertising frequently.
•Cloud server •The application
•Customer data

•Initial development and maintenance •Advertising

•User/customer acquisition/adoption •Subscription fee - commercial only
•Marketing •Partnerships
•General & Administrative costs - rent, equipment •Customer data
 PlandIt
Our Journey from Day 1 to Day 4
Dictator
Dan

Leader
Customer Maria

Group travelers: Groups of students Moderator Liz

friends, family, & traveling together
organizations (MBA / type A focus)

Value
proposition
Everything Cost splitting, activity Collaborative
suggestions decision-making
 PlandIt
Moderator Liz and Her Biggest Problems
“coordination and collaborative
Moderator Liz • 26 years old decision-making for each task across all
• Youngest; 2 siblings participants”
• Columbia MSc Applied
Physics “finding establishments that fall within
• Single, but is seeing everyone’s budget”
classmate Ryan
• Organizes the annual
college friends trip “Conversations tend to shift towards other
• Loves to make others topics in WhatsApp or by email”
happy
“I need to ensure everyone is happy, but I
Ideas, hotel and itinerary suggestions sometimes need to make hard choices”
and feedback, budget feedback, ...

“Non-responsiveness in group messages”

 PlandIt
Business Model Canvas - Day 4
# of interviews conducted: 51

•Influencers •User interface Simplify Group Get

Trip Planning • SEO Individuals
•Payment providers •Software
• SEM: AdWords •Frequent group
•Cloud services development (new
Individuals • Marketing campaigns traveler
provider features)
• Collect inputs from • Collaboration with •20-39 years old
•Other supporting •Marketing
participants (polling) popular travel websites •Urban area
apps •College educated
- Google Maps • Share itineraries and
Keep,Grow: TBD •Group with moderating
- TripAdvisor create events in trips
• “Get everyone in the leader who plans in a
- Yelp democratic way
same room” to plan and
•Travel-focused • Mobile app
•Mobile app make decisions quickly
blogs/forums • Websites Advertisers
developers
Advertisers - Social media •Hotels, airlines, towns,
•Customer data
• Access to frequent - Travel sites attractions
travelers - Blogs •Mobile ad platforms

• Initial development and maintenance • Individual: Free

• User/customer acquisition/adoption • Advertisers: Ads & Customer data
- Marketing campaigns, both paid and organic
• General & Administrative costs
- Rent, equipment
 PlandIt
Updated Wireframe addresses Top Pains
Day 1 Day 5 1. Checklist 2. Polls
Liz proposes Embassy
Suites in San Juan.
Do you want to stay here?

Activity Price Vote Status

Pick N/A 4/4 Comple

Dates votes ted
Pick 4/4 Comple
N/A
Destination votes ted $135 p.n.| Pool | Casino
Book 3/4 In
Hotel
$180
votes process
1:32 left to reply
Book 0/4
$450 Waiting
Flights votes

# of MVP feedback interviews: 6

 PlandIt
Unit Economics
LTV CAC
< $9 $10 - $20

Trip days per year 4*7 = 28 # of downloads p.m. 50k - 200k

App mins per day 10 SEM cost per click $0.50
Total mins on app 10*28 = 280 Conversion to user 30%
# of impressions 2*280 =560 Sales & Marketing p.m.1 $33K - $70K
Annual value $1.7 Monthly cost $1.3 - $1.7
Lifetime value 5*$1.7 = $8.4 → < $9 Acquisition cost ~$10 - ~$20

Unit economics are insufficient

Based on 2 interviews:
- Infrequent usage Travefy founder, founder
- Low click rate on in-app advertising successful travel website
- Smaller market than originally anticipated

1. Year 1 Sales & Marketing costs

 PlandIt
Time for a Pivot

Lack of financial viability

Potentially interesting segments

based on our interviews:
1. Group travel for corporations
How do we tip the scales? 2. Group travel for universities
3. Location discovery for young
families
Appendix
 PlandIt
Business Model Canvas - Day 2 Black = unchanged
Blue = new

# of interviews conducted: 29

Simplify group trip

planning Get - social media, SEA, Individuals
Software
Influencers • Share trip ideas and SEO, blog posts, rewards •Frequent group
development
make group decisions Keep - monthly emails, traveler
Payment providers • Track and settle updates •20-39 years old
Marketing
expenses Grow - incentivize •Urban area
Cloud services • Track against individuals to sell to •College educated
User support
provider budget/goals organizations •Female (focus)
Organizations:
Other supporting “engagement” Cust. dev. focus
apps •Involve participants in
- Google Maps Smartphone •App/word of mouth Organizations
travel planning
- TripAdvisor application developer •Google Ads •Universities
•Simplify expense
- Yelp •Blogs •Companies
reimbursement
Customer data •Social media •Charities
MVP: app for individuals to
•Conferences •Clubs
like trip suggestions

•Initial development and maintenance Individuals Organizations Other

•User/customer acquisition/adoption Free Subscription fee Ads
•Marketing Customer data sales
•General & Administrative costs - rent, equipment
 PlandIt
Business Model Canvas - Day 3 Black = unchanged
Blue = new
Red = deleted
# of interviews conducted: 40 (+11 since Day 2)

⇒ Simplify group trip planning Get - social media, SEA, SEO, Individuals
Software development Individuals blog posts, rewards word of
Influencers •Frequent group traveler
• Share trip ideas and make group mouth and social media •20-39 years old
Marketing decisions with polling capability Keep - monthly emails, updates
Payment providers •Urban area
• Track and settle finances notifications, travel deals,
•College educated
User support expenses• Track against budget/goalcurated content, feed •Female (focus)
Cloud services provider Grow - incentivize individuals to
Organizations: “engagement” Organizations
Feature additions and •Involve participants in travel sell to organizations incentivize
Other supporting apps •Individuals who lead large treks
enhancements planning•Simplify expense word of mouth, build a brand
- Google Maps •Individuals who organize for their
reimbursement MVP: app for around group travel
- TripAdvisor friends
individuals to like trip suggestions •Individuals who take a democratic
- Yelp
• Collect inputs from participants approach to planning with friends
• Track itinerary, expenses & updates •Companies
Groups •App/word of mouth •Charities
Smartphone application
• Share itineraries and create •Google Ads •Clubs
developer
events within trips •Blogs
Advertisers
Advertisers •Social media
Customer data •Hotel groups, airlines,
• Access to frequent travelers with •Conferences governments, sights
particular focus on millennials •Travel sites
Relationships
•Partner sites (AirBnB, SPG)

•Initial development and maintenance Individuals Organizations Groups Other Advertisers

•User/customer acquisition/adoption Free Subscription fee Ads
•Marketing Customer data sales
•General & Administrative costs - rent, equipment