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HIPPIEWALKSBusiness Plan
Mission Statement
• We envision a world made better by people sharing a part of their life and travel made richer by connections. Host share their lives with the travelers they encounter, fostering cultural exchange and mutual respect.
Market Summary
Source: Couchsurfing (Global users)
Market Trends
• Total Available Market
- Total International travelers in 2014 – 1133 million
• Serviceable Available Market
- 398 Million considering Lower and Middle Income
group travelers.
• Serviceable Obtainable Market
- 2.4 Million initially covering countries - USA, Germany, France, England, Canada, Spain, Italy, Brazil, Australia and China. 2.4 million figure is arrived from Couchsurfing.
Problem Statement
• Travelers do not get the real feel of a Foreign town in a limited time timeframe.
• Travelers do not get to make genuine friends/connections.
• Travelers often miss out a lot in town when they visit.
• Presently, travelers have to go for paid tours which are very expensive, time bound and does not offer any personal touch.
Solution
• Hippiewalks lets travelers enjoy a foreign town with local's perspective free of cost.
• Hippiewalks lets people connect with like minded individuals.
• The whole purpose of traveling is to experience the foreign world in a meaningful way. Hippiewalks lets this happen by letting you explore those off beaten paths and take part in culture at a ground level and thereby foster cross culture friendship.
• Monetisation techniques are covered in later decks.
Our Positioning
• Hippiewalks is positioning itself in the Free category space where no competition thrives presently. Free services is going to be the USP of Hippiewalks.
• The reason Hippiewalks will work similar to Couchsurfing is because of the underlying truth that humans have a need to share their experiences with other humans and would let 'profit' take a backseat in pursuit of this experience.
Why now?
• Community based accomodation sharing is growing at a minimum rate of 30% y-o-y since 2005.
• Service has huge potential in North America, Europe and Australia. People from these continents are more open towards befriending strangers.
• Competition is Nil in this sector for free services. There are paid services available presently however they are out of reach of budget travelers.
• Just Viator and Grayline did total business of 1.2 billion USD last year through paid tour services.
• Within 10 days of launch and no marketing, we got 3 host registrations out of which 2 realised and 1 tour booking.
Competition
• Competition is Nil in the free services category.
• There are lot of regional paid tour services which offer these services.
• Prominent global players offering paid services include Viator, GetYourGuide, Grayline.
• Hippiewalks competitive advantage is the free service, personalised tours offering personal touch.
Product
• Current launched MVP can take travelers bookings and register hosts. Site is built on Wordpress platform.
• Roadmap is to build a robust system with user login and registrations that allows giving feedback to hosts and upload photographs. Reviews are must to build a factor of trust among travelers.
• Once sufficient brand is built, paid services would be bought in.
• Paid services would be mutually exclusive to Free services.
• There will never be a paid service if similar Free service exists.
Free tours
• Free tours are of 3 kinds presently –
1. Tip based tours where travelers pay tip to host
2. Travelers cover the cost incurred by host like transportation, tea/coffee/drinks/lunch, entrance tickets, etc
3. Absolutely Free – Traveler cover their own cost and host theirs.
Revenue Model
• Revenue would be generated taking a share on each paid services availed through our platform.
• Paid services would include users listed cooking classes, Dance classes, Language classes, Yoga classes, Music classes, Martial art classes, etc.
• Other paid services would include users listed services like Pub crawl, Museum walks, Cycling tour, Bike tours, Hiking tours, Adventure tours, Car tours, Vintage car tours, Helicopter rides, etc.
• Revenue through on-site Advertising.
Pricing
• Free walk/bike/cycle tours will remain the core of business.
• Paid services would be an extension of platform.
• A commission of 10% to 30% will be charged on paid service tours.
Sales & Distribution Model
• Sales will happen through online bookings.
• Marketing collaterals would be shared in all hostels and hotels across USA, Australia and Europe.
• Making sales through affiliate tie-ups
Risks and Rewards
• Current risk is of the Hippiewalks message not spreading to target audience.
• Overall probability of the business hitting 100 million dollars in revenue within 3.5 years is very high if successfully funded.
• Operations and Technology support will happen from Indian geography to keep the operational expenses low. Thus, ensuring high margins.
Financial Projections
Key Issues
• Near term
– Building an office and team that will hunt for targeted travelers and hosts.
– Building a factor of trust among travelers and hosts through review system.
• Long term
– Building a base in USA or Europe and streamlining paid services for payments and legal setups.
Seed Funding Requirement
• Looking for 1 million USD against 10% of equity.
• Expected return of 10x within 2.5 years.
Way forward – Expense plan Seed capital
The Team
• Uday Singh – Co founder & CEO
• Surendra Singh – Co founder & Operations Head
• Uday has previously built 2 more startups – whitepuppie.com(A C2C ecommerce marketplace platform for Handmade products) and thebinnews.com(An entertainment News media site). He is also an author of 2 books ‘Windows and Doors of Europe’ and ‘Cycles of Europe’. He is a Computer Engineer and a Management graduate with 8 years of experience working with several IT giants and fortune 500 companies.
• Surendra has previously built 2 more startups – whitepuppie.com and thebinnews.com. He is a Marine Engineer with 8 years of experience and widely traveled the world.
