STARTUP STAGE: Flugy crowdsources private flights to exotic destinations

Flugy

Flugy charters private planes to destinations voted on by its members (who each pay a $25 membership fee). Those that want to take the trip pay their share of the charter plus an 18% commission. 

 

Once the destination is set, a local coordinator helps to arrange visa processing, mobile phone service and tours and activities in the destination. Members can also use the site’s chat rooms to discuss accommodations, seating and pre-trip meetups.

Describe both the business and technology aspects of your startup.

Flugy is an app and social network to crowdsource direct charter flights to bucket-list destinations that are long and expensive to reach on commercial flights. The app is both a social network with chat rooms and sharing capabilities, so travel becomes a social experience with the ability to create seating zones and plan group activities as well as accommodation sharing. It lets you align schedules and plans. It’s also an e-commerce platform for charter flights as well as other travel offerings.

What inspired you to create this company? 

If you want to visit exotic destinations, the flights generally are very long with multiple stopovers, and expensive unless you plan far in advance.

Give us your SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis of the company. 

The strength is that it’s a fresh, revolutionary idea that appeals to everyone. Who doesn’t want to get to an exotic destination faster and for less money? The weakness is that it requires a significant critical mass to get off the ground. The opportunities are almost limitless because of the universal appeal and potential for unlimited partnerships.

We don’t have threats from traditional competition as nobody has tried this before. The threat is simply that if we don’t get enough critical mass out of the gate it will fizzle out.

What are the travel pain points you are trying to alleviate from both the customer and the industry perspective?

Faster, cheaper flights provisioned on-demand. It’s better for the airlines too because they can expand without taking on risks - the plane is only reserved when it’s full, and so the income is guaranteed.

So you've got the product, now how will you get lots of customers?

We’re counting on heavy promotion through social media. On our initial flights we’re hiring the most popular photographers, fitness gurus and entertainers from each city to travel on the plane. We pay their expenses and standard daily rate for their services. And we’re offering a $500 cash reward for everyone who gets one of these popular personalities to join. Plus we’re offering free membership and $100 flight credit for influencers who are willing to fill out a questionnaire.

And we’ve tried to “gamify” the signup process so you everyone can see how their cities compare to others, and the influencers can see how many of their followers are signing up.

Tell us what process you've gone through to establish a genuine need for your company and the size of the addressable market.

It’s one of those needs everyone has but didn’t know there was a solution for. Nobody likes long, expensive flights. People just don’t know there is another way to do this.

How and when will you make money? 

If we operate flights we will be profitable in our second month. The first month with these launch trips to Tikal and Volos we are spending a lot upfront to attract users.

What are the backgrounds and previous achievements of the founding team, and why do you have what it takes to succeed with this business?

Aaron Bergen, CEO: My background is developing leading-edge software platforms. I built one of the first mainstream home automation platforms, which around 2011 to 2013 was the most popular and the only low-cost solution; before that robotics systems and media servers. Everybody else on the team, however, has a background in travel. 

Athan Slotkin, COO: Managed several travel programs including American Express Centurian and Platinum.

Melchior Blaese, business development: Founder of Pergenz, which focuses on community building and services a lot of customers in the travel space.

What's been the most difficult part of founding the business so far?

Refining the message. At first the message about aligning schedules was convoluted and people didn’t understand it. We went through several rounds of the messaging and video and did testing with paid beta testers, who are travel influencers we hired for their feedback.

Generally, travel startups face a fairly tough time making an impact - so why are you going to be one of lucky ones?

Our idea is unique and has a universal appeal. Whether or not you like the social travel aspect of Flugy, everybody loves getting to their destination faster and for less money.

What question might we have missed......?

One concern people have is trust. If they pay a new startup for a flight, how they know they will get the flight? When our members pay, their money does not go to Flugy. We comply with U.S. Department of Transportation part 380 rules for public charter. All money goes to an insured escrow account, and the funds can only be released directly to the airline by the escrow agent, which is the world’s largest and handles 80% of all charter bookings. Only after the flight does Flugy get our commission. And if the flight doesn’t operate, the money is refunded.