Live events are lucrative: one study suggest that the industry will grow to $23.7 billion, and another pointing to a $25 billion market. Regardless of the specifics, the industry is primed for growth and there are startups angling to snag a piece of this business - especially when it comes to travel to/from and around these events.
Fandeavor is the latest startup focusing on this lucrative and increasingly visible market. The company makes it easier for sports fans to travel to destinations hosting specific live events.
The 12 person team is led by CEO Tom Ellingson and CTO Dean Curtis, both of whom recruited the team during their time with Zappos. The team continues to be based in Las Vegas, and has received funding from the Vegas Tech Fund and Base Ventures.
Fandeavor shared the following Vine, in addition to more about its product below.
Tell us how you founded the company, why and what made you decide to jump in and create the business.
At Zappos, we were sponsoring a number of events and teams. As a corporate sponsor we’d get the red carpet treatment with everything from meet and greets, locker room tours, field passes, etc. We wanted to provide these same experiences for fans to purchase. We tested some experiences and saw huge demand and knew this would take off.
Please describe your Funding arrangements.
We raised a seed round in June 2012 from Vegas Tech Fund and Base Ventures. We also raised a round at the end of last year and added some new angel investors.
What is your estimation of the market size?
Today we’re focused on door-to-door fan travel packages, which is a $5B+ market.
What is the current competitive landscape?
Our largest competitor is PrimeSport.com. They’re also a partner of ours on some events. Groupon and LivingSocial are trying to get in the space and there are a number of other smaller sports travel companies.
What is your revenue model and strategy for profitability?
We make money two ways. Commissions from hotel, airline, travel partners and slight mark-up on our travel packages. We have some direct partnerships with teams and events and make money based on a revenue share for those experiences.
What problem does the business solve?
Before Fandeavor, when a fan wanted to attend an event, there would be massive amount of research involved. They’d visit 5-10 different websites to cobble together all the parts of their trip. Once they had all the details put together, they had no idea if what they found was the best available for that event.
Our goal is to make going to live events as seamless as possible. Fandeavor experiences are hassle-free and in a lot of cases we’re providing things that fans didn’t even know existed. It really takes the guess work out of going to the game. Our corporate travel business is really taking off as well. We’re seeing companies use Fandeavor for client entertainment, employee incentive travel and even some team building.
How did the initial idea evolve and were there changes/any pivots along the way in the early stages?
Out of the gate we were 100% focused on once in a lifetime experiences. Along the way customers told us they wanted us to help them plan their weekend from the time they left their house to the time they got home at the end of the weekend. So we shifted with the demand and today most of our experiences have a travel component to them.
Why should people or companies use the business?
We help make going to a game both hassle-free and memorable. In many cases we’re providing experiences that fans just couldn’t do without Fandeavor. A perfect example of that is our partnership with the NFL Players Association and their upcoming event for Rookies that our customers will be getting access to.
What is the strategy for raising awareness and the customer/user acquisition (apart from PR)?
Our bread and butter for customer acquisition is online ads. We spend lots of time optimizing ad campaigns on Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc
Where do you see the company in three years time and what specific challenges do you anticipate having to overcome?
In three years we hope to have the kind of brand awareness that when people decide to go to a game they go to see what cool things Fandeavor has to offer as their first step in the research process. Our biggest challenge is going to be brand awareness and getting exposure to fans.
What is wrong with the travel, tourism and hospitality industry that requires another startup to help it out?
Planning a trip to the World Cup, Daytona 500 or an NFL game can be very complicated. Why spend weeks piecing together a trip when Fandeavor can do it all for you? Our experts are really good at making an experience hassle free and creating experiences that are memorable.
What other technology company would you consider yourselves most closely aligned to in terms of culture and style... and why?
We all used to work at Zappos.com and we’ve tried to take as many things that Zappos does so well to build our foundation with. Zappos’ CEO Tony Hsieh and President Fred Mossler (both are VegasTechFund partners) are two people that we constantly turn to for inspiration and insight into how Zappos was able to build such an incredible brand.
We would love it if people someday referred to us as the Zappos of live events!
Tnooz view:
Live events are increasingly popular drivers of travel - passionate sports and music fans desire to experience the event in person rather than on television or after the fact, and are willing to pay handsomely for the experience.
This trend will likely only continue as the power of the in-person experience grows alongside the on-demand content surge brought on by the internet. When any content can be had at anytime, the live event has a shared experiential element that is more meaningful for the consumer.
Fandeavor has an enjoyable and straightforward UI that offers a more on-trend visual aesthetic than its competitor PrimeSport, and also makes it super easy and fun to add additional experiences to a particular ticket package - such as meeting a NASCAR driver, for example.
By making these packages and special experiences easy to book, the company will certainly enjoy a higher conversion rate than harder-to-navigate competitors. Scale becomes the key issue here, as access to the best experiences are essential to success in this industry. The company must strive to secure exclusivity, so that scale can be reached by a truly unique selling proposition.