Simpki is a consumer travel service that promises to filter more than 400,000 options for weekend vacations in Europe within "one click and two minutes's of time", offering recommendations that are adapted to the budget and style of individual travelers.
The Paris-based startup compares the best offers for transportation (from trains to carsharing) and accommodation in combinations that optimize a travelers' budget, especially for quick weekend breaks.
A Q&A with co-founder Nicolas Viennot:
Tell us how you founded the company, why and what made you decide to jump in and create the business.
It all started with the meeting of two entrepreneurs passionate about traveling: myself and Serge Milon. In 2014, we decided to create SIMPKI after realizing that it is no longer acceptable to spend more than four hours online trying to organise a simple weekend getaway.
It was a pain point shared by our colleagues at the digital advertising agency where we worked.
We were quickly joined by two experienced engineers: Arnaud Poirier and Sebastien Burel, then the aventure took off.
Size of the team, names of founders, management roles and key personnel?
Our team consists of 5 full-time staff:
- Serge Milon, CEO/Co-founder, Global Strategy & Finance
- Nicolas Viennot, COO/Co-founder, Operational Strategy, Product, and Communications
- Arnaud Poirier, CTO and Partner, Data Wizard and Backend Engineer
- Sebastien Burel, Partner, Frontend Developer
- Dmytro Zakharov, Backend Developer
Funding arrangements?
Not yet, we are currently looking for €400,000 to 600,000€
Estimation of market size?
22 million. Our main target demographic are 25-35 year olds, living in European cities.
Competition?
We think we have a unique value proposition. The closest direct competitors are voyage-sncf, zaptravel, Lastminute.com or metasearch engines such as Kayak.
Revenue model and strategy for profitability?
We have two models:
● affiliate marketing - partners give us commission when our users buy their product
● a transaction fee on each payment on our platform
What problem does the business solve?
Today to organise a simple weekend trip people spend four hours looking at more than 18 websites and 56% of people don’t find results within their budget. SIMPKI fixes that problem in one click, by finding great weekend opportunities within a specified budget.
How did the initial idea evolve and were there changes/any pivots along the way in the early stages?
There are two main changes:
● We narrowed our core target audience to those who responded best to our value proposition;
● the integration of payment directly through our site.
Why should people or companies use the business?
Millennials consume differently from older generations, they tend to look for spontaneity and simplicity, in other words dynamic short breaks rather than long holidays.
What is the strategy for raising awareness and the customer/user acquisition (apart from PR)?
- Strong inbound strategy due to our sexy ADN, we speak about "pleasure", "weekend", "smart budget" and "sharing economy
- B2B2C partnerships
- Out of the box social media strategy
- ● and our secret sauce ;)
Where do you see the company in three years time and what specific challenges do you anticipate having to overcome?In three years, we will be the mini-break personal assistant of the 25-35 years old generation.
We predict the challenges to be mobile payments, smart data aggregation and building trust.
What is wrong with the travel, tourism and hospitality industry that it requires a startup like yours to help it out?
The travel, tourism and hospitality industry is more business-centric than user-centric: margins focus vs customer need evolution, complex ergonomics and a mistrust towards traditional actors.
What other technology company (in or outside of travel) would you consider yourselves most closely aligned to in terms of culture and style... and why?
Citymapper is one of our role models, they simplify the pain of urban living in a fun way.
In terms of simple user experience we also follow: spotify and uber.
Which company would be the best fit to buy your startup?
Lastminute.com, Homeaway, Booking
Describe your startup in three words?
Pertinent, Simplicity, Pleasure
Tnooz view:
"Simpki describes itself as an anti-gloom pill (une pilule anti-morosité), a phrase that captures the attitude of its founders and of its target users.
Its services are aimed at travelers aged 25-35 years old who want to make trip plans with spontaneity and who believe that a weekend trip shouldn't take four hours to plan.
Simpki makes booking on a budget do-able within a few clicks on a mobile device, limiting options rather than taking the "more is more" approach that's more common.
Execution is everything. We hope Simpki gets the resources and mentoring it needs to scale up and retain its early-mover advantage, starting with the French-language market and broadening out across Europe.
Partnerships with startups like Capitaine Train or or Loco2 or GoEuro or Wanderio or City Discovery or GetYourGuide might help.
The startup has identified a promising "pain point" that other travel services haven't yet addressed and offered some medicine that can go down easy. We are eager to see what this team does next."