Event space e245 march 2014 final
44
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.
-
Upload
steve-blank -
Category
Education
-
view
1.024 -
download
0
Transcript of Event space e245 march 2014 final
We make corporate event planning easierTotal customer interviews this quarter: 97
Customer interviews this week: 10 + 2 phone interviewsMentor interactions this week: 3, 0Total mentor interactions: 15, 1Surveys 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.
Aman Neelappa Sophia Tsang Zoe Corneli Saurabh Ladha
Background: Computer ScienceExpertise: Backend DevelopmentRole: Hacker
Background: MS&E, Computer ScienceExpertise: Computer Networking, Mobile App DevelopmentRole: Designer
Background: MBAExpertise: Media, Product ManagementRole: Hustler
Background: MS&E, ElectronicsExpertise: Product Management, Aerial RoboticsRole: Product Picker
A Many-Pivoted Journey• Started out as a
summer project
• Spent winter working on a product that users didn’t want!
• Rapidly pivoted and iterated throughout class
Business Model Canvas Week 1Trip Planning
Business Model Canvas Week 1
Lessons Learned• 15/17 interviewees not very excited about it
• Themes of trust & controlo “Having a prepared itinerary takes away the charm.”o “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’?”
Lessons Learned• Top-of-funnel travel space is unappealing:
crowded, traffic is expensive, low loyaltyo “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!
Business Model Canvas Week 3Corporate Event Venues
Business Model Canvas Week 3Corporate Event Venues
MVP for Corporate Event Venues
Lessons Learned
• Office managers and executive assistants prefer NOT to use new venues because of:o Familiarity - “People hate novelty. Everybody hates
finding their way through a new hotel -- they want to know where the bathroom is going be.”
o Preferential treatment, i.e. discounts, etc.
Lessons Learned• 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
Business Model Canvas Week 8Corporate Event Activities
Business Model Canvas Week 8
Lessons Learned
$5 CPCKnow your customer -
maximize CTR!
$500 CACAdWords can be expensive
Spend little until you know what’s working
30% YoY churn
Viral coeff = 1.1 for 90 days due toSocial Network feature
Partner Diagram: Custom Merchandise Sellers
Provide custom products
Book and pay through website
T-shirt, trophy, and swag makers
Office managers, executive assistants,
employees
Corporation
Reimburses event
payment or pays for
Corporate Card
Offer complete, one-stop shop for booking activities and swag for
activities
API + addn. revenue
Promote EventSpace on partner sites (e.g. Zazzle.com) when activity-related merchandise is purchased there
Traffic + revenue+$500k
Partner Relationship
+0.5% ($65k/$15M)
Lessons Learned
• Partnerships with eVenues & Big Frog are promising ways to get early-stage traffico “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
Payments Flow Diagram
Pay for Services
Provide activity services
Book and pay through website
Activity Providers
Office managers, executive assistants,
employees
Corporation
Reimburses event
payment or pays for
Corporate Card
Marketplace to find unique and fun
activities
LegendActivity
Payment
20% fee
~$320/event
~$1600/event
Lessons Learned• Revenue model is a challenge
o Leads - No leakage but low adoptiono Bookings - High adoption but high leakage
Close integration needed
• Companies like eVenues and Travelnuts have grappled with similar problems
Market sizeTAM: $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
Sources:Party & Event Planners in the US, IBIS World Industry Reporthttp://www.maximillion.co.uk/assets/0000/4444/MBA_Dissertation.pdfhttp://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/best-companies/2014/list/?iid=BC14_sp_full
TAM$8B SAM
$0.96BTarget$50M
Investment Readiness LevelWe 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
In Conclusion...
• 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
Business Model Canvases
Business Model Canvas - Week 1
Business Model Canvas - Week 2
Business Model Canvas - Week 3
Business Model Canvas - Week 4
Business Model Canvas - Week 5
Business Model Canvas - Week 6
Business Model Canvas - Week 7
Business Model Canvas - Week 8
Background Slides
Key Metrics
• 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
LegendTested
Still TestingNot Enough Info
Get Keep Grow
Market sizeTAM: $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
Sources:Party & Event Planners in the US, IBIS World Industry Reporthttp://www.maximillion.co.uk/assets/0000/4444/MBA_Dissertation.pdfhttp://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/best-companies/2014/list/?iid=BC14_sp_full
TAM$8B SAM
$0.96BTarget$50M
Competitive Landscape
EventSpace
Reviews Websites Activit
ies/Tra
vel W
ebsites
Med
ia ta
rget
ing
even
t pla
nner
s
Aggregate listing of team building activities
Team building event
planners
Metrics that Matter (Rough 3-year income statement)
Insights from income statement
• 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
Financial operations timeline
• SAM is only ~1B i.e. not venture backable
• Target Angel Investors
Capital Requirements
Year 1 $80k
Year 2 $750k
Year 3 $500K
Partners: Big Frog case study
• 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)
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 less-
experienced 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” to his website
ResourcesResources Needed When we need this
Human resources: 1 full-time developer1 product designer/UI1 partner/vendor engagement manager1 business development managerSeveral content managers
First few years
After few years
Advisory Board:Expertise in team building events planning and managementExpertise in building two-sided markets
1st yearFirst 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
