TLabs Showcase on travel startups featuring UK-based EveryDayOffers, a deal site which allows suppliers to list offers without paying commission to brokers.
Who and what are you (including personnel and backgrounds)?
Denis Kondopoulos is a Technical Project Manager at Naxtech and founder of EveryDayOffers.
With an IT and Management/Marketing background he has been exposed to both technical and managerial roles in a variety of business sectors from Transport and Recruitment to Pharmaceuticals and Tourism.
This wide range of experience has led to his ability to communicate with professionals of all organisational levels and understand business problems from a variety of angles.
What financial support did you have to launch the business?
The site started using only personal financial investment.
What problem are you trying to solve?
I was trying to solve the problem of what I viewed as unfair treatment of suppliers on discount/deals sites, while at the same time offer customers a great variety of both business and consumer offers in a more practical way.
But at the same time my aim was to ensure that the money go to the hard-working suppliers rather than "fat-cat" middle men.
Describe the business, core products and services?
Think of EveryDayOffers as the yellow pages of special offers where businesses advertise their offers and sell directly to customers (B2B and B2C) without paying commission.
In a way it’s a hybrid between GroupOn, VouchersCodes and Yell. In essence it’s all about connecting customers and suppliers in a direct way: give customers a good deal or price, and bring in more business to suppliers.
Who are your key customers and users at launch?
Key customers would be any supplier of any type targeting the UK, both B2B and B2C. They could be either in the UK or abroad.
Did you have customers validate your idea before investors?
No investors involved, but did request confidential feedback on the business concept from partners and other local and national businesses.
What is the business AND revenue model, strategy for profitability?
The revenue model is quite simple in the sense that it comes from a combination of banner advertising, affiliate networks and a fixed low-cost fee for publishing an offer. The business model is similar to a publishing a newspaper ad.
SWOT analysis – strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats?
Strengths:
- Both B2B & B2C, Business model preferred by suppliers.
Weaknesses:
- Revenue volumes: Non-commission model implies less revenue
Opportunities:
- Multilingual and global expansion
Threats:
- Copycats, speed-to-market
Who advised you your idea isn't going to be successful and why didn't you listen to them?No-one advised that this is not going to work but several people pointed out that it would take a huge amount of money to do the required marketing.
In short, that it would be extremely hard to do this with limited resources.
What is your success metric 12 months from now?
Revenue and massively increased traffic volumes.
NB: TLabs Showcase is part of the wider TLabs project from Tnooz.